Grain, grain, grain...
These next two shots were taken in the late 1980's, pre-computer, pre-photoshop, and most of all... pre-OSH! (Occupational Safety and Health Service). Back in those days, I can (kindly) ask security if I could enter and wander around the middle of a race-track and take pictures.
"Yeah, sure mate... just stay inside the hay bales and wait in between races before you cross the track." LOL!
Ilford FP5 film was used (rated ASA 400 film), but chemically pushed to ASA 800 during negative developing.
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Canon AE-1 Program, Tamron 80-210 Zoom, 1/125 sec
I was about 4-5 meters away from the car, zoom set to about 90mm and twisting my body around my waist to 'pan' the shot. My goal was to get motion blur on the background and the wheels but not the car itself, hence the moderate shutter speed. I stood at the centre of a hair pin corner so after studying their racing lines and pre-focusing, the cars would scream past me always in focus. Nothing but knee-high hay bales between me and the cars... the engine noise was insane at that distance! There's just no way that anyone (including the press) would be allowed to be that close these days - and for good reason.
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Canon AE-1 Program, Tamron 80-210 Zoom plus x1.5 converter = 315mm, 1/1000 sec
Yes, it's as scary as it looks but hey - I was behind a hay bale, lol! Timing the shutter was the most difficult thing in this shot and not the manual focus. I knew where the VW off-road buggys reach the crest of their jumps, so I would pre-focus on a rock or some grass in between the earthen ramps and the wheel marks where they landed. In order to get a frontal jump shot, I had to be at the end of a long straight which leads to a right hand corner. Tripod set at the lowest position but I was ready to scoot away if something went amiss (yeah right!). The danger wasn't from the car I'm shooting, but from the ones that came before which are now drifting sideways not far from me. I was shooting with both eyes open!