Goodwood nostalgia

While I love the cars at Goodwood, one of the things which makes the Revival so atmospheric is the way most of the visitors come wearing clothes appropriate to the period between 1948 and 1966, when the circuit was in active use. This creates a wonderful feeling of nostalgia and I love lurking in the paddocks, people watching.

There are always familiar faces to be spotted in the paddocks - in this case former rally driver and broadcaster Tony Jardine, looking very dapper.

The rain at last year’s Revival made added some variety and made for some interesting scenes.

For the 2024 Revival I made a change to the camera kit I used. Normally I’d take a selection of prime lenses, but this time I spent most of my time using my 35-100mm f2.8mm zoom lens. This gives the look of a 70-200mm lens on and was perfect for capturing candid shots of people without being too intrusive.

I’d love to know what these two chaps were discussing!

This was snapped during a downpour when everyone dived into the paddock shelters. It’s one of my favourite photos from the weekend - so timeless and atmospheric.

I had to dodge the rain and the puddles to capture these two mechanic with their “don’t get in our way” expressions!

Motorsport fans are getting younger and younger!

Looking to the skies during one of the early morning air displays.

The work never stops for the Duke of Richmond…

A very stylish young lady.

Photos taken 6-8 September 2024

Hitting the streets of London

I don’t do as much street photography as before the pandemic, but it’s something I’d like to get back into when time allows. Last week I went into London to catch the end of the Paul McCartney photography exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and decided my focus for the rest of the day would be people watching.

I had a few minutes before my booked time to see the exhibition so I loitered for a while here, hoping for a good juxtaposition between the Anthony Gormley statue and the folks exiting the escalator.

After leaving the National Portrait Gallery I strolled back through London towards the city, making good use of the strong sunshine - perfect conditions for a spot of black and white photography.

Finally back at Liverpool Street I took a photo of Benson. He’s owned by a homeless chap called Mick who I regularly chat with here and I thought he might like a print of his pet to keep. Benson isn’t in the best of health but has defied all the vet’s dire predictions in recent months and is always happy to received some ear tickles whenever I stop by!

Photos taken 26 September 2023

Still searching

In one of my earlier posts I shared the photos from a day in London when I dipped my toes back into some street photography. That was in preparation for a workshop with Brian Duckett where we learned to shoot in the style of American street photographer Saul Leiter - the images from which I have for you here.

We gathered at a cinema cafe in Shaftsbury Avenue for a briefing and some guidance on the style we’d be aiming for. before walking down to Jermyn Street. Brian set us a series of assignments to shoot and here we were looking to play with reflections - in windows, cars and wherever else we might find them. Frustratingly there were many white vans in the street, along with workmen in high-vis jackets, which spoilt many of the reflections but I still found a few photos.

After lunch we moved on to Bond Street where our new challenge was to use things around to use as frames or as out of focus foreground colour and texture.

From there we walked on to Savile Row, where we hoped we might encounter some well dressed characters about town. The plan was to look for interesting details, such as stylish hats, shoes and the like. Naturally, all the well dressed folk had vanished but I did find one dapper looking chap inside one of the expensive shops.

Normally it’s typical to use a wide angle lens for street photography but Saul Leiter tended to use a longer focal length - often around 85mm, and frequently with a large aperture. I’d spend the day so far using a 75mm effective focal length but for the rest of the day I swapped to 135mm. This gave me a greater reach as the light faded and I found it really helpful for our final assigment.

Brian asked us to use shop fronts to shoot through, using colour and steamy windows to create layers as we walked through Chinatown and Soho.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

By the end of the day I had a much better idea of the style we’d been searching for. My photos from the workshop have some of the qualities we’d been looking for, but I can see my search for Saul Leiter’s elusive style will continue.

Photos taken 16 January 2023.