Welsh BullDog Rally

[Darren Turner]

A Few Images From The "Big Ray Stage" Up In The Forest

I Am Totally New To Photographing Things That Move This Fast, I Am Reasonably Happy With My Results. When I Got There I Didn't Have A Clue Were To Go So I Just Followed Everyone Else..........lol

I Tried The Panning Idea To Get A Bit Of Blur To Back Ground & Wheels But Failed Miserably, I Think It Was Something To Do With My Chosen View Points, Panning Just Wasn't Really Viable.

I Enjoyed The Day Very Much & Cant Wait For My Next Event..........!!

Will Post Some More In Colour Ones In A Day Or 2 With A Link To The Rest Of My Images.

Darren

 

[Alastair Cummins]

Ideal mate, great first attempt! Nicely focussed and the B&W really suits the older Mk1 & 2 Escorts, especially the last one.

Were the cars coming at you fairly square on at similar angles to these pics, and were you using VR (or the Canon equivalent!) as myself and quite a few people ive spoken to struggle to pan with this switched on?

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Love #2 and #4 - great vintage feel that suits the cars

Looks like you found a sweet spot on the exit to a bend - means you get a nice angle on the car, but you may also be sprayed with gravel!

Getting low really helps - you can get light under the car which looks great

These look nice and sharp.

Panning is difficult - to give yourself the best chance you need to be in the middle of a straight, where the car will pass you by at a constant speed - not braking or accelerating hard. The sun should be over your shoulder.

Pan with the car as it approaches your position - then fire of a couple of frames as it passes you at 90 degrees - keep panning through the shot to keep it smooth. Use AI Servo AF with a single AF point selected, so the camera doesn't accidentally choose to focus on something else as you pan.

Gradually lower your shutter speed as you practice, and you'll get progressively more blurry background - use the camera display to check for timing/blur/sharpness.

Of course, it gets harder to keep the car sharp - it's all in the nice smooth panning action.

As you get more practiced, you can choose really slow shutter speeds for extra effect.

If you have IS (can't remember if you do) use IS panning mode 2 - this helps keep you tracking level.

 

[Darren Turner]

Thanks folks, i thought B&W as they were classic cars during first stage of the rally howevere i think i went a bit OTT of making them a little to dark.

The canon 7D “AI Servo AF” was awesome it just locked on a kept the focus spot on as they were flying past this impressed me alot.

I moved around a fair bit, 1 on a bad corner, then on a long straight but there was a steep banking on one side of road (were marshals wanted you to sit) & steep steep drop on other side with only a 2 ft verge to stand on so getting in a position where i could attempt pan was virtually impossible.

Walk miles in between the different class of car to try & find different or better positions, maybe if i knew the route / course there may have been better vantages points than what i found.

I did find one great position on a corner with a long straight approach but they wouldn’t let you stand on outside of the bad bend........ :-(

My 70-200 F2.8 IS that i was using does has 2 modes of “IS” setting “2” being for panning it doesn’t affect horizontal movement only vertical or something along them lines lol

I need to find my next rally to go to now........

Daz

 

[Paul Lange]

I like the photos of the older Escorts in BW but not sure if it suits the later cars. Did they not work out in colour?

 

[Darren Turner]

yes they were ok paul, will upload some soon