Worth A Thousand Words

This week, something a little different. A bit of self-indulgence, a chance to bring together two of my passions, motorsport and photography.





My first camera, a tenth birthday present, was a Miranda ME-Z. With a fixed 35mm lens, I was disappointed to find that cars would appear as tiny dots in the distance, but in those days, before Bernie brought in security with the express intention of keeping people like me out, it was at least possible to get up close to the machinery in the pitlane.


Sixteen years later, came the digital age. The Fuji S3000, with its 1/2.5in sensor, fixed 80ISO and 3MP sensor now seems very primitive, but in 2004, it reintroduced me to the joys of motorsport photography. Here are some pics from various club meets at Knockhill.







An upgrade to a so-called 'bridge camera', the Fuji s9000...



The Isle of Man TT provided some great photo-opportunities...







Another upgrade - this time to a Canon EOS400D SLR, with an 18-200mm lens that produced notably crisper images than either of the old Fujis.



Catching the moment...



I like the way it is possible to simulate the effects of black and white film with digital editing. Unlike my father or my art-college graduate brother, I've never had the patience for life in the dark room.





I'd heard horror stories about the difficulties of photographing modern F1 from the general admission area. But at Spa it turns out to be reasonably easy to get close to the action and away from the catch-fencing...







I even risked taking the camera out in the rain...





Capturing a sense of speed is a hit and miss affair...







And sometimes, racing cars turn up in the most unlikely places, like this Clan Crusader, which I stumbled upon while taking photographs in Newington Cemetery in the South of Edinburgh.




I'll be away out of the country for the next couple of weeks, for beer and bicycling in Bruges, Belgium. Back in May.