F1 Silverstone

Philpalmer

Philpalmer

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Evening all. Who's making a trip to Silverstone this weekend? I'm heading in just for the Friday. Going to be a scorcher!

Do we have any recommendations of good vantage points around the track?

Taking my newly purchased 300mm f4.
 
Philpalmer said:
Evening all. Who's making a trip to Silverstone this weekend? I'm heading in just for the Friday. Going to be a scorcher!

Do we have any recommendations of good vantage points around the track?

Taking my newly purchased 300mm f4.
Click to expand...

I'm going, but will be prioritising beer etc over photography. I'm aiming to get at no more than a handful of photos. After a bit of thinking will take the 550D and 55-250 over the 5D and 100-300 f4 and go for slow shutter speed panning shots. Not too worried about locations - we're there for the whole thing so will find a nice spot at some point, get the photos then put the camera away and find more beer.
 
I went to the Friday, in the rain in 2012 and 2013. Most of the grandstands are usually open for roaming all day so plenty of chance to get good shots. During the F1 sessions expect them to be full, but quickly empty during the support race sessions.

If you can get into it - the far right hand end of International opposite the pits and with a nice view of the run down from Hangar to Club gives an interesting selection of images and you can watch the cars being prepped in the pits too. Anywhere around Woodcote is always good, but the best spot is at Copse at the end of the National straight, can get right up to the fence and get excellent head-on shots.



I have some 800 odd shots at Silverstone in my gallery, all from public areas - https://www.flickr.com/photos/r-t-c/tags/silverstone - let me know if you need locations for any of them.
 
There may well be less access at the F1 event than at WEC. So whereas at WEC I was able to walk to the outside of the new loop where there are a couple of photograper cutouts in the fence, I suspect those areas are off limits to the general public for F1. I'll test the water 1st thing on Friday morning and see where I can walk to without getting stopped :p

My personal choices for spots are Silverstone, in no particular order, are:

1) Luffield, the terrace on the outside is high enough to shoot over the fence as they do the run between Brooklands and Luffield.
2) Through the fence at the braking zone for Brooklands, getting as close to the fence as possible and panning.
3) In between Vale & Club, again right up against the fence to focus past it and have the Wing in the background.
4) The end of the Becketts complex there is a photographer hole in the fence, very low down. You have to sit on the grass to take the photo through it.
5) Copse corner, as Tim has posted above
6) The inside of Copse corner, access through the Copse tunnel if it's open for F1.
 
As David says... you will see more restrictions than at other events, the infield will be off limits south of the Silverstone Six grandstand for definite. I'm not sure but there may well be restrictions on the entire infield, they did grant fans tickets at a cost last year to enable access to the national pits but I'm not sure what they have in mind this year.

Shooting ops are varied on the outfield, but you do have to work a little harder for them in some cases.

The following shots should be available to you...

1. Brooklands into Luffield (through fence)
Lewis Hamilton by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

2. Luffield from terrace (over fence)
Gianmaria BRUNI, Toni VILANDER by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

3. Exit of Luffield (through fence)
Matt Neal by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

4. Woodcote grandstand (and others on national straight - over fence)
Oliver Turvey by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

5. Copse through fence (or pack shot over fence from grand stand)
(See Tim's image)

6.Becketts (through photo hole on bank)
Timo BERNHARD, Mark WEBBER, Brendon HARTLEY - Porsche 919 Hybrid by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

7. Vale/club (through fence or over low fence or from temporary) open grandstand

Charles Pic by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

8. Exit of Club (through fence)
Pedro de la Rosa by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

There are also options from the international straight stands with the wing in the background and through the fence along the outside of the Wellington straight (behind Village stands). It will be busy... Friday is your best opportunity to get as close as possible and use the roving stand access... avoid spending to much time up in them though as you get quite a dull perspective. Move around a lot, get in position for F1 practice sessions for the support race/session before) Experiment too... or you'll end up with what I have and everything looking the same :D
 
Fantastic bunch of shots I'm seeing here. I do hope I can get something near as good! Thank you all for your feed back. I will mark all these points down on a little map ready for when I'm in.
 
Thanks for the advice and photos. 550D broke today (no idea how it died - no LCD screen and won't take photos, but still have the in-viewfinder info) so looks like it'll be the 5D (mark I) and 100-300 f4.... not the sharpest combo. I guess I'll whack on some teleconverters to get the reach back and it'll look okay when I've down-rezzed them for the interwebs :)

Where's the best place for slow panning shots at 300mm or less?
 
Mark_T said:
Thanks for the advice and photos. 550D broke today (no idea how it died - no LCD screen and won't take photos, but still have the in-viewfinder info) so looks like it'll be the 5D (mark I) and 100-300 f4.... not the sharpest combo. I guess I'll whack on some teleconverters to get the reach back and it'll look okay when I've down-rezzed them for the interwebs :)

Where's the best place for slow panning shots at 300mm or less?
Click to expand...

You'll probably find grandstands at woodcote, international straight are well suited... also through fence between Brooklands and Luffield, Wellington straight, exit of club .... they will put advertising hordings up along the barriers that may restrict some viewing spots though. To be totally honest though you can pretty much pan anywhere...

1. Through the international grandstand (standing by the bins and burger vans) with 70-200 @ 170
The Spirit of Le Mans by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

2. from in the international grandstand with 70-200 @ 70
Adrian Sutil by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

3. from farm grandstand with 400 @ 400
Massa by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

4. from woodcote grandstand with 70-200 @135
Susie Wolff by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

5. through fence at brooklands 70-200 @ 115
Laurence WILTSHIRE / Chahin NOURI / Martyn SMITH / Richard ROBERTS by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

6. through fence between Brooklands and Luffield 100-300 @ 276
2 by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

7. from club grandstand 17-40 @ 40
Nico Rosberg by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

8. through fence at luffield - before terrace begins 70-200 @ 200
Davide RIGON, James CALADO by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr
 
Some of the sharpest and brilliantly composed Motorsport shots I have seen in a long while. Great work Sir.

Best wishes to everyone going this weekend.
 
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