more F1 testing..

spud159: Good work. Silverstone is a horrid place for photography and these are nice.

Sleemans wrote:
Awesome shots, weather might have been dull,
but there's nothing dull about your images !

Q: Have you tried playing with levels/curves to
try to brighten up some of the darker ones?

Yes, I had a look at all that. To be honest I felt that most of my stuff looked much better without all that tweaking. It's also a fair representation of the actual light conditons to the eye.

man i just got word that i will not be going ot the F1 rac.e.
man that sucks..
we would have stayed inside the track in a huge RV too VIP passes..everything..
..sucks....

Great shots fella. Thanks for sharing.
Tell me its a while since I have been to Silverstone - do they have the same fencing in place as it seems they do elsewhere at F1 circuits?
You seem to have no fencing visible, how did you manage that? F-stop selection? Pointing over the top of the fence or something else?
Just interested as that is the main trouble with Indy (where I am headed in 2 weeks).
Thanks again for the pics.
-David

Wow the wavey exhaust is so cool!

Man i wish i had a wide angle lens and was in europe where all the action is.

Hi David - thanks for nice comments
The is an awful lot of catch fencing at Siverstone - all of my head on type shots were taken through the fence - all I can suggest is to get as close to it as possible - some will have a strange grey out of focus line across the image but you should have some success. The close up side on shots were taken from above the fencing on the outside of Bridge corner - you don't get much time to pick the car up in the view finder and press the shutter (about 160 mph) so its important to get into a rythmn.

I had a holiday in America a couple of years ago and went to Indy for the GP - the photos I managed to get were ok, but in some places the fencing is quite along way from where you can stand and can sometime be seen in the photo - but give it a go there were places to get above it and there are also gaps in the fence which you can use. I look forward to seeing the results!

Very nice pics spud... Great captures of some very fast machines...

The fences have been raised in many areas at Silvertone in recent years, probably in responce to the tragic deaths of the Marshalls in the 2000 Italian, and 2001 Australian Grandprix, where they were hit by debris.

Spud159, shot from the authorised spectator areas, so I'd take a guess, he got himself pressed up right against the fence and poked his lens thorugh the gaps, as that is the best way to get a fenceless picture. (if I inadvertently blocked your view at any time fella then my apolgies)

As for myself, I avoided the fences by actually being in front of them. I was there as a Accredited photographer.

Thanks for the reply. Those sure are good shots for through the fence. Well done.

Jimages - you are a lucky guy getting in front of the fences. Hope to do that one day. Gone are the days of the James Hunt (Hesketh) era when you could blag your way into the pits. I recall one grand prix doing a Martin Brundle grid walkabout. Ho hum!

I have been to Indy the last two years and tried various locations with various degrees of success/failure. I noticed last year that they have some nice camera-high holes in some of the fencing in front of some grandstands so I will try and get in place for those during practice. Also the hairpin after the back straight is not fenced in parts so can get some shots there, but its a long way away (so just invested in a new 400mm Canon lens). Drive down from here (Boston,MA 900miles) on Weds next (brother is over from UK for the trip) in time for the pit walkabout on Thursday. Will post some shots if I get any good ones.

great shots. I will be at USGP Sunday June 19th and will hopefully have a nice set of pics for you

great job! Same lens for me (arrives tomorrow) at the F1 of Montreal this weekend.

I like the angle of the first one. It seems to work well for me.

Number 4 really stands out for me, beautiful!

wow - put simply