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Hi all,

I went to see (and hear) the F1 cars doing a bit of a demonstration on Swanston St in Melbourne yesterday and took my shiny new D70 with me.

I used Shutter priority mode to get an idea for the aperture to use, then I put it in manual mode and took a few test shots and used the histogram and highlights playback features to check the exposure before making a few minor tweaks. I used burst mode and fired off 100 shots. Unfortunately I had to hold the camera above my head as I wasn't right on the fence, but I'm pretty happy with the results.

I only got pictures of the Minardis and a V8 "supercar". I thought it was probably all over once they dragged out the Falcon, so i started walking away. Then I hear anothe F1 rock up (a Williams apparently ) at the U-turn point and from the smoke I could see, the driver was doing a much better effort.

<a href="http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~benst/pictures/05gpparade/_dsc0961.jpg"><img src="http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~benst/pictures/05gpparade/_dsc0961_640.jpg"></a>
Click on the picture above to see a bigger (1000px wide) version - I would have liked to used the strong and font HTML tags here to make this look more like a caption but they are banned.

Check out http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~benst/pictures/05gpparade to see the, IMHO, 8 reasonable photos I took.

I also took some shots of the GP track under construction:
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~benst/pictures/05gp

Ben, nice shots. They sure let you guys closer in Melbourne than the 2km away we were in Sydney

It looks like this is the only shot you see of the Minardi's this weekend due to Ferrari's decision not to let them race.
Nice pics though, not easy peering over a fence, good effort.

By the looks of things it looks like the drivers got a bit out of hand. From what I could tell from the newspaper it was suppose to be a fairly mild event with them parading the cars, not hotdogging it. Looks like they had a lack of fencing for what they were doing. Maybe the photos over exagerate though.

It hasn't been finalised yet whether Minardi will race or not. Just snub Ferrari if it is.....I think a few Boo's won't go a miss as the Ferrari's pass.

G'day,
Thanks for the shots Benst... I work in the block next to the parade and got stuck at work and missed it all... Looks like it would have been good fun to watch

Cheers,
Mudder

Nice shot. I like the extreme widescreen feel of it.

What the hell are Ferrari doing? They already have enough crap on their arse and there is a requirement to let another company use their engines so what gives?!

Geeze... I can't stand Ferrari anymore... it's all about the winning... it's no longer about the spirit of the race or the competition... it's just about finding ways to cut the middleman out and leave everyone else in the dust.

Yeah not very good P.R. dissing an Australian owner of a F1 team on his home track.
Apperently the Minardi have cars that will pass scrutiny but could still be banned from racing if a "certain" team put in a report.
Another rumour is that if they don't race then several other outfits would pull out, somehow I can't see that happening.
And where has all the sportsmanship gone? It's not like the Minardi's will be fighting for the podium.
For all going to the F1 weekend, good luck and happy shooting, I'm off to Adelaide for a wedding and a 'little' wine tasting in some place called the Barossa Valley.
Just my 2 cents worth

F! racing has never been about sport. It has always been about winning and money. Nothing has changed.

As I understand it, Minardi are running in last year's cars, and to do that, they need the approval of every other team. Ferrari have yet to provide that.

Of course, if the number of cars competing drops below 20, then we move to three car race teams. I'm not sure of the mechanics of how that would work, but it certainly could be interesting.

Could they even do it before the Melbourne opener?

Dunno.

The cutoff point for Minardi to have Todt's signature on the dotted line is midnight tonight.

They probably will.

Ferrari are probably asserting their right to be arrogant right before the race.

Looks like I was right. There was quite a few complaints about the parade. It appears that a lot of things were violated.

A) driving normally
B) sticking to 80-90km/h limit....think top speed recorded was 200km/h

The barriers inplace were totally ineffective if something had gone wrong. Seems they weren't even water filled to reduce the effects of impact.

Geeze... poor efforts on the part of the Safety crew... now, were the drivers talking on their cellphones or shaving or even doing their make-up as they drove?

Nah it wasn't the safety crews fault. It was stated that the speed limit was to be 80km/h to keep it safe for the streets. Whether this was told to the drivers or the drivers were deliberately told by somebody else (ie. team managers, bernie eccleston etc) to break the limit to get the crowds revved up, I don't know.

Nnnnsic wrote:Geeze... poor efforts on the part of the Safety crew... now, were the drivers talking on their cellphones or shaving or even doing their make-up as they drove?

How many cupholders are there in Ralf's new Camry?

kipper wrote:Looks like I was right. There was quite a few complaints about the parade. It appears that a lot of things were violated.

A) driving normally
B) sticking to 80-90km/h limit....think top speed recorded was 200km/h

The barriers inplace were totally ineffective if something had gone wrong. Seems they weren't even water filled to reduce the effects of impact.

Just goes to show high speed isn't as bad as it is made out to be. They weren't regular Aussie motorists for crying out loud!

I know they weren't but anything could go wrong you know.

kipper wrote:I know they weren't but anything could go wrong you know.

I thought you'll be quiet today cos you mentioned you're heading to the race!

Just got up. Heading off in about an hour, qualifying doesn't start until 11pm.

kipper,

kipper wrote:Just got up. Heading off in about an hour, qualifying doesn't start until 11pm.

Getting there early to check out the chicks with your 'NEW' 70-200VR and TC-17EII shhh .

Have a great day,

fozzie wrote:kipper,

kipper wrote:Just got up. Heading off in about an hour, qualifying doesn't start until 11pm.

Getting there early to check out the chicks with your 'NEW' 70-200VR with TC-17EII shhh .

Have a great day,

Early bird won't find any chicks there're only hens

kipper wrote:I know they weren't but anything could go wrong you know.

Same goes for 80kph.

kipper wrote:Just got up. Heading off in about an hour, qualifying doesn't start until 11pm.

We can all go after the dinner meet then.

And to think that no-one has died in the Japanese D1 scene where they are driving 1m away from the public. OH MY GOODNESS. Seriously its such a big over-reaction.