London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 2021

[Mike Farley]

A few shots from this year's London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

As I have already related in another thread started by Iggy, I decided to try a different location than where I have been for the past few years on the Brighton Road where it goes through South Croydon. I have enjoyed some success getting shots there but there are challenges with backgrounds which can help or hinder. Usually the latter but sometimes it can help a bit of interest. On the Brighton Road, every lamp post is festooned with signs and in previous years it has been astonishing how many buses run so early on a Sunday morning. There seem to be far more than I would normally see later in the day. On this occasion, I went to Earlswood which is on the A23 just south of Redhill and found a stretch of road where the trees form a canopy. It provided a less cluttered environment than I have experienced previously. It helped to have a sunny day which meant that I could keep the ISO setting down, an important consideration when shooting in shade.

These two seemed to have a good bond between them. I wonder if they are father and son?

Togetherness

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I was shooting with a long 400mm-e focal length (c. 260mm on APS-C) as I wanted to isolate the cars and their occupants. Most waited until they got closer before waving unprompted but this driver picked me out some distance away. His passenger clearly had other priorities.

Wave 1

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Another pair of early wavers. Usually the routine was get the shot and wave back as the car went past.

Wave 2

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[Mike Farley]

I had good expectations about this shot as one of the participants on a Penny-Farthing bicycle freewheeled down a slope. I even had a provisional title ready - "Look, no feet!". Unfortunately, as can happen, I had a good position to get the shot but the background was unforgiving. Just the luck of the draw when photographing the event.

No feet!

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I had a bit more success with this chap, although the initial result was not quite sharp. It was the last shot of the day, grabbed as I was packing up and I think that the image stabilisation did not have quite enough time to settle. Processing it in Topaz Sharpen AI has improved things a bit but I would be hesitant to put it in front of anyone likely to be critical of the image quality. The rider smiled somewhat ruefully when I said as he went past that he was doing it the hard way. There are a couple of long and steep hills on the route at Burgess Hill and just outside Brighton. Not what is wanted having already pedalled some distance from London.

Penny Farthing

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[Iggy]

Hi Mike,
Great images of the early run veteran cars and the Penny farthings.