Header photo: LeMans (A LeMans Endurance racer) by photographer Andy79 

Andy79 is a hobbyist photographer with more than 4 years of experience who is based in Essex, United Kingdom. His work has been published multiple times in calendars, magazines and newspapers. 

In addition to his passion for motorsports photography, Andy also works in a variety of other photographic shoot styles within model photography (including lingerie, swimwear, nude, cosplay and fantasy) as well as landscape and wildlife photography.  

After recently sharing his photoshoot (at the SilverStone Festival) with the PurplePort community, Andy generously gave us his time for a quick interview to go into more detail about his shoot.

Check out the fabulous images he created and find out what inspired Andy for the shoot, how he planned it, the camera gear and settings he used to capture these fabulous sports cars moving at great speed, and more.

Racing legends (Classic Sports cars racing at Silverstone) by photographer Andy79 

SHARE A SHOOT with PurplePort photographer Andy79 

Did anything inspire you for this shoot?

I help run a car club for Porsche 911 owners. We were attending the Silverstone Festival as a club, and I was going to photograph all of our cars on display at the event.

In addition to having our cars on display, we also had a session on track between the touring car race and the classic Formula 1 race. As I was going to be there for the event to photograph the club's cars, I thought I would make the most of it and shoot the other cars out on the race track and in the pits.

I have been attending the event for 6 years so far with my own car and have taken a lot of photos of cars on display. But I have never really got great shots of the cars out on track. Many of my photos were taken with my phone.

Jacques Villeneuve's Williams F1 car by photographer Andy79 

Even when I did start taking my DSLR, the photos really hadn't done the racing justice and lacked the feeling of speed and the excitement at the event seeing those classic sports cars flying around the track flat out.

Having done several track days myself, experiencing the speed and watching racing at various tracks since I was a child, I love the sights, sounds and atmosphere at a race track. I was disappointed that my previous photos didn't really convey that.

So this year, I was determined to change that and get photos that really captured the event and the feeling of speed.

Silverstone Festival by photographer Andy79 

What did you do to plan the shoot?

In planning the shoot, I had a good idea of what to expect from my previous visits to Silverstone. Over the years, I have learnt the best spots to see the action on the track, where the likely overtaking points are, where people are most likely to have a crash, where you get the best views, etc.

The key thing was making sure I was in the right place at the right time for my favourite cars. There were 10 races during the day, all pretty much back to back, so I had to choose which races to shoot and when to visit the pits and also fit in the photography I was supposed to be doing for the car club.

On my list to shoot was the GT race (Lamborghinis, Porsche GT3 and GT4s, Ferraris, etc). The endurance racers from Lemans always look amazing, so they had to be on my list, as did the classic GTs. You have to love seeing Jaguar E types and AC Cobras going full speed around a track.

Ferrari (Ferrari in the paddock at Silverstone before the GT Endurance race) by photographer Andy79 

Touring cars were also on my list of 'must shoot'. Unfortunately, they were on track immediately before my own session on track in my 911, so I couldn't photograph those as I would be in my car waiting to go out while they were on. Also on my list of absolute must-shoot cars were the classic Formula 1 cars.

I planned to start the morning by getting all the shots for my car club first. Then I would move to the National Pits to get some shots there of some of the really old classic cars and do my session on track, leaving the afternoon free to shoot all of my favourite cars racing on the track and go into the Formula 1 pits for some shots there.

The only problem was that the Classic Formula 1 race was immediately after my time on the track had finished. This meant having my camera set up with my Sigma 150-600mm on, ready to shoot in the car.

Jaaaaaaggggggggg (E Type Jaguar in the classic GT race at Silverstone Festival) by photographer Andy79 

As soon as I came off the track, I grabbed the camera and ran to the nearest spot on the track where I could see the cars and start shooting.

Then, I had to try and get from where I was (with fences in the way and not the best view of the cars) to my favourite spot on the track to shoot.

From one spot, it's possible to see 3 corners in front and turn around to shoot a different part of the track behind (that's where the 600mm lens comes in handy). This meant shooting cars as they passed and then, when there was a gap in cars on the track, having a little jog to the next spot, shooting some more until I had made it to the place I wanted to be for the GT race. 

During the GT race, the plan was to shoot from there until I had a good selection of shots and then gradually work my way down to the F1 pits, shooting as I went.

Once in the F1 pits, I got up close to a lot of the cars getting ready for their sessions on track before going back to shooting cars on track for the GT cars endurance racers and sports car legends race, working my way back around the track shooting as I went until I was back near my own car for the end of the day. 

Surprisingly, everything went to plan on the day, although I hadn't quite realised while planning that I would rack up over 22,000 steps getting everywhere I wanted around the track (walking a total of 10 miles that day)

Classic F1 at SIlverstone (at the pits at Silverstone) by photographer Andy79 

What was it like shooting at that location?

Being a petrolhead and having watched racing at Silverstone as a child, actually being there is a very special experience - especially with all of the classic hero cars from my childhood being there, getting to go out on track myself in my own car in front of thousands of people at the event and it being televised (despite my mum seeing me on TV and commenting how slow I was going). 

Getting full access to the pits to get up close to the cars and the teams prepping them was great. Being in the paddock as the cars lined up for their races, getting close-up shots of some of the legends of motor racing, hearing them start up and then watching them roll out onto the track as I took photos was a great experience.

And then, getting to shoot the cars as they raced around the track, stood just behind the tyre wall with my 150mm to 600mm lens; it felt like I was right in the action.

Moments before the race (In the Paddock at Silverstone before heading out on track) by photographer Andy79 

Tell us about the gear and settings you used.

For gear, I had to keep things light and simple as I wanted to be able to move around the track quickly to the different locations. Due to the size of the venue, I would be away from my car, so everything had to fit into a single camera bag. All the shots were natural light, so that made packing easier.

I used my Canon 6D Mk2, having recently upgraded from a Nikon D5600. For lenses, I had a Canon 85mm F1.2 ii USM, which I used for the shots of the car on display with my car club. I love this lens; it gives a beautiful background blur and a lovely separation of the car from the background, making the cars look great.

Settings-wise, I shot a lot of the static cars with it at F1.2, where the cars were side-on but needed to go to around F2.8 if the cars were on more of an angle. I needed a deeper depth of field, so ISO was at 100, and because it was a reasonably bright day, shutter speeds were up at around 1/4000 th of a second.

Faith in gaffer tape! (C3 Corvette Stingray racing at Silverstone with its front bumper held on with gaffer tape) by photographer Andy79 

Unfortunately, the 85mm focal length is completely useless in the confined spaces of the pits and paddock area with everything that was going on there. So, my shots inside the pit garages tended to be with my Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art because I was taking candid shots in a working garage and pit lane, so I had to move quite quickly to get the shots while making sure I wasn't in the way (and also squeezing between the cars and the equipment).

For the paddock area outside, as the cars lined up to go out on track, I used my trusty, cheap and cheerful Canon 50mm F1.8. All of the shots were between F1.8 and F2.8, and the shutter speeds were pretty high to get the exposure right.

In an active racing paddock and pit lane, you can't just lie down on the floor to get the low angles, so the great thing for these shots is the flip-out screen on the Canon 6DMK2. You can flip the screen out, put the camera on the floor, crouch down quickly to get the photo and then get out of the way. This wouldn't be possible without that screen.

Classic race car by photographer Andy79 

Endurance racer (Lemans Endurance race car in the pits at Silverstone) by photographer Andy79 

For the shots out on track, a prime lens wouldn't cut it. Silverstone is a big, wide track, and even if you are right by the tyre wall, you are still a fairly long way from the track. So, for the on-track shots, I used my Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3. This was the setup that got my best shots of the day. The photos capture the motion of the cars, where I tried to get the car sharp and in focus, and the background has motion blur, showing the high speed of the car.

The technique I used was to use the viewfinder instead of the screen and steady myself by putting my elbow on the tyre wall. Then, as the cars came past, I would pan the camera around, tracking the car, trying to keep the car in the centre of the frame and using the centre focus point on my camera.

I then used a slower shutter speed between 1/80 th and 1/160 th of a second (depending on how fast the car was going) because I was panning the camera around quickly with the car, and it meant you got a nice motion blur in everything that wasn't moving and the car stayed relatively sharp and in focus.

The aperture was set to between F10 and F16 to balance out the brightness of the slow shutter speed but also give me a wide depth of field to make it easier to get the car in focus.

Old School racer (Classic Ferrari at Silverstone with its driver) by photographer Andy79 

I got some of the best results by locking in focus on something like a cone or the curb at the edge of the track before the car came. Since I was at F14, the depth of field was wide enough that the car was in focus as it came into the shot, instead of trying to focus from scratch on a car that was moving at 150mph+.

If I am honest, 90% of the photos I took were terrible. I either moved the camera too fast or too slowly, and the car was either blurred, not in the centre of the photo, or part of the car was out of frame. I realised this issue quickly and started shooting at a slightly wider angle with the aim of cropping in later.

When looking through the photos after I got home, the amount of photos I took where the car had gone by the time I had taken the photo was quite amusing. But when it worked with the car in the right place in the frame, I absolutely loved the results; it was sharp, and the background had loads of motion blur. 

LeMans (A LeMans Endurance racer) by photographer Andy79 

What is your favourite image from the shoot?

As good as the photos were that I took in the pits and paddock area - all being in focus with a nice shallow depth, especially on the shots of my car clubs display where I got to use my 85mm F1.2 - for me it's the shots on track capturing the motion that I love the most.

While I was at the track, I thought a photo I had taken of Damon Hills' mid-90s Williams Formula 1 car was going to be my best shot. But when I got home and looked at the picture on my full-size monitor, I spotted the number on the car and realised it wasn't actually Damon Hills' car at all; it was Jacques Villeneuve's car. Not only had I taken a photo of the wrong car, but the shutter speed was too high (which reduced the motion blur), and the location I shot it in on the track had nothing but tarmac and grass in it, so you didn't get the feeling of the speed of this epic old Formula 1 car.

However, my disappointment with my Formula 1 shot was more than made up for when I looked through my GT race car shots. I think these pictures really do get the speed of the cars across.

The shots of the Aston Martin, Morgan, Lamborghini and the Mercedes AMG GT have the spokes of the wheels almost disappearing in the shot because they are spinning so fast that you can see the brakes through them. The way the background is whizzing by, but you can still read the adverts on the side of the car, was the exact result I was aiming for.

I am so pleased with them, and I can't wait to go back and shoot them again this summer.

I am also going to be shooting my car club at Goodwood this year as everyone -  having seen my shots of these cars on track - wants me to get shots like it of their cars as they go around the track there.

Aston Martin at Silverstone by photographer Andy79 

Morgan at Silverstone by photographer Andy79 

Lambo 55 (Lamborghini Hurucan in the GT class race at Silverstone) by photographer Andy79 

Mercedes AMG GT at Silverstone (Mercedes AMG GT at Silverstone) by photographer Andy79 

Thank you, Andy79, for sharing your creativity, experience and images with us. We loved learning all about your motorsports photoshoot at Silverstone!

We hope you all loved it, too. Don't forget to check out the links below to see more of Andy79's work!

Here's where you can find more of Andy79's work

PurplePort: Andy79

Instagram: photography_by_andy_warner 

Facebook: Photography By Andy Warner

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