As we enter 2023, I realised that it was 15 years ago that I took the first photo that formed the basis of my Spirit Of Brooklands project.
At the time, I had just bought a new camera which was meant to be good at long exposures, and I wanted to test it out. The darkest place I could think of was a banked section of the former Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit, where there was no artificial lighting, so would be pitch black after dark.
My first thought on arriving was “Should have brought a torch…” Yes, it really was that dark! However it’s amazing how quickly your eyes adjust to the dark, and before long I could see the top of the banking, which is where I decided to head.
Getting up there laden with a camera bag and a big, sturdy tripod was quite another matter. The banking was quite slippery as parts of it were covered in moss, and the night air was causing dew to form on the surface. However, once I have decided to do something, I AM going to do it, and I duly made it to the top.
There was quite a lot of growth at the top of the banking so walking along it was quite tricky. Luckily I was in quite a good position already to make a strong composition for the photo. After some trial and error, I calculated that the exposure time would be just shy of 9 minutes! To avoid noise in the shadows, the camera I was using needed to keep the sensor live for the same time again before processing the final image.
So the total time between me pressing the shutter release and seeing the final image was 18 minutes – that’s lot of humming to yourself.
When I finally saw the image on the camera screen I knew it had been worth wait, but it was only when I got home and saw it on a bigger screen that I realised how strong the image looked. It was then that I started to think about doing more like this, little knowing that it would take around four years to complete.
I have been asked several times whether this was a sunrise or sunset photo. In fact it is neither, it was taken an hour after sunset, plus the sun set in a completely different direction to the orange glow in this photo. The only source I can attribute to this apparent sunset is street lighting from a nearby residential area, so it is in effect light pollution.
I’ll be adding more stories about the series throughout the year so stay tuned for more.
:DK
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