| Its been five years, but the Principal's still
going strong: |
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The sun at Shakey is a
complete nightmare in the mornings as it is right in my face and
the track gets reduced to a sea of glare. Pretending that I knew
what I was doing I decided to take a meter reading off the back
of the armco. Now either I was so pleased with myself that I took
a picture to prove I had got the exposure right, or I got carried
away and more than half depressed the shutter release button....
By the way for everyone that has been impressed with me scaling
the armco at Shakey with all the grace of a young gazelle rather
than the to be expected grace of a drunken 3 legged hippo, there's
the answer, I've got some steps! |
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| Sharkman one side of the
track, John Everitt and the wheelstanding Celica on the other. Solution?
go down track and shoot across. Lights come down, John launches,
wait for him to clear the tree, hit shutter release just as a Huxley
thunders into the viewfinder. D'oh! |
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| The principal takes a
favourite from 2001 and brings it up to date for 2003. Not content
with just recreating the same shot though he adds a twist by panning
from left to right with the grandstand in the background and still
manages to capture the ever vigilant firecrew obscuring the front
of the car! |
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| Once again the principal
was lucky enough to go over to Mantorp for the big FIA race there
and having had a year to familiarise himself with the track, the
crew and the racers, this year he set about producing some "International"
shots. This stunning composition is titled "Overexposed back of
armco featuring knee and fire extinguisher presented at a pleasing
jaunty angle." Either that or its titled "Sod it I hit the shutter
release accidentally." |
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| From the Mantorp collection
area we have "Trailer wheels through a blurred fence" or "I really
should turn the camera off when I am going for a walk", you decide
which the real title is.... |
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| Don't ask because I have
no idea. Sometimes you realise you have taken a School of Excellence
shot, sometimes you sit down at the PC to sort the pictures out
and there are pics in there which you had no idea you had taken....
I know there is a slope on the track at Mantorp, but its nowhere
near as bad as this. Naturally we also have some heavy blurring
thrown in there to aid the composition. |
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| Funny Cars, Dragsters,
left lane, right lane, even different firecrew makes no difference...
The principal proves he has this style of shot absolutely locked
down as he recreates the Leif Andreasson shot again this time with
a dragster and a different marshal. |
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| Memo to self, when you
have got bored and decided to try some artistic stuff with slow
shutter speeds, MAKE SURE YOU RESET EVERYTHING BEFORE RESUMING NORMAL
SHOOTING! If not then Sarah Day launching becomes an over exposed
brown and orange blob.... Bonus points for lopping off Nigel's head
and shoulders there as well. |
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| One of the most basic
shots for a School of Excellence photographer is the "cutoff" shot.
Every so often the principal likes to revisit the basics as you
need to be able to perform them before you can capture the really
stunning stuff. Naturally the principal had to just go that little
further by adding blur to his shot as well.... |
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| Obviously inspired by
the Mantorp track shot here is another doozy, this time from the
Pod. Determined to prove his versatility though, this time the principle
has gone for a slope in the other direction. Is there no end (no
beginning?) to this mans talent? |
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| Inspired by my good buddy
and several time school graduate Tog's pitside shots from last season
I added a little Nikon compact to my armoury for this season. Playing
with it at home everything seemed cool, but when I went to use it
at the track things didn't work quite as well. Here we have what
was supposed to be a portrait of Trevor Capewell strapped into the
Southern Rebel altered, waiting while the track crew cleaned up.
Of course what we actually got was a picture of the collection area
beside the car.... |
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| Honestly its not related
at all to the previous shot! Another from the Nikon, seemingly taken
whilst chatting to a couple of racers during a different clean up.
Looks like I can forget to turn the Nikon off as easily as I forget
to turn off the Canons... |
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| Now as I said earlier
the "Cutoff" is a simple technique which all school graduates must
master, its the School of Excellence equivalent of learning to walk
really. However, there is a far more difficult version of the cut
off which only the most skilled photographers can pull off, that
being the "double cut". You will see no finer example of the "double
cut" than this one. Not only have both cars been cutoff, but the
line each car has been cutoff down matches! If you were to cut out
front of Will Furniss's car and the back of Martin Curbishleys's
roadster you could put the two together to make a complete car.
Extra bonus points for doing it with two cars that are linked by
driver (Martin drove both in the course of 2003). Stunning, a success
on so many levels.... |
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| Woohoo! Look at this!
We've got a bit of everything going on here! Bad exposure, camera
shake, completely the wrong focal length on the lens, everything!
Just goes to prove that grab shots can be just as successful in
the School as carefully composed and thought out shots, particularly
when in your haste you grab the camera with the telephoto lens on
it rather than the wide angle.... |
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| Another priceless entry
that I didn't even realise I had taken until I got home. On my way
up to the Japanese performance day at Pod I got caught in a queue
that stretched all the way down Airfield road (at 9.15 in the morning!)
as my brief for the day was to just shoot a load of images to capture
every aspect of the day I thought I would make a start with the
long winding line of Jap cars in the early morning sun. Shots duly
taken I didn't bother breaking the gear down again and just put
the camera down on top of the open camera bag. Obviously somewhere
in the stop start crawl up to the gate the camera slid about in
the bag and viola! a pic of the inside of the camera bag. How cool
is that? I can take School of Excellence pictures without even holding
the camera! |
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| As anyone that has followed
my work over the season will know over the course of the season
I have introduced a new style of shot the ultra low / ultra wide
angle pic. However, not all the early attempts at this style of
shot were successful. Take this one for example. I got everything
set up right, checked the composition in the viewfinder then carefully
lowered the camera onto the ground, tilted it to get the required
angle and then just as Sue hit the throttle for the burnout I realised
I was looking straight at the exhaust outlet, and between me and
the exhaust was nothing, except the water in the burnout box....
Sue hit the throttle, the small block chevy screamed into life,
the exhaust belched out smoke and gas which of course promptly blew
the water from the burnout box all over me! Like a true pro though
I made sure I got the shot before bailing out of there.... |
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| This is just one of those
rare, magical shots that I can offer no ideas or explanation for
what so ever. All I can tell you is that I took it at the Summer
Nationals at Santa Pod. Other than that I have no clue at all and
sometimes thats the best way! |
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| Now here's an interesting
one for you. What happens when your camera decides to start saving
each picture in the same space on the memory card? What we actually
have here is an entire session of Pro Mod qualifying carefully compressed
down into 1 image courtesy of my "trusty" Canon! See what I mean,
I don't even have to be aware of what's going on to produce School
classics! |
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One of our better Graduates is back again,
the lovely Hannski
from the FHRA site. |
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| After a year out from the
School in 2002, Hannski is back again with another couple of fine
efforts. First off is a variation of the difficult "double cut"
shot, Hannski choosing to cut both cars off the same side of the
frame. Bonus points here for getting one car hidden behind not just
the other car, but the tree as well, plus extra bonus points for
including that metal thing at the centre bottom of the pic! |
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| One of Hannski's most successful
shots back in 2001 was the champagne / podium shot and she has managed
to take the same principles from that shot and apply them to a whole
different situation! This time the subject is the crew of a TMD
making final checks to the car before going into stage and the fluid
spray this time is a marshal wetting down the burnout box ready
for the next pair. God Job Hannski! |
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A first tentative application from Jon
Crawford,
SPRC's
press officer. |
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| Jon sent in several pics
which were similar, all variations on the cutoff shot, caused by
the shutter lag (time between pressing the shutter release and the
shutter opening) on digital compact cameras. I have picked out my
fav pic from the group to include in the School. It features what
I think is Tommy Moller burning out but the shutter lag has reduced
it to just the rear end of the dragster. Bonus points here for the
camera shake and a nasty case of bad exposure. |
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Another first time applicant is Kirstie
Tramm |
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| Kirstie has sent in this
shot of what looks like Joe Pisano's funny car in action out in
the USA. Its one of those shots where with a little less shake it
would pass off as an "arty" shot but as it stands, its one for the
school. Bonus points for bad scanning and one other thing that must
count in her favour is that given how long its been since the Joe
Pisano car was campaigned, Kirstie can only have been about 10 when
she took this shot..... |
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My good buddy Christer Abrahamson is
back again
with help from the crew of Svensk
Dragracing |
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| Christer is one of those
people that doesn't get the recognition he deserves for all the
work he does. At both Mantorp and Gardermoen he is the track announcer
and at Gardermoen he was virtually single-handedly trying to update
Svensk with qualifying and eliminations information as well. To
take some of the load off he asked various members of the Svensk
crew to use his digital camera to take some pics to go on the site.
When he got the camera back Christer says " When I looked through
the memory card from Gardermoen I had a really good laugh. Someone,
I really don't know who (It might well have been more than one)
had not really listened to what I had been telling them and just
let the release finger go wild!" Christer has sorted out a few of
his favourites and sent them in, along with some captions which
I like so much I am keeping, so, take it away Svensk.... |
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| Guardrails are especially
interesting, Gardermoens is no exception! |
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| The blue colour is unique
for the Gardermoen strip, so of course a picture of that is reasonable.
A shame that purple thing came in the frame just as the picture
was taken! |
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| "Cut off" cars
can actually be a bit striking, IF the car is moving, or does a
burn out, or at least does something! |
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| Wonderful composition!
The car on its way into the picture doing its burnout in front of
the crowded grandstand and a marshal and the camera strap spoiling
the view! |
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| They have to make wider
cameras for dragster photography! Just to be sure to get most of
the car in the picture the photographer decided to click it before
the irritating burnout started! |
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| The object has just run
4,76 and might have been a little excited , but I think it looks
like the trailer and dragster also is a bit blurry! Perhaps it was
the photographer that was a bit excited... |
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