Worldwide photo wallk - Windsor

I was reading the blog of Scott Kelby and his announced world wide photo walk seemed to be a good idea so I choose to join the Windsor UK walk.

It was a good experience, I've been to the place before so have a bit of an idea about the lie of the land yet I still surprised myself with my pictures. Like many of the photographers the start was a bit shaky... too many swans on the river and bits of railings on bridges. But after waiting around to see a rumoured changing of the guard at Windsor Castle I managed to get some nice shots. The changing of the guard was rescheduled for Tuesday!

As this was my first photowalk I was not sure what to expect. In reality it was a group of photographers all out to walk around and make some nice images. I don't think the group was particularly motivated to be supremely helpful to each other, but the walk leader did get round to us all and make sure we all were getting on with some pictures. At the end many of the photographers seemed to be happy that they had shot some good pics. For myself I was also surprised, my best shots came once I'd almost called it quits on photography and started to return to the rendevous point. I still think i'd join another photowalk in the future.

You can find the images from me and the others on the Windsor walk in the flickr pool here.

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Rally Finland 2008 - pt2 rally cars

Neste Oil Rally Finland is a special event, and this time our intrepid team secured VIP hospitality tickets for the Kakaristo special stage on Saturday. With two passes through the 20.09km stage and timing that meant the first pass was just before lunch and the second in the mid afternoon we could enjoy the rally with a bit of style, good food and beer. Kakaristo is a new stage that is using much of the old favourite Ouninpohja, but driven in the reverse direction.

If you've never been to a Word Rally Championship event before it's important to know that before the cars come through the stage there's several safety vehicles that pass through to make sure the stage is safe for the competitors and spectators. Vehicles includes pickups, rally cars and helicopters all travelling at increased speeds. In the past WRC organisers used to number the cars 000, 00 and 0 to indicate that the cars are coming, now this is gone so you need to be ready and set-up for the sudden arrival of reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb arriving in the Citroen at full speed - no practice passes to get your eye / aim / settings sorted. For the morning stage Kakaristo 1 [SS16] I took a position just past the inside of a 90 degree left.

Kakaristo 1 [SS16]
As described before it's not all simple stuff this rally photography, and I was poorly prepared for the arrival of Sebastien Loeb. ISO was too low and the AF mode was still set to One shot meaning that the metering had locked when the AF locked not when the picture was taken. Quickly I addressed the settings but with only a few minutes between cars you have to wait for the dust to fall, then make the changes. You can also see that there was one of the famous Finnish trees in the middle of my frame - I needed to change my shooting position a little too.

My settings:
I was using the EOS-1D Mark III and EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens since it was wide enough to allow me to get the cars in the frame even when they pass only a few metres in front of me. Focus was set to AI Servo, single point AF - usually the center, AF point expansion was turned on for all surrounding 6 points. I used a mix of Av and manual exposure modes - mostly Av. ISO speeds were quite high at ISO 400 or more since being under the trees it was quite dark and with the cars really motoring past quite close to me a high shutter speed was needed even though I was panning with the cars. I also set my Picture Styles to Standard with +2 saturation and +4 sharpening even though I was shooting RAW since this gives nice saturated colours on the cars.

Of the leading cars only Henning Solberg in the Ford missed the junction and had to quickly spin the car round and then make the right hand turn to proceed. This also shows the amount of dust that is typical of dry weather rally Finland stages. You can also see why manual exposure wasn't the answer too; the range of brightness from the junction in full sunlight to the shade under the trees was simply too much for a 1 exposure setting fits all approach.

So with my brain in gear, the camera settings sorted I could concentrate on panning with 100kmh+ cars passing meters in front of me with trees framing them. Sometimes it works sometimes not, but take plenty of pictures since digital film is free and the drivers won't come back to do it again if you miss.


I wasn't happy with my success rates for sharp pictures so upped the ISO to 640 for this shot of Toni Gardemeister in the Suzuki SX4 for a sharper result. I'd reasoned that the cars were not only moving forward but up and down on the surface and I've not mastered the art of panning in two perpendicularly opposed directions at the same time on one picture.

At this point I was thinking time for some different angles, so moved further along the stage to some more open road where the trees would not shade the cars so much. ISO could go down, shutter speed up and the panning could be done with less concern for trees in the way.



By now lunch was calling so time to eat and wait around in the sunshine for Kakaristo 2.

Kakaristo 2 [SS19]

This time I was taking no chances I even took sequences of the course cars coming through the stage to hone the settings. I ended up setting the AF Servo sensitivity to +1 making it more jumpy, but I would have plenty of time to pick up the car in the distance and track it as it comes to me.

After seeing some of the top cars coming through the stage we started to walk along the stage toward the Kakaristo corner where the majority of the spectators were - it was also necessary to go this way to reach the car park. Here we could see the special rally dust on the crowd who'd been standing there all day. Everyone was a uniform shade of grey regardless of the colour of their shirts - it resembled the grey colour of the road too!

Most rally fans are characters, but a few take this to new heights in there 'optimised rally outfits'. For our small group of rally fans it was time for traffic - the queues out of the stage were some of the worst we'd seen in many years. Of course there's many more photos but i'm sure you can see rally cars all over the internet. I'll put some more in my flickr photostream in the coming weeks.

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Rally Finland 2008

Following from my post at the start of the month here's the rest of my trip to Finland now I'm back from summer holidays.


It's my seventh visit to the Finnish Grand Prix as the Neste Oil Rally Finland is sometimes known to the locals. For a nation who enjoy some of the cheapest petrol and best roads in the world (tongue firmly in cheek) it's no surprise that rallying is well supported by both spectators and competitors. The fact that there have only been four non-Scandinavian winners of the rally also point to the unique characteristics of this special rally that all the drivers want to win. Rally Finland is a high speed test of drivers on the limit on gravel road with some of the highest speeds seen all year.



This year my amazing hosts, known to the important few as J&J Rally Tours, enabled me to visit the main rally head quarters in Jyväskylä. Here the cars come back for short periods of running repairs and servicing throughout the day. It's a chance for the many rally fans to see the cars and drivers close-up. Fortunately it rained for a few minutes before the cars came in for the afternoon service making it easier to get a good spot right next to the barrier for those of us hardy enough to brave a little Finnish summer rain.

When the cars come in it gets a bit tough to see them as the mechanics swarm over them fixing and replacing worn parts. I was in front of the the Ford team with Jari Matti Latvala's empty place in front of me, Mikko Hirvonen to the right and Khalid Al Qassimi to the left. In half an hour the mechanics replaced the complete set of dampers on the car, checked the tracking, topped up all the fluids including the driver and co-driver drink bottles, replaced the wheels and tyres, cleaned the windows and replaced the rear valance trim on Mikko Hirvonen's car. I'm sure your local Ford dealer would not charge for thirty minutes labour time to do the same!

Located to the right of the Ford team was the Stobart Ford team, they were the stars of crowd pleasing, as all the drivers and co-drivers came out to the railings to sign autographs and talk with the crowds, the top teams could learn something from this. Stobart's drivers Matthew Wilson and Gigi Galli looked to be relaxed and enjoying their rally. In contrast local hero Mikko Hirvonen just kept in the back of the garage.




On arrival back at the summer cottage, our rally HQ for the weekend, there was a treat in store; crayfish from the lake and some rather good vodka from the freezer to go with it.

The rallying pictures and photo techniques explanation will come in the next post.



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Lakes and trees

Lakes and trees, for me the three words evoke memories of a country I always love to visit - Finland. Maybe the appeal is augmented by the generosity of my great hosts, but I think it's the sheer scale, beauty and space that appeals. Here you can find stillness like few other places I've been to; stillness that lets you hear a duck splashing about on a lake 500m from where you are sitting. The same kind of stillness and peace that it seems is so easily broken just by pressing the shutter on a camera - even before the mirror starts to move.

Ruolahti in the country some two hours drive north of Helsinki is on the shore of Lake Päijänne
Staying in one of the cottages that you can find here: www.lomamokitruolahti.fi

There's lots more to come, don't forget it's the time of the Neste Rally, sometimes called the Finnish Grand Prix, but to many simply the Finnish round of the World Rally Championship so it's time for a visit to one of the key places in rally history - Jyväskylä.

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