I was covering an event at Snetterton yesterday, Nigel, and chatted to a pro photographer friend. He is of the old school and shoots one frame at a time. The machine-gunning topic came up, because it irritates him, too, so recently he asked an agency snapper why he did it. The answer was simple: he was working for a sponsor, who wanted as many shots as possible and was more interested in a sharp car than whether the background was nicely composed. If there was a sawn-off grandstand behind, the client wasn't concerned. Hence the photographer's job was to remain trigger-happy every time the car came past, and then to follow it all the way through the corner.

Commerce, then, rather than artistry, but I guess in his position we'd all do the same.

One more thing, Pete. If you're at Druids, you can walk across the bridge behind you (it crosses the track) and turn right (then left through the trees) for Stirlings, or left for Hawthorns.

Sorry, Pete - I've only just seen this and might be responding too late to be of much help.

The Desiré Wilson grandstand will be a nice spot to watch the racing, but it might not be a great deal of use for photography. It's adjacent to the pit straight, on the approach to the first turn (Paddock), and is behind a debris fence. If you're at the back you might be able to shoot over the top, or if you're right at the front you might be able to shoot through the fencing, but your best bets, to my mind would be:

A: The outside of Paddock Hill Bend. A 300mm is a little short, but will be OK for group shots and you can fire over the debris fencing. Note that you don't really need a monopod with the 55-300.

B: Druids, the hairpin beyond Paddock Hill Bend. There's a footbridge over the circuit that takes you to the inside, where there is no debris fencing. If you stay on the outside, there's a traditional Brands shot of cars coming up the hill and spectators can press lenses up against the fence. Shoot wide open and the fence should be completely invisible.

C: Stirlings, out on the countty. This is a longer walk - you have to head around the outside of Clark Curve, the final corner, then cross the bridge behind the medical centre and follow the road that runs adjacent to the track. On the GP circuit, you could stop just past the medical centre and try to shoot over/through the fence as cars come through Surtees, or carry on until you see a gap in the trees on the right. Turn here and after about 50 metres you'll probably find a clutch of people with everything from 18-200 zooms to 500mm f2.8s, all pointing towards the exit of Stirlings. There is no fencing here and you can also take a reasonable pan shot with trees as the main backdrop.

D: Hawthorns, deeper into the country. If you opt not to turn right towards Stirlings, you can continue along the road, adjacent to the track, until you reach Hawthorns, a quick, uphill right-hander. It's a long way from your trackside lounge, but is fence-free.

Again, I'm very sorry that I didn't see this earlier. Hope you enjoy the day.

I might pop along, but will make up my mind in the next half an hour.

Seconded...

Sorry, David, that should have been Uzi, as in submachine gun. I despair of folk who keep their finger on the shutter button every time a car comes past, but quite a few do - even seasoned pros. I'd hate to be the technician who had to sort through the results: I regularly take about 600 shots in a day, on a one-frame-at-a-time basis. Some people must end up with several thousand...

It might well have have been on here, Barrie - in which case I apologise for the repetition.

#5 Parting shot


Captain Predictable strikes again. To square off my selection, I'll return to my staple diet. This is from Friday practice during the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos - a landmark event for me, because it was my last as a full-time member of F1's travelling circus. I hadn't missed a race since Japan 2000, but in 2012 I stepped down as a freelance to take a full-time job that kept me closer to home while my wife recovered from a serious illness (which, happily, she has).

This is a fortuitous photo for several reasons. Firstly, I was shooting at 1/60, which is always a bit hit and miss with F1 cars. Secondly, I was focusing on Nico Hülkenberg's Force India, nearest the camera, and happened to click just as he passed Felipe Massa's Ferrari. Without the Ferrari it would be yet another shot of a racing car and a blurry kerb, but its presence adds a bit of confusion that I quite like. The only sharp thing in the photo is the one moving at speed. It almost looks as though the Force India has been pasted in, but absolutely no trickery was involved.

I took it with a K-5 and my trusty old Sigma 100-300mm f4 (which is presently out of commission, pending repairs). Note that I don't use the uzi 7.1 fps function when shooting motor sport - I usually forget it's there, probably because my Spotmatic didn't have a motordrive...

Thanks to all that have tuned in to my mini-series.

I now hand the reins to Gary Catterick (K10D) and look forward to his selection.

Thanks, folks, for the comments thus far.

The final episode will be posted very shortly, once I've made up my mind...

This is most odd. At 5.25am I thought I'd posted shot #4 - best to get it done before a quick trip to, erm, a racetrack - but I get back to find it's not here. Suspect I must have hit 'preview' rather than 'add', which equates to 'idiot'.

#4 - Not quite as much of an Arron cliché as motor racing, but..


My first contribution to PU featured a swan... and birdlife has been a fairly regular motif ever since. I've posted lots of robin shots, but don't think this one has appeared before. Like the sunflower, it's from WWT Barnes, albeit taken in December 2012 with K-5 and Sigma 150-500. If memory serves, the robin kept getting so close that a 10-20 might have been more useful. I liked the long Sigma, but recently traded it in to help cover the cost of a DA 300 f4, which I haven't regretted. The Sigma needed a new barrel grip at the time I part-exchanged, so SRS sent it away for repairs... and then due to a crossed wire kindly sent it back to me. I did call to point out that it was no longer mine, so I guess it's now in their shop window... or perhaps already being used by someone else to stalk robins.

There's now just one more to go from me: Gary Catterick (K10D) has kindly agreed to pick up the baton in my slipstream.

#3 - Swinging in the rain


As threatened... Given that much of my everyday output involves motorsport, I thought I'd include one shot apiece on two wheels and four. I wasn't quite sure where to start, given the breadth of choice, but with the British Superbike finale coming up (at Brands Hatch, October 17-19) i thought I'd pick something from last year's corresponding fixture. This was taken as a welcome shaft of sunlight cut through the persistent drizzle, with three bikes turning in to Surtees, the left-hander leading on to the grand prix loop. If I'm panning, I tend to fluctuate between 1/60 and 1/320, depending on circumstance (default starting point is 1/125), but if I'm shooting head-on, or tail-on, I'm happy to let the camera make up its own mind via aperture priority - especially when there's some spray to accentuate the sense of motion. Hence this was taken with K-5 IIs and Sigma 100-300 f4... at 1/2000.

I write far, far more about cars than I do about bikes, but there's something about the latter - more angles, more drama, more physicality, an obvious human element - that makes them particularly engaging to photograph. Thus, after a rare weekend away from racing circuits, I might well attend the classic bike meeting at Snetterton this Saturday, then the British Touring Car Championship finale at Brands Hatch on Sunday...