At 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, I was high above the Food Lion AutoFair in a small Cessna. That was, unfortunately, about four hours later than what was needed to document the unbelievably large crowd.

It only cost $150 to go up for one hour. The pilot told me that shooters often fly out of the Concord airport to get aerial photography of buildings in Charlotte and surrounding areas.

As it was my first time to shoot from a plane, I did not know which of my short lenses would be appropriate for the distance and range. We flew about 1,000 feet above the speedway, so I used my 10-22mm lens for the overall image. To get closeups of buildings and cars in the infield, I put on my 28-105mm piece.