Kodak Moments

Hi Bloggers!

Soo..I dabble in photography. I enjoy it and always take up opportunities to do new things and practice old ones. But I never thought of motorsport-photography, until I was asked along to the Calder Park track day with the guys.

I thought, what the heck!

So I did some research on techniques and looked at some photos and websites to get an idea of what I'd signed myself up for. It looked simple enough, but of course it's always different reading something as opposed to putting it into practise.

And having never done any motorsport-photography by the time the Calder track day came around, I was admittedly a little apprehensive.

Again, I thought, what the heck!

I charged my battery, packed up my Nikon D80, a new 8GB SD card (and of course a backup one in case I ran out of photos! I didn't) and my VR 18-200 lens then I was good to go. (What I had really needed to pack was lunch and a lot of ice-water and ice cream... Maybe even a mini freezer... It was a really hot day! But I digress...)

So I signed up as an official and got my totally cool fluro yellow jacket and went out to one of the corners on the race track. And...*Click* *Click* *Click*

At the end of the day, I had some 800 photos of cars! Then it hit me- the work wasn't over. After spending close to 7 hours out at Calder Park, the amount of work that lay ahead of me was akin to the Titanic! It was daunting, to say the least. Despite that, I buckled down and got to work. Deleting unwanted photos and editing the ones that were left. I think with some brutal cutting down I had a decent two-hundred-and-something photos. Not bad!

I think I'll definitely do it again, if for nothing else, then to improve!

For more photos check out:

FB: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=209889&id=604720428&l=ff05430df3

Or my DeviantART account: http://corporate-bum.deviantart.com/gallery/

Alright! Procrastination session over - back to study!

Mary

Winton Test & Tune

After a not so successful first outing (due to AFM failure), we decided to have another crack at Winton. This time at one of their Test & Tune track days.

Upon arrival we were surprised to find less than a dozen sport sedans and a few Formula Fords. However no complaints were heard from us especially considering we had three drivers sharing the one car and needed as much track time as we can possibly get.

The Subaru ran strongly throughout the course of the day. For a fairly standard car it drives quite well. However suspension, exhaust and ECU modifications are on the cards.

Overall it was quite an interesting day with a couple of amazing machines present including a Rally Spec Subaru Impreza STi and a Maserati GT3 coupe!

All whom had teams of mechanics with trailers of tools and spare parts...We, on the other hand had a small tool box with a ratchet, wrench and a couple of old screw drivers! But we were content with what he had and ended up having an excellent day!

Andrew

Winton Track Day

Having purely wanted to test the Subaru's reliability we journeyed out to Winton Raceway for the STi's debut...

Twice a year Winton runs a 'Fun Day' in which anyone above the age of 16 with a roadworthy car can jump into the drivers seat for some adrenaline packed fun in a safe-ish environment :-S

The day started off well with all temperatures reporting as per normal.

And with a wide variety of vehicles on track made it quite an interesting experience!!

However, the fun ran out during the third session with John in the passenger seat. A faulty AFM (airflow meter) had caused an ECU error which unfortunately ended our day very early.

So unfortunately John missed out from any track time that outing. And I can assure you that after traveling for more than 2 hours to get circuit, having car issues early in the day doesn't leave you in the best of moods!!

On the bright side though, once we replaced the faulty AFM the STi cleared all ECU error codes and ran better than it had previously.

Andrew