A splendid day!

The height of any gear head’s year has to be the paddock for the Historic car races at Laguna Seca in mid-August.

This year I went with my technique perfected and confidence high. I had my backdrop rolled up on a long PVC pipe and was thoroughly comfortable with the use of Helicon Focus to confer massive depth of field where there otherwise is none. Gear was my standard close-up outfit. Canon 5D, Canon 100mm EF Macro, a ring flash and a monopod. While a tripod is best when stitching of multiple images is called for, I already had enough to carry, so made do with just a monopod and a QR plate on the ball and socket head. It seems to have worked out well. Willing – if somewhat surprised – bystanders were put to work holding the backdrop, where needed, and all in all it was a ton of fun. Aperture was f/5.6 throughout, the Macro’s sweet spot, with ISO set at 250 – grainless with the 5D’s outstanding full frame sensor.

1911 10.5 litre Cottin – Des Gouttes – composite of 4 images

1927 6.5 litre Bentley – 3 images

1935 4.2 litre Railton – 6 images

1958 1.6 litre Porsche Speedster – 6 images

1958 Ferrari 4.1 litre 335 Sport – 3 images

Clearing out last year’s snaps from the garage a few months back, a friend asked for the one of the MG bonnet as he knew the owner. Imagine then my surprise, as I was making my way through the paddock, to see my picture next to the car portrayed – Jim Weissenborn’s 1959 Byers-Special MGA – one of the prettiest cars there.

Fame at last – Jim displays my snap from the 2008 meet

Here’s the original:

MG special. 5D, 100mm macro, ringflash.