Ayse's Story - 1990 Updated
Part 3
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 Martyn's tents, ready for the night.
As you will have read in previous years, for some time I'd 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, marvelling 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 had by now become the norm, there was no sleep for me at Le Mans in 1990, although Ian, Alan and Martyn all managed to snatch a few hours, Ian in the car and Martyn and Alan in tents. Eventually at about 6.00 am 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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