Le Mans 2015 - Ayse's Story
Page 12 - Saturday 13th June
The Lure of the Lens at Tertre Rouge
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...
Index
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
