Dukeries Rally - and my first 'proper' motorsports pics

OK, I finally got to do some real motorsports photography. It is a pity I only had the morning available because I never imagined how much I would enjoy it - I wanted to follow the rally through every stage!

These were taken on the first stage of the Dukeries Rally today - the Blidworth Woods stage. The stage consists of woodland and.... more woodland.

I used my 20D and Sigma 120-300 F2.8 for all the shots. Shutter started at 1/400th and dropped down to 1/320th once I had shot for a bit. Weather was good, everything had the early day sun feel so is quite warm looking.

#1 - Not very good but my first rally shot

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Blue Scooby...methinks you need to brush up on your rally car ID's

Very nice indeed for a first attempt although the 2 Mk2 Escorts stand out for me.

OK, I admit it - I goofed.
Lesson for the day - don't post a stack of images in a hurry. I could have sworn I shot a blue scooby so when searching for it I plucked that one out without really paying attention. D'Oh!

Thanks for the comment Geoff - the Escorts are a favourite of mine - I just love the way they look & run

lol, yes. Not a Subaru, but Mitsubishi Lancer.

Hi Richard,
Great shots,
I got started with SLR Digital photography late last year and am trying to get photo's of motorcycles on the track that are striking with punch like the ones you have taken, But at the moment I am having problems with light, can you tell me how you set your camera up please !!
Thanks
Ned

Congrats. Very nice series indeed!!!

*richard promises to look more closely in future*

Thaanks for your comments
All the shotscan be seen on this link.
http://www.lindleypetp​hotography.co.uk/galle​ries/Dukeries-17-6-6/
I'm sure there are more Escort Mk2's there than any other car...

Hi Ned

Light is the big one, and I was fortunate enough to be shooting in the morning so I had fairly good quality light to start with. I was running in TV mode set to 1/400th or 1/320th of a second. Metering was full matrix and either 1/3 or 2/3 under exposed with exp compensation. I was finding that often the camera was getting the exposure wrong so I would meter off a bit of the track & bank and lock exposure on that as I heard a car coming. In the tricky spots where I knew the expsoure for a paticular bit of track that I wanted to shoot the cars on I would dial the settings I need into manual mode and use that - I spent most of the time shooting at F6.3 - F9 so there was enough DOF to render most of the car sharp.
Finally I left the white balance on either cloudy or shade which was relativley accurate but also added a touch of warmth.
But having good light to start with really helped - all of the above just helps me use the good light better (Well I hope it did!!!)

THanks again for your comments

Finally, it was nice to see a Landy on the track too. This one really went too!

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Nice set of photos, have only ever done track photos and would like to some rally if i ever find something near my area.

Hi Richard some good shots there. I like the blue/white Nova shot & the red mkII Escort. I normally do the Dukeries myself & its generally good weather although very dusty but unfortunetly i was at a wedding all day