rally: rally finland

In three weeks, rally finland will visit my adopted home town. There are several special stages "down south" and many of them are essentially on my doorstep.

Now, under normal circumstances I'd be scouting the route before, driving the stage in both directions, looking for positions where I'm not particularly in danger but can get something decent (which is where teh 100-300 comes in) - but is there anything else I should know about? I've not been rallying before, so I'd be interested to hear how things work out for those who have done.

Bret

I'm a registered MSA rally marshall and a photographer. Having performed both rolls at many a Wales Rally GB, the best advice I can give is to make sure you position yourself on the inside of bends. If you position yourself on the outside, if the cars don't get you, flying debris of varying sizes up to huge rocks, will.

Wear a Hi-Vis vest so you can be seen. Cammo clothing is not sensible.

Maintain a safe distance between yourself and the cars, and any possible trajectory that they may take when it all goes wrong.

From the photographic point of view, images of cars coming towards you are superior to those passing in front or going away.

Use Tv priority and set a reasonably fast shutter speed, then increase it. They are travelling faster than you think at between 130 - 150 Km/hr on the straight.

On the stage, you'll get good shots of the cars. If you want images of the drivers, get yourself to the start line where they will queue before being released into the stage, or to the finish line where the top drivers will be interviewed by TV crews.

Above all else, enjoy the rally.

Sounds like a good opportunity to use the "catch in focus" feature. Put the camera on a tripod facing a jump, set focal distance to somewhere between you and the brow of the jump, then wait.

the "inside of the bend" thing I'd taken to heart from the ice track. I nearly got caught once and decided to move rapidly and have learned from the experience

If the weather's anything like decent, I figure that 1/400 is possible but I don't really want to go much faster than that unless I really can find a jump. That'll be the issue, I think. Fast SD cards will also have to be found before then.
I will probably try and be on a stage early on and then escape back out to a finish or start line later; the fun will be how the parking is dealt with as many stages start and finish in the complete wilderness...

My preferred positions are (I think, anyway):
inside of a seriously fast bend
slow one
a junction
the landing side of a jump
the service area at lunchtime

- Bret

They'll each offer some great photo opportunities.

Be sure to share some here.

I'm not sure about the landing side of a jump unless you're a good distance away. The advice I saw was to avoid them as cars may go out of control on landing!

Junctions, use some sense. Don't stand in the road they're being signed away from as they often overshoot and then have to reverse to join the proper route. I know when I marshalled the Baja GB a few years ago we were advised to park our own vehicles well back from the junction and leave as much space as possible for any lost competitors to slow down in (nothing physically blocking the road apart from some tape).

hi bert
i went to finland in 2004 fantastic rally
try and get to the white house jump on the omperraa stage but arrive early as it very popular but the cars fly well also go to the super special the car run in pairs great to see

enjoy a very jealous phill

the jumps aren't being run quite the same way as usual this year, so I'm reading and trying to work out where we're going tomorrow.

Inside of bends is a nightmare. They are way too fast to catch effectively, too many people and plain and simple "no".

The outside thing hasn't worked either, but we had a bit of fun on the first stage; the second one was Koukunmaa and it looked pretty crap, to be honest - until I sent the little monster up to the other end of the spectator area and she commented about the "bends coming down". Well, there were some bends, with a bigger one at the bottom, and positioning was good enough to get this:



so I'm reasonably happy.

We intend to go out tomorrow and get some images of the historic guys and do at least one other stage. Let's see how the energy levels go. I really am taking my stepladder, too; I saw an awful lot being carried around.

Bret

we didn't do any more stages, we went to the ceremonial finish of the historic instead. And fun it was, too.

However, that also means I have an absolute shedload of pics (1200+) and I need to process.... and then upload. Fun fun fun!

Bret