Shooting Formula One Using a Mirror Lens

The conventional wisdom is that photographing race cars requires a long telephoto lens with a fast f stop and a sturdy support.  That's why you always see those guys with a gigantic lens perched atop a monopod taking photos around the track.

Typical F1 Photographer

Now I'm not saying that shouldn't be the preferred (or even easiest) way to go but I'm going to show how you can get perfectly acceptable photos using a cheap, hand held mirror lens.

Mirror lenses typically come in around 500mm and a f8 aperture.    This means they have great magnifying power but are pathetically dark when looking thru the viewfinder.  They are also very finicky with focusing usually requiring hair-trigger accuracy.

The mirror lens itself is mostly empty - that's why it's incredibly light for its resolving power.  Light comes thru the front element, bounces against a mirror on the backside, back to the front side mirror and then back to the camera sensor.  This "Z" folded light path means that the light path is a lot longer than it looks just from the size of the lens.  This also makes this type of lens very economical - cheap even.

Now the lens that I use is an old Sakar 500mm f8 with a 67mm front filter (most have 72mm filters for some reason).  This lens fits any camera as long as you screw on the right adapter.  It's also completely manual - no automatic focus and no setting the f-stop (there's only one anyway, f8),  If there's not enough light, you have to rely on your camera's shutter speed (limited to higher shutter speeds because of camera shake) or ISO adjustment to make up for it.  I suggest just using it on a sunny day.

Sakar 500mm, f8 mirror lens

The only way this works for me is to pre-focus on where I think the car will be and then hit the shutter button when the car enters the frame. There's a lot of wasted shots but, hey, it's digital. In retrospect, you should use your camera's continuous shooting mode to make multiple exposures so you'd have a better chance of capturing the right moment.  

So here's a couple of hand held shots with this Sakar lens mounted on a Nikon D300s:

Not too bad considering the cheap mirror lens used. Hamilton's #44 was shot at 1/640 seconds while Max Verstappen in the second shot was at 1/1000 second. Both were hand held - no monopod or tripod.

Here's a photo showing where I was sitting to take these shots just to give you an idea of this lens' magnification..

I used that faint horizontal white line on the track to focus on and pressed the shutter when the cars appeared in the viewfinder.

There's More to Formula One Than Racing

Santa at the Glen - Arrows F1 Garage

I ACTUALLY ATTENDED MONZA AND SPA WHEN THEY WERE BACK-TO-BACK

(You Can Too)

I did this when Monza and Spa were scheduled back to back in 2007 but GUESS WHAT(!), they're back-to-back again for the 2016-1017 season based on the approved Motor Sports Council schedule. 

I’m not going to describe the races because you already know about those. I'm just passing on my experience in attending both races.

My wife was bugging me for a European vacation but, at least, she let me do the planning. With Monza and Spa back-to-back, I picked our dates to cover those races. Now we just couldn’t go to Monza and Spa. Since this was a “vacation” I had to throw in a couple of extra cities for her benefit and I couldn’t attend all three days for each race (that would have taken up too much “vacation” time). In the interest of domestic tranquility, I could only attend race day.

First I had to get race tickets. Monza looked pretty simple. Logged on to their website and looked at tickets. Almost everything was sold out since I only started planning in July. Also, only 3 day tickets are available no single dates. I decided to bite the bullet and buy a 3 day ticket with the intention of blowing off Friday and Saturday. I settled on grandstand 23 - the Inner Parabolica $295. Monza sent the tickets and they came pretty fast - by DHL. The Friday ticket is good for any grandstand. The Saturday and Sunday tickets are good only for the grandstand they were sold for. By the time the tickets arrived, I got the brilliant idea to sell off the Friday and Saturday portions. I went to a British ticket-selling site (the StubHub of England) and sold those very quickly - maybe someone’s wife told him he could attend Friday and Saturday but not Sunday. They credited my Paypal account in British pounds which Paypal converted to US dollars painlessly (the Brits offered to pay by check but I already had experience with my bank cashing checks in foreign denominations - you can’t do it without exorbitant fees even if the bank claims to have “world class service”).

Monza ticket in hand

Spa was a different matter. The good news: you can buy Sunday only tickets. The bad news: I had to call them twice to get them to ship the ticket. Even after they claimed to ship, I had to call again because they still didn’t ship it. It arrived by FedEx 4 days before I left. They also charged me $35 for the privilege. I note that the ticket information is filled in by hand! I don’t know how many people work in their ticket office but their hands must be pretty tired from filling in seat info on tickets. My ticket was for grandstand 8 - La Source. This ticket is astronomically expensive - $535 after all fees were added. The Sunday only cost close to double all three days at Monza. 

Hand Made Spa ticket - Finally

Monza. We stayed in Milan which is about 10 miles from Monza. Hotel rates in Milan were double for the weekend which, I thought, was because of the race. However, there is no indication in Milan that there is a Grand Prix going on. Milan does have a 4 story Ferrari store where you can buy stuff (no cars for sale though). The store had a “back to school” sale going on! I’m baffled; parents actually go to a Ferrari Store for back to school specials? People working in the store knew there was a race but were clueless as to other details (like how to get to the track). 

Inside the Ferrari store - Milan

Race day I went to the central train station and took a free train to Monza. I just followed F1 fans to the right train track - they were obvious. 

Waiting with fans for the train to Monza

The ride is about 30 minutes but the train does not stop in Monza. The train stops at Biassono/Lesmo which is at the north end of the track. I ended up walking to the south end, where my ticket was located. That took about 45 minutes. There were scalpers buying and selling tickets along the way. I can say that, without a doubt, DO NOT get Inner Lesmo (grandstand 23) tickets. The cars come from behind you and rocket past the pit entrance down the start-finish straight. You can see a fair amount of track (you can’t see the pits) but it’s like watching bullets leaving the barrel of a gun. You can get almost the same view by buying general admission tickets and sitting on the inner side of the Curva Parabolica. There are even some concrete seats there to sit on. 

Grandstand 23 - Lesmo

Security was not ironclad. I went into the VIP area behind the paddock by using an unattended exit and wandered around.  The souvenir stands were not as crowded but there were extra layers of security inside that kept you from wandering around aimlessly. Some people in my grandstand were sitting in the stairways.  My guess is that they didn’t have an actual ticket for the grandstand – they were just poaching. There were people checking tickets but during the chaotic periods you can just glide past. After the race, there were buses located at the south end of the track to take you back to Monza - where you can get back on a free train. I religiously followed the signs to the buses but never did find them - just kept going around in circles. Eventually, I ended up walking to the Monza train station. That took a good hour - about as fast as taking a bus judging from traffic. The train ride back was uneventful.

Spa. When I bought my Spa ticket, Belgian rail had a promotion giving you a free train ticket. When my ticket package arrived, there was no train ticket, coupon, flyer, nothing. We were staying in Brussels, so I went to the train station and asked about the formula one promotion. The only thing they knew about was a $15 round trip train-bus-tram ticket to the track - I bought one. Again, while in Brussels there is no indication that there is a grand prix going on although they were having some kind of festival involving beer, wine, food, music and strange costumes that was nice. 

Brussels Beer Festival

Race day I arrived at Brussels Nord rail station at 5:30am. I couldn’t tell from the train schedule which train to take but from my research I knew I had to get to the town of Verviers (the closest big town to Spa and Francorchamps). There was a direct Brussels-Verviers train leaving at 6:03am. Eventually other F1 fans showed up and they all congregated at the 6:03 train platform. 

The train ride is 1.5 hours to Verviers. In Verviers, there were people guiding you to motor coaches that would take you to the track. You got on a bus based on your type of race ticket. The bus waited an hour to become 100% full before it left. The bus took the back roads to the track (about 45 minutes) and dropped me off about 200 yards from the track entrance. 

Buses to the track

By now it was almost 9:30am. After that, the bus went to the bus parking lot - more about this later. Security at the track was professional. I had to show my ticket three times at various checkpoints before I even got to the actual entrance. There were no scalpers buying or selling tickets. Once at the track, I headed over to F1 village. 

View of Eau Rouge from the F1 Village

I must say this is the best F1 village I’ve ever been to. Not that the F1 stuff being sold was any different but you could buy vast varieties of Belgian waffles, crepes, pancakes, draft or canned beer, wine, bratwurst, sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers, and get coffee in “brew your own cups”. 

Brew your own coffee

Some of the food stands looked like little alpine chalets and the prices were reasonable by F1 standards. You can sit down at a nearby table and actually get an excellent view of the cars going up the hill thru Eau Rouge. My take is that you could buy a general admission ticket, go the F1 village, sit down and get a respectable view of the race from there. 

Waffle and Crepe Chalet

They had toilet facilities with attendants that cost $0.75 (but they were spotless) or you could just use a free port-a-potty. 

Pay toilet - it's worth it

On the other hand, if you’re buying tickets, I highly recommend grandstand 8 - La Source. It’s covered to protect you from rain and sun (don’t laugh it WAS sunny when I was there). It’s got a good view of the start-finish line and the pits. You can watch the cars from the start, though La Source and all the way up through Eau Rouge. To sit on, it has got actual seats with backs. My only complaint is the height of the safety fencing. You need a seat in row 25 or higher. Otherwise, you’re looking thru chain link fence at the track (like I was).

View from Grandstand 8 La Source - Can see start/finish & Eau Rouge

After the race, I went back to where the bus dropped me off but I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find it in the bus parking lot either. I ended up walking a few hundred yards into the town of Francorchamps and taking a city-type bus (that was marked) back to Verviers. The bus was packed. I talked to some Brits on the bus who told me that, on Friday and Saturday, they had to take a tram from Verviers to Spa and then a bus to Francorchamps. Apparently there were no shuttle buses from Verviers like there were on Sunday.

Hope this helps if you ever have a chance to attend either of these races.

You can see my pics from those races:

Monza - Monza

Spa - Spa Francorchamps

Improve Your Streaming Video Viewing Experience

Tired of watching streaming formula one videos on your small, crappy pc screen because you're too cheap to pay for cable (or hate the MSNBC crew)?  Then I suggest you try this proven, simple way to improve your viewing experience:

Find your streaming video on line and send it to your giant, flat screen TV using Google Chromecast.  I use this all the time.  Of course the better the stream the better the display. You'll need a Chromecast stick attached to your TV but that's less than $30.  It doesn't tie up your PC either. Once your stream is transferred to Chromecast, your PC becomes free.  Still using data but you were using data watching on the PC anyway.  

You can send YouTube video to the TV in the same way.  Matter of fact, you can send anything on your PC to the TV this way. Heck, you can also send the stream to the TV using your cell phone - just install the Chromecast App.  Give it a try.

The Paris Air Show – 2015

The Paris Air Show is held every other year at the Le Bourget airfield just outside Paris proper.  It’s not your typical US type airshow in that it’s mostly set up as a commercial sales event for airframe manufacturers and aircraft parts and service providers.  The show itself lasts a week but the public is only invited for the last three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).  I got to attend all three days while my wife went shopping.  In retrospect, probably not the smartest arrangement on my part…. nevertheless.

I boarded the Paris Metro and took the train headed to Charles de Gaulle airport.  Le Bourget is seven stops short of the international airport and within fare zone 3 so it saves some subway fare.  At the Le Bourget train stop, there were free shuttle buses to the airshow.  Unfortunately the rail station and the airshow are on opposite sides of the town so the buses had to wind their way thru the middle of town on the way to the show.  I saw what looked like some people walking in the right direction but it’s WAY too far to walk (maybe they weren’t walking to the airshow).

Upon arriving at the entrance, my first impression is that the French love airshows.  The crowd was huge.  Plus the show is NOT FREE.  You had to buy a ticket for each day.  The ticket cost 14 Euro/day. 

There is one (small) grandstand (for an additional fee) to sit and watch the flying demonstrations but that was sold out for all three days when I arrived – not that you needed a grandstand seat.

The airshow grounds are divided into what I saw were 5 distinct areas:

There are a series of very large buildings that house commercial displays of aircraft equipment and services.  You could spend days walking up and down the aisles looking at automated machine tools working, various types of aircraft and spacecraft services, military and civilian aircraft for sale, etc.

There’s the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum that contains historical aircraft and spacecraft.  A very extensive and interesting collection.  Worth a trip in and of itself.

There are the outside aircraft displays themselves (more about this later).

There are the manufacturers’ sales chalets where the earlier in the week business was conducted.

There’s the flying demonstrations themselves.

As I mentioned, the airshow had packed attendance.  There were so many people that it was difficult in getting around the grounds – and the grounds themselves were big.  At your typical US airshow there are aircraft parked in the apron areas for display and you can wander around freely between, under and around the ground displays.  Not so at the Paris show.  The display aircraft were located behind security tape or barriers and the only opportunity to observe was from afar.  I thought this aspect was very disappointing.

The flying demonstrations were a mixed bag.  Boeing brought a newly minted 787 which did some spectacular vertical takeoff and climbs - showing off for customers during the week.  The only thing it did on Friday was to leave.  Just a plain jane takeoff and departure.  Airbus brought their A350 and A380 aircraft that did flying demonstrations for the general public.  The best flying was performed by the various military aircraft which thrilled the crowds with plenty of vertical flying, tight turning and afterburner flybys.

Overall, it was a great show in that the commercial displays let you see some of the behind the scenes aircraft support functions that many just take for granted.  While the flying demonstrations were entertaining and well executed, I thought they were a little sparse.  One cute display was the mini-drones set to music:

More Paris Air Show Photos:  Paris Air Show - 2015

United States Grand Prix Austin TX -2015

I'm Heading to the United States Grand Prix 

Austin Texas 2015

Well, I'm heading to Austin for the 2015 US Grand Prix.  I've been to Austin twice before and, from an amateur photo standpoint, it's an OK track.  Most of the time you're shooting thru or around fencing or you're pretty far from the track.  This means you need long lenses

Austin F1 Start Finish

Downtown Austin F1

Downtown Austin itself, does a very nice job of making the F1 fans welcome.  They usually have a six block area downtown set aside for F1 displays and music.  Lots of interesting displays.  Getting to and from the track involves taking shuttle buses - which are pretty efficient but they do drop you off what seems like a mile from the track entrance.

Red Bull Display - Austin

This should be an interesting trip because I have some seats on the main grandstand that I scored from StubHub (Friday is actually pretty cheap).  I've never sat in the main grandstand and I usually don't care for it because the cars go by like they're shot from a gun but, maybe, the garages will provide an opportunity for some interesting shots.  I'll try to post the flavor of the city, track, and race.

Donuts at the track

The Rainy, Wet and Soggy 
2015 United States Grand Prix - Austin, Texas

I flew into Austin on Thursday because it was about the same price as flying into San Antonio and I figured I could get away with not having a rental car since I was staying downtown. Usually San Antonio is cheaper to fly into but, for some reason only known to the airlines and their byzantine fare structures, it wasn't the case this time around.

Now, I've been to this race twice before - the inaugural and the next.  I've never stayed downtown because of the ridiculous hotel prices.  I mean, prices of hotels in Singapore for their Grand Prix are CHEAPER than in Austin for this race.  In retrospect, staying downtown turned out to be a brilliant decision because of the, wait for it, weather.

After checking in, looked for the FanFest downtown only to find it's been moved to what is called the "Rainey District".  Ha Ha, Rainey!  They must have known something.

Rainey District FanFest

Now, in years past, the FanFest was held downtown in the 6th street area and covered ten blocks.  There were multiple music stages, Shell and Mobil 1 displays, Infinity had two cars mounted on dynamometers so you could "race" one another, bars and restaurants.  The Rainey Street FanFest, in contrast covered about a one block square dirt (soon to be mud) lot. It had one music stage, 7-8 bars, a Texas lottery booth, a "visit Abu Dhabi" booth, and a COTA souvenir stand.  I did not see any food vendors although Rainey Street itself had plenty of places to eat and drink - even a bar entirely made up of shipping containers. Disappointing to say the least.  COTA claimed there was no room downtown because of construction.  Contrast the Rainey District FanFest to Montreal Crescent Street:

Montreal Grand Prix - Crescent Street

Well, Friday on to the track via the shuttle buses - which cost $10 or $25 per day depending on when you purchased your ticket.  Advance sale price was $10/day, on-site price was $25/day. Takes about 40-45 minutes to get to the track located near the Austin airport.  Arriving for P1 was not looking good but I'm optimistic.

COTA Main Gate

I never sit in the main grandstand at an F1 race for a number of reasons.  I like to take pictures and the main grandstand seats almost always mean you're looking thru fencing.  The cars also flash by so fast it's hard to track them with your camera.  The only saving grace is that you might get to see some pit action.  However, for this race I did opt for main grandstand seating which, in retrospect, was a brilliant idea because of - the weather.

COTA Main Straight

As it turned out, P1 was the only practice that day because P2 was rained out.  Oh yeah, just because you're in the main grandstand doesn't mean you don't get wet.

Waiting for P2

Woke up Saturday to a deluge of rain.  TV announcement was that the track was closed and would not open until noon.  Advisories were to stay off the roads due to flooding.  FIA ran P3 that morning anyway - even though the track was closed.  Aren't FIA the same guys who like to promote safe driving?  Although, in fairness I didn't see any "BERNIE SAYS THINK BEFORE YOU DRIVE" signs. Closed also were many of the dirt parking lots because of swampy conditions.  Parkers were  told to go downtown and exchange their parking passes for bus wrist bands and take the buses in.  I'm sure they were "happy" about that.  Not surprisingly, the UT-Kansas State football game was not rained out.

I've actually worn trash bag rain gear at Monaco - in my younger days

Qualifying time was originally delayed 1/2 hour, then another.  This is exactly the same pattern the airlines use when you're at the airport and your flight is delayed.  They keep pushing it back in increments until it's cancelled.  The FIA held true to form and ended up cancelling at 4pm.  

Some of the teams tried to inject some levity into the situation by providing some low level entertainment (not Ferrari though - claimed it was beneath them to provide fan entertainment).

Team Williams - crew 

I took an opportunity to enjoy some main grandstand amenities - although a 24oz beer was $12. Food was marginal. Basically glorified, overpriced snack food. If you're going to complain about prices - don't go to a Formula One race.

Velocity Lounge

Sunday - race day - was looking better.  There was some rain before noon and the FIA got a chance to get qualifying in - at least Q1 and Q2.  Q3 being cancelled due to track conditions deteriorating.  I arrived late since I was still recovering from Saturday's soaking. Nevertheless, things were beginning to look up - scalpers were desperate to unload tickets. 

Texas Cowgirl at the Grand Plaza bar

Fans started to fill in their seats but I had to feel bad for the General Admission crowd although, for the most part, they seemed to take it in stride.

Mud Man - One of my favorites

The race started at 2pm local time and Lewis Hamilton won and became this season's driving champ - mostly by cutting off Nico Rosberg at the first turn (and a late race lockup by Nico didn't help his cause) - but you already know that. Hey! Don't get mad at me, I'm a Ferrari fan. OK, so maybe it's more complicated than that - Lewis got help from Vettel too.

Track Invasion Podium Ceremony

Lastly, you can see my pics at:  2015 USGP Austin Texas