1000 Miglia

I can't even begin to explain how excited I am after downloading all the pictures from today's event watching the 1000 Miglia roadside from a vantage point in the Apennine mountains outside of Bologna!!!

A complex day for sure... Big expectations for tonight to see some very reknown Magnum photographers including Steve McCurry at the Milan Leica Gallery Grand Opening along with Tomasz and his friend Tobias who are visiting town this weekend. Then finding out that today's 1000 Miglia stage had been altered and instead the usual early afternoon pass-by that would be after 6pm... the same time that the presentation was to be given in Milan for the Leica Gallery... except that I was 2 1/2 hours away in Tuscany... I had driven down alone on purpose so that I could pick up and return to Milan at any time to make the big Leica event...

Well...

I didn't make that.

Anyway, the drive down was spectacular. I hope I didn't get a speeding ticket on the Autostrada. Then, the last 30 minutes was on little roads up on the ridge of the Apennine mountains between Bologna and Firenza. I was the odd duck out today with the family man car, while the other lucky ones in our grouop were driving Ferraris, Porches, Dodge Vipers, Maseratis, a Lambo and even a Corvette! Lots passionate car enthusiast out today and lots of nice cars - both old and new.

I shot more than 450 photos today. I really thought that most of them would be total trash, but I have been surprised. Even a lot of the 'missed' shots look very artsy. I started with the 50mm lens, but seemed to be cutting off most of the cars passing by. So, I switched to the 21mm. That helped a lot, but it didn't seem to capture the magic when reviewing them on the camera's LCD. (WRONG, looking on the computer screen shows something much better - they are extraordinary!). I then changed to the 35mm which is the easiest lens I have to shoot. Perfect compromise and I honed in the technique to 'follow' the cars with the rangefinder and to zero in the right moment to snap the picture (most of the time). So I changed back to the 50mm at the end thinking about what Mr. Watanabe told me Yesterday at the New Old Camera shop in Milan.... "there will be 100's of thousands of pictures of the 1000 Miglia, but you will be the only one with something different... (and not photoshopped)"

So, this picture is toward the end today with the 50 Nocti... I stood on a small wall by the road looking down on the cars. The road is only a step away. Focal distance was set to 3 meters... Not perfectly centered, but I absolultely love this picture of the Aston Martin and his drivers. Obviously a bit of leaky seals and oily spritz on the driver's face and cowls necessitating going sans goggles. TRUE GRIT!

I would love to be driving that car!!!!

I made it back to Milan by 10.30 tonight... in time to share a drink with Tomasz and his friend. Seems like they had a good day too in Milan. It is a busy city....