Unfortunately, I was stricken (possibly the most apt word) with acute back pain and couldn't get to the track for the race. Michael_ was staying at my house, and was somewhat amused by my attempts to get there. I could neither do up my shoes nor carry my gear, but I was trying. Sanity prevailed, and I spent the race day flat on my back on the floor.
Anyway, enough bitching, here are some images.
Racing shots:
The FG Falcon of Johnson and Courtney coming through the Esses at full steam.
Taken with the 120-300 Sigma with 1.4 TC on it. More on this combo later.
The WOW Commodore. Taken with the 24-70 F2.8 Sigma. Very sharp and fast lens.
A commodore, powered by Bundy Rum. Perfect.
Commodore of Skaife and Murphy exiting Murrays Corner. Sigma 120-300 + 1.4 TC.
The Sigma 120-300 and TC combo provided a very useful 420mm @ F4. The combo was super sharp and quick to focus. I recommend it to anyone thinking of it. It hunted slightly in low light, for example, when I was using it for candid portraits in the pit bays, but other than that, was excellent. On the above image, you can count the bugs and scratches along the front of the car.
Some different racing shots:
Decided to try and do something different when I could as you can only take so many 'safe' shots before starting to go insane, and you dont learn anything new staying in your comfort zone.
Lowndes takes the dipper. 24-70 with CPL. underexposed sky and intentional lens flare.
Similar shot, closer crop. This shot is slightly done to death, but usually it is shot wide 14mm FE and the car is blurred.
Shot through a very small slit in the steel catchfence. The tightness of the opening plasyed fun games with the focus, causing it to deform the image vertically. Maybe someone else can explain it, but this one came out ok.
I was looking for a different shot for the finish line, and found this one, through the armco barrier. It frames ok, and with a deep blue sky would look good. The only issue is if the team have their pit to close to the finish line, the car will be to far away. This was taken during the shoot out.
While walking about this F/A-18 flew over a few times. This shot was taken during a high speed pass, with vapour condensing off the leading surfaces. The original is so sharp you can almost read the pilots rank/name on his cockpit. Most cool!
Portraits:
I decided to try and get some good portraits. I was hoping to get a few more on the sunday, but that was not to happen. I like these ones, taken over the 3 days I was trackside.
Mark Skaife launching his pictorial autobiography. Very good book (I got a couple of copies). I was trying to get all 3 images of skaife into the one image. This was the best I could get. Needed a wider lens, but 24mm would have to suffice.
Shane Van Gisbergen waiting and watching during the tense Saturday top ten shootout.
Realisation the dream is starting to sour. Lowndes and Whincup watch as Tander drives a pole giving lap.
Body language. Garth Tander fidgets during a press conference.
Jason Richards looks less than intrigued during a press conference following Fridays practice.
I guess from when I started motorsport photography to today has been a while, and I would have wanted too of learned a few things. Always look for the different shot. By all means, get your safe useful shots, but then experiment, and find different shots. You'll never grow as a photographer if you always and only go the safe option. If you need inspiration, look at Getty images, or Inetpics.
Hope you liked my images.
