Chief Editor
05-09-2005, 04:32 PM
Article for Photozo's Photozine Newsletter for May 2005.
A Day at the Races- by Glenn (Cadwell)
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-AVATAR-Cadwell.jpg (http://www.photozo.com/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=7457)
Nope, not a Marx Brothers movie nor am I going to sing (you can all be grateful about that). I’ve been persuaded to write a piece on what a typical days’ motor racing from the “business” side of the debris fences is like for me.
The Night Before.
A typical day at the races actually starts the night before. The cameras need to be prepared; sensors checked for dust and fresh batteries fitted. The right lenses need to be added to the camera bag and the memory cards need to be formatted. I never erase memory cards on a shoot. It’s too easy to lose some vital shots that way if you’re in a hurry, so I make sure all my cards are blank before I set out. The last thing I do is to set the cameras to a sensible set of parameters for racing. One thing you do not want to do is come home and realise you’ve shot the entire day in ISO 3200 or something daft like that – it’s very embarrassing.
Next I need to do my homework. I look up the races being run as part of the event and work out who the significant drivers are. Series leaders, class winners, anyone about to win a trophy, those are the shots that magazine editors want. A nice artistic picture of someone who regularly trails around at the back of the field, and who no-one has ever heard of doesn’t get published. I print out my notes and then call it a night.
Race Day.
On race day I need to get to the circuit bright and early in order to sign in at the media centre. This involves presenting my pass and then signing a little form which basically says
“If you get killed or injured whilst trackside it’s your own stupid fault and you’re not allowed to sue anyone”.
Once that’s done I get either a wrist band or a tabard to wear which identifies me as someone allowed trackside. Wrist bands are favourite. I hate the tabards as they get in the way of access to jacket pockets etc. and on hot days they’re just another unwanted layer of clothing.
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_0195.jpg
Now for the really important bit: breakfast! Most circuits have a cafeteria that does a fine line in “Full English Breakfasts”. “Hailwoods” at Brands Hatch is a particular gem where £5 buys you sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns, beans and mushrooms along with a coffee. It’s all fried in Castrol R (apart from the coffee – although I’m not too sure about that either) and sets you up for the day. One look at the plate and you can hear your arteries clanging shut.
Following breakfast, a quick dash around the paddock is normally in order. For this I use both cameras, one with a wide angle zoom lens on for car shots and the other with a medium telephoto on in case I need a bit of reach for candids or action shots. The wide angle equipped body is the primary camera and if the light is anywhere near half decent I’ll have a circular polarizer filter on the lens. Polarizing filters work wonders in static car photography. I’ll also have a flash gun on the camera for a bit of fill flash. You can pick up some useful gossip in the paddock from the drivers. Who’s running well, who’s not, who had a run-in with the stewards of the meeting during yesterdays practice and is therefore likely to be “a good boy” on the track today; that sort of thing.
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_0202.jpg
After the paddock I’ll head up to one of my favourite shooting locations and hop (well clamber – I haven’t hopped in years) over the spectator fence and head track side. The marshals will normally want to see my wrist band just to make sure I’m allowed to be there.
Fantastic people, motor racing marshals, by the way. They’re all volunteers, receive no payment, are “petrol heads” to a man (or woman) and they do a great job keeping the events running and looking after everyone’s safety. They’ve also been known to share a cup of coffee with a cold and wet photographer.
Most “club” racing events (which are the kind I tend to do) have practice or qualifying sessions in the morning and then the races in the afternoon. There’s a nominal “lunch break” between the two sessions. I say nominal because often it gets missed out. If too many drivers stick their cars in the kitty litter and the morning sessions run late then the lunch break is the first to be sacrificed in order to get things back on schedule (one reason why a good breakfast is important).
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_0422.jpg
The good thing about this arrangement is that it gives me two bites at the cherry. I can shoot the cars once at one particular corner and then get them again somewhere else later in the day. Yes, I know… in the morning these are qualifying shots, not racing, therefore in the strictest sense it’s “cheating”. However, you would be surprised how many great “racing” shots are published from practice sessions, the green flag lap or behind a safety car.
When shooting track side I’ll again use two cameras, one with a long zoom or prime and the other with a shorter lens. The short lens is there in case someone comes off the track and ends up unexpectedly close to me. No time to fiddle about changing lenses under those circumstances, by the time I did it the shot would be gone.
How I work my way round a circuit really depends on the light. As the day progresses and the sun moves, some angles become impossible so you can pretty much set your watch by the time I turn up at certain corners.
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_3320.jpg
The actual business of getting round the circuit can sometimes be interesting. Mostly I stay behind the tyre barriers and Armco. Occasionally I have to cross the track. Now, I’m not stupid and this is done between races but it can still be a little hairy. There are often course cars running round and sometimes a race car which has just been dug out of a gravel trap. These are supposed to be driving slowly back to the pits, but a race driver who’s been sitting festering behind a tyre wall, looking at his bent car, whilst all his mates whiz round for twenty minutes or so is often not in the best of humours. They tend to get a touch of the old red mist before the eyes so it’s wise to keep your eyes and ears open for hurtling race cars.
A race programme will often consist of 9 or more races so my notes from the night before come in handy as I try and make sure that I get at least some shots of the drivers/cars I noted down. Of course sometimes they don’t cooperate and break down/fall off the track/spend the entire race tight up behind another car. If a race driver can screw things up for you, he probably will. If you are lucky then there are incidents with cars coming off the track. As photographers we often get blamed by the marshals for being “accident magnets”. It’s not true, I hope…. but a car flying through a gravel trap or bouncing across the grass does make an interesting photo. The worst kinds of photos are the “single car shots” and I try to avoid them. A good motor racing shot should normally contain some “racing” and that means more than one car. Of course, there are exceptions… a car bouncing over a kerb or with a wheel or two in the air can make an exciting photo. Endless sequences of single car shots do not impress anyone, however.
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_3425.jpg
After the last race I head back to my car and try and avoid the queues getting out of the circuit. If I’ve planned my day right, my car is parked pretty much next to where I took the last photographs.
Race Day Evening.
As soon as I get home I start to process the images from the day. I normally try and get the “headline” shots off to the magazine editor by email that same night. I don’t tend to do a lot of processing on my photos. Usually I just make sure the white balance is OK, bump the contrast a little, adjust the gamma and saturation and then apply a little USM. It usually takes me about 10 seconds a photo. The other shots get burnt to a CD or DVD which gets posted the following morning.
Off to bed ...
Cadwell's links : Profile (http://www.photozo.com/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=7457) - Gallery (http://www.photozo.com/album/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=7457&thumb=1) - Website (http://gallery.ukmotorsportpics.com)
A Day at the Races- by Glenn (Cadwell)
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-AVATAR-Cadwell.jpg (http://www.photozo.com/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=7457)
Nope, not a Marx Brothers movie nor am I going to sing (you can all be grateful about that). I’ve been persuaded to write a piece on what a typical days’ motor racing from the “business” side of the debris fences is like for me.
The Night Before.
A typical day at the races actually starts the night before. The cameras need to be prepared; sensors checked for dust and fresh batteries fitted. The right lenses need to be added to the camera bag and the memory cards need to be formatted. I never erase memory cards on a shoot. It’s too easy to lose some vital shots that way if you’re in a hurry, so I make sure all my cards are blank before I set out. The last thing I do is to set the cameras to a sensible set of parameters for racing. One thing you do not want to do is come home and realise you’ve shot the entire day in ISO 3200 or something daft like that – it’s very embarrassing.
Next I need to do my homework. I look up the races being run as part of the event and work out who the significant drivers are. Series leaders, class winners, anyone about to win a trophy, those are the shots that magazine editors want. A nice artistic picture of someone who regularly trails around at the back of the field, and who no-one has ever heard of doesn’t get published. I print out my notes and then call it a night.
Race Day.
On race day I need to get to the circuit bright and early in order to sign in at the media centre. This involves presenting my pass and then signing a little form which basically says
“If you get killed or injured whilst trackside it’s your own stupid fault and you’re not allowed to sue anyone”.
Once that’s done I get either a wrist band or a tabard to wear which identifies me as someone allowed trackside. Wrist bands are favourite. I hate the tabards as they get in the way of access to jacket pockets etc. and on hot days they’re just another unwanted layer of clothing.
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_0195.jpg
Now for the really important bit: breakfast! Most circuits have a cafeteria that does a fine line in “Full English Breakfasts”. “Hailwoods” at Brands Hatch is a particular gem where £5 buys you sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns, beans and mushrooms along with a coffee. It’s all fried in Castrol R (apart from the coffee – although I’m not too sure about that either) and sets you up for the day. One look at the plate and you can hear your arteries clanging shut.
Following breakfast, a quick dash around the paddock is normally in order. For this I use both cameras, one with a wide angle zoom lens on for car shots and the other with a medium telephoto on in case I need a bit of reach for candids or action shots. The wide angle equipped body is the primary camera and if the light is anywhere near half decent I’ll have a circular polarizer filter on the lens. Polarizing filters work wonders in static car photography. I’ll also have a flash gun on the camera for a bit of fill flash. You can pick up some useful gossip in the paddock from the drivers. Who’s running well, who’s not, who had a run-in with the stewards of the meeting during yesterdays practice and is therefore likely to be “a good boy” on the track today; that sort of thing.
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_0202.jpg
After the paddock I’ll head up to one of my favourite shooting locations and hop (well clamber – I haven’t hopped in years) over the spectator fence and head track side. The marshals will normally want to see my wrist band just to make sure I’m allowed to be there.
Fantastic people, motor racing marshals, by the way. They’re all volunteers, receive no payment, are “petrol heads” to a man (or woman) and they do a great job keeping the events running and looking after everyone’s safety. They’ve also been known to share a cup of coffee with a cold and wet photographer.
Most “club” racing events (which are the kind I tend to do) have practice or qualifying sessions in the morning and then the races in the afternoon. There’s a nominal “lunch break” between the two sessions. I say nominal because often it gets missed out. If too many drivers stick their cars in the kitty litter and the morning sessions run late then the lunch break is the first to be sacrificed in order to get things back on schedule (one reason why a good breakfast is important).
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_0422.jpg
The good thing about this arrangement is that it gives me two bites at the cherry. I can shoot the cars once at one particular corner and then get them again somewhere else later in the day. Yes, I know… in the morning these are qualifying shots, not racing, therefore in the strictest sense it’s “cheating”. However, you would be surprised how many great “racing” shots are published from practice sessions, the green flag lap or behind a safety car.
When shooting track side I’ll again use two cameras, one with a long zoom or prime and the other with a shorter lens. The short lens is there in case someone comes off the track and ends up unexpectedly close to me. No time to fiddle about changing lenses under those circumstances, by the time I did it the shot would be gone.
How I work my way round a circuit really depends on the light. As the day progresses and the sun moves, some angles become impossible so you can pretty much set your watch by the time I turn up at certain corners.
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_3320.jpg
The actual business of getting round the circuit can sometimes be interesting. Mostly I stay behind the tyre barriers and Armco. Occasionally I have to cross the track. Now, I’m not stupid and this is done between races but it can still be a little hairy. There are often course cars running round and sometimes a race car which has just been dug out of a gravel trap. These are supposed to be driving slowly back to the pits, but a race driver who’s been sitting festering behind a tyre wall, looking at his bent car, whilst all his mates whiz round for twenty minutes or so is often not in the best of humours. They tend to get a touch of the old red mist before the eyes so it’s wise to keep your eyes and ears open for hurtling race cars.
A race programme will often consist of 9 or more races so my notes from the night before come in handy as I try and make sure that I get at least some shots of the drivers/cars I noted down. Of course sometimes they don’t cooperate and break down/fall off the track/spend the entire race tight up behind another car. If a race driver can screw things up for you, he probably will. If you are lucky then there are incidents with cars coming off the track. As photographers we often get blamed by the marshals for being “accident magnets”. It’s not true, I hope…. but a car flying through a gravel trap or bouncing across the grass does make an interesting photo. The worst kinds of photos are the “single car shots” and I try to avoid them. A good motor racing shot should normally contain some “racing” and that means more than one car. Of course, there are exceptions… a car bouncing over a kerb or with a wheel or two in the air can make an exciting photo. Endless sequences of single car shots do not impress anyone, however.
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/4550/05-05-ARTICLE-PIC_3425.jpg
After the last race I head back to my car and try and avoid the queues getting out of the circuit. If I’ve planned my day right, my car is parked pretty much next to where I took the last photographs.
Race Day Evening.
As soon as I get home I start to process the images from the day. I normally try and get the “headline” shots off to the magazine editor by email that same night. I don’t tend to do a lot of processing on my photos. Usually I just make sure the white balance is OK, bump the contrast a little, adjust the gamma and saturation and then apply a little USM. It usually takes me about 10 seconds a photo. The other shots get burnt to a CD or DVD which gets posted the following morning.
Off to bed ...
Cadwell's links : Profile (http://www.photozo.com/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=7457) - Gallery (http://www.photozo.com/album/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=7457&thumb=1) - Website (http://gallery.ukmotorsportpics.com)