The weather had been pretty
good, it had been warm and I was still in a t-shirt under my trusty bodywarmer but a
chill was developing in the air, so at this point I nipped back to the car in
Parking Blanc to put on a light jumper before joining the others for a walk down
to the Esses where we paused for a short while on the outside of the circuit and
then continued on down to Tertre Rouge.
Predictably, as this is now such a
great viewing spot for spectators from the bank on the inside of the circuit, it
was absolutely packed. We finally arrived there about 10 pm and despite my
original intention not to take the same photographs as I always take from there,
I wholly failed to resist the inevitable temptation to start snapping.
Tertre Rouge is such a fantastic place to see the cars cornering at speed and
the LMP1 hybrids are utterly awesome, heading through at such a speed that it
makes getting decent panning shots quite challenging, particularly as, with such
a crush of bodies there (most of them doing the same thing), there is very
little warning of the arrival of the cars, other than the sound of them
approaching.
My memory fades far too
quickly these days and having done this so many times now, I often have to
resort to looking at my photos and video afterwards to bring back the memories.
We didn't have our chairs with us at this point and so the only limitation to
the time we spent at Tertre Rouge was how long we could comfortably stay on our
feet, as sitting on the dampening grass on the bank amongst so many people isn't
very comfortable. Before long, the daylight began to fade. Years
ago, the purple night light would have come on along the main straight,
signalling the drivers to turn their lights on, but that disappeared into
history when it
was decreed that the cars should run with their lights on all the time,
something that I've never been entirely comfortable with, from a purely artistic
and aesthetic point of view. Soon it reached the point at which it became
difficult to to take photographs in the dwindling light and I had to try and be
a little more creative with such light as there was. This is always a
challenge for the amateur photographer, with lenses that cost peanuts compared
to the fast lenses costing thousands used by the pros (and even some enthusiasts
who are obviously better off than I am!) who also have the advantage of being able to shoot close-up
from places that are completely out of bounds for ordinary spectators. But I
can never resist having a go, even though I know full well that I'll be lucky to
get 2-3 decent shots for every 100 I take...
