Leica M8 at 2010 HSR Fall Classic at Sebring International Raceway......

[LeicaTom]

Well, after a 7 day (workday) wait my Leica M8 is back from Leica NJ and we both were off to shoot at the HSR Fall Classic at the world famous Sebring International Raceway 😀

I decided that I would use ONLY vintage Canon lenses today ~ so here's the line-up

1955 Canon f1.8/50mm - with IR/CUT filter
1967 Canon f1.2/50mm - without IR/CUT filter
1967 Canon f1.5/35mm - with IR/CUT filter

Weather conditions were PERFECT for racing, but NOT for Photogaphy, with super high cloud or no cloud at all, blazing white hot sun/ 0% shade and about
89 degrees. (time for sun-screen and lot's and lot's of water) I didn't even bother to break out the IIIC K Grey and real film, it was just too dammm hot to mess with real film, but this was a true TEST for my newly arrived M8.....

I didn't have time to make notes on which lenses were used at what time, but for the most part, I'll try to remember, this was all pretty much about getting a vintage 1960's styled signature/feeling in the work, it pretty much worked out in my favor..........please see for yourself 🙂

I started off with the f1.2/50mm as I remember......these shot around f4 to f5.6 something

Not the nicest thing to see at a race right off the bat, but sadly the Cab C's motor spun a crank (note the damaged dowels) and the team quickly swapped out the motor from the C coupe before the qualifications started.....I always like to photograph drama and "behind the scenes" shots of the teams struggling with a problem, just like back in the good ole' days.

Pretty much my ears are still ringing from all the great noise..........this is just a start of pics that I will post here tonight and the next following days, all shot with those three main Canon LTM lenses here at Sebring.

Enjoy!

Tom

PS: These photos are on the most part directly out of the camera with little to almost no postprocessing used.......

 

[-doomed-]

I hope to own a 356 one day -- when I hit the lottery

 

[robklurfield]

glad to see this cars getting driven fast. life's too short for trailer queens.

great shots, Tom. that C Coupe sure is a beauty.

 

[splitimageview]

Very nice, Tom!

While you are there, check out one of the entrants, a friend of mine that probably has a few cars there - the Moorespeed team.

 

[JayGannon]

I hope to own a 356 one day -- when I hit the lottery

Same here, amazing machines.

 

[LeicaTom]

.........Always having been a avid Porsche 356 fan since I was 5 years old, it's sad to see the amount of them gradlually leaving the track for good, whereas the 912/911 cars have replaced the Porsche presence at the vintage events in great numbers (great Porsches in their own write) here the 901 Shop's cars take off to stage on the back grid at turn 17 at Sebring yesterday........I still had the Canon f1.2/50mm on the M8 for these, somewhere between f4 and f8 in the harsh sunlight 😛

The 911's stage up with other cars for the first race (qualifying) as I could only get to Sebring yesterday, I photographed as much of the daytrime action as I could, (I missed the night race) ~ the tunrout of cars and teams was exceptionaly low this year due to the poor economy, many well known cars didn't show up, but dispite this some very nice cars made it.

One car that stood out for me in memory was this chrome yellow 1956 Porsche 356 A Speedster (ole' #59) that's been a race car since it's was made, the owner/driver laughed and said it's deadbeat slow as a rock with it's 1600 Super motor, but it's out there racing for it's looks and fun and that's what this vintage racing is all about 😀

Enjoy!

Tom

 

[popeye]

glad to see this cars getting driven fast. life's too short for trailer queens.

great shots, Tom. that C Coupe sure is a beauty.

The Coronado Speedfest was last month and I agree, it was exhilarating to cool cars drive fast and make ungodly noise from 25 feet!

 

[LeicaTom]

Very nice, Tom!

While you are there, check out one of the entrants, a friend of mine that probably has a few cars there - the Moorespeed team.

Moorespeed......why do they sound so familiar???? Do they race British cars???? I'm sure I've shot cars from them before.

Tom

 

[menos]

Tom, what a great set of these lovely Porsches!
I keep coming back for more photos!

I do loooooove motor racing, and immensely enjoy shooting motor sports.
It was only this year's Le Mans, that I dipped my toes into cold water at forcing myself, to shoot racing exclusively with Leica M cameras.

I loved it and will try to refine that with upcoming motor sports events.

It's a shame, you could not find a vintage tele photo, as the M8 really is wonderful to shoot with a 90 or 135 for motor sports.
It is amazing, what detail, you can squeeze out of the M8 sensor:

35mm at night:

90mm at dawn:

135mm during the day:

You must know quite something about classic cameras using at motor racing, as I have read through your portfolio - do you know of any source of finding more information, websites or even interesting photographers on the matter?

I am thriving with hunger for more about this!
The usual photo fora on the net don't exactly seem to cater this stuff to Leica M users - it's more landscape, hobby, house, garden, holiday, "street" (strange name) or fashion. Motor sports is not often connected with Leica cameras these days.

Keep the photos coming, always enjoying them ;-)

 

[splitimageview]

Moorespeed......why do they sound so familiar???? Do they race British cars???? I'm sure I've shot cars from them before.

Tom

No, Porsche...

 

[LeicaTom]

Tom, what a great set of these lovely Porsches!
I keep coming back for more photos!

I do loooooove motor racing, and immensely enjoy shooting motor sports.
It was only this year's Le Mans, that I dipped my toes into cold water at forcing myself, to shoot racing exclusively with Leica M cameras.

I loved it and will try to refine that with upcoming motor sports events.

It's a shame, you could not find a vintage tele photo, as the M8 really is wonderful to shoot with a 90 or 135 for motor sports.
It is amazing, what detail, you can squeeze out of the M8 sensor:

35mm at night:

90mm at dawn:

135mm during the day:

You must know quite something about classic cameras using at motor racing, as I have read through your portfolio - do you know of any source of finding more information, websites or even interesting photographers on the matter?

I am thriving with hunger for more about this!
The usual photo fora on the net don't exactly seem to cater this stuff to Leica M users - it's more landscape, hobby, house, garden, holiday, "street" (strange name) or fashion. Motor sports is not often connected with Leica cameras these days.

Keep the photos coming, always enjoying them ;-)

Dirk,

Great shots! ~ Shooting Le Mans has always been a dream of mine.....I would like to go shoot the Le Mans Classic 🙂

Ohh btw. did you get any clolor shots of the BMW "Art Car" before it blew up? ~ I'm a big fan if the Le Mans prepared BMW "Art Cars". 😀

Tom

 

[LeicaTom]

More Pix from Sebring HSR Historics 2010.......

More Pix from Sebring HSR Historics 2010.......

Here's some of the first racing (qualifying) with a mix of very kool cars, Porsche 911's, Lotus Elan, E-Jag, Shelby GT350 etc. etc.

I even got some action shots of a celebrity driver ~ Brian Johnson vocalist of everyone's favorite heavy band ACDC and his 1970 Royale RP4 ~ duking it out with a Lotus Elan on turn 17.........good times!
(Brian's wife Brenda also races as well, she drives a Bugeye Sprite)

It's been about almost two years since I shot my last vintage HSR race here at Sebring, the weather as I've said was perfect for racing and horrible for photography, I really did suprise myself on how well lite these turned out to be despite the crass ultra harsh midday sun.

Shooting at my favorite turn of the whole track (turn 17/Sunset Bend) or what was called the "Timer's Stand Bend" back in the 1960's ~ it's really a great spot, but still very dangerous as the cars come out of the back straight gearing down they are still doing 90 to 100mph + into the turn and I'm standing less then 35 feet away from the cars as they fly on by me......

And well, with any digital it seems that the shutter lag is a real pain (I'm used to shooting Sebring with real film and my Canon F-1 Mech and my old Leica M6).........Well, it took me a couple of rounds before I got the timing right enough to get the cars going full pull into the turn and in the entire frame.

I was using the Canon f1.5/35mm on these, stopped down from like f5.6 to f8 etc. ~ and I was able to get some sequence shots, shooting three fast photos and using the lenses DOF to capture the shots.....

Some of the photos have been cropped in post processing.......this lens is really a great combo on the M8 and I'm sure that it will go from being N.O.S. new to a "user" in no time 😉

The shots are ok, I wasn't happy with the type of FREEZE/STOP ACTION I got at 8000/sec, I didn't drag my shutter enough on these, but it's the first time shooting with a M8 doing this kind of work, I think with a few races behind me I might be able to reproduce the very kool 1960's action styled racing photographs.

Enjoy! 😀

Tom