Posts Tagged ‘Nikkor 35/2 AI’

Hello readers. As you know, we’ve all done some things yesterday. It was inevitable. I’ve extrapolated from this theory while drawing upon photographic evidence to determine that we did some things last November and December as well.

It appears I read The Sense of an Ending last November. Weird book. Nice to have these reminders.

Here practicing my eyelash photography.

And night balcony photography.

Looking south over the Burrard Street bridge from my friend Rick’s place.

I may have been here before.

Wet city streets.

Clear city skies.

City light tunnels.

Sabrina’s passenger arrived the next day.

Some celebration for Christmas happening here.

They were just drawing in there.

Yeah, so that’s some photographs. One thing I have to tell you is that there are still many more photographs and many more blogs. That’s all for now.

Take care, readers.

Hello readers,

This post concludes at long last the photo documenting of my trip to Austin in November, 2012; my second visit to Texas, my first time in Austin, and my first Grand Prix.

From where the shuttle would drop us off at the end of the day it wasn’t a far walk to check out the State Capitol. Turns out we got there at dramatic light o’clock.

Back at the house we stayed at I thought it was necessary to capture what my morning shower looked like each day.

The shallow depth of field is intentional. I showered without my glasses on of course.

So; yes. Basically there is a shower attached to the outside of the house at the second floor level. It was a very refreshing way to wake up at 6am.

Finally it was Sunday. Race day. We walked out to South Congress and waited for the bus to take us to the shuttle loading place.

Queuing through a maze of fencing to get on the shuttle to the track.

From where the shuttle would unload it was probably a kilometer to walk winding through the desert to enter the grounds. This was nearing the end of the walk.

On race day they had a DJ doing his thing near where we all walked past. I bet that set was really exciting for him.

Some guys looking for a HO I reckon. (They are cheering for Checo.)

Of course I fit right in with my fellow Kimi fans.

As we made our way across the circuit to our seats on race day the Ferrari’s were racing. Here they are behind the safety car.

Ferrari’s through a chainlink fence!

This is the view of the grandstand situated at the end of the back straight (turn 12) as seen from my vantage point at turn 6.

On race day I decided that I was going to watch the race and put the camera away. So I made a couple shots to capture some of the mood around the circuit and then enjoyed an incredible race.

Lewis Hamilton makes his victory lap to the cheers of 117,000 fans in attendance. A fantastic and popular victory, Lewis having tamed the Red Bull on legitimate pace for perhaps the first time in the season and despite no longer being in the hunt for the championship title. As a result, this kept Fernando Alonso’s hopes of winning the title alive for the final race at Sao Paulo. This would be also be Lewis’ final victory driving the McLaren.

The Ferraris came around in formation on the victory lap. I was quite amazed how much support Ferrari had in America. Although they have not had much attention on the team due to lackluster performance in 2012, you wouldn’t know it to be at the track. The passion for Ferrari is quite amazing and it surrounds the team and their drivers even when they are not winning.

Behind the bleachers after the race, the sea of humanity, and dust.

Looking up at the single footbridge across the circuit. It was a bottleneck that turned our movement to molasses.

Looking back from where we came.

Cool?

Yes I still couldn’t get over the cigarette advertising. Smoking cigarettes is sooo cool. Maybe if I smoked cigarettes I would be more popular.

Found all this when I’d gone out for coffee again the next morning.

This cafe has a patio in the back and when you look out there is just a ravine and a lot of leaves.

Just a bit of sunburn.

Now we are at the park near the river, and I had been anticipating this moment since arriving in Austin…

Mostly to pay a visit to this man.

Peaking through the neighborhoods as I walked back towards the home base.

Damn, I saw that poster and realized immediately I would be back under rain clouds in Vancouver.

Warning: dead things on a plate. Hm, I hope that was enough notice.

Not my favourite book, but a fine tribute to a favourite author. That said, I walked inside excited to have a drink and then immediately walked back out again.

Then what happened was receiving a note from a friend who realized I was in town and within a couple hours meeting in time for brunch.

And for observing the wonders of surface tension.

One last look before lift off.

And another last look at the Circuit of the Americas.

I always find it so appropriate to enjoy these surreal moments on either side of travelling.

This blog has been brought to you by an airport terminal cup of Ben & Jerry’s during your layover, and also by the cup of coffee that the guy at JJ Bean offered me today for free because I was the cool guy who walked up at closing time. Up next? I don’t even know. Nothing so interesting. Thanks for stopping by.

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.