On your mark, gentlemen

Start your engines. Burn some rubber. It has, or rather, will begin in a couple of weeks.

The Singapore F1 Grand Prix is a major upcoming event for my country, and even though I’m not much of a open-wheel racing fan (even after my exposure to GRID), the moment I heard about the event, I started hatching grand plans to capture some shots of monster machines streaking down my city’s streets at speeds unheard of by our locals.

That pass - the one pictured right to the left - was procured at great cost, after hearing about a special offer that our local phone service provider Singtel had to proclaim. With a little financial assistance from my mom, I managed to snatch one of these one-day passes that would allow me a grand 24 hours of track access, more than enough to set the wheels of fortune in motion.

I like this shot somehow. Maybe it's the aqua.

I was immensely pleased, as you can imagine. That is, until my sister informed me that she had a spare 3-day access pass that she could perhaps bestow upon my now red-faced self. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the current one-day pass, but I’m pretty sure that my brilliant mind will come up with something devious enough even for me.

Eventually. Until then, in any case, I have far more pressing matters to attend to if my grande planne is to take effect. For instance, actually fucking getting the photographic technique of panning down right.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks devising various strategies for taking on various scenarios of what I might face during the actual event, which, as I understand, is to be a first for a GP: it’s being held at night. Notwithstanding the various difficulties that come with shooting under low-light conditions, the fact that these behemoths speed past my lenses at speeds well exceeding 200 km/h necessitate absolute precision when taking a shot of them, something that will require a lot of practice before I get any good at it.

An Audi A4 this time, one of my favourites.

Just like homework. God, one of these days I swear I’m going to talk about how much I reminiscence about the old days when I’d be thinking of ways to skip pointless lessons and didn’t have to rely on a fucking spellcheck every time I typed a sentence on the intarwebs.

I have to admit, when I first picked up my Nikon D50, I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be using it to shoot portraits of fags and action-esque shots of cars going vrrooooom. I distinctly remember convincing myself that I was all about shooting architectural stuff and other photos to be used for 3D texture work. Now I spend more time with Lightroom than I do Photoshop, and even less with XSI or 3ds max.

How the mighty fall, indeed.

Anyway, as far as panning goes, I’ve managed to practise not just with cars, but with water-skiers, floating balloons, cyclists and even joggers, which I’ve done with my customary variety of lenses and formats. As such, I’m fairly comfortable with the technique at the moment, and I’m currently trying to combine it with other techniques that I’ve worked with, such as the zoom burst, in order to produce the ultimate image that I know will bring me unprecedented fame and fortune.

So far, it eludes me. But I know it will come!

It looks like it's reversing, doesn't it?

Since I’m an incredibly shallow and lazy procrastinator, I’ve been making use of my recent outings to try and get some shots of cars passing by, whether by chance or by my ingenious design; the only way to guarantee my getting some practice in without resorting to calender reminders.

A Subaru Impreza 4WD streaking past near Clifford Pier.

Right now, I have a couple problems with trying to capture an entire car in focus without resorting to using a goddamn dolly to follow the vehicle.

People tell me that I’m using a shutter speed that’s way too slow, even though I like the exaggerated effect such a decision generates. I’ll have to find a way around this eventually.

What worries me more is that at night, the vehicles passing by will be doing so at incredible speeds - speeds which I would normally be having trouble with in the day. While I do have a flashgun at my disposal, I’d prefer not to have to use it, especially since we’re talking about race cars that could, at any second, spin out and turn the surrounding area into a sorry state.

This, if you didn’t realize, sometimes includes spectators, particularly nosy photographers.

I suppose there will be street lighting, but I suspect (from what I’ve seen) that this will be inadequate at best and highly dangerous to both drivers and personnel alike at worst. I’ll probably be bringing my monopod along or, more likely, fashioning a string tripod of sorts in case the situation calls for it.

We’ll see. At least now I have 3 days to screw up instead of one.