Ronny Gabriels Photography

For the first time this racing season it was raining on Sunday morning.  Since I have been postponing buying a rain cape for my camera and lens this left me with a bit of a predicament.  Was I going to get stopped from shooting a race by the most Belgian of weather conditions? Of course not! Enter my good friend the clear plastic bag.  I ripped a hole in it were the lens went through, screwed the lens hood on and pulled the bag over my lens and the entire camera.  Problem solved and on we went.

The first BTCS race started in the rain and for about 2/3s of the hour and a half race, the rain kept coming.  And then it stopped.  The track quickly dried up and it turned out to be a pretty good day at the races.  What I liked about the rain though is that it got me some new kind of shots.  OK, they were still pretty basic, but the rain gave them a whole different feel. Shooting on a clear day is nothing like shooting in the rain, so the resulting photos are not going to be the same either. At the long end of 400mm is quite hard to autofocus in the rain because the camera is caught of guard by the water on the track, the lights on all the other cars and finally by the spray the cars leave behind.  So concentration is key to getting good shots in these conditions.

Kia Pro C’eed in the rain 

As I said before, the rain stopped for the final half hour of the BTCS race and never came back.  So I hiked along the Zolder track discovering new places from which to shoot at the circuit during the VW Fun Cup race that followed the BTCS race.  It got me some great shots and a lot of good ideas for further races at the Zolder circuit. 

VW Fun Cup

During the entire day, the paddock was filled with animation with a stunt show, a miss mechanic “sexy” show and a tuning show.  I went to see all three events, but it wasn’t really for me.  The stunt show with motorbikes was pretty cool.  It was too crowded to get shots though.  The sexy show was, … funny actually and that is not what you want with a show like that.  We’ll leave it at that.  And finally the tuning show.  Well I know “tuning is not a crime” but what they do to some of those cars should be.  I’ll never get why you buy an Opel Corsa and spent thousand of euros to get body-kits, engine tuning, exhausts and so on for it.  Just buy a decent sports car and have fun with that, plus you don’t look like … well I’ll let everybody fill that in for themselves. I just will never get it, sorry.

After the VW Fun Cup followed the second BTCS race and with the positional scouting I had done during the VW Fun Cup race, I got some very nice shots from that second race, if I may say so myself. 

BMW M3 in the second BTCS race

They are of course all on the website, so just go and have a look.  They can be found in the “Photos” menu under the “Racing Season 2009” subcategory.  Enjoy, and let me know what you think.