You said you will be as far as 20 t0 30 yards away from the track. In NASCAR that can be close, almost too close. At 200 MPH the cars are in front of you for only a split second. Getting closer to the track will get you your head-on shots but even that is fast. You have to learn to pan as others have said. you have to know if you want to show speed or stop the cars in their tracks. Do you want the cars to blurr or the background to blurr
I like the suggestion of going to a very busy road or interstate and take pictures of passing cars, that is a good pratice area. You may also look for a local 1/4 mile track, that too is a great learning experience.
Do not, do not forget your ear plugs/protectors, if you do you might be sorry you ever went to the race.
Have fun at Kansas.

Here is North korea from South Korea, 1965

South K looking into North K 1965


Inside DMZ 1965

Change it to gray scale

Gray Scale


Gray Scale

My old Canon 20D had shutter lag, sometimes it was a millisecond and sometimes it would not want to trip the shutter at all. It turned out to be the shutter button switch. It was repaired and all was fine. I did find if I fired the camera a bunch of times it would clear up for awhile telling me it was dirty switch contacts.

I think in one of the posts above Pepper said it as well as it can be said.

When I was first asked to do a wedding I told them that I do "Vanlla" photography, That was the best way to say I take good photos but there are no sprcial effects, just what you see is what you get. Once they saw the photos they were happy. Do the graduation pictures, you will do all right or you will learn how to do better for next time.

Often the mixing of plastic and metal gears last longer than plastic on plastic or metal on metal. On the equipment I used to work on that was always the case. Check them for wear. Depending on use there may be little wear but if used hard you may find small piles of metal dust and sharp gears.

A trick I learned about 20 years ago. If you have a type of plastic that super glue does not bond well with.
Place a bit of super glue on one pieces of the plastic, now place the tissue onto the plastic, put glue on the other piece of plastic and stick them together.
For some reason the glue will then bond to the plastic and tissue and then the other piece of plastic.
I used this method to repair plastic gears. They were as strong as new..

If I had control of this site this topic would be deleted. What a waste of time and space. It serves no good, and there will never be a winner...

Since it a piece of glass I would put a piece of tissue paper behind the glass then use a flash a few feet under the tissue paper and flash the tissue with light. You would have to adjust the flash output to get the desired results. You could, most likely, use the same exposure settings for the fruit.

I love the pictures of the fruit and veggies. It looks as if you are using a light box as your table/background. I think the background should be a bit brighter to get rid of the bluish tint and make it stark white. That would really make a brilliant, dramatic picture. Excellant...

Have you looked at their old business cards or asked them what they would like or even added your own thoughts about what might look good for the business. If their business has to do with the outdoors then maybe landscape would be good for a background. If it is a farm equiplent dealer then the color of the equipment would be a good background. Think away from the normal but not too far to scare them but enough for creativity.

Cajon,
Go to the shoot and see how the photographer is handeling it. You can learn alot. Take your camera and see what it can do under the circumstances. You may be surprised what you and the camers can do.

Get a security clearance..

When I bought my new Canon AE-1 (many years ago) I looked for a topics to shoot to become familiar with the camera, I saw a log home being built and for the next number of months I took pictures of the construction and on Christmas day I went up to the house and handed them a album with about 60 pictures of the home being built. I had never met the people before but we became great friends. Later I was then asked by them to do their girls weddings. (the start of doing weddings and making some money). My daughters were on a field hocky team and I was taking pictures of the games and soon I was doing team pictures of field hocky, then softball, baseball, basketball, gymnastics, dancing, cheerleaders, etc. We did about 700 sports individuals a year, and about 8 to 12 weddings a year. I went from the AE-1 to a Canon EOS-1N and a Bronica SQA. I always called it our paying hobby. We never made enough to make a living but certainly was some nice extra money and we enjoyed giving others enjoyment by capturing their event.
Start slow by getting your feet wet, they will find you if you have something good to give them.
I now have a Canon 7D but only do volunteer photo work for charity events "No Charge"