Dusty Speedway

"A view of cars racing during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 1, 2013 in Hampton, Georgia."

There is nothing like having butterflies in your stomach - adrenaline pumping, sweaty palms, and that
overall sense of nervousness when working somewhere unfamiliar for the first time.

Much like when playing sports myself,  I'd get that feeling. Yet once you walk onto the field, or get to work, your instincts quickly take over and you perform as normal. In the same sense, there is nothing quite like shooting at a new venue or covering a fresh story.

Having the opportunity to cover stock car racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the Getty Images team was a playground for my eyes. Everything was new - from the city itself, to the garages and track.

It was so new that when I saw the sky changing colors early in AdvoCare 500 race, I panicked for a brief moment. There was a picture to be shot, yet covering a quarter of the track myself, and having never shot there, I didn't know the proper angle to capture it.

After a caution flag was thrown and they restarted the race, the quick-dry on the track made a fast concrete track look like a scene from a backyard dirt truck race. The angle, the smoke and the color of the sky calmed my nerves as I made a few frames of the quickly fading scene.