The MRF Challenge – Racing Event – Feb’14

Racing brings the technological superiority to the fore that goes behind the performance of any automobile. Be it the lubricant oil, fuel, engine, brake, ….  tyre, et al..,

For MRF, the Formula 2000 Racing is a laboratory to do the litmus test on the tyre. A milestone to pomp off !  A cheer, for me as a person working in MRF.

If you know what to tune, you can bypass your peer! A precision up the notch, does make your knife hotter to cut the cheesy competition ahead and make the push forward. So, the folks who race, have the prowess in churning out the best of the products that stand out in the market.

For me  as an employee @ MRF and as photographer by hobby, I make sure not to miss the race event at NAMMA Chennai. Its a five hours bus journey for me.

Since the year 2010, as a regular to the MRF racing events, it’s a ground for me to hone in an additional spice to up my learning curve in clicking a photograph that stands a notch higher in my archives.

What I have done so far in race photography?
I have succeeded in taking sufficient number of panned shots of MRF Formula Racing cars.

What is panning?
Panning is a technique in photography which, if done right, would give a crisp image of the racing vehicle in the foreground and a blurred background. The racing effect on the vehicle gives a dramatic effect to the photograph. This is done by moving the camera in tandem with the speed of the racing car / bike. Panned shots were usually clicked by professionals using DSLR cameras. 

The haiku for yours truly is that, I learnt to churn out panned photographs of racing vehicles using my ordinary digital camera in its Auto mode. NOT AN EASIER TASK THOUGH! So much of trial and error have gone in this interesting experiement over the past few years.  Now, making a successful panned shot is a cake walk.

Got this panned photograph after trying some 25 clicks of the high speed cars racing on the track this time.

In the initial days of trying out panned shots, it was almost impossible, to get a good panned photograph. The factor of improbability did gave me a loaf of thrill to do more and more tries, to get that good panned photograph. Now, it has become easy, so is the thrill in clicking, which has got diluted a bit.

I now wanted to do something new.

What now?
Why not click a reverse of what I do in panned photography?
Let the racing car appear blurred in the foreground. Let there be a crispier background. Lets see if such a photograph looks interesting…

“FujiFilm F770EXR” recently got to be a family member with me. This is a bit advanced point & shoot digital camera bought a few months back. It has a Manual Mode option which invited me to play some new experiments during this event. In the manual mode, I have the option to fix the shutter speed and aperture.

I attended this MRF Challenge Racing event on 15 and 16 Feb’14. So, after initially roaming around the MMRT race track, having talked with few race marshals, learned to recognize the difference between the F1600 and F2000. F2000 is a little fatter boy as well a faster chick.

So, decided to fix a spot near the finish line and planned to do my experiment to get a dramatic photograph. The spot I choose was the one near the finish line.

As the race car sped past the finish line, I clicked my camera.  Many a time, there would be no car in my frame. Realized that these cars are more faster than what I thought. It was really tough to capture the car inside my frame. As I pursued in clicking few more photographs, I managed to get the nose of the car. Some times, the tail end got captured.

After a number of tries, finally honed the craft of discovering the split second wherein the speeding car would be inside my frame. After a few efforts, I succeeded to have the car inside my frame.

WOW!

It was time, I had clicked sufficient number of pictures successfully. All these have been in the camera’s Auto Mode, I went back through all the clicks to understand the shutter speed and aperture taken by the camera. Realized that, the camera was taking around 1/320 seconds as its shutter speed, and aperture at around 4.

Now, how about playing around the Manual mode of the camera? Its gonna be a first time experience. It was the time when last two laps have been on the go. I then switched the camera into manual mode. Got to set the shutter to 1/320 and aperture to around 4. It was really a "butterfly in stomach" moment.

Since the final lap is going to end in a couple of minutes, it was a moment of adrenaline gush in me. If I fail in this experiment, I need to wait for an year to do the next try. There were no option either for me to do sufficient number of tries. While I was ready, the last but one lap was on the go. I managed to click two cars, but there was no time to review the result.

It was the grand final happening. I just clicked the first car when it neared the finish line. A bit of confidence in me, and divine intervention got me to successfuly freeze the first car of the grand final lap as its nose just touched the finish line.

The spurt in the mood of the cheering crowd in the back ground spiced up the drama in this picture. A first experiment that succeeded, an additional feather on to my cap.

A memorable experience indeed !

Hey, where are the other photographs ? I hear you asking.

The photo log of the whole racing  event is available at my Face Book album here. Though its too many number of photographs there, I am sure you would fret if you do not have a look. Please log into facebook and enjoy my racing photography.

Cricket fever at MRF Pondy

As you folks already know me working at MRF Ltd., a tyre manufacturing factory in Pondy in India. We have a staff recreation club and you might remember my old blog articles on some of the interesting happening we had as part of this staff club.

Now the cricket fever has started in this club.

Frankly speaking, I never like this game. But the action photography that this game offers for a photographer in me, is never to be prejudiced. Covering the cricket game was a first kinda for me. There was a practice session for the people, so that it makes the players a little better in getting fit for the game.

For me, one such practice session gave the opportunity to learn on where and when to click the camera, so that the pics would relish for memories.

The practice sessions happened at a vast green ground which had been  a harvesting field; but had just got converted to a property where hundreds of plots have come up.

The actual scenario of this pitch was a bit of difficulty to make out the snaps look a decent one. So, while my colleagues started playing the game, I ran around to find the best spot, which would give a better result on my camera. End of it, I used the Picasa Photo Editor to make the photographs look better.

Since its a practice session; all the players being my dear colleagues, they do not mind me, meddling in between them playing a serious game. Being this game a first for me to do a photologue, I was much particular to know the angles where I could combine portraiture of my colleagues as well pack the action of the game.

Another risk factor is that, if the photographer in me, is only concentrating on the click, there is also a risk of the ball hitting me if I am not taking the cue of the shot of the batsman. Oncr the ball was flying nearer to me; I was lucky, it was farther from me.  Little extra eye on the path of the ball, saved me in not getting into line with the trajectory of the ball.

The full set of pics are here for you to relish


The full fledged one day game with 3 sets of 10 over matches happened at the "Armed Police" Grounds in Pondicherry. It was fun and thrill covering three different matches. Need to post those photos in the next few days.

Few of the clicks from the MRF Formula Championship 2011 event

The event was so awesome and had my greatest moments of clicking the high speed beasts on the race track. As it will take some time to post all the pics here and write a narration of my experience..,, here comes a few clicks for you to relish

One of the panned shots of the Formula1600 car zipping past on the race track during the event.

The stunt bikers from the US giving out the spine chilling moments.

Those spine chilling acts were so dangerous, but the stunt bikers performed those daring acts at ease..

Those two bikers on the air, are just one fourth of a second away in their take off. Just a small error will prove fatal. 

After the stunt, those men were cheered by the girls.

A race car getting past through through the traditional operating procedure.

Ofcourse, the tyres with the muscle proved its mettle for the daring drivers to zip past their machines with atmost confidence. A lot of permutations and combinations in designing of these tyres by my colleagues here at MRF have quizzed the litmus test to be right in every type of races coming out from the staples of MRF.

The fastest bikes of its kind are zipping past through the MRF arch. 

Our MD Mr.Arun Mammen with the Fastest Indian on Earth Mr.Narain Karthikeyan during the prize distribution.

And here is yours truly, just trying to sit inside one of the model MRF formula car. Man, its too tight a cabin. Howzt these formidable drivers sitting in it and that too riding it at incredible speeds... 

Stay tuned folks, yours truely will give you an awesome moments on this blog.

And, if you have missed this event on 7th Feb'11,, Don't worry, just be there at the same venue on 13th Feb'11 to watch the second racing event of the season.

MRF Formula Championship 2011

The racing season from MRF has started. Tomo, the racing track at the  Madras Motor Sports Club in Irunagaatukottai gonna witness the prowling thumpets of the beasts from the Staples of MRF. The event starts 15 minutes past 10.00 a.m. and has two categories of two wheelers (sub 200CC and 600CC) and 1000CC cars and the formidable 1600CC Formula3 Cars. The event is set to settle the dust at around 5.00 p.m for the day.

Me and my friends gonna start our journey from Cuddalore tomo morning 4.00 a.m. to Chennai. If you are there at the event, shall catchup and have some good moments clicking the racing beasts.

MRF Festival of Speed - India 2010 - Event photos & videos

A cloudy, cool Sunday and it was 22nd Day of August 2010, when the bike racing event called "MRF Festival of Speed - India 2010" took place at Madras Racing Track at Irungaatukottai. 

I hear you asking, "Hey, Why you are writing that now?" 

Yup, though I wrote a couple of articles about this event here and here, its 5 months now and I really missed writing out a bit of travelogue of the event. 

Again I hear you asking "Hey, how come you realize that fact now?"

Yup, the next racing season has started and the racing beasts from the energetic staples of MRF is set to prowl at the same Racing Track of the Madras Motor Sports Club at Irunagaatukottai on Feb 5 & 6 and 12 & 13. Get set for that.


Now, a few photos and an interesting video about the previous year event is here for giving you a bit of appetizer.
 
During the event, I managed to click a few pictures videos on my digital camera.


The 600 CC bike racers getting ready to plunge into the race track. Racing teams from 8 different countries participated in this event. The 600 CC are the fastest bikes in that event.

The following four pictures are the ones in which the photography technique called "panning" was achieved at its best.








"Panning" is a photography technique in which the camera should be moved relative to the moving race vehicle and simultaneously clicked. If done successfully, the race bike appears still as in the above pictures and the background appears distorted, giving us a visual treat of racing effect in the still photograph. If not done correctly, everything appears still, which kills the racing effect in the picture. It was a challenge to capture these high speed machines within the picture frame with my Point & Shoot digital camera FujiFilm JZ300. But the end result was quite good for us to relish now. 

During the afternoon, there was little rain, after which an interesting demo by the most popular Indian Formula1 driver Mr.Narain Karthikeyan took place. Thats Mr.Narain, plunging the MRF Formula car into the race track.

He spun the MRF Formula 1600 car on the wet race track and made the smoke to engulf the whole vehicle, at one moment the car was hardly visible due to the abundance of smoke. Please switch on audio speakers to hear the thumping engines of the Formula Car and the screeching sounds of our MRF tyres.
After the performance he had commented that Our MRF Formula tyres were good on wet track too. 



Managed to click a snap with Mr.Narain after he finished the demo.


In the middle is Mr.Ashwin who is the fastest driver  in Formula 1600 category, on to the left is Mr.Murali of our MRF Power House(which is situated near to the Irungaatukottai). I am sure that he will be the winner for this upcoming racing event. Hope to see him flash the winning cup on 13th Feb 2011.
Best wishes Ashwin...
 


The bikes of Honda Stunner making the start in the race. Since there was rain, photography could not be done further.



MD of our MRF Ltd., was there and gave away the prizes to the winners of the Honda Stunner category. Third prize was won by an Indian while the first and second prizes went to the foreigners.


Plenty of pics clicked during the event are available on my FaceBook page. Please click here and view them. I am sure you will enjoy.
Shall come back shortly with the details of the upcoming racing event this weekend.
And if you have plenty of time, here is a bit long photologue of the MRF International Racing Challenge which happened during Feb 2010.

A peep into the race photos

As I already told, I happened to click some good photos during the  racing event "MRF Festival of SPEED" which happened on 22 August 2010 at the Madras Motor Race Track at Irungattukottai. 

Just now finished uploading the complete set of my photos clicked during the event. I am sure that you will relish browsing through the photographs.

Had the opportunity to click with the First F1 driver from India Mr.Narain Karthikeyan.

The full set is available at my FaceBook page here. 

I had shared some of the pics with my colleagues at office, many of them did not believe that these photos were clicked using a simple point and shoot camera. Anyway feedback like these is giving me enough motivation. Thank you folks., stay tuned for the full story about the event

A panned shot of the racing bike

Went for the racing event "MRF Festival of SPEED" which happened on 22 August 2010 at the Madras Motor Race Track at Irungattukottai.

Seen above is the panned shot of a 600 CC racing bike.
Camera used: FujiFilm JZ300 (Point & Shoot)

MRF International Racing Challenge 2010 - My experience

Racing consists of both High speed and Endurance test for the tyres to be put to the toughest of conditions, be it heat and traction to the tyres. A race track has straight stretches which witnesses a top speed of around 150 kmph and the sharp turns which invite abrupt braking.

MRF International Racing Challenge 2010
So far, I happened to get myself glued on viewing those speeding race cars on the TV channels. But, hearing those loud tappets thumping alive out of these powerful race engines at just 10 feet away is really a thrill. Apart from the Formula 1600 cars, there were modified cars and three different kinds of bikes taking part in this race.

This racing event which happened at the Madras Motor Sports Club's Race Track at Irungaatukottai was wholly organized by my organization MRF. It gave me enough fodder in terms of high speed cars for my hunger to do something anew in my favourite of the hobbies called photography. So far, my camera witnessed catching interesting moments of few geeky events, travelogues, portraitures, photo walks involving street photography and musings at home. But catching a moving race car had not been my fodder yet.

There is a technique called panning which involves moving the camera along with the high speed race vehicle and simultaneously clicking it. If done right, the fast moving car appears frozen and the background appears streaked. If done wrongly, everything in the photo appears frozen which kills the racing effect in the picture. Though a race track is a lab for the tyres to get through the acid test, this "MRF International Racing Challenge 2010" was a classroom for me to learn this photography technique.

The trip.
As an employee of MRF Tyres, I got few gallery tickets for the Sunday(14-Feb'10) event. If I was sitting in a gallery and viewing this race, I would not have been able to quench my thirst for photography. Luck kicked me through Sundar Sir, who informed me that there were some race events and qualification rounds scheduled for Saturday. I started from Cuddalore at 4.00 a.m. on Saturday and reached the race track at about 10.00 a.m.


This is the entrance to the race track premises, going further straight inside leads to the pit and the tower. Getting to your left leads to the gallery.


There are different types of passes which allows entry to specific zones inside the race track. I have only the gallery pass, that too for the next day. So, I was stopped midway and not allowed to go near to Pit and race track.
But luck favoured me...
While entering, Sundar Sir noticed me standing out side, he had invited and taken me straight to the pit.


While entering the racing stand, bike race (600 CC category) was going on. First time in my life, I happened to hear the loudest decibels of the race bikes at close quarters. I stood near the fence and clicked a few pics.

So far, I am not that much a fan of Ajith. Though I am not a movie buff, his films Aasai and Vaali had made enough of unforgettable memory in me due to his apt performance.


Clicking this pic I could see enough of charm, he has in his psyche.




Though watching this sport gives lots of thumps on your adrenaline, there are risks involved in it. Alas the more the risk, the popular it is. Myself got to witness a race driver getting injured after he got thrown away from his vehicle cruising a bend.

A satisfying moment for me was that I succeeded in these two panned shots of the 600CC bikes. But this was achieved out of some 150 clicks




The podium waiting to garner the winning race driver.




The flagging off.


This bike is the Soft Bones category and are the slowest ones on the race track. Somewhat it was boring.


That is Formula 1600 whiz kid Ashwin Sundar aged just 19 and a nice person to have a pep talk. Sundar is one of the top Formula racing driver.


That is Actor Ajith's autograph.


Standing on this podium gave me some sense of satisfaction, just freezed those moments.

I requested Sundar sir to stand in front of podium.

Formula 1600 cars getting ready for the qualifying round.


For the race drivers, the competition exists only on the Track while they drive their vehicles. There is a strong gentleness and bonding while they are off the road. Seen here is Ajith having some moments with Ashwin.


Yup, Ajit has got a macho style in his walk. I enjoyed his presence there. I too got to become a fan of Ajith from now on.


Somewhat lucky to get this panned photo.


The race cars getting ready in this area called "Pit area". There were some 50 people working hard to get those 10 Formula Cars ready for the racing events.

Very expensive spare parts and Octane fuel is ready for usage

That is India's First Formula 1 Driver Narain Karthikeyan mentoring the upcoming Formula 3 driver Ashwin Sundar. Both are very gentle men to move around.

Padma shri Narain Karthigeyan surrounded by college girls…….

Mr.Isaac Prabakhar of MRF with his family members with Narain Karthigeyan.

Thats Mr. John Williams of MRF with his daughterwith ace driver Mr.Aswin Sundar.

Mr.Soman Jospeh of MRF, Manager Advertising is in action. Vehicle cannot escape from his sight.

A winner relishing his winning moments.

Video

'Super salon' type of cars giving the adrenaline gush.

Formula 1600 cars, super salon cars(Esteem), 600CC bikes, modified 100CC bikes and soft bones category of bikes are the different type of vehicles which took part in this event. These vehicles travel at different speeds and it was at first a challenge for me to get used up with these race vehicles.

My camera has moved little faster than this car.


Here I have moved my camera a bit slower than the car.


That is a TV crew catching up with the drivers after the race was over.


Racing has its own risks. In this case, the driver is lucky that he had lost only the door of his car and not his limbs.


This arch gets the logo of the organisers. That is, our MRF is the organiser and it carries the logo. This arch at the Madras Motor Sports Club was originally conceived and installed by MRF way back in 1986. The design of this arch is based on the popular Nylo Grip tyres (two wheeler) of our MRF.


It was off-race time slot and myself got the luck to peep into the race track and get this click. Its years that I got to see this arch with MRF logo in photographs, various movies and in various visuals at my organisation, but this day I managed to freeze this arch with myself in the frame, really a cloud 9 moment for me.


Closer look. No. No. Giant look of the MRF Nylogrip tyre pattern.

This is the second day at the race track.


He is my brother. He got mesmerized to get a glimpse of the racing machines from such a close quarter.


Its always not that all men succeed with their machines. His machine failed midway.




This is during the second day that Ajit came with his wife Shalini and their cute little daughter Anushka; making their way into the race track.


The cute little Anushka gave a nice moment for my camera.
What a charming face !!



Hope that Anushka be the first female formula driver for team India in the years to come.


Mr.Murali seen with Actor Ajith and Shalini.

Hey Anushka, this is Dad's toy not yours, Shalini seems to tell her kid.


Thala, getting set to go.

Seems that expert inputs getting inculcated to this Formula Car driver.

Mr.Sirish Vissa seen discussing with Actor cum Race driver Ajith

The cheer girls...

The race is to start. Cheer girls coming in to the track to protect the Formula drivers from the hot sun ( >:( Is it required!! as they already wear an helmet to take care of them?).
Still these cheer girls are equally the crowd pullers like the formula cars.

Got a successful panned shot, but my camera has travelled a little faster than the car.

The vintage cars gave some soothing moments on that hot day.



Video


A cat walk by the Vintage cars. Hope the owners are very rich people strong enough to spend on maintaining these golden chicks.


During the lunch break, there were some dance and song programme. Having clicked the high speed vehicles, freezing these dancers on the air had got to be a child's play for me.
An experience!!

Ready for the flag off.

That is Sundar sir and Simon sir.


A candid shot of Simon sir.

Video

The awesome high speed chicks making the thunders. Once these chicks went past the starting line, I got to smell the long awaited perfume of the burnt rubber.
A refined smell indeed!!

There were 10 laps and I started to catch as much panned shots as possible. Below are some of the wonderful panned shots which I finally succeeded to make out of this event.

This above pic is one of the nicest panned shot I ever got. You can see the clear MRF logo on the car and the much distorted MRF logo in the background.

Alas this photographer has somewhat added a nicest feather in his cap.
Hey, "Have you done that panning technique?"
Haaaa.

If you too are interested to do this panning technique, please get to know of it here
Come on lets go together for the next racing event. This is a simple technique that could be achieved even with the simplest of the digital cameras.

Thanks to friends of Chennai Photography Club whose inputs got me interested in photography.

On the first day of the event, I actually got shrugged off from trying the panning shots. I had crossed some 500 shots, but could not find out how the panned frame was successfully achieved. I somewhat left the pit area and was planning to leave the track premises. After that, I had a short telephonic talk with Rupya Ganesh who motivated me with the simplest of the things to be done while doing the panning. Hi Rupya Ganesh thank you very much, a bit of your motivation laid in me a strong confidence to do the shots. I once again had gone inside the pit area and continued my shooting.

Video

Alas, I have got a video for you to know first hand how panning shots are taken by photographers.

The return of the dragons.

Of course, the success of a motor race depends on the 4 bests. i.e. Tyres, Car Tuners, Machines (Cars) and the Drivers. And all four should equally match.

The making of a race tyre involves a lot of permutations. Making of these formidable tyres does carry with it a lot of research, design, development, follow-ups, trial & errors, sleepless nights by my colleagues and a lot more things. Finally a bright and superior brand called MRF.

Usually, tires when subjected to a multiple number of races do get to fail. In the Sports channels, I have noticed some of the tyres getting burnt, but I have not witnessed any such incident here. Of course right permutations have gone in designing these tyres. The enduring tyres did their very best without any failures for the multiple races and won the laurels of India's first Formula driver Narain Karthikeyan.

Of course the tyres we race are the tyres you buy!!

Myself got clicked with one of the MRF Race driver. You may notice me with a darkened complexity. Out of awestruck moments at the race track, I was roaming all around on both Saturday and Sunday under the Sun and had skipped lunch with managing an ice cream a day and few bananas. So the effect of the sun on my skin made me darker. Back at home, the effect of the heat drew me damn tired and it took 6 days for me to retain back to my normal health.

Caution: If you are in similar situation, please try to avoid direct sunlight. But if you want to catch nice photos, its not the right decision to stand in under a shadow. So wear a cap. Do not skip your lunch.

The momentos awaiting to be garnered to the winners.

Our MRF's Managing Director Mr.Arun Mammen and Advertising head Mr.Antony Rodricks.

MD of our MRF Mr.Arun Mammen




Finally the orgasmic moments for these toughest of the drivers who made the WIN.

Seen here are INRC Champion 2010 & MRF talent driver Gurav Gill and MRF veteran driver Arjun Balu along with MRF Racing Champion Aswin Sundar; enjoying the winning moments.

Some more videos for you to cherish.

Video

The modified bikes making their plunge out from the pit

video 132

The modified bikes making out the fights.

Video

The high speed bees called the formula 1600 cars

Video

The modified cars "Saloon Cars" making their way out of the pit

video 146

The saloon cars racing on the track

If not for Sundar Sir, I would have been sitting in the gallery. I would not have got the chance to catch all these photographs; you would not have got the feast of these pictures and videos in this blog.
Thank you Sundar Sir.

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Camera used: Kodak EasyShare C140
Plus few pictures I got from Sundar Sir.
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Catch on some more pictures at my flickR collective: here