Went to the Qualifying Session for the Italian GP at Monza yesterday. Went fully load with kit, in newly acquired Lowpro ruck sack... With high expectations of shooting loads and getting a few great shots...
How wrong I was !!
Access and view point to get pictures was pretty dire, so much wire mesh, and the track hidden by concrete walls. You actually get very close, so your average Tele zoom is fine... Would rather have been further away and less obstructions...
Ended up in the grand stand, and snapped a few..
Anyway, a good day out from from a racing point of view.
So, or allora, as they say in Italy...........
Walked some of the track, and arrived at Variante Ascari about 10 seconds after Kimmi stuffed it into the barrier at morning practice... just heard the thud and plume of gravel dust.... best I could get was them collecting the bits up !
I gave up with the camera around the track..... and found my seat in the
Curva Parabolica..... tried a few on the Porsche cup race .....
Lucky enough I was right opposite a screen.... now this is what I call a big screen, might have trouble fitting in the house !...... note the mesh, even from the high vantage point of a grandstand seat !
Some lucky **** with the right paper work, had less troubles than me... Wonder how I get get a press pass !!!!
So onto the main event, still from my seating area, tried a few shots, Auto focus was out of the question, the wire mesh just sent it into wild hunting mode !... So manual pre-focus is what I tried.
The difficult part was to get the shot in between the two fence uprights, at the speed they enter the corner was bit of a challenge!... Wanted slow speed for motion blur, and larger aperture for limited depth of field to try and get some of the fence out of focus... neither then helped to get sharp pictures !
Not happy with these, but posted to show, some days it just doesn't work !
Few more to follow as I've hit the image limit .......
How wrong I was !!
Access and view point to get pictures was pretty dire, so much wire mesh, and the track hidden by concrete walls. You actually get very close, so your average Tele zoom is fine... Would rather have been further away and less obstructions...
Ended up in the grand stand, and snapped a few..
Anyway, a good day out from from a racing point of view.
So, or allora, as they say in Italy...........
Walked some of the track, and arrived at Variante Ascari about 10 seconds after Kimmi stuffed it into the barrier at morning practice... just heard the thud and plume of gravel dust.... best I could get was them collecting the bits up !
I gave up with the camera around the track..... and found my seat in the
Curva Parabolica..... tried a few on the Porsche cup race .....
Lucky enough I was right opposite a screen.... now this is what I call a big screen, might have trouble fitting in the house !...... note the mesh, even from the high vantage point of a grandstand seat !
Some lucky **** with the right paper work, had less troubles than me... Wonder how I get get a press pass !!!!
So onto the main event, still from my seating area, tried a few shots, Auto focus was out of the question, the wire mesh just sent it into wild hunting mode !... So manual pre-focus is what I tried.
The difficult part was to get the shot in between the two fence uprights, at the speed they enter the corner was bit of a challenge!... Wanted slow speed for motion blur, and larger aperture for limited depth of field to try and get some of the fence out of focus... neither then helped to get sharp pictures !
Not happy with these, but posted to show, some days it just doesn't work !
Few more to follow as I've hit the image limit .......
Envy you , i really really want to go to a F1 weekend TBH , even though people are in the way , i wouldn't care if they were bad as its still something to remember the day / weekend
..... Wife works for Local paper in England, I'm sure they could do with overseas sports photographer for the back page !!! LOL