A1GP photos

[GravelBen]

A quick selection from last night's processing...












I'm pretty happy with them.

[Omerta]

Some great panning shots there Ben . What's your hit rate for getting sharp pics from long exposures? I average something like 1 out of 5 at 120ish focal length. How long are the exposures?

[GravelBen]

Omerta said:

Some great panning shots there Ben . What's your hit rate for getting sharp pics from long exposures? I average something like 1 out of 5 at 120ish focal length. How long are the exposures?

Actually had a pretty high proportion of 'keepers' from panning this time round, maybe around half? I probably lose as many by chopping ends of the car off as by getting them too shaky.

Panning I generally start at 1/160 and vary things from there depending on distance, car speed etc. Some of those above are 1/160, some are 1/200, all using the 80-200 f/2.8 mostly at or near 200mm. The non-panning shots are much faster of course.

I have a heap more still to process including some I tried using 1/125@200mm which looked really nice on the camera, will be interesting to see how those go - usually a good rule of thumb is 1/focal length for sharp hand-held shots but sometimes its easier to pan steadily than hold it still.

Edited by GravelBen on Wednesday 28th January 11:53

[Kiwi XTR2]

Excellent Ben

[GravelBen]

A few more from tonights processing - those above are from feature race, these are from practice, quali and sprint race.














(Those last two were panning using 1/125 @ 200mm - pretty stoked with those results at that speed)

[Kiwi XTR2]

Only another 1500 to go

Hmmmm . . . Black Beauty seems to be carrying a little more 'front geometry' than some of the others.


So how did you find the experience ???

Learn anything? Would you do it again? Once is enough? More sunblock? Better earplugs? "Model Agent" business cards to give to the pit-girls?

[Kylie]

Love the pics, they are incredible. Cant wait to see the rest. Thanks for sharing

[Omerta]

Stunning Ben. Love the depth of field in the 2nd one down.

Looks like you enjoyed the photography as much as the racing

[GravelBen]

Kiwi XTR2 said:

So how did you find the experience ???

Learn anything? Would you do it again? Once is enough? More sunblock? Better earplugs? "Model Agent" business cards to give to the pit-girls?

It was really very good, learnt a bit as it was the first time I've had media accreditation/access to restricted areas and also I think the first time I've been to a race meeting of that caliber - so things like getting out on the grid, taking photos of the pit girls etc were pretty new to me. Rallies and NZ-series race meetings don't generally even have pit girls!

Was a change having a specific list of things to get photos of as well as the part I really enjoy - capturing the movement and attitude of the cars.

Could get used to photographers access though, so much closer to the action. I can verify that you really need earplugs out on the pit wall though, first couple of cars went past before I got them in.

Edited by GravelBen on Wednesday 28th January 20:27