Some of my figures:

• More than 600 exposed pictures
• 160 images after the first sort at high speed (to remove the obvious errors and gross misses) with around 80 which could be first choice pics.
• Less than 10 very good images.
• A few images which could be a little original.

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In the end, I can forecast who will win on Sunday:
Peugeot: End of the practice session:		Audi R15 in a unusual maneuver:

With the acquired habit, I can give a few recommendations to those who would like to try their own hand at it:

• Prefer the official practice sessions: All the cars are out, it is possible to walk around nearly everywhere around the track (during the race, your ticket will stick you to a specific location), the public is relatively limited and quiet.
• For the duration of a session (from 16:00 to midnight), you can easily walk from nice spot to nice spot from “Maison Blanche” to the “Dunlop bridge” for a good variety of situations.
• Monopod (or tripod) highly recommended).
• 80-200mm: very useful, 100-400mm: perfect range, but the limited aperture may be a strong constraint.
• Car speeds are very high. Even in the best conditions, under 1/500s, the photos may not look sharp enough; the faster cars will even ask for 1 or 2 stops over what you can allow for a GT car (the slower ones). Peugeot and Audi are really fast; Porsche, Aston Martin, Lamborghini may somewhat feel underpowered while driving at their max.
• Beware of obstacles: cranes, wire mesh fences, pro photographers are everywhere and you will need a large aperture to soften them out, but look for the openings in the fences which have been created for the pro photographers (look down a little).
• Autofocus: in continuous, 3D or AI-Servo mode. Or drop down to full manual and anticipate on the car position.
• Keep your eyes peeled: nearly every year, I witnessed a car leaving the track in front of me; But you will not have time to set things up. Shoot until the car is stopped or the card is full. You’ll sort later.
• Be aware of the signals used by the track stewards to anticipate interesting events: blue flag for overtaking (more dynamic shots), klaxon every time a car enters the pit area, etc.
• Have fun and remember to look, not only shoot photos.

The whole gallery and the mini-site to buy posters.

 
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After looking at these images I shot myself, I advise you to visit the excellent web site of Thomas Baekdal about Le Mans.

24 heures du Mans, 2008.

And, while the weather seemed crappy for most of the day, we have an early evening with a superb light. I grab my brand new second-hand Minolta APO G 400mm tele-lens in order to move back and shoot over the metal obstacles (sometimes, under the up-turned corner of a metal net). Here is the result caught by my Sony Alpha 700, the best images I could catch in the stands: A place where there is always something happening -at least before the race itself.

 

 
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Some of these images can be acquired as posters or as laminated prints on RedBubble.

24 heures du Mans, 2008.

 
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24 heures du Mans, 2008.

I was at 1/40s and f/2.8 (on my Minolta APO G 200mm tele-lens), so the image is a little blurry… Usually, I wouldn’t let such low quality out, but the accident is still quite spectacular.

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