While not particularly expecting it to be easy to take pictures at the Grand Prix, I didn't expect it to be that hard either. But first there is the challenge of taking a picture than actually has a car in it, not just empty track where a car was a split second before. And then when you have captured one, there is the problem that all you have really got is an image of something that might as well be parked, or sitting idling at a traffic light. We were in a grandstand at Brooklands and saw one car spin off so I immediately started snapping. The result? Four pictures of dust clouds, each one just that little bit bigger than the one before and then a final one, where you can actually see a car.....doing nothing.
So, this is the best of a very bad bunch. It took me 19 (yes! 19) attempts to get it and that was with a shutter speed of 1:1000. Thank heavens for digital.
I felt I did a little better at photographing bits of racing cars that weren't moving and that was made possible by a pit lane walk we did just before final qualifying. I elbowed my way through all the other corporate tourists and took (amongst many others) these two pictures of the Ferrari and McLaren garages respectively.
We resisted the temptation to have cheesy snaps of ourselves standing next to an empty formula 1 car, but lots of others did so I've cut these people out and tried to just focus on all the shiny metal.
3 comments:
Just as a historical footnote - one of the few advantages of stone - age 35mm cameras was that you took the picture instantaneously so you got a picture of what was in the viewfinder at the time of pressing the shutter button. Oh well nothing comes without a drawback somewhere. How interesting was that. You may also find that there is a gizmo for taking a run of 5 or so pics in rapid succession which would let you start before the car got into frame and finish after. (My camera has this but of course I don't know how to use it. Only real geeks and anoraks read the manual anyway.
Thank you anonymous. You are right of course that my 35mm would have taken what was in the viewfinder - only it would have taken me a week to develop them and find the delay between brain and finger was too long! I did try the rapid thing but it didn't help much at that speed - although it is very good for pictures of children jumping off things. If you see this, please comment again so that I know if I know you!
When I get the hang of this business I'll know how to tell you who I am. I think I'm Anonymous on your latest entry as well. The last one here reads a bit sarky now, which wasn't intended so perhaps anonymous was best. I bet you sort of made a wild surmise as if standing on a peak in Darien just the same.
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