Mallory Park Sun 20 Feb 2011 (bloody freezing)

We were invited to watch our friend's son on his first track day at Mallory Park, near Hinkley.
Parking was free and track entry was free.  We just wandered into the middle bit and found out what George's colours were and said hello, then positioned ourselves on the hairpin right next to the track.

I was using my D700 with 70-200 lens which was plenty big enough. I started off with a monopod.

I was using manual exposure 1/1000sec at f4 and an Auto ISO of 1400 and practising just getting him in the shot.

I was improving my framing. Problem was the big blocks of green and white on the kerb edge were affecting the Auto ISO so I switched it off. I was talking to another photographer, Graham Worley about my camera and looking at the pics he was getting with his Sony. Mine looked reasonably sharp but stationary with no feel of speed.

He suggested using 1/125sec f4 a max ISO of 400 and then panning with the bike. The aim to get the wheels and chain blurred but the bike and rider as sharp as poss.  Well as we know, the beauty of digital is that you can practise away and bin all your crap shots before even uploading them.... and boy did I get some rubbish.

Eventually I got some reasonable shots until the shaking of my hands and body from the cold combined.

He's racing there on 6 March hopefully, so I'll go and have a practise again.

Slide show and a Top Top

Just trying this to see if it works.

Seems to.

Well, the top tip is.....and you are probably all going to say we know that.
For night time/dark stuff, switch on the LCD light on the exposure display on top of the camera. Default setting is off for Nikons.

I've got an Ipod touch and downloaded the Ken Rockwell guide, a Nikon lens app and a Hyperfocal distance App all have been interesting and useful.