Continuing my series of posts narrating my journey as I make another attempt to complete a Project52. The theme for my 2025 Project52 week 4 is motion blur. Read on for the story behind this weeks image.
If you’ve been following along with my series of posts relating to the my 2025 Project52, you’ll know that I normally post on a Tuesday evening. This post is a little late. The astute among you will also notice that the image for this week isn’t an image actually taken this week.
Week 4 Challenges
The biggest challenge I faced in completing week 4 of the Project52 wasn’t gear related. It wasn’t subject related, or even photographically related. The biggest challenge was me, or rather my health. Sometime early in the week I managed to pick up what I thought at the time was a cold. I pushed through it for most of the week at #dayjob but by the weekend, it got to a point I was barely functioning. I’m still not fully recovered as I write this.
Needless to say, I didn’t get out and about much during the week, or the weekend. Rather than give up on the project, I decided to dip into my image archive.
The Story Behind The Image
The image I have chosen from my archive for this challenge is a motorsport image. It was taken in 2023 on my Nikon D850. I was at the Silverstone circuit for the British GT race meeting. The then CEO of the company I work for was a guest entry in the Silverstone 500, racing for the Greystone GT team.
I was fortunate enough to be a guest of the team for the race on the Sunday. While the hospitality gives you great access to the team garage, pit lane and grid for the start of the race, it’s not great for getting on track shots. I wanted some images from around the circuit, so I got a weekend ticket. I planned to get out around the circuit on the Saturday and photograph some of the on-track action.
My Week 4 Image
The image was taken late on the Saturday afternoon. The conditions were terrible, and shortly after this image was taken, the session was red flagged. The conditions were so bad, there would be no further racing for the rest of the day.
The image is of a GB3 class single seat racing car. The car is being driven by the eventual 2023 GB3 champion Callum Voisin. It was taken on my Nikon D850 with a Sigma 100-400 lens. It’s a hand held panning shot taken at 1/125th of a second and an aperture of f5.6. The slow shutter speed and panning motion combine to keep the subject sharp and add motion blur to the background. This is a common technique in motorsport photography to help isolate the subject from often messy backgrounds.
Wrapping Up Project52 Week 4
As I write this, I’m preparing for week 5’s challenge and hoping I can get out with my camera over the weekend. I’m not a fan of using images I’ve already taken to complete this project. The idea behind me attempting to complete the Project52 is to motivate me to dedicate more time to my photography. Picking images from a back catalog really doesn’t achieve this.
There are benefits from revisiting old images with fresh eyes, even more so as technology and editing software develop, but that’s a subject for another post. The benefit for me is that I can continue to complete the rest of the challenge as opposed to giving up because I missed a single week.
As always, thanks for stopping by and taking time to read my ramblings. If you have any questions or advice, please leave me a comment below.
Have a good one.
