... and although the road circuit is in the next département to where I live in central France, my most memorable visits were in the mid-70s when they were mind-numbingly tiring trips by train, boat and coach with thousands of other British fans who made the annual pilgrimage to the home of the world's most famous sports car race. Getting there, spectating, eating, drinking, and getting back was a 72-hour test of stamina because you didn't want to sleep during the 24-hour race nor for the four hour build-up to the start... and it was always difficult to sleep getting there, and back, with the dubious combination of the "Brit abroad" and "his drinking habit."
For those interested in the cars, the race, and photography it is an opportunity for many camera techniques to be practised again and again as the cars circulate from the traditional four o' clock Saturday afternoon start, throughout the long June evening hours, eight hour night session with car's headlights blazing, and then the long, weary, daylight haul from dawn to the tension and excitement leading up to the 4pm Sunday afternoon finish.
The number of cars bunched together at high speed on the opening laps is frightening... when you witness these cars hurtling down the public road sections such as the Mulsanne Straight (otherwise known as the N138 between Le Mans and Château-du-Loir for the other 51 weeks of the year) at a regular 350 km/h (220 mph) in order to lap the 13,6 km circuit at an average of 250 km/h (155 mph) you get an idea of the spectacle. The fastest speed recorded through Les Hunaudières on the Mulsanne was in 1988 by a WM-Peugeot at a staggering 405 km/h (253 mph)... the trees lining both sides of the road must have been a blur to the drivers!
Which makes me think of a better technique of representing "speed" compared to the usual way of setting the fastest shutter speed on a camera in order to take sharp photos of the cars. I mean, your photos have got to be sharp haven't they? Well, actually, no! Not always that is. At any lengthy event you have plenty of opportunities to try different techniques... especially "panning" the camera with the cars as they pass by at speed and using different shutter speeds to achieve different amounts of blur. You will often see images and descriptions of this and similar techniques in Popular Photography & Imaging Magazine
and Photo Techniques Magazine
The 1978 race-winning Renault-Alpine A442/B was a photogenic subject in bright yellow, black and white... and being driven by the all French line-up of Didier Pironi, Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and Patrick Depailler drove the home fans wild... but I bet most of the half a million or more photographs taken of it were sharp - and probably rather ordinary. My technique was to picture the car in "action" by creating action with the camera too.
That year I attended the race with a pair of Leica M-4/2 and M-4/P rangefinder cameras rather than my Nikon outfit. I find it generally easier to photograph action sports with rangefinders because with a longer lens such as a 135 mm the viewfinder shows a field of view much wider than for that lens length so you can see any speeding subject coming into the area covered by that particular lens... and then click! It's much easier to do that describe.
For "moving" action shots of fast cars I use shutter speeds of between 1/15th and 1/60th of a second. As each car comes around again in well under four minutes, and the fastest ones complete 350 or more laps in 24-hours, there are plenty of opportunities to vary the camera's shutter speeds. The pair of images of the extraordinary Martini sponsored Porsche 935/78 - nicknamed "Moby Dick" - show this technique well... the left photo was taken at 1/250th of a second compared to the right photo taken at a 1/30th. The shot showing more motion (and emotion) was taken at three steps slower on the shutter speed dial... but what a difference in depicting action. The leading image taken at 1/15th probably shows too much bur but it is still effective because of the bright colour and highlight streaks from polished metal parts. Of course for every step slower shutter speed a one stop smaller aperture has to be set on the lens.
Of equal importance are the foreground and background elements which, being blurred themselves, not only add to the effect of speed but become less distracting for the viewer and so make the focal point of the image, the car, more prominent. In the left sharper image the eye wanders from the foreground Armco barrier to the background advertising banners, spectators and trees... not so with the moving picture.
These shots differ from my previous "Zooming around" image for two reasons. First the lens was a fixed focal length short telephoto - 135 mm - and not a zoom, and the deformation of the car's shape is due to the subject increasing in size as it got nearer to the camera position. And second, the speeds were much higher at Le Mans.... on this fast, sweeping corner, Virage Tertre Rouge, most drivers would drop down to 3rd/4th gear (of six) to balance their cars at around 240 km/h (150 mph) as they carve through the curve flat out to start the Mulsanne Straight and then rapidly accelerate to maximum speed. Of course you can try these camera shutter speed techniques at much lower speeds on your own street or road... but be prepared for some strange looks from your neighbours and passing motorists!
9:58:37 PM 
