I like all of them, David - sepia or mono. Have just added Roche Abbey to my bucket list...

Another weekend, another race meeting. Back on two wheels, this time, and a 400-mile round trip to get mildly wet while waiting for light that was never switched on. Enjoyed every second, though...

Mostly taken with K-5 IIs and Sigma 100-300mm f4, but K-5 and Sigma 50-150 f2.8 were responsible for #8.


1 - Focus


2 - Swing low, sweet chariots


3 - Let us spray


4 - Drag race


5 - ...but possibly not the best riding event


6 - Swinging in the rain


7 - Country pursuits


8 - "Think I'll save the front tyre for next week"

1 - Not the best of shots, but a flashback to 1979-80, when Pentax sponsored Mazda RX-7s in the British Saloon Car Championship


2 - Poetry in motion


3 - Awkward silence


4 - 0-60 eventually


5 - French connection


6 - One man went to mow


7 - Porsche spice


8 - Chevy chase

A rare outbreak of internal combustion engine-free photography...


1 - Happy basilisk: K-5, Sigma 105mm f2.8


2 - Exile on mane street: K-5 IIs, Sigma 100-300mm f4


3 - "How the bloody hell does this work?": K-5, Sigma 100-300mm f4


4 - Cliché: K-5, Sigma 100-300mm f4


5 - Luis Suarez: K-5 IIs, Sigma 100-300mm f4


6 - Tasty: K-5, Sigma 100-300mm f4


7 - Stare case: K-5 IIs, Sigma 100-300mm f4


8 - Bear necessities: K-5 IIs, Sigma 100-300mm f4

Ta for all the kind words. Here is #6 again, minus a few splodges...

The rain and hail somehow missed the circuit until the weekend's final race, Alan. I headed towards the southbound M1 at that point, with kit still wholly dry...

Not sure. Lenny. They could be small cloud patches, but it might be a quirky by-product of firing into the light. I quite liked the overall effect, so just left it as was...

1 - "Doesn't matter, the bloody thing wasn't all that aerodynamic beforehand..."


2 - battle of the late brakers


3 - hailstorm approaching... and my rain cover is 150 miles away


4 - that's not rain, but the consequence of a smashed radiator


5 - paragons of timeless elegance


6 - into the sun


7 - wrong


8 - time travel, suspension travel

I love the first photo, Mike. I was at Donington yesterday and suspect I don't have any Firenza shots of even remotely parallel quality.

There's some good advice above about deactivating in-body shake reduction - and panning is a hit-and-miss technique (mostly miss, in my case, but the hits sometimes make it worthwhile) that requires practice and patience.

As for the lens, I would counsel using manual focus with a Tamron 70-300 - they are great value for money, but not nearly quick enough to track moving racing cars. I no longer have one, but found it worked much better if I pre-focused on the racing line with AF disabled. Below is a 1/100 shot taken with K-5 and Tamron 70-300 at the 2011 Italian GP. Almost every AF shot I took had to be deleted, but switching to MF brought a significant improvement.

Not that cold, Don. It was a bit brassy early on - despite the bloke in #3 wearing shorts - but by mid-morning it was borderline tropical (well, 17 degrees) for this time of the year in England. Oh, and Sheene junior was out again on his Kawasaki 600 (#71 below), running in the lower reaches of the top 10.