A spectators guide to shooting motorsport at Silverstone

Fireproof Creative

Fireproof Creative

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Jonny
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Hi all,

During my spare time this year I've been writing a guide to shooting motorsport at Silverstone as a spectator - I saw something years ago for Oulton Park written by Matt Sayle - so I've tried to put something similar together for Silverstone.

It's really aimed at new photographers and those that haven't been to Silverstone before, so some of it might be a bit basic for you lot but I'd welcome your thoughts either way

You can download it right here

Silverstone Photography Guide_Page_03 by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

Thanks folks, I appreciate any feedback as always
 
After reading this I am now planning to go up in a couple of weeks to photograph the Walter Hayes trophy races. I have a 600 f4 lens but looking at your guide it would appear that this will be a bit too long. Would a 300 2.8 + 1.4 converter on a FF camera be a better option?
 
Fordsabroad said:
After reading this I am now planning to go up in a couple of weeks to photograph the Walter Hayes trophy races. I have a 600 f4 lens but looking at your guide it would appear that this will be a bit too long. Would a 300 2.8 + 1.4 converter on a FF camera be a better option?
Click to expand...

I used my 600mm at the Williams 40th birthday event and it was perfect for me, I also used a 70-200.
 
Fordsabroad said:
After reading this I am now planning to go up in a couple of weeks to photograph the Walter Hayes trophy races. I have a 600 f4 lens but looking at your guide it would appear that this will be a bit too long. Would a 300 2.8 + 1.4 converter on a FF camera be a better option?
Click to expand...

As above... the 600 will be epic, I’m jealous! I’m at 560mm a lot of the time and having to crop in... I just mixed up the image choices so you can see what works where [emoji16]
 
Very good of you to go to the effort,only skim read it, so far, but it looks invaluable and beautifully presented.
Matt
 
Good read - can I add a good spot; on outside of Stowe on run down to Vale, there is a gap in the overlap between fences (or a hole) - it puts your eyeline level with the track surface.
A fair way away - this was shot at 300mm - but with something at 600mm, probably could do a lot better than I managed.

DSC03908.jpg

(Replaced image with thumbnail as looked OOF, for some reason)

..and (Flickr this time, as just can't seem to save pics in a sharp format for forum):

DSC04062 by Jon Chalk, on Flickr
 
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Excellent and very informative guide. Oulton Park always will be my favourite circuit, followed by Donington. Silverstone is always let down by the bone heads they employ as security at the WEC meetings. I did get by with an extremely crappy Sigma APO 70 to 300 for many years, but I am going down there this weekend for the Walter Hayes trophy with my newish (second hand) tamron 150-600 and 70-300 VC this weekend, so your guide was a good refresher!
 
PhotoBoris said:
Excellent and very informative guide. Oulton Park always will be my favourite circuit, followed by Donington. Silverstone is always let down by the bone heads they employ as security at the WEC meetings. I did get by with an extremely crappy Sigma APO 70 to 300 for many years, but I am going down there this weekend for the Walter Hayes trophy with my newish (second hand) tamron 150-600 and 70-300 VC this weekend, so your guide was a good refresher!
Click to expand...

Glad you found it helpful, sadly the jobsworths can be a pain - I got told off for being trackside whilst wearing a tabard last year by a rent a guard, I had to get him on the radio to the race control to get him to understand that media were in fact allowed to cover the race in front of the fence sighhhhhhhhh needless to say his face was a picture as he was told he was a moron [emoji23]
 
Thanks for this. I went to Silverstone for the first time for the WEC this year and also being my first time shooting motorsport, it was quite a steep learning curve in 1 day. Looking forward to reading this later.
 
Nice guide, i hope to get to silverstone soon but am in need of a longer lens first.
 
Inside circuit at Village. You can sometimes shoot over the emergency vehicle circuit entry gate, then theres a grass bank on farm that you can stand on and shoot the cars coming out the pits. The photoholes at loop and Aintree are only good if there are not cameras in them, sometimes they put one on a crane there. There are gaps where the fences join (but don't) which are just big enough to get a lens through but you're restricted on panning.
 
Really appreciate the amount of time and effort you have put in to producing this. Along with the photography inside.

Looking forward to getting back down to Silverstone next year and using the guide.
 
Another big thank you from me too, for taking the time to write and share this. Wish i could have read it before i went to moto gp last August. Particularly good to see an honest description of the bare minimum equipment required to capture motorsports shots there! Will read it carefully before visiting again... Thanks
 
Graphix501 said:
Hi all,

During my spare time this year I've been writing a guide to shooting motorsport at Silverstone as a spectator - I saw something years ago for Oulton Park written by Matt Sayle - so I've tried to put something similar together for Silverstone.

It's really aimed at new photographers and those that haven't been to Silverstone before, so some of it might be a bit basic for you lot but I'd welcome your thoughts either way

You can download it right here

Silverstone Photography Guide_Page_03 by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

Thanks folks, I appreciate any feedback as always
Click to expand...
Nice guide. I've followed many of your tips already before I found this thread as I've been to a few f1 races already.

Have you been to the French track yet? I'm going there this year
 
1623616299238.png
This one works for the guide
 
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