Imagine getting all the way to your Airbnb in seaside, 5 minutes outside of Monterey, just to discover that your trusty 24-70 F4 (Primarily used for shots at the track) has the bottom lens cap screwed on so tight, that you could only take it off with vice grips once you got BACK HOME.
I didn't have to imagine anything, I lived it. Thrived, even.
It was fun to shoot with the confinement of, what is at the end of the day, an odd focal length. Most people like to use the 35's and 50's, but the 40 is a lovely middle ground that has virtually no distortion yet the perfect amount of width.
This 40MM had me thinking harder and longer about what sort of shots I could and would get. Car week poses many challenges, as cars are often parked quite close to each other leaving little opportunity for creativity in one's photographs. But with this lens, I felt like I was crafting each shot meticulously, having to move around in the general vicinity subject to get the exact angle I wanted. I was truly enjoying photographing, it hadn't felt this way in a while as I was in somewhat of a creative rut, a writers block if you will. Everything felt stale, but this was a much needed breath of fresh air.
The real challenge, however, was Laguna Seca. There are not very many spots where you can get close to the track, especially when you are rocking no media credentials to get in front of those pesky fences. Yet, the 40 sufficed. I did not get many close-in shots of cars on track, for obvious reasons, but I ended enjoying more shots than I thought I would. Life hack for you Nikon Z users, you can crop your own sensor! You can step down from Fx to Dx (1.6X crop magnifier), which gave me a helpful boost in some areas up to 64MM, at the cost of a insignificant loss in quality.
Being at the track is such a joy, especially with the Rolex Reunion going on. This was by far the most I've enjoyed my time at Laguna Seca, I often found myself just fawning over every little thing I saw. I tried to enjoy the races as more of a spectator this year, and I think I'll be doing more of that from now on. Seeing the white and pink 935 K3 spitting fire every time it came off throttle, the turbos of the various 962's sounding like a pit of snakes, the raucous howl of the BMW V12 LMR as it crested over turn 1. It was like I was in Forza Motorsport in real life, and I enjoyed every sweat-covered second I was in it.
And the cars, my god. The turnout to the reunion, and apparently the pre-reunion (which I regretfully missed), was exceptional. My brain short circuited when I saw, in order, a gulf liveried, preserved Porsche 917k, a Corvette C5R, and a 997.1 Porsche RSR all roll into the paddock at the same time. Earlier, a gentleman that couldn't have been over the age of 25 asked me and my friends to help reposition a Ferrari 250LM, laying my hands on this oh so precious metal. Walking the paddock and turning a corner to see a Kremer CK5 parked next to a gobsmacking blue and white Porsche RS Spyder. Being next to the Joest racing-FaTurbo 962 as it warmed up, with fat turbos indeed, and glancing across the paddock to see a Rothmans-liveried 962 with the rear clamshell removed. Seeing and hearing the ridiculous noise that comes from the new C8 Z06, and then watching the 2003 Le Mans winning Bentley Speed 8 fly down the front straight into turn 1. It was all heavenly, and I was enjoying photographing all of it, every single thing. Often, cars in the paddock are surrounded by people, so the best move is to try and photograph the cars as they are rolling from the paddock into the pregrid, which segways the cars out on track just before the final corner, or catch them rolling back into the paddock from the lookout behind turn 10. Shooting this on 40MM was fun, often leading to crystal clear shots with lots of bokeh in the backdrop.
When Sunday rolled around, it was to be any other Car week Sunday which involves packing all your belongings into your car, going to the Ferrari concorso, and then embarking on the journey back home. However, courtesy of my boss, we were able to stay an extra night. Ultimately, this translated into spending even more time at Laguna Seca. No classics on track this time, unfortunately. No, this was when 12 year old Josh got to live out his biggest car related dream. Pagani had the track rented out for the second half of the day, with special sessions dedicated to members of the coveted Pagani R battalion, shelling out artillery in the form of an eardrum-shattering Zonda Revolucion, and a sound barrier-piercing Huayra R. In person, the Zonda is much louder compared to the Huayra, an interesting contrast to note. Me and a group of friends stood aghast at the bottom of the corkscrew, watching the Zonda Revo take its stride, scraping the inside of the corkscrew for every last millisecond the driver could extract from the track. Truth be told, I didn't photograph much of this, I was more involved with just watching what was my childhood dream car for many years take on a race track that I only recently learned to love. What one might call, living in the moment.
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