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Schumacher blows his engine in the last but one and (probably) decisive race.
I must not laugh.......... ...............................................................
Uaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaha!
Dedicated to all the stupid Ferrari fans around the world, but specially in Italy, that support a car and not a driver.
Having said this, I wouldn't dislike Fred and Flav to lose also.
Shit for shit, uncle Ron is the less worse, in my opinion! And Kimi is the best, if bad luck abandons him next year you'll see.
I rather wonder what's Renault intention: are they going to quit at the end of 2007? If no, this choice to have Fisico as N.1 would be crazy. Or is there Schumacher behind the corner? Naaaaah, at this point I don't think so.
"Schumacher blows his engine in the last but one and (probably) decisive race.
I must not laugh.......... ...............................................................
Uaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaha!
Dedicated to all the stupid Ferrari fans around the world, but specially in Italy, that support a car and not a driver."
It's not the first time I've been called stupid.......and I know it won't be the last !!!! ahhhhhhh, some of my stupid memories over the past 26 years..........
now where did I put those Arnoux, Tamaby, Rubinho, Irvine, Merzario, Lole and other pics....... oh well...... more proof of my supidity..................................'sigh
absolutely un-be-lievable, Murph. How did you take those pictures of Lauda and Schumacher?
Your kind permission to use the pic of Schumi should he become world champion.
Do you have your own Web site? I mean, this stuff is so amazing I'd fork out the money for server and domain name, but you don't need my money I guess ;)
Niki drove #12 in 1974 (all Red) I always liked the looks of the 1974 312B-3...... Niki won his first 2 GP's at Jarma and Zandvoort and Clay won at the Nurburgring.
In 1975 Niki also drove the #12 312-T ( T= transverse gearbox) and it had a white airbox. Niki won 5 GP's (Monaco, Belgium at Zolder, Sweden, France as Paul-Ricard, and the USGP at The Glen)...he had 9 poles that year including the first under 7 minutes at the Ring.... Clay won at Monza and Niki came in 3rd clinching his first WDC....I am sure Monza was rocking that day......
Do you have your own Web site? I mean, this stuff is so amazing I'd fork out the money for server and domain name, but you don't need my money I guess ;)
Back OFF RJ any talks must go through his manager!!!!
RJ.....I don't see "THAT" happening,but you are more than welcome to use the Michael shot...
My seats at Indy are right besides the Podium. Below me is the "Bull Pen" that is set up for the podium finishers to do interviews after the Peter Windsor "world feed" interviews are done. In hindsight, we know that Michael had decided to retire during the USGP weekend....and he was obviously very pleased with his dominate win at Indy...... I called down to him and he looked up with a huge smile and I got the pic.......
from that same location....
Michael pulling in after winning the race...
I called out to Massa as he was moving from behind the podium to face the crowd...
spraying the bubbly...
as far as "track action" pics from that seat....this view is it.....that is why I run around like a madman on Friday & Saturday for different angles.......Friday will be alot easier next year with the new testing agreement...
As for Niki...I am asuming you are talking about the pic of him setting up his T-car in 1974. Watkins Glen had at the time "THE" state of the art garage facilities for F1..... the Kendall Garage. There was a spectators pathway thru the middle of the garage and each team had a number of stalls on either side.....reminds me of a barn with seperate stalls for the animals..... the garage was open 24/7 and it was very popular with us fans....... anyway I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for that picture....
For the pick of Niki on the grid in 1975...... I parked my fat ass across from the grid and used a 400mm with a 2x converter..... was able to get some good pics of Niki, Emmo, and J. P. Jarier in the UOP Shadow.... but I haven't been able to digitalize most of my slides from the '70's & 80's...... my son-in-law is "fixing" my main computer ( he has been working on it since June........ but since my grand daughter Taite was born he has a good excuse....) and once I get it back I want to start working on some Jacques Laffite and Ligier pics....
Murph, i'm sure all of us would LOVE some advice on what type of camera to buy to get such good shots.... is a digital SLR with say 8+ megapixel resolution enough? Are the $2000 SLR Canon jobbies any good?
What lenses?? How the hell do you take shots and manage to blur the background yet the car is still sharp? How do you get the car in the centre of the shot with it moving so fast???
I've got plenty of shots of the car leaving the shot, or not quite there.... how the hell do you get it right?
Murph, I don't think you are a stupid! I think simply that in the years you supported Ickx, Lauda, Gilles, René, Michele, and so on......
As I did with Gilles, René, Alain, Nigel, Gerhard, Damon, Mika, Jacques, Juan Pablo, and now Kimi.
I was a "ferrari fan" as well back in 1989, 1990, and again in 1993-95 at the Alesi-Berger times, and I will be again next year with Kimi.
Simply, I cannot manage to conceive how can one support a car, irrespective of the pilots that drive it: FOrmula 1 is not a team sport like football, soccer, basketball (and even then, you may not like at all the players playing for your team....), Formula 1, at the heart of it, despite all the organization behind it, is an individual sport, it is a driver against another driver, like tennis, or like fencing. That's why I've always been ready to follow my favourite drivers whatever team they drove for, I've even been ready to support Flav's Benetton when Alesi and Berger joined it.
Really I didn't mean to offend you, but I just think that in the years you've liked the drivers, not Ferrari. I'm ready to bet that you have tons of pictures also of Nelson, Ayrton, Mika, and that you loved them, even though they never drove Ferrari.....
As for Michael Schumacher, we simply don't share the passion for him......
Neil, you know I like you, and we share our political opinions and Minardi, but concerning soccer and Ferrari we are really on the opposite sides.........:-))))))))))
Originally posted by MinardiP1 Murph, i'm sure all of us would LOVE some advice on what type of camera to buy to get such good shots.... is a digital SLR with say 8+ megapixel resolution enough? Are the $2000 SLR Canon jobbies any good?
What lenses?? How the hell do you take shots and manage to blur the background yet the car is still sharp? How do you get the car in the centre of the shot with it moving so fast???
I've got plenty of shots of the car leaving the shot, or not quite there.... how the hell do you get it right?
P1
let me throw my opinion(s) toward ya..........but please understand that these are just my "insights" and "opinions"....
I learned this the hard way.....the key to any type of photography is the lens...... sharpness and speed ! That is why I now use Canon ( I had a Nikon kit..... F1000 for film plus a 80-400 zoom...still have it but don't use it).... I have 2 Canon bodies, a "pro" one (EOS Mark II) and a Canon 10D..... The 10D has been upgraded to I "think" the 30D and it is very close to my "pro" model.....also I can tell you that Ger used my 10D at Spa and at Imola and he had some good pics with it....and if ya really knew Ger you would see that it musn't be THAT HARD to do..........I would guess that the price for a 30D body would be around $1000+ US....
For a lens (or lenses) for shooting motorsports...... I use the Canon 400mm/5.6 lens and also use their Canon 1.4x teleconverter...... this allows me to shoot thru a fence and NOT see the fencing..... I am guessing that if you went to Melbourne for the GP you would have to shoot thru fencing..... another option I just started to use this year is the Canon 300mm/f4 lens with their 2x teleconverter..... the 1.4 teleconverter is so sharp and I was really surprised just how sharp the 2x is as well....
prices for each lens is around $1200-1500 US and the teleconverter run about $300 each.... so a camera body with one of the lenses and one of the teleconverters will come to around $2500 US....... BUT...... you will want to get Photoshop so you can really play with your pictures...and that is expensive (I paid around $600 US for mine plus I took a 4 day course on how to use it...)........... plus you will have to buy a couple compact flash cards as well.... I bought a couple of 2gig cards before I went to Monza and paid about $75 apiece for them....but that is a steal because when I shot slides I would pay about $13 a roll including developing so if I shot 10 rolls (360 slides) it cost me $130..... and if/when I screwed up a shot I didn't know about until I got my slides back 2 weeks later.....the great thing about digital is ya check your "shot" right after ya tok it....if ya screwed it up you simply trash it and shoot another....and I have been using the same flash cards for the past 3 years so in the long run digital is cheaper than slides ............... it is just that the initial expense is pretty daunting.....but I am retired and I know my son-in-law is already making plans on how he is going to spend my $$$ when I am gone so my "game" is to spend it NOW !!!!
I believe that you are talking about "panning"...... to get the car "sharp" you have to set a fairly fast shutter speed and pretend that your camera is a rifle and follow the car as it crosses in front of you and pull the trigger.... as you shoot the pic you keep panning/following the car..... I screw these up all the time ( jerking the lens, panning too slow and cutting the car in half, panning to fast and cutting the car in half.....) but I check the shot, see what I did wrong, and wait for the car to come around again..... when I first started to take pics I would pull off the side of a highway and "practice" with traffic..BUT... in todays world I'm not so sure I would want to do that....
hope this helps...if you need any advice just email me
Originally posted by Ger Murph the third shot down in the last pics. The great one - do you remember if he recovered the slide? Oh the manager is grateful for AS!
Hey Ger
This pic of Gilles was taken at Mosport Park at Gilles Ferrari debut in 1977....... Gilles lost it going into corner 10.....ya can see the pit road towards his right..... if you take a close look you will be able to read GOODYEAR on both the front and rear tires as he was just coming to a stop....what I like about the pic is you just see the bottom of a Kodak Ad which sez "shoot a winner"....... and looking back it is very afe to say in Gilles case, I did....
One of my favorite Gilles pic is in the first grouping..it is the 6th from the bottom........That pic was taken at Montreal in what is now known as the hairpin....the colors are so vivid as I shot this on Kodachrome.....what i like is that I shot at a very slow shutter speed which give the pic a sense of speed and fury....you have to look real clearly but the only part of the pic that is in prefect focus is his eyes...... to me this is what Gilles was all about.... I wish I could replicate this shot today but so far it ain't happening.............
have a safe trip from Dublin....the Little Debs, Major Dickinson, and Mark are on their way.........
Don't know if you had seen my pics on here from Montreal this year but they were with a canon digital rebel with a 300mm lens. Good to know the teleconvertor works pretty well as I have been thinking about getting one. I got lucky where I was sitting, the hairpin was far enough away from me so I could shoot over the fencing. This will come in handy when I go to the houston champ car race or other F1 gp's.
Heres a recommendation for others shooting, a monopod works great for those of us who don't have the steadiest of hands, makes me have to delete less of my pics. Plus they make some nice light carbon fibre monopods now.
Originally posted by manlio27 Simply, I cannot manage to conceive how can one support a car, irrespective of the pilots that drive it: FOrmula 1 is not a team sport like football, soccer, basketball (and even then, you may not like at all the players playing for your team....), Formula 1, at the heart of it, despite all the organization behind it, is an individual sport, it is a driver against another driver, like tennis, or like fencing. That's why I've always been ready to follow my favourite drivers whatever team they drove for, I've even been ready to support Flav's Benetton when Alesi and Berger joined it.
Really I didn't mean to offend you
Manilo27
Here is one of my typical long-winded novels...... my attempt is to show you where I am "coming from"....
One of the things I have sorta figured out in my dotage is that many times we judge others beliefs/attitudes based on our own life experiences and background.......
My background is as an educator (History) and a athletic coach.... I was a Football ( American football..... Offensive line....inside linebacker most of the time) and Basketball Coach (major emphasis was on Defense...half-court man to man traps...weakside help....full court "run and jump"...stuff like that...) In other words, I was into the "team" concept...success= instruction+gameplans+adaptability and a love of history....
My first exposure to International motorsports "in the Flesh" was the Watkins Glen 6-Hours for Prototypes in 1970....Ferrari 512M, Porsche 917, Alfa T33/3, Matra-Simca's.... prototype racing was a "team sport" (the old "you are as strong as your weakest link").... I loved that era of motorsports.... In 1972 I went to my first CanAm race at Mosport Park...CanAm was a "team" sport for the McLaren Team (Hulme & Revson) but all the other major players were single entry's such as George Follmer for Porsche when Donahue was hurt and Jackie Oliver for the UOP Shadow....
Formula 1 was different when I saw my first F1 race, the 1972 Canadian GP at Mosport Park. This is the "individualists" ( my word) sport that you see as F1... .. Teams were small and basically it was everyman for himself ( except Tyrrell as Cevert was more than happy to be JYS's wingman).... I saw F1 then as a sort of ground base WW1 fighter pilot world..... aces vs.aces...... I enjoyed watching JYS (he won in Canada).... I met Niki Lauda when I snuck into the pits.... I was totally blown away by the sound of the Matra V12 of Chris Amon.....the blood-red Ferrari's ......but I camped right next to a number of Italians who were living/working in the Toronto area..... ferrari fans all...........and spending time with them AND being an American (see that Emmo !) of Irish heritage ( I know very little of the details but I was taught that my family left Ireland because of some problems they had with the English authorities) I saw that the number of non-English teams was pretty small (Ferrari...Matra....Martini Techno)...... throw in the History of the Scuderia Ferrari and that I was a History teacher...it was a natural fit.... From that point on I have always followed Ferrari.....
Let me add something else here......your view of F1 being an individualist sport at this time is one I can agree with...the reason was very simple..this Era was known as the "KIT-CAR ERA"..... as long as you had a Cosworth V8 and a Hewland gearbox you were in business..... Brabham, Tyrrell, Lotus, McLaren, Williams, and later Shaddow, Ensign, and on and on..... BRM and Matra were V12 but they were headed for extinction..... Some teams had 2 drivers...some had 3 or 4...some were one car teams..... the drivers were on pretty equal footing..... in 1972 there were 12 World Champioship races with 5 winners...Fittipaldi, Stewart, Hulme, Ickx, and Beltoise.....
To me... the end of this "Individualist" f1 came about for 2 reasons...and the key year was 1977......it was the begining of the end......
1) Renault introduced the turbo to f1..... I remember seeing a photo of the renault team in 1977..... over 75+ people in the team which was an astonishing number compared to the 15-25 members in many of the teams... When Ferrari finally went turbo in 1981 then everybody started to look for engine partners.... and the flood gates opened.... team personal just exploded on the engine front... Plus Gordon Murray pushes the envelope even more by introducing pit stops.... and tire changes..... the era of a driver being successfull by babying his tires (Prost) will over time become a lost art..... By the way, before people start waxing away with nostalgia on the "Turbo Era"....please remember that it quickly developed into a fuel run era.......to slow down the cars (and keep most of the manufacturers from bolting the sport) the FIA regulated the amount of race fuel a car could have....I remember Senna on a couple of occassions running out of fuel with 3-4 laps remaining in a race....
2) Aerodynamics arrives with the Lotus 78 in 1977 and explodes in 1978 when Mario wins the WDC....Patrick Head and Williams pushes the envelope even further.... result is teams expand even more......by the way Colin Chapman makes "team orders" a part of his drivers contracts and Ronnie Peterson had to play the role of #2.
The greatest Motorsports journalist of my day was Dennis Jenkinson (DSJ) who wrote for Motor Sport in the 60's-thru early 1990's... He once argued that the Formula One Drivers' World Championship had served its purpose and with modern Formula One, it was outdated....He stated in 1992 that by the year 2000 that the only title should be that of "Formula One Team World Championship, because winning is a collective effort by dozens, if not hundreds, of scientists, engineers, mechanics, electricians, and key personnel, only one of which has the status of driver."
Today Sir Frank and Uncle Ron put as much stalk in winning the Team Championship as they do with the WDC..... and Renault and Ferrari are not too far behind......
Now I do follow more than just Ferrari.... obviouslsy I am a Minardi fan..... and because of the people I know who are still with Toro Rosso, I follow them as well. As for drivers...... as Mark Weber agreed with me when we talked at Monza..."Once a Minardi driver , ALWAYS a Minardi driver"..... that has been the same philosophy with Ferrari since I started following them....every once in a while there will be a gathering of drivers of the past with their race cars at Maranello..... Over the years I have also followed other drivers..... and for various reasons..... Super Swede, Elio de Angelis, Jacques Laffite, "Our Nige" (who I met at Montreal when I had a "pass" and ran into him after one of his many blow ups with Peter Warr), Vittorio Brambilla, and Stefan Bellof all got the blood flowing...... but no matter what F1 venue I am at and no matter which driver I'm a fan of on that particular day...... the heart beats just a tad quicker when a Ferrari comes my way..........
As far as offending me....... don't worry about that at all........... just ask Ger and Quig after Minardifest 2006.....I've been voted most likely to "offend" then be the one "offended"..... hahahahaha
Comments
........ of course, premature ejaculation COULD be of some concern........
ciao
[Edited on 10-10-06 by Murph]
[Edited on 10-10-06 by Murph]
I must not laugh..........
...............................................................
Uaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaha!
Dedicated to all the stupid Ferrari fans around the world, but specially in Italy, that support a car and not a driver.
Having said this, I wouldn't dislike Fred and Flav to lose also.
Shit for shit, uncle Ron is the less worse, in my opinion! And Kimi is the best, if bad luck abandons him next year you'll see.
I rather wonder what's Renault intention: are they going to quit at the end of 2007? If no, this choice to have Fisico as N.1 would be crazy. Or is there Schumacher behind the corner? Naaaaah, at this point I don't think so.
"Schumacher blows his engine in the last but one and (probably) decisive race.
I must not laugh..........
...............................................................
Uaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaha!
Dedicated to all the stupid Ferrari fans around the world, but specially in Italy, that support a car and not a driver."
It's not the first time I've been called stupid.......and I know it won't be the last !!!! ahhhhhhh, some of my stupid memories over the past 26 years..........
now where did I put those Arnoux, Tamaby, Rubinho, Irvine, Merzario, Lole and other pics....... oh well...... more proof of my supidity..................................'sigh
[Edited on 11-10-06 by Murph]
[Edited on 11-10-06 by Murph]
Your kind permission to use the pic of Schumi should he become world champion.
Do you have your own Web site? I mean, this stuff is so amazing I'd fork out the money for server and domain name, but you don't need my money I guess ;)
In 1975 Niki also drove the #12 312-T ( T= transverse gearbox) and it had a white airbox. Niki won 5 GP's (Monaco, Belgium at Zolder, Sweden, France as Paul-Ricard, and the USGP at The Glen)...he had 9 poles that year including the first under 7 minutes at the Ring.... Clay won at Monza and Niki came in 3rd clinching his first WDC....I am sure Monza was rocking that day......
Amazing!
My seats at Indy are right besides the Podium. Below me is the "Bull Pen" that is set up for the podium finishers to do interviews after the Peter Windsor "world feed" interviews are done. In hindsight, we know that Michael had decided to retire during the USGP weekend....and he was obviously very pleased with his dominate win at Indy...... I called down to him and he looked up with a huge smile and I got the pic.......
from that same location....
Michael pulling in after winning the race...
I called out to Massa as he was moving from behind the podium to face the crowd...
spraying the bubbly...
as far as "track action" pics from that seat....this view is it.....that is why I run around like a madman on Friday & Saturday for different angles.......Friday will be alot easier next year with the new testing agreement...
As for Niki...I am asuming you are talking about the pic of him setting up his T-car in 1974. Watkins Glen had at the time "THE" state of the art garage facilities for F1..... the Kendall Garage. There was a spectators pathway thru the middle of the garage and each team had a number of stalls on either side.....reminds me of a barn with seperate stalls for the animals..... the garage was open 24/7 and it was very popular with us fans....... anyway I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for that picture....
For the pick of Niki on the grid in 1975...... I parked my fat ass across from the grid and used a 400mm with a 2x converter..... was able to get some good pics of Niki, Emmo, and J. P. Jarier in the UOP Shadow.... but I haven't been able to digitalize most of my slides from the '70's & 80's...... my son-in-law is "fixing" my main computer ( he has been working on it since June........ but since my grand daughter Taite was born he has a good excuse....) and once I get it back I want to start working on some Jacques Laffite and Ligier pics....
ciao
ey ger, these pics are so good, they're public heritage. if you're his manager DO SOMETHING!
and let me throw one in for my "manager"..... Detroit 1986
ciao
Great pics though.
What lenses?? How the hell do you take shots and manage to blur the background yet the car is still sharp? How do you get the car in the centre of the shot with it moving so fast???
I've got plenty of shots of the car leaving the shot, or not quite there.... how the hell do you get it right?
I am proud to be a stupid man and I am changing my below signature!
As I did with Gilles, René, Alain, Nigel, Gerhard, Damon, Mika, Jacques, Juan Pablo, and now Kimi.
I was a "ferrari fan" as well back in 1989, 1990, and again in 1993-95 at the Alesi-Berger times, and I will be again next year with Kimi.
Simply, I cannot manage to conceive how can one support a car, irrespective of the pilots that drive it: FOrmula 1 is not a team sport like football, soccer, basketball (and even then, you may not like at all the players playing for your team....), Formula 1, at the heart of it, despite all the organization behind it, is an individual sport, it is a driver against another driver, like tennis, or like fencing. That's why I've always been ready to follow my favourite drivers whatever team they drove for, I've even been ready to support Flav's Benetton when Alesi and Berger joined it.
Really I didn't mean to offend you, but I just think that in the years you've liked the drivers, not Ferrari. I'm ready to bet that you have tons of pictures also of Nelson, Ayrton, Mika, and that you loved them, even though they never drove Ferrari.....
As for Michael Schumacher, we simply don't share the passion for him......
Neil, you know I like you, and we share our political opinions and Minardi, but concerning soccer and Ferrari we are really on the opposite sides.........:-))))))))))
Thanks for the pic of Nige.
(if Gilles saved THAT then he was even better than we all thought)
manlio do not worry, at least your comments brought out these wonderful photos...
Forza Ferrari and Forza AC Milan !!! :P;)
P1
let me throw my opinion(s) toward ya..........but please understand that these are just my "insights" and "opinions"....
I learned this the hard way.....the key to any type of photography is the lens...... sharpness and speed ! That is why I now use Canon ( I had a Nikon kit..... F1000 for film plus a 80-400 zoom...still have it but don't use it).... I have 2 Canon bodies, a "pro" one (EOS Mark II) and a Canon 10D..... The 10D has been upgraded to I "think" the 30D and it is very close to my "pro" model.....also I can tell you that Ger used my 10D at Spa and at Imola and he had some good pics with it....and if ya really knew Ger you would see that it musn't be THAT HARD to do..........I would guess that the price for a 30D body would be around $1000+ US....
For a lens (or lenses) for shooting motorsports...... I use the Canon 400mm/5.6 lens and also use their Canon 1.4x teleconverter...... this allows me to shoot thru a fence and NOT see the fencing..... I am guessing that if you went to Melbourne for the GP you would have to shoot thru fencing..... another option I just started to use this year is the Canon 300mm/f4 lens with their 2x teleconverter..... the 1.4 teleconverter is so sharp and I was really surprised just how sharp the 2x is as well....
prices for each lens is around $1200-1500 US and the teleconverter run about $300 each.... so a camera body with one of the lenses and one of the teleconverters will come to around $2500 US....... BUT...... you will want to get Photoshop so you can really play with your pictures...and that is expensive (I paid around $600 US for mine plus I took a 4 day course on how to use it...)........... plus you will have to buy a couple compact flash cards as well.... I bought a couple of 2gig cards before I went to Monza and paid about $75 apiece for them....but that is a steal because when I shot slides I would pay about $13 a roll including developing so if I shot 10 rolls (360 slides) it cost me $130..... and if/when I screwed up a shot I didn't know about until I got my slides back 2 weeks later.....the great thing about digital is ya check your "shot" right after ya tok it....if ya screwed it up you simply trash it and shoot another....and I have been using the same flash cards for the past 3 years so in the long run digital is cheaper than slides ............... it is just that the initial expense is pretty daunting.....but I am retired and I know my son-in-law is already making plans on how he is going to spend my $$$ when I am gone so my "game" is to spend it NOW !!!!
I believe that you are talking about "panning"...... to get the car "sharp" you have to set a fairly fast shutter speed and pretend that your camera is a rifle and follow the car as it crosses in front of you and pull the trigger.... as you shoot the pic you keep panning/following the car..... I screw these up all the time ( jerking the lens, panning too slow and cutting the car in half, panning to fast and cutting the car in half.....) but I check the shot, see what I did wrong, and wait for the car to come around again..... when I first started to take pics I would pull off the side of a highway and "practice" with traffic..BUT... in todays world I'm not so sure I would want to do that....
hope this helps...if you need any advice just email me
m.robert@comcast.net
ciao
This pic of Gilles was taken at Mosport Park at Gilles Ferrari debut in 1977....... Gilles lost it going into corner 10.....ya can see the pit road towards his right..... if you take a close look you will be able to read GOODYEAR on both the front and rear tires as he was just coming to a stop....what I like about the pic is you just see the bottom of a Kodak Ad which sez "shoot a winner"....... and looking back it is very afe to say in Gilles case, I did....
One of my favorite Gilles pic is in the first grouping..it is the 6th from the bottom........That pic was taken at Montreal in what is now known as the hairpin....the colors are so vivid as I shot this on Kodachrome.....what i like is that I shot at a very slow shutter speed which give the pic a sense of speed and fury....you have to look real clearly but the only part of the pic that is in prefect focus is his eyes...... to me this is what Gilles was all about.... I wish I could replicate this shot today but so far it ain't happening.............
have a safe trip from Dublin....the Little Debs, Major Dickinson, and Mark are on their way.........
ciao
Don't know if you had seen my pics on here from Montreal this year but they were with a canon digital rebel with a 300mm lens. Good to know the teleconvertor works pretty well as I have been thinking about getting one. I got lucky where I was sitting, the hairpin was far enough away from me so I could shoot over the fencing. This will come in handy when I go to the houston champ car race or other F1 gp's.
Heres a recommendation for others shooting, a monopod works great for those of us who don't have the steadiest of hands, makes me have to delete less of my pics. Plus they make some nice light carbon fibre monopods now.
Here is one of my typical long-winded novels...... my attempt is to show you where I am "coming from"....
One of the things I have sorta figured out in my dotage is that many times we judge others beliefs/attitudes based on our own life experiences and background.......
My background is as an educator (History) and a athletic coach.... I was a Football ( American football..... Offensive line....inside linebacker most of the time) and Basketball Coach (major emphasis was on Defense...half-court man to man traps...weakside help....full court "run and jump"...stuff like that...) In other words, I was into the "team" concept...success= instruction+gameplans+adaptability and a love of history....
My first exposure to International motorsports "in the Flesh" was the Watkins Glen 6-Hours for Prototypes in 1970....Ferrari 512M, Porsche 917, Alfa T33/3, Matra-Simca's.... prototype racing was a "team sport" (the old "you are as strong as your weakest link").... I loved that era of motorsports.... In 1972 I went to my first CanAm race at Mosport Park...CanAm was a "team" sport for the McLaren Team (Hulme & Revson) but all the other major players were single entry's such as George Follmer for Porsche when Donahue was hurt and Jackie Oliver for the UOP Shadow....
Formula 1 was different when I saw my first F1 race, the 1972 Canadian GP at Mosport Park. This is the "individualists" ( my word) sport that you see as F1... .. Teams were small and basically it was everyman for himself ( except Tyrrell as Cevert was more than happy to be JYS's wingman).... I saw F1 then as a sort of ground base WW1 fighter pilot world..... aces vs.aces...... I enjoyed watching JYS (he won in Canada).... I met Niki Lauda when I snuck into the pits.... I was totally blown away by the sound of the Matra V12 of Chris Amon.....the blood-red Ferrari's ......but I camped right next to a number of Italians who were living/working in the Toronto area..... ferrari fans all...........and spending time with them AND being an American (see that Emmo !) of Irish heritage ( I know very little of the details but I was taught that my family left Ireland because of some problems they had with the English authorities) I saw that the number of non-English teams was pretty small (Ferrari...Matra....Martini Techno)...... throw in the History of the Scuderia Ferrari and that I was a History teacher...it was a natural fit.... From that point on I have always followed Ferrari.....
Let me add something else here......your view of F1 being an individualist sport at this time is one I can agree with...the reason was very simple..this Era was known as the "KIT-CAR ERA"..... as long as you had a Cosworth V8 and a Hewland gearbox you were in business..... Brabham, Tyrrell, Lotus, McLaren, Williams, and later Shaddow, Ensign, and on and on..... BRM and Matra were V12 but they were headed for extinction..... Some teams had 2 drivers...some had 3 or 4...some were one car teams..... the drivers were on pretty equal footing..... in 1972 there were 12 World Champioship races with 5 winners...Fittipaldi, Stewart, Hulme, Ickx, and Beltoise.....
To me... the end of this "Individualist" f1 came about for 2 reasons...and the key year was 1977......it was the begining of the end......
1) Renault introduced the turbo to f1..... I remember seeing a photo of the renault team in 1977..... over 75+ people in the team which was an astonishing number compared to the 15-25 members in many of the teams... When Ferrari finally went turbo in 1981 then everybody started to look for engine partners.... and the flood gates opened.... team personal just exploded on the engine front... Plus Gordon Murray pushes the envelope even more by introducing pit stops.... and tire changes..... the era of a driver being successfull by babying his tires (Prost) will over time become a lost art..... By the way, before people start waxing away with nostalgia on the "Turbo Era"....please remember that it quickly developed into a fuel run era.......to slow down the cars (and keep most of the manufacturers from bolting the sport) the FIA regulated the amount of race fuel a car could have....I remember Senna on a couple of occassions running out of fuel with 3-4 laps remaining in a race....
2) Aerodynamics arrives with the Lotus 78 in 1977 and explodes in 1978 when Mario wins the WDC....Patrick Head and Williams pushes the envelope even further.... result is teams expand even more......by the way Colin Chapman makes "team orders" a part of his drivers contracts and Ronnie Peterson had to play the role of #2.
The greatest Motorsports journalist of my day was Dennis Jenkinson (DSJ) who wrote for Motor Sport in the 60's-thru early 1990's... He once argued that the Formula One Drivers' World Championship had served its purpose and with modern Formula One, it was outdated....He stated in 1992 that by the year 2000 that the only title should be that of "Formula One Team World Championship, because winning is a collective effort by dozens, if not hundreds, of scientists, engineers, mechanics, electricians, and key personnel, only one of which has the status of driver."
Today Sir Frank and Uncle Ron put as much stalk in winning the Team Championship as they do with the WDC..... and Renault and Ferrari are not too far behind......
Now I do follow more than just Ferrari.... obviouslsy I am a Minardi fan..... and because of the people I know who are still with Toro Rosso, I follow them as well. As for drivers...... as Mark Weber agreed with me when we talked at Monza..."Once a Minardi driver , ALWAYS a Minardi driver"..... that has been the same philosophy with Ferrari since I started following them....every once in a while there will be a gathering of drivers of the past with their race cars at Maranello..... Over the years I have also followed other drivers..... and for various reasons..... Super Swede, Elio de Angelis, Jacques Laffite, "Our Nige" (who I met at Montreal when I had a "pass" and ran into him after one of his many blow ups with Peter Warr), Vittorio Brambilla, and Stefan Bellof all got the blood flowing...... but no matter what F1 venue I am at and no matter which driver I'm a fan of on that particular day...... the heart beats just a tad quicker when a Ferrari comes my way..........
As far as offending me....... don't worry about that at all........... just ask Ger and Quig after Minardifest 2006.....I've been voted most likely to "offend" then be the one "offended"..... hahahahaha
take care
ciao
How does the teleconverter work? How does it remove a fence from a shot? Does it just shoot what's at a particular distance you pre set?
The fences are right in my line of sight at Melbourne, so such a device would be a great idea.