Endless Complexity of Being and Witness

Another thing that happened was when I filled my bottle up at the Lemonade stand.

This morning I walked down to Granville Island. I was out of eggs for breakfast. I found more than just eggs, though!

It was early to rise and a cold outdoor shower (more on this later) before we headed downtown to catch the Friday morning shuttle. The driver made a wrong turn making us late to the circuit for the 9:00 am start of the first practice session. A bus full of not very impressed passengers. As we piled out of the bus we realized it had to be another kilometer walk just to enter the grounds and arriving at the north,  to reach our seats, we’d need to cross to the other side of the 5.5km circuit. We definitely showed our shoes how to walk that weekend.

Making our way up the hill the desert sun glistened off the newly surfaced circuit and the wail of a 750 horsepower naturally aspirated V8 screaming up to 19,000 RPM sent a chill down my spine. It was Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber C31 and you could tell by the exhaust note. Actually I could tell because the F1 live timing app on my smartphone told me that Kamui was currently the only car out on track to perform an installation lap.

But we picked up our Fanvision and made it in time to sit down and enjoy some good morning running.

Attending my first Grand Prix. The first time to hear, see, smell the Formula 1 cars. Also the first chance to photograph such a thing. The secret to my success this weekend is the trusty Carl Zeiss Jena 70-210mm f/4.5-5.6 MACRO. I don’t know why anyone bothers with auto-focus lenses. It seemed trivially easy to manually focus on racing cars. /s

Michael Schumacher, 7-time world champion and the first man to pass my capture.

This was part of our view looking out from the bleachers.

Button winds his way up the hill in the silver McLaren.

Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. There’s a challenge to find much variety shooting from one place. Cars are only out on track for a limited time so it’s not great to waste time walking the huge distances around the track.

Sebastian Vettel brings the Red Bull through the S curves and up the hill.

Paul di Resta exiting turn 6.

Kamui following a lockup in to turn 8, follows Grosjean up the hill.

Mark Webber.

Nico Rosberg.

Vitaly Petrov.

The board after 90 minutes of free practice.

Next the Historic Grand Prix cars took to the track. We walked over to turn 1 to check out the view from the top of the pit straight.

Ma Qinghua getting a morning practice session in the HRT.

Vettel through turn 6.

Lewis Hamilton.

Fernando Alonso.

Looking across the circuit we could see the back straight from our seats.

Behind the bleachers. Getting an idea how many people were at the track just for Friday practice.

Some various views follow.

It was time to leave the circuit for today.

The shuttle dropping us off back downtown. Getting a look at the Texas State Capitol.

Ending up at the karaoke party with Will Buxton. I’d say that was a memorable night, but I’m not sure it was for many people.

Finding other things.

 

In the morning I went for a walk to explore the neighborhood.

I knew there was a coffee waiting for me somewhere.

They get a lot of mail, okay.

In Texas you have to advertise your cigarettes. In Canada we’re just stupid enough to smoke them anyway.

I think I’ll go in here.

Delicious relief.

Out looking about a bit more.

I found Sebastian Vettel Randall for breakfast.

We are number one at going out for breakfast.

We knew we could do it.

Totally thought that said horses.

Have to give an old girl like this her dues. She’s got so many angles.

Or else.

Peaking through the fence I found this.

Pretty interesting area demographically.

I wanted to see it at night.

Not sure if serious.

Still top of our game. Now with conviction.

Watched this little cat walk all the way up the path of the alley like there was nothing else to do in the day.

Heading downtown.

Encountering a pack of homo photographicus.

So it turns out twitter is good for some thing. After hearing the tip that this new Formula 1 documentary was screening I picked up tickets online, not really knowing what to expect.

We arrive and find the venue is the remarkable 97 year old Paramount Theater and we’re seated across the aisle from Sir Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi… no big deal really. Ran in to Ted Kravitz waiting in line for a beer.

As survivors from a much more dangerous era of Formula 1 racing, Stewart and Fittipaldi spoke about their experiences making the sport safer which the film would chronicle in a humbling way.

I found it quite memorable to see that film in a room filled with Formula 1 faces old and new. Everyone in the theatre was so in to it, difficult not to be when it is the life you live and love. It was a great way to kick off our Grand Prix weekend by getting tapped right in to the culture.

Afterwards we looked around downtown a bit more.

I wonder how many laws that’s breaking if it was in Vancouver.

Superbankmobiles.

Ah yes, homo photographicus is always about.

My focus missed but somehow it doesn’t matter.

Suddenly transported back to the barren streets of SoCo.

A bit of not affordable window shopping.

But that jacket was quite nice, I tried it on later in the week.

So that was what happened on Thursday. Next I’ll get to some shots from the track during Friday Practice. Most of them I have never looked at so hopefully they will be fun to edit.