Race Tracks are pretty bland places. Tarmac, occasional greenery and now and again, a little advertising colour.
I’m betting when most folks think of racetracks, they think of the F1 splendor – Neat, tidy, vibrant colour, full grandstands, famous faces and immaculate presentation.
Us motorsport fans know different. They can be hostile, scrappy expanses. Cold, miserable and occasionally, bloody boring.
That is until external factors influence their outlook. Factors that are a lot grander than F1 will ever be.
Yes, I’m talking about mother nature.
Mother nature is a photographers best friend at the racetrack, as well as being your worse enemy. We’ve all been there too.
Sunny days are great; cloudy, windy, dull ones, not so much.
Wet weather may be uncomfortable in the wrong clothes, but dress yourself appropriately and awesome images can be captured. In fact, all the extremes the weather can throw at you give you far more potential material to get stuck into, rather than that bog-standard, overcast, run-of-the-mill weekend.
None more so than a classic Autumn sunset. You know, that golden, almost rusty, Autumnal sunset.
Those afternoons are bangers; especially if the racing continues long enough for the light to fade and those hues of gold get deeper and deeper.
Lucky for me, both evening sessions for the Britcar ‘Into the Night Race’ were blessed with such hues.
It certainly made up for all the grey days I’ve suffered this season, and there have been a few!
When you get such wonderful light to shoot in, you have to work hard. It moves, and doesn’t linger for long, changing constantly as time passes. Even then, only certain parts of the circuit actually benefit from the beautiful tones and colours.
Those areas that you do get to are caressed with wonderful warmth; fences become glittering light shows, tarmac shimmers and marshals become statues of colour. All the usual features suffer too; armco, grandstands and spectators accentuated into life by the ethereal orange glow.
We’ve all seen spectacular sunsets; they make everything look spectacular.
And then of course there’s the sky. Spectral across the sky, from deep orange to darkest blue – if you’re in the right place at the right time, you are bagging plaudits without even trying. Just let that trigger do the talking.
It’s a gimme, presented as plain as the nose on your face.
Of course, I scurried about with a fat grin plastered across my face, the cars turned on the headlights and compositions presented themselves from just about every angle.
If only I had more of me for all those varying approaches.
It’s when opportunities like this present themselves, I remember why I started to pursue this motorsport photography tomfoolery. I find it inspiring.
They might not come around often, but they are more than worth all the trial and tribulation when they do.
I hope you enjoy this short but sweet gallery of images from the Britcar.
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