Aston Martin DBR1

Canon 10D 216mm equiv, 1/250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100
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Another car from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This 1957 Aston Martin scored 6 of the 8 international wins from '57-'59 that were made by this particular model. The wins included Goodwood TT's, Nürburgring 1000km and Le Mans.

Triumph Dolomite Sprint

Canon 10D 105mm equiv, 1/250 sec at f/4.5, ISO 200
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This is a 1974 Triumph Dolomite Sprint. This 235bhp Group 2 car set the 2 litre lap record of 99.92mph around the 1975 Silverstone TT.

I was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Friday, and it was class as always. In retrospect I didn't see as much as I could have. But this time it was purely on a photographic mission, and the main lesson was 'panning'.

I went with a couple of other guys who were keen on the photography side too, Terry allowed me to use his Canon 10D with EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. My opinion? Much easier to pick up and use than the Nikon D70. The actual photographs were very similar, possibly the Canon having a slight lead on the metering.

And Lewis used my little Fuji. We got covered in dust, expensive cameras and all. Kinda difficult to stay out of it when a Group A World Rally Car blasts sideways a few metres past you. But it was still good fun.

Problem...

Nikon D70 29mm equiv, 1/2000 sec at f/4.5, ISO 200
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He landed ok... just.

Reverse

Nikon D70 70mm equiv, 1/1000 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200
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I wish I hadn't chopped of part of his rear rim, but otherwise I like this.

Do you think the horizon should be straight?

Big Air

Nikon D70 29mm equiv, 1/2000 sec at f/5, ISO 200
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This was shot at Hengrove skate and bmx park in Bristol. The kid with the blue rim was Scott, and he was pretty good on a bike.

Bristol Biking

Nikon D70 112mm equiv, 1/100 sec at f/16, ISO 200
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Bristol's Biggest Bike Ride happened on Sunday, so I decided I'd get out in the scorching early morning / midday sun to try my panning skills with the D70.

Result? Bloody difficult. I realise that panning is something that you have to take time to really learn, but the screen on the D70 wasn't helping me much. I tried to zoom in on some shots I'd taken to check for blur in the wrong places and it was really hard to see. To be fair to the camera, it was very bright, but I felt it could have been better.

So as a result I ended up with many, many exposures in the recycle bin. But I did catch about 3 or 4 almost spot on. I was working in shutter priority, trying a multitude of shutter speeds to catch the right amount of background blur whilst still giving me a chance to track the subject and keep them sharp.

Mallards Pike

Nikon D70 28mm equiv, 1/80 sec at f/22, ISO 200
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This is the Mallards Pike lake in the Forest of Dean.

Fishing

Nikon D70 28mm equiv, 1/160 sec at f/11, ISO 200
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I borrowed a Nikon D70 from a friend (cheers Dave!) for the weekend. As the weather was amazing, Carole and I went for a drive around the Forest of Dean. We stopped off by a lake and I met these two lads out fishing. Malc and Stu were just pulling in a catch as I walked past.

I thought this would make a cool photograph with their bikes in the foreground. But the light was so harsh that it was tricky getting a decent exposure.

I think the D70 is a great camera, but I'm having to get used to it's metering system. Compared to my little Fuji it seems quite different.

Teenage Kicks Alt

65mm equiv, 1/100 sec at f/3, ISO 200
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Well Rock asked in the previous post, and he shall receive.

This is a crop (therefore with larger more visible grain), but in B&W the grain adds an element rather than detracting I think.

Teenage Kicks

126mm equiv, 1/110 sec at f/3.1, ISO 200
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His favorite song is Teenage Kicks by The Undertones. He sells the Big Issue in Bristol city centre on most days, and he'll probably sleep rough tonight.

Yellow Belly

79mm equiv, 1/10 sec at f/3, ISO 200
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Over on the Google Photoblogs Group there was a thread about clichéd photoblog shots. I thought I may as well add another flower pic to the billions out there. Although I can't claim it's anywhere near as professional as Alec's.

Severn Pano

35mm equiv, 1/20 sec at f/8, ISO 200
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Ok, so I've broken my own rules here. I don't think I've ever posted a pano on my blog, but saying as this one is a vertical pano I didn't think it would be too much of a problem. Also because it's a pano (roughly 22 mega-pixel final version) there's loads of detail so my usual 600 pixel image size doesn't do it justice. So this one is 800px.

The odd aspect ratio of most pano's means that they don't lend themselves to easy web presentation. Horizontal is obviously worst because it might mean that you have to scroll the page from left to right, but at least this way you might only have to scroll down (which you should be used to...)

If I were to critique myself, I'd say I like the composition of the previous photograph better, but like the inclusion of all the rocks in the foreground of this one. So much so I think I'm going to go for a re-shoot!

Severn

35mm equiv, 1/15 sec at f/8, ISO 200
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This is a bit bland, I tried to burn in the sky a fraction to add a little drama...but it still looks much tamer than I'd like.

Thanks to the comments below, I've now edited this photograph slightly. I've added an overall traditional s-shape curve in Photoshop to increase general contrast, and I've also added a seperate additional curve for the sky.

You can see the original here.

Any suggestions for improvement? (other than a re-shoot!)