CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Stefan Mucke - no66 Ford GT As part of the build up to any weekend on the FIA World Endurance Championship calendar six drivers are invited to the pre event press conference. The drivers could be invited because they are from the host country or they are leading the championship or had a good race in the previous round.  For the 6 Hours of Nurburgring three German drivers were there - Timo Bernhard (Porsche), Stefan Mucke (Ford) and Marvin Dienst (Dempsey Proton Racing).  The other drivers were Anthony Davidson (GBR) from Toyota, Vitaly Petrov (RUS) from CEFC Manor TRS Racing and David Cheng from Jackie Chan DC Racing. As usual I record the press conference on the Fujifilm X-T2 fitted with a 10-24mm f4 lens due to the fact the press conference room is an awkward shape and the camera tripod has to be sited near to the drivers.   The press conference video is streamed on the FIA website via the world governing bodies YouTube channel. I also use the second X...

Once again we held a pre event press conference on the first day of action for Round 5 of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Texas.  Six of the drivers taking part in the event faced the media gathered for the 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas.   The drivers were Fernando Rees from Aston Martin Racing, Patrick Long from Dempsey Proton Racing, Scott Sharp from Tequila Patron ESM, Ricardo Gonzalez from G-Drive Racing, Mike Conway from Toyota Gazoo Racing and Paul Dalla Lana from Aston Martin Racing. As usual I filmed the press conference on the Fujifilm X-T1 fitted with the XF10-24mm f4, which was then uploaded to the WEC YouTube Channel.  Using the second X-T1 with the XF50-140mm f2.8 I took pictures of the drivers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you ...

After the 4 Hours of Imola we held the traditional post race press conference in the media centre for the winning drivers to face the press and talk about the trials and tribulations of the race. There are two press conferences.  The first is for the first three driver crews overall and then the second is for the winning crew from the LMGTE, GTC and LMP3 classes.   I use the Fujifilm X-T1 to video these conferences so that they can be streamed on the ELMS Daily Motion channel.  The reason is so any media that cannot be present at the press conference can see and hear the drivers and use the quotes that they have made.  The bonus is that these press conferences can also be viewed by race fans who are also interested in hearing what the drivers said after the race.  Here is the LMP2 press conference video  4 Hours of Imola - Race Press Conference by ELMS The Class Winners press conference can be viewed HERE I also used the Fujifilm X-Pro1 w...

As I type this I am on my way to Edinburgh airport to catch a flight to Paris.  I am heading to the French capital once again for meeting ahead of the start of the World Endurance Championship next month. Round 1 will be at Silverstone and we are in the final stages of planning the press conference in central London.  In 2012 we held the press conference on the London Eye and spent an hour in one of the pods for the media to interview the drivers as they took in the view over the Thames.  The shot at the top of the page is of Toyota's Anthony Davidson being interviewed for TV.  Ant became world champion last year and will start the 2015 season at home with the no1 on his Toyota TS040 hybrid. In 2013 we held the press activity on Potter's Field, with Tower Bridge as a backdrop, and then returned to the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall. In 2014 we held the press conference at Kensington Palace in the presence of their Royal Highnesses Prince and Prince Mich...

This was the scene this afternoon in Paris for the unveiling of the entry lists for the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, the European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  With 35 cars announced for the WEC, 34 for the ELMS and 56 for the 2015 24 Heures du Mans, endurance racing is looking very strong. The venue in Paris was packed with VIPs and members of the media to hear the announcements, which were also broadcast live around the world online through various channels including YouTube and the FIA WEC official website. After 90-minutes all three entry lists were known and the media had the opportunity to talk to some of the drivers and team members about the coming season which starts at Silverstone on the 10-12 April for both WEC and ELMS.  Hopefully we'll see some of you there. Here is the official pre season video from the FIA WEC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Yesterday I attended Nissan's press conference in London where the Japanese manufacturer announced they will be joining the FIA World Endurance Championship as a full LMP1 manufacturer entry in 2015 - see news on the official FIA WEC website HERE .    Before I went to the event I called into Park Cameras ' London store to pick up my new Fujinon XF10-24mm f4 and I used this lens during the press conference to get the pictures to accompany my press release on the website and on the official FIAWEC Facebook page . Here are some of the images from yesterday's press conference and I will report on my initial findings using the 10-24mm zoom tomorrow. Images taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 and a Fujinon XF10-24mm f4R OIS lens -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but ...

The FIA World Endurance Championship race in Sao Paulo has given me another opportunity to use the 1080P HD video function on the Nikon D800.  The facility is great for my role as the Media Delegate for the FIA WEC and I am able to film interviews with the drivers and then stream them on the official website at www.fiawec.com via the Daily Motion FIA WEC page.       The quality of the results are amazing, especially when using the Nikon 50mm f1.4 AF-D lens, which is one of the best lenses for video, or the 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S.   Using the Manfrotto tripod and the ME-1 external microphone the MOV file is downloaded into Microsoft Movie Maker where I edit the file, putting a logo and captions onto the final movie.  I have recently purchased Sony Vegas Pro 12 video editing software but I haven't yet mastered the workflow yet.  Once I have I am sure this much more sophisticated editing suite will enable me to produce more professio...