Some Silverstone WEC photos

[JonChalk]

Some of my favourites, plus Flickr link with a few more (most are too big to upload here):

Note, they look a bit soft in the forum, but OK when clicked to original size

https://flic.kr/s/aHskUTTH7R

[Derek Smith]

I'd appreciate some pictures.

The first 90 mins/2 hrs was exciting and then the build up to the finish. A great last hour.

Some great David Lord images on Daily Sorts Car http://www.dailysportscar.com/2017/04/16/silversto...

Good to see Todt there supporting WEC. The competition with F1 not seeming to be a barrier to the new president.

[Derek Smith]

JonChalk said:

Some of my favourites, plus Flickr link with a few more (most are too big to upload here):

Note, they look a bit soft in the forum, but OK when clicked to original size

Thanks for posting. The link is well worth clicking on. Some cracking images.

[eps]

Here are a few of my photos from the weekend...

https://flic.kr/s/aHskXWEzLY

DSC_0500 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0492 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0503 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0480 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0428 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0345 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0272 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0092 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0822 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0762 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0729 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0615 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0570 by ginettag20, on Flickr

DSC_0525 by ginettag20, on Flickr

[Derek Smith]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Don't be. David Lord has been at the top of his game for years. I had a whole series of his as wallpaper when I was editor of Sprint and they always got me in the right frame of mind.

Don't think the pros find it easy though. I was in the press room at Le Mans in '04 and post race the pros were in there going through their images, deleting dozens and dozens and just keeping the good ones.

They were all remarkably scruffy. Sorry to say that guys, but you must know it is true.

I dropped a memory card on the grid in the November LMES inaugural meet on the Bugatti circuit in 2003. It was freezing. A pit girl bent down and picked it up, handing it to me with a lovely smile. I told her I was trying to act like a professional photographer and she said, 'Then you should have touched my 'bum' when I bent down.'

So that's the trick to being a professional photographer.

That and the fact that they get to stand in some cracking locations on the circuit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71SlU6THi4A

[JonChalk]

Derek Smith said:

Thanks for posting. The link is well worth clicking on. Some cracking images.

Thank you Derek.

[ex1]

Derek Smith said:

Good to see Todt there supporting WEC. The competition with F1 not seeming to be a barrier to the new president.

Judging by the empty grandstands its not much competition for F1.

Such a shame they cant make the racing more entertaining as the cars look great.

[JonChalk]

The stupid temporary Toyota Hybrid hoardings were really badly placed for spectators - my favourite spot for pictures at Vale was destroyed.

Can't see them doing that for F1 - there would be a riot.

[JonChalk]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Don't worry about the lens, I used to love my 70-200 when I shot Canon as it was so light, fast and quick to focus.

All mine were shot on Sony 70-300 at nowhere near full zoom.

Don't think that anyone on the outside of the fence with a 600mm lens was doing a lot better - I've rented one or two & unless you're a pro, they're a bh to use. Not going to bother again.

Practice (& I'm not smug enough to not think I still need loads and loads) - technique trumps kit in my experience.

[ex1]

ex1 said:

Judging by the empty grandstands its not much competition for F1.

Such a shame they cant make the racing more entertaining as the cars look great.

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

It appears you are in the minority. I followed GT and LMP for many years but these days prefer to watch the highlights on TV if at all. I want to feel like the drivers are pushing themselves and cars to the limits rather than just driving round in a procession.

When you have 10x more people paying to see a Toyota Avensis race a Honda Civic it should be obvious something needs to change. The cars are incredible the racing not so much.

[onemorelap]

ex1 said:

ex1 said:

Judging by the empty grandstands its not much competition for F1.

Such a shame they cant make the racing more entertaining as the cars look great.

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

It appears you are in the minority. I followed GT and LMP for many years but these days prefer to watch the highlights on TV if at all. I want to feel like the drivers are pushing themselves and cars to the limits rather than just driving round in a procession.

When you have 10x more people paying to see a Toyota Avensis race a Honda Civic it should be obvious something needs to change. The cars are incredible the racing not so much.

I was at Silverstone yesterday in lieu of the BTCC at Donington.
Two reasons.
Have done Donington the last two years and the WEC worked out at £45 instead of £70 for the BTCC for me and my 14 y/o son.

So glad i did it as the WEC countered al lot of the reasons i have become jaded with motorsport, mainly due to the 100%, 100% of the time thing that has obsessed many areas of the sport for to many seasons. The crowd was sizeable, knowledgable and had a clear understanding of what was going across the categories. Despite the length of the race there was always some drama going on somewhere across the circuit in one or more of the classes. The last hour was spell binding as the various "plays" played out across the categories.
The cars themselves were dramatic for different reasons across the classes. Have to admit I was blown away by the performance of the P1 cars.

It's been a long time since i have stayed to the end of a meeting and judging by the attention that the race held for my son i would say that something is being done right in WEC land.
If a race can hold the attention of a teenager for a prolonged period of time (he even commented that it was the best race he had been to........) then maybe its time for the sport to listen to its audience, particularly where the history of the category is related more to endurance than balls out pace (are you listening WRC??)

[eps]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Thanks, I'm just a keen amateur like yourself!

As others have said "take lots of shots". One thing I've found fairly recently is 'back button focussing' - it takes a little getting used to but has changed the way I take photos. I have started to take continuous shots as well - whereas before I was just taking a single shot. So I will bin around 60-75% of photos straight away as they aren't properly focussed - when taking panning shots at least anyway. I probably took almost 1000 photos - which was a lot less than I counted on tbh. I went for 3 1/2 days to the WEC as well and used ELMS, F3 and V8s as testing ground for the WEC shots.

I usually set one of the 'two' settings, Shutter Speed or Aperture and then let the camera work out the other one.. ISO wise I try and keep this as low as possible, 100 up to around 400 if the light is starting to go, but you can of course push this further and with Digital cameras the quality isn't as massively affected. It really depends on what you are trying to achieve. Alternatively come up with a 'photo brief' for yourself and try and achieve it. I like being able to see all the EXIF data of others that take motorsport photos - it gives me something to try out as well.

I need to be a little more adventurous - a lot of my photos end up being similar and I'm a bit lazy in terms of shooting in bad light.

I've tried to give myself enough kit - I recently picked up a new lens and camera body (well new to me). Trying to keep the cost reasonable but also to give me enough extra power in terms of speed and lens quality.

In terms of software I tried Photo Mechanic - which I ended up buying and Lightroom as well, to see if these made a difference. Photo Mechanic allows you to quickly scan through photos and tag or mark them for selection. Lightroom - well there are books and Youtube Tutorials on what that can do. Although I haven't done any cropping or Lightroom on the photos I've posted from the weekend. I may well apply some balancing of the light and so on, for a single shot of each car. I tend to use a photo of each car in a Le Mans App I produce - Android only.

Edited by eps on Tuesday 18th April 11:12

[boxedin]

re: advertising hoardings :-(

I do wish UK tracks would do the same as Spa where they have cut-outs in the fencing for taking pictures.
Though I suspect this being the UK, the same level of 'sharing' wouldn't be applied.

[Flat6]

Some great pics posted!

After seeing WEC last year I couldn't wait for this years event but family duties of Easter weekend and British GT at Oulton meant I sadly couldn't make it. I suspect there are others like myself who might have bumped the numbers up at Silverstone had the calendar not been so packed this weekend (with BTCC too).

I did stream the whole 6 hours though (much to the other half's annoyance) so all was not lost

[greeny12]

Yeah, I must admit I thought the scheduling was a bit weird this year. I had to beg a pass to get away on Easter Sunday, which is a big family occasion in many households including ours.

I can only think that by having it next weekend (which would have avoided the clash with BTCC and British GT) it would have put the Silverstone event too close to Spa?

Still got more than 50K there over the weekend, which I believe is up on previous years...

[eps]

There were definitely more people there this weekend than the previous 2 or 3 years.

[chasingracecars]

2015 = 45,000 Spectators
2016 = 52,000 Spectators

2017 = 50,200 Spectators

So down on last year, Probably because of no Webber and no Dempsey.

[Grassbox]

Newbie here ,but long term (we're talking 917 era!) sportscar fan. The best of my very amateur attempts:

[Grassbox]

...and another

[JonChalk]

chasingracecars said:

2015 = 45,000 Spectators
2016 = 52,000 Spectators

2017 = 50,200 Spectators

So down on last year, Probably because of no Webber and no Dempsey.

...and no Audi