Aus Time Attack took place at Wakefield Park once again this year. Special conditions were introduced to accomodate the current climate, of course, but overall the event ran well, the competitor turn-up was great and lap records were broken.
Unfortunately I could not be present in the morning and arrived at the track mid afternoon, managing to catch only the last couple hours of the event. For this reason, this piece will not take the automotive journalism approach and describe the day in detail. Matthew Everingham did this very well in this Speedhunters feature. Rather, I will share some of my favourite shots and briefly go through my photography process.
I must start with a few GT-R shots, cannot help myself.
By clearly capturing the track’s large sign we identify the location of the shot and can attribute some context to it right away. We can attribute further context when we notice the car that is the subject of the shot looks like a race car. The foreground (tyre and concrete barrier) gives a bit of mystery to the R33 by not revealing it in its entirety. But this also makes it difficult to convey movement as you cannot see body roll or spinning wheels. An acceptable compromise that makes it for a more creative shot in my opinion. Here, movement is conveyed quite clearly. The line of the kerb and the body roll are the giveaway. The haziness in the shot was achieved by shooting through a wire fence. Since it was an overcast and cold day, I felt like it added to the mood of the photo. It was shot on a 300mm tele at f/2.8. Now I need to learn Photoshop so next time I can respectfully erase my media friends glowing in the background.GT-R and GTS-25t – both great performers and beautiful cars in my opinion. The fence on the bottom right carries your eyes nicely to the Winefueled Nissan.
Some close ups as competitors were leaving the pits.
Nothing special from a photography point of view. Just two good looking time attack machines. Pit lane shots for me are one of my favourites as they deliver the feeling of expectation, of the racing that is about to take place.
And for some Honda love.
Shot at turn 1, using the concrete barrier as foreground. This was the first time I used my 300mm f/2.8 to shoot motorsports, so many of the images from the day came through it as I was keen to learn this lens. I bumped the red luminance on post to enhance the brake light glow and I think it came out nicely. Darren Heath, one of my favourite photographers, uses a bit of this and I try to use some of his work as inspiration as I learn. (By the way, his book series Art of The Race is highly recommended if you like motorsports photography or just F1 in general.) Using a sign on the left and a large amount of foreground to carry your eyes to the Integra. Cropped to Instagram story size 9:16.
A bit of radial filter.
I used a bit of Light Room’s radial filter to expose this FD as it left for the pits, while keeping everything else a bit more on the underexposed side. I like to keep my edits closer to natural and alter only very little when I can, as it gives a less artificial look to the images.
And for my favourite shot of the day – of course, GT-R 🙂
Purposefully exaggerated foreground, some overexposing, a touch of radial filter and a bit of haziness. Shot with the 1DX Mark ii and a 300mm wide open at f/2.8
Pack-up time
These two shots convey well the “end of the day” feeling. The afternoon light never disappoints: still casting a bit of shadows, but already soft and pleasing.
And that is that for this years Aus Time Attack. As I said, unfortunately I could not attend it from early morning, but I’m happy I managed to still be present and enjoy the atmosphere, even if only for a couple of hours. I hope you enjoyed some of the photos above too.
Frederico Estermann 