A slight mistake to start the day off and one I should own upto. Although I think about it and maybe its not my fault. I decide to arrive at the circuit just after 10am. I didn’t think I would miss much considering the testing doesn’t start till 10am. I had only missed the photo shoot of the Mercedes GP team. Now I left the media centre last night and there was no talk of this. It happened at 8:45am whilst I was sat in my room watching Sky News. I am kicking myself but then how was I mean’t to know about it? Scuderia Toro Rosso also wheeled out their new car aswell but, well it doesn’t really look different to last years and the drivers are the same. Didn’t miss much there.
Walking to the media centre with a colleague as we approach the Bridgestone area. My colleague gets talking to an old friend who works there and I clock Michael Schumacher to my right behind the back of his motorhome (I say his, I actually mean his brothers). He starts to walk towards us and approached the Bridgestone lady and with a big smile on his face he says “Long time, no see. How have you been?”. With that she then invites him into the Bridgestone motorhome. For a split second I think of getting out my iphone and saying “quick photo of me and you together” but once again I have the little person on my shoulder saying “Alex, your here to take photos and not be a groupie“. Later in the day I totally regret my decision. It was a perfect chance to change my Facebook page!
Anyway back onto the track. Another very nice day with temperatures feeling like 25C at times. Very hot (well compared back to the UK it was) and I have gone red on the top of my head. The wind has calmed down so plenty of track action. The only stoppage was Rubens Barrichello who’s Williams stopped late in the day. I am still not really liking the Renault colour scheme much. The yellow is abit of a pain for me and my camera. In sunlight its not coming up that well whilst in the shade its fine. Does remind me of the Buzzin Hornets Jordan with the colour scheme.
The F1 testing budget is still clearly high. Motorhomes get bigger and bigger. Still need to get the Mercedes GP one but I noticed the Renault hospitality motorhome double in size. Ferrari have got rid of their marquee with something abit more solid.
Ok so I admit that I have run out of things to put on my blog already. My fault really as I have not been out and about. But hopefully that will pick up soon. I had an idea where by I picked my favourite images and why I picked them. Pretty straight forward uh?
So with 4 years of images and over 1200 images to choose from, its abit of a challenge to find my favourites.
My first image which stands out the most for me and actually is the most popular with customers is Michael Schumacher driving the F2004 in Valencia back in February 2005. It was the last day of testing, my flight was due to leave in the early afternoon and I arrived at the circuit in the morning with it streaming down with rain and there was no interest from any teams in wanting to venture out on circuit. I stood in the middle of the circuit under a marshall’s post but ended up giving up and headed back to the pits. I was ontop of the pit garages looking down on the start/finish straight and spent ages to get the shot right. Michael was either too close to the wall and thus I had either a pitbox or pitwall in the way of the car or the spray was confusing the camera when it came to the automatic focus. Time after time he would go passed and I would check the image but it would always wrong. I tried it with Rubens Barrichello aswell but it was still as bad. However if your patient and working hard you get the required result and I managed to clock it. The image has not been adjusted in anyway so job was a good’en.
Still on the theme of Formula 1 but a different year and a different track. Not a huge story to this but trying to re-create this image nowadays is impossible. Taken in Jerez in 2006, it was Nakajima putting the Williams through its paces. He had a habit of locking up at the second corner and I was following this for a number of laps so I thought I would bag myself a nice shot of a lock up. It did not take to long to get the shot but having reviewed it I was surprised to see the brake disc glowing red. It would of been nice to have got the car directly side on but you can’t have everything can you? Today all teams run wheel covers to aid aerodynamic flow and better heat distribution however that will all change and in 2010 they will be banned and we should be back to shots of glowing brake discs.
If you have a favourite shot then leave your comment on the shot and I might later on in the year create a new blog entry with the viewers favourites.