Doug Mathews Photography

Doug Mathews Photography Automobile, Fine Art and Life Style photography, visit dougmathewsphotography.com

Indy 500 - 6th and 7th finish. I just thought yesterday would be my last 2026 Indy 500 post, but one of my followers a...
06/02/2026

Indy 500 - 6th and 7th finish. I just thought yesterday would be my last 2026 Indy 500 post, but one of my followers asked about spots 6 and 7: And. YES they were close also. .0186 sec seperation, and here is the finish shot. I think there were 1.09 seconds between 1st and 7th.

Indianapolis 500 - 2026 - Finish. One last shot from last Sunday. I was ruminating on the astounding events during the f...
06/01/2026

Indianapolis 500 - 2026 - Finish. One last shot from last Sunday. I was ruminating on the astounding events during the finish of last week's race. I applaud the official decision to have the contestants finish on "green," actually "racing" to win rather than “driving by” on “yellow,” with the decision resulting in an unbelievably close finish. One of my primary objectives as an Indy team photographer is to bring you, the fan, views and insights from perspectives unavailable to you. I am not particularly skilled in Photoshop but assembled this composite of the first five competitors at the finish. Although I took a little artistic license with spacing between the two groups, I do think it portrays the incredible closeness as the cars rushed by the "Yard of Bricks" at 240 MPH! What a Ride. (Plus the resulting print will look good on my wall.)

05/30/2026

Indy 500 finish - Occurred to me in the night - Yes, I know pretty strange - that the 30fps shutter speed might be interesting in sequential video type playback. Now I'm no video guy, but here is what I came up with to better "tell the story" of the amazing race finish. What do you think??

"Close" The 2026 Indy 500 finishing spread: Difference between places in seconds: 1st-2d place .0233 sec, 2-3d (McLaug...
05/29/2026

"Close" The 2026 Indy 500 finishing spread: Difference between places in seconds: 1st-2d place .0233 sec, 2-3d (McLaughlin) .3972 sec, 3-4th (O'Ward) .0066 sec, 4-5th .0089 sec (Armstrong). Total: .43 sec - 1st five places separated by less than half of a second. Looking at my photo gives you a perspective on the distances involved in 3-5th places. Pretty amazing stuff. Remember the "yard of bricks" are three feet wide (duh). This might be in the running for the best shot I have taken in 15 years of shooting the Indy 500. ( I really love the flow line of the car noses.) The location, the margins, and the drama; if only I could have recorded the screaming crowd of 350k. it would have been perfect. (photo nerd stuff: 14 mm, f4.0, 1/16000 shutter, ISO 2500, @60 fps. Lesson learned - get a good position, plan, be prepared, and keep the shutter on even when the primary objective is past; you never know. It's like when you are shooting a sunset, always look behind you the best shot may be there, and don't leave the location for at least 15 minutes - good things might happen in the afterglow.)
Lucky shot: some would say "yes" others realize it's the result of more than 50 years of experience shooting race cars. (My first published [Arizona Times] racing photo: 1970.) What a ride!!!!!

500 Finish - I have had quite a few questions on how I took these photos. This may be a little nerdy but perhaps interes...
05/28/2026

500 Finish - I have had quite a few questions on how I took these photos. This may be a little nerdy but perhaps interesting. These photos were not technically possible to the average photographer until 2022. The cars are traveling about 240 mph (347 ft/sec) when they cross the yard of bricks. I had attempted this shot in previous years but my camera's maximum shutter speed was 1/8000 of a second and the resulting photos were not sharp. That shutter speed isn't fast enough to obtain a sharp photo without panning. And, obviously you don't want to pan as you want the pagoda and bricks sharp to tell the complete story. (For the nerds see first comment.) Stick with me here: so camera is 14 mm wide angle lens, at f4, 1/13000 sec shutter speed, and ISO 2500. I shoot from under the flag-stand on the north side of the pole beside the tv camera right at the yard of bricks with a 14-30 mm wide angle lens. Because the cars are so fast you can't auto focus or use the viewfinder. I pre-focus on a spot on the bricks. Fortunately they all follow essentially the same race line so this works, even when they are three wide because of good depth of field with the wide angle. Now the question is how many frames/per second do I want to shoot to try and get the car right at the bricks. Stick with me here: at 240 mph they travel 347 ft/sec, so at 20 frame/sec, each frame is 17ft of travel - cars are 16ft long: very hard to time the shot to get the car right at the finish line. So I used 60 frames/sec which is about 6 ft of travel in each frame; much better. But as you can see in the first shot I still was a little early and the cars were not quite at the bricks. You can see the distance the cars moved per frame in the second shot. I should have increased to 120 frames/sec and would have likely got the winner right at the line. Felx won by .0233 sec about 7 feet - one inch per lap!!! - which you can clearly see in the photo. (Hope you liked the technical information – maybe more on next post.) But the question: which photo do you think tells the best story??

Race Day - Did not disappoint, and the weather pundents were fortunately wrong.Start with the finish. Closest in Indy hi...
05/25/2026

Race Day - Did not disappoint, and the weather pundents were fortunately wrong.
Start with the finish. Closest in Indy history (0.0233 sec) with Felix Rosenqvist edging out David Malukus (Who was second two years running!). The impact of that second second was enormous. The fight for 3d,4th and 5th was exciting as well with McLaughlin squeezing it out at the finish three-wide. A little celebration on the fence for the fans And . . the famous milk bottle - the rest of the drivers must wait till next year to see if they can pull theirs. The start was exciting. I was shooting from bottom of Turn #3 this year so not as good angle, but still liked the shots - helicopters were cool. And then the fans . . . largest one-day event in the world, 350K in reserved seating (sold out) and a zillion on the viewing mounds all around the track and in the Snake Pit concert (most of who didn't realize a race was even going on by the time it started! It was a long day, the shot list for the team was 16 pages long! It was wonderful and a privilege to be a small part of the best photo team in sports.

It’s time…,
05/24/2026

It’s time…,

It’s time….
05/24/2026

It’s time….

"Carb Day" One of my favorite days of the race month is Carb Day - carburetors are long gone, but the namesake day is on...
05/23/2026

"Carb Day" One of my favorite days of the race month is Carb Day - carburetors are long gone, but the namesake day is one of the best. The last practice before Sunday's race (Alexander Rossi: crashed earlier in the week, injured and in the hospital, crew re-built his #20 car, and he is clear to start Sunday in the front row.) with large packs running together. It's fun to photograph and watch. Then the return of the Weinie 500 with the Weinermobiles; a publicity effort that has went viral (whoever thought of it is now Vice President I bet.) The elderly fan was a riot, she is associated with Oscar Meyer. The winner's shot as they climbed out of the Weinermobile was one of my favorites. Unfortunately, the Pit Stop competition was rained out after only a few rounds, but I did manage to get some good action shots. The "Analog" starting grid stats from the press room, begs some study. The times are so close - you know the race will likely be won in the pits stops. Watch. Then lastly, I don't know this lady, but she is an interior designer in Indy for Thread Design group. Part of my assignment is to photograph people having a good time and this group was! Her cookie was delicious! Race day tomorrow!

"Too Fast" Maybe "Too Close" would have been a better title. What do you think?
05/22/2026

"Too Fast" Maybe "Too Close" would have been a better title. What do you think?

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