Who needs meditation when you have horsepower.

Many of my mates dismiss motorsport as not being a “real” sport. Apparently, you need some sort of ball to qualify. But I have never competed in anything that requires such a combination of fitness, concentration, technical ability and even bravery. Sadly I’m lacking in many of these attributes. Still, there are times when a keen amateur (such as myself) can experience a state of “flow” behind the wheel. It’s an incredible feeling when you are one with machine, and your mind is completely clear. Who needs meditation when you have horsepower. 

Karts are one thing that I have been photographing for a while now.  As a lover of motorsport is one area that I want to improve in and hopefully one day shoot at professional events. My philosophy to date has been to chuck on a 200mm lens and shoot as at a slow shutter speed as I can to blur the background. Although the “hit rate” of sharp shots is only about one in eight, the results are generally quite pleasing. 

I’ve only ever really focused on what’s on track. But I was listening to the Fujicast Podcast, and they interviewed photographer, Jeff Carter, known among other things as a motorsport photographer. He raised the valid point that too often, people fail to tell the story behind the scenes. So on the weekend, I took his advice and also focused on the paddock.

Canon 5D mk2 | 24-70mm (@70mm) | ISO100 | 1/2500 | f2.8

To be honest, I’m not too pleased with my pit lane and paddock work. I did get some interesting shots, but overall I found it quite challenging to compose interesting shots. I was largely on my 24-70mm lens and interesting enough, my favourite shots were towards the 70mm of that range. 

Canon 5D mk2 | 70-200mm (@200mm) | ISO100 | 1/320 | f8

Lessons learnt on this occasion.  

• Whenever I’m trying to get shots quickly have a weird tendency to shoot “high”. I need to take a moment more to ensure I’m getting the best composition straight out of the camera. 
• I need to revisit some basics and learn how to get the best out of the camera with metering modes. It was a harsh sunny day with many people wearing dark race suits that meat my exposure was all over the shop. In retrospect, I probably should have shot manual, taken a breath and worked out the best settings. 
• I have a 2x extender that I’ve struggled to get decent shots with in the past. This time out, I stopped down and achieved excellent results. 
• There’s more to sport than what’s going on the track / field / court etc. Try to tell a story with your images!
• I really want to explore other approaches next time I shoot karts. Having done it on numerous occasions, I tend to do the same thing over and over. Next time I head out, I’m going to have a plan on different approaches to try.