Taking a look back through my photographs - The 2022 Race Season

Report and images by Craig Whitaker

19 November 2022

Being based in Hertfordshire, South East England, I am quite central to many race circuits within a few hours’ drive. This year most of my captures were taken at Donington Park and Snetterton MSV circuits as they support a good range of different race championships, and have some great locations for photographic opportunities for the spectator with low fencing and easy access.

Next season, as I now have more time, I will try and get to a few more other recommended events and circuits.

I wanted to practice and really improve my photography skills so I chose mostly quieter days for easier parking and fewer spectators, and on some days, I nearly had the place to myself. 

I decided to concentrate mostly on panning at various shutter speeds so I was originally going to write this article with my favourite panning photographs. 

As you are probably aware, attending the same circuits frequently during the season, most of your photo collection begins to look the same after a while. There are only so many places a spectator can get a good capture from, although I now know that shooting through fences next season will give me a few more places to try after my recent article. So rather than lots of panning photos, I decided to also try and find captures that filled my creative side. 

I took hundreds more than I remembered, and it was so hard to choose just a select few for this article. Eventually I went through every photo on all my files and decided to also share some photos which are a little different that capture the moment for me and hopefully you as the viewer. 



For the first photo I have chosen this beautiful classic Porsche 911 which was sitting in the paddock garages after a race. What I really like about this still photo is the small wooden stick holding up the bonnet to the hot rear engine which was cooling. Also, if you look closely you can see the rear window pushed open as well in order to cool the cockpit. So, for me it can sometimes be very small details like this that you do not notice at first glance but in the end make it special photo to keep and look back on. 

I have always had a soft spot for photographing Aston Martin race cars if I see them as they look so powerful and elegant, new or classic. This modern Aston Martin GT4 was racing in the British Endurance Championship at Donington Park where there were so many beautiful powerful cars. 



I decided on a black and white filter as the car was in a dark colour and there was not much going on in the background, so I thought it would stand out more to the eye. I have always liked black and white photography, so I may try out a few more in the future as I don't take enough in this style.

I chose this photo of the BMW rear view, which in itself is quite straight forward. The reason I really like this one is because it was my first capture zoomed at a full 600mm, testing my new tele photo 150-600 lens to the maximum and the car was so far in the distance. In my mind I just thought at my budget at full length 600mm the photo would not be clear, and I would be happy taking them at around 400-450mm and maybe cropping tighter for better compositions.



When I got home and viewed them full size I was really impressed with the quality of the images I took at this length and it was my own wow moment. It was a game changer for me as I could still get the cars in clear focus in positions I would never had dreamed of before. Going forward, this now gives me so much more flexibility to shoot from grandstands, spectator hills, above spectators and areas I mostly avoided as I was too far away with my smaller lenses.

This summer the sun really came out to the extent of a long hot dry heatwave. It was almost 30 degrees by lunch most days, and in this photo the teams and race cars were getting ready in the paddock area at Thruxton circuit. I was having a nice break and a cold drink and then out came all these umbrellas. 



As you mostly see umbrellas up in the rain I had to capture it. I also wanted to try and capture all of the people in one shot, so in the end I decided to post edit the photo. I cropped it down to 21:9 ultra widescreen aspect ratio for a cinematic look. I then added a coloured filter and additional film grain/noise which I don't often do. Maybe I will try a few more filters and styles in the future.

This next one was at Donington Park after a slight accident. No one was injured and the cars got towed away on the back of a recovery lorry quite quickly. I actually missed the whole frame when the car was in front of me, but I did manage to get the rear end of the BMW as I looked up as it was heading off back to the paddock through Starkey's Bridge. 



I feel it draws you in to the centre of the photo to look at the car being towed and edging through the arch, but you don't see the marshal on the extreme right checking the height of the bridge until a second glance, so I was rather pleased I did not delete it at the time.

I don't often go to motor bike races as I am more drawn to race cars and rally cars, but in the summer I went to the Bennetts British Superbike Championship for a change of scenery and ended up really liking the day, so I will try and get to another. Among them were side cars and I really enjoyed these. They went at such speed and looked so different to anything else.



I took plenty of photos but I like this one for its simplicity, bright colour and the concentration on the rider’s face at this speed. The corner was approaching out of view and the white track line gives a great composition line with it falling near enough straight and level along the top third.

Another beautiful modern Aston Martin from the British Endurance Championship that took my eye was this Vulcan model in a stunning orange and white livery. A huge long low car that also nearly filled the frame with its long bonnet. To listen to the engine and watch this amazing car up close was a real joy for me as I have not seen many at all in real life. 

I did manage to squeeze in a few other races, and I took a visit to watch a very busy British Touring Car Championship. One of the support races, as you probably know, are the Porsche Carrera Cup cars. I managed to just catch this Porsche at very high speed lifting up the dust off the curb.

A little of this was down to luck as it flew by. It is still one of my favourites and I was very lucky the sun didn't ruin it too much on the car, but the sun behind the dust did help give a solid cloud look for great effect. 



This photo is a slightly zoomed in version of the one that was also used here as my main Pistonclick profile photograph as I feel it is more pleasing to the eye being offset a little.

On this photo I really like the bike livery and the rider’s racing suit. I think the colours really pop against the background along with the stance of the rider as it gives a real sense of speed.



After practicing all day, I was getting more confident and started panning with shutter speeds of around 1/80s. At the speed the bikes were going this is quite hard to pull off without the bikes getting really blurred too. This was one of the first I tried and am pleased how it turned out. I have since taken many more in better focus, and I do believe regular practice is definitely needed at this shutter speed!

The very last one was taken recently at a local Grade D MSVR race day. 

I like this photo of the big thumbs up in the BMW M3 as I actually managed to be in the right place and time for a change. I even managed to get a little sense of speed, panning and zooming in at the same time rather than rushing with the settings.



I am usually very unlucky in capturing unique moments of the race. I am either in the wrong camera settings or seem to be at a different part of the track. I am learning quickly and getting in better positions for the last few laps, and have caught a few more since this. 

Going forward in to next season

I highly recommend looking back on your photos and will be doing it now more often. It really does give you some inspiration and ideas of what to improve on, and you notice things you may not have done six months ago. I felt by getting myself out and practicing much more this year I have learnt so much. 

I will be keeping more captures even if I am not too keen with the first look out of the camera as I can be over critical to myself on the technical side. I have deleted some images in the past which I regret now, as with fast panning you have quite a few unused raw files you are not happy with when you review them after the event. 

On the other hand, you might really like some of them in an artistic way on looking back, so this is something I will work on and compromise more with additional files and storage on my PC. I have learned a very good lesson looking back through them all and wishing I had kept some.

Summary

This season the British weather held dry for most of the main summer and autumn for a very nice change and I watched some excellent racing.

I had lots of fun, fresh air and good exercise and talked to many friendly people at the circuits including other photographers, both pro and amateur, drivers, race teams and even a few marshals along the way. I also really enjoyed watching the smaller club racing and I look forward to next year to improve and I am already thinking of lots of creative ideas!

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