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On our return to the circuit
we
decided to give the garage rouge reservé a miss, and parked instead in our usual
spot in the main garage rouge, where we pitched Alan and Martin's tents, ready
for the night.
As you will have
read in previous years, I had for some time harboured a wish to take photographs
of the cars at night at Le Mans. Many is the time that I had pored over
professional pictures of the cars tearing past on the Mulsanne, or at Tertre
Rouge, marveling at the sweeping tail and head lights, captured on film over a
long exposure. Well, in 1990, I decided to have a go at it myself. I
realised that it was essential to have a tripod for such shots, so I went out
and bought one, a couple of months before the race. A cable release, another
prerequisite, was also obtained. At this stage, my major problem was that I
didn't really understand the technicalities involved in long exposure night and
low-light photography, that would come later....
I started in the
grandstand at the Dunlop Curve. I set the camera up on the tripod, and used the
longest exposure available. I worked on the mistaken belief that, with the
camera set for aperture priority, the light available (which was not much at
all) would then dictate how long the shutter stayed open for. My mistake was in
not realising that my camera of the time (the Minolta X300), wasn’t capable of
dealing with a shutter opening of longer than eight seconds on aperture
priority. What I should have done was to use the "bulb" setting, and keep the
shutter open for thirty seconds or so, placing something dark in front of the
lens when there were no cars coming around the corner from the pits straight.
The result was
some rather dark and underexposed shots, with only one or two headlights or tail
lights in each. I persevered however, not realising the error of my ways. More
shots were taken of the cars as they hurried under the Dunlop Bridge, and then
down towards the Esses. I did manage to catch a shot of the Mako Spice, which
spun at the Esses, and then took thirty seconds or so to get going again. My
night-time shots at Le Mans in 1990 were something of a disappointment, and I
could only hope to do better next time.
As usual, there
was no sleep for me at Le Mans in 1990, although Ian, Alan and Martin all
managed to snatch a few hours, Ian in the car and Martin and Alan in tents.
Eventually, at about 6.00 a.m., Ian was the first to join me opposite the Jaguar
pits as usual, the other two following on a little later.
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