F1 at Silverstone

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Paul
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Looks like I've been gifted a 3 day pass for the F1 at Silverstone this year.

Has anyone been on previous years and how did you find taking pictures?
I've already been told they are happy for you to take good kit in with you so I'll be taking my R5 with RF lenses, definitely the 100-500 and 70-200, also tempted to take the 50mm 1.2 and 15-35mm 2.8. I'll take the R6 as backup body if I have room :)

I'm just wondering where the best places are to get some decent pics, for free practice, qualifying and then the race,
 
Hi,
What a wonderful gift.
I have not been to Silverstone for F1 but I have been numerous times for MotoGP which I think is mostly the same track, excepting Pits. Having tried many locations I prefer Luffield Corner in the stand if possible. My advice is get in very early and pick you spot, anywhere near the fence gets very crowded quickly on sat/sun. Friday should be a bit less busy and is a good day to take advantage of the bus to travel around the track. The Hamilton straight is good for high speed and you see them coming around club upto abbey and the farm curve. I suggest the 70-200 as a main lens but keep the 50 handy for those celebs that wonder around. Have a great time - Jealous I am !
 
Silverstone is fence central but with a 100-500 that needn't be a problem, plenty of places you can shoot through the fence. Long focal lengths and wide apertures are your friend here, get as close to the fence as you can and you should be able to shoot through it and make it disappear. Luffield is ok but the lower you can get the better. Exit of the Beckett's complex as they come onto the Hangar Straight is a good spot and there is a photo hole in the fence there if you can get near it. Exit of Club corner is also a good spot where if you're willing to shoot through the fence you can get some good shots. The Loop is a great spot with loads of photo holes but unsure if that will be accessible on an F1 weekend.

Above all make sure you've got a decent pair of walking boots on, Silverstone is absolutely vast and suffers from a notable lack of bridges in the right places, so you can be in for an extremely long walk to get from one corner to another
 
Be aware of the horizontal support wires in the fences. Panning and wide apertures can reduce the visibility of the mesh fencing.
 
 
Bare in mind with Covid restrictions you will probably VERY limited to where you can go, compared to previous years.
 
When following the link in the thread it says 'this photo is private'
 
Johhny has a Flickr page


HTH

David
 
I've been to several race meetings of different types -- F1, MotoGP, BTC, plus other types -- and have taken the obligatory car pictures, the same car pictures that everyone else has taken and that can easily be accessed on Bing or Google images. I quickly realised that the more interesting pictures come from images of the people who go there and started to turn my back on the racing and watch the crowd instead. Here are two pictures that were taken at York races in circa 1977. The pictures are not high quality because they are dirty scans of negatives done a cheap paper scanner rather than polished prints.

film349.jpg


film355.jpg

Note the bored woman in the second picture.

Leave the car pictures to the experts with privileged shooting positions and look at the people instead.
 
Bare in mind with Covid restrictions you will probably VERY limited to where you can go, compared to previous years.
I've just come back for the BTCC for the first time since covid reasonably large crowds of spectators have been allowed. 4000 today if i heard right. Spectators & those working at the circuit were completely isolated but it was nice to see crowds there again, and to be allowed out of the pit garage...
 
I've been to several race meetings of different types -- F1, MotoGP, BTC, plus other types -- and have taken the obligatory car pictures, the same car pictures that everyone else has taken and that can easily be accessed on Bing or Google images. I quickly realised that the more interesting pictures come from images of the people who go there and started to turn my back on the racing and watch the crowd instead. Here are two pictures that were taken at York races in circa 1977. The pictures are not high quality because they are dirty scans of negatives done a cheap paper scanner rather than polished prints.

View attachment 321238


View attachment 321239

Note the bored woman in the second picture.

Leave the car pictures to the experts with privileged shooting positions and look at the people instead.
Sorry, I say this in the nicest way possible, as a massive F1 fan and a photography fan, I'm not going to spend 3 days at Silverstone and just take pictures of people, I can do that anywhere :ROFLMAO:
 
Got my wristband yesterday so all ready to go from Friday at 7am.

I've booked an AirBNB, Park 'n' Ride to the circuit for the weekend, inner track access on Friday which gives inner access to Copse, Beckketts and The Loop, and also booked fast track access which allows in me in to the circuit 30 minutes earlier, will be particularly useful on Sunday to claim my spot for the race :D

First time at Silverstone so I'm really excited, never really done any panning shots so hopefully I'll get some half decent images.
 
If you can get anywhere near the pit exit on Friday, you might be able to catch the cars/drivers as they do practise starts from the end of the pit lane (if that's allowed these days.)

IMO, cars (well, most things!) look better travelling from left to right - probably because that's the way we read.
 
I've been to Silverstone several times, wear decent shoes/boots... take sun cream (even if it's overcast you can get sunburnt, and it's on an old airfield so wind as well)

Food is expensive so I'd take a packed lunch and queues for kiosks will be long.

As for panning shots, I'd recommend practicing with road cars first, find a decent road somewhere and practice going as low a shutter speed as you can for maximum background blur and getting a good technique.
 
So it was a fantastic experience being at Silverstone for my first F1 race.
You were all not wrong about the fences though!!!

I didn't feel 100% when I was there, particularly on the Saturday and Sunday, so didn't take the the camera out of my bag much, I've since returned home and tested positive for covid, despite being there on my own, maintaining a distance from other people where possible and wearing a mask indoors and on the park & ride, I suppose it was always going to be a possibility at such a large event.

As I've started to come back to life though I've started going through my pictures and I've put a few of my favourites on my Flickr page.

Comments, good or bad, welcome. This was my first time doing motorsport photography and boy those cars move quick, trying to focus and pan with them is hard!!

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWeySFE
 
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