good work or art have your say.

[keithk]

http://www.sportscarpros.com/topshot/top-shots-gallery-01/default.htm

Most of the above are by my good friend John Brooks

http://www.dfphotoservices.com/index1.cfm

Dave Friedman who's life story will be published next year

http://www.davedaviesracing.com/

And our own Dave Davies

From these three galleries you will get a feel for what's possible

[Bob U]

Excellent, love Dancing in the dark. So when are you available to give lessons?

Maybe I need more than my PHD camera

[keithk]

I hope the three galleries will inspire the membership to produce some great images for the 2009 calender they have a year!

So if they get one image each of the members, we should have hundreds of the "ducking" things for next year, and just a reminder it's not a photographic competition!

IMO for the calender to make money each year, people are going to want the images to reflect the club not just LM, Sebring or LMS the people its vibrant colours and life.  Not all cars and HWT girls (I could do a good selection of those) but I have excluded my own work for project.

I would like the calender to become one of those must have on you wall things each year or  a "Call yourself a endurance racing nut and you haven't got the Club Arnage calender for this year" thing.... IMO it should be  by the membership for the membership

I have been asked to put a snappers guide together for next year, I'll try to write a guide how I shoot stuff, its the way other people will and as you all know I'm always available at race meets when I not working either snapping or course car driving to help.

[Martini...LB]

Hi
So lets get honest here, while the majority of the shots are pretty impressive, some very, the real benefit has to be the vest. I really do not think that you will obtain, bearing in mind I have not looked at them all, too many shots such as the majority of these. Perhaps the DD shot of the car cresting the track under the bridge, but only if you are way down the road and have a £2500 fast lens on the end of your brownie.

Some of the cropping is imaginative and enhances the shots as probably most of you will appreciate, the secret is taking the shot and knowing how far to go with the cropping, I particlarly like DD's shot of tertre rouge 2005, but this is all about cropping. The majority of his, and others shots, are due to wearing a vest and very hard to aspire to in normal spectator circumstances. In saying that I am pleased to have the chance to view, and appreciate them.

I would like to be able to produce a shot like JB's Moretti Ferrari at LM'98, Perhaps not technically perfect, don't slag me, but a great shot, each to his own.

Nuff...

>Martini...

[keithk]

DD shoots mainly with a 500mm (hand held) no mono pod, he does have and use other lens but much of his car work is with the 500(at the track). While DD and Dave Friedman and I are Nikon users John Brooks is a Cannon user I shoot a lot of my night pit stop stuff from the back of the stands

As you say its knowing when and what to crop a picture where the main subject is cropped or out of focus is not much use or my favourite where the subjects are all looking in different directions.  I feel part subjects are only acceptable as arty shots lets see the whole car, lets look into the drivers eyes put the car in context or it could be on any track and any time or just parked up on any old piece of tarmac you just cannot tell.

If there was one tip I would give is get your panning right, the shutters are reacting faster not so its not so hit and miss with the "punter" end cameras but they have a long way to go to catch my Nikon F5 at 50 msecs and yes I still use lots of film.....

PS the latest  Nikon 600mm AF-S f/4 IF ED MK2 is £6500 and some at Jessops! No I don't have one I use a 200 or 300 most of the time or 28-70 for pit lane

[mgmark]

Keith,

Some lovely pictures in there - thanks for posting the links, and look forward to the tips in next year's guide.  As a general point, it might be useful to include some tips from the point of view of getting the most out of one's camera, whatever camera it may be.  I don't possess anything really professional by way of a digital camera, just the basic Fuji Finepix with a 10x zoom, but knowing what to do to get the most of what you have can improve picture taking enormously. 

It took me two years to figure out with my Fuji that the variable shutter delay (which means plenty of shots of bits of car or just blank track....) could to a large extent be mitigated by learning how to use the sequence shot setting, where it takes a burst of 5 pictures at once.  The end result is that I might have to delete a few, but it improves the chances of getting a few good ones there.  It took another year to figure out that playing with settings other than "auto" for the shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation also could make a big difference...   

As to having "the vest", yes no doubt it helps, but there are still a few places that half decent shots, unmarred by catch fencing, can be had, such as the new banking inside the Esses, Porsche curves, Arnage, or above the pits, and of course there are plenty of opportunities to take good pictures that capture the flavour of the event without having to have a racing car in the middle of it.....

MG Mark

[Piglet]

Martin makes some good points, I don't think any of us ever envisaged that the calendar would have 12 car shots as main images - it's just not achievable without a press pass and, personally, if I wanted 12 car images I'd buy a Top Gear calendar or similar. 

The links just give some ideas about composition.What was always important for the CA calendar was the use of inserts that meant that people like me who shoot with compacts (and phones!) could get images in because the file size and quality is less of an issue....BUT the images still need to be in focus and well composed (now if someone can find a workaround for the fact I'm just generally crap I might be able to submit something!)

BTW Mark, good tip on sequence shooting, I've never tried it and have plenty of shots of empty tarmac!

"Art or crap" is often a hot topic in our house, it's very subjective!

[keithk]

I normally shoot in single frame I feel it give me more control over the image, with a shutter delay of 37 milliseconds on the F5 I can pick and choose what, how and when, the D200 is good but I do notice the difference.

A few years back Piglet was shooting with her Nikon coolpics and it was a day or so of guesswork before she captured a car in Frame..... When trying to capture cars that flame I try to get the shutter to open as the flame starts, if I see it in the viewfinder it not on the image cos its gone before the shutter opens..

[Piglet]

A few years back Piglet was shooting with her Nikon coolpics and it was a day or so of guesswork before she captured a car in Frame.....

I don't like to disillusion you but I still can't get a car in frame - that's why I don't bother and tend to video!!     (dogs and barking also comes to mind  )