Shooting film at the track | night racing on Cinestill

Sports + racing photography | Toronto Real Life Photographer

It wasn’t Formula 1 (we did that earlier in the year…more blog posts to come), but it was still racing and we were a heck of a lot closer which meant I could experiment shooting the action on film.

Saturday night at the Brighton Speedway was exactly what I imagined it to be: dirt track, DIY cars and sponsors, cheap poutine and whole families wrapped in blankets on the wooden bleachers to keep out the late summer chill.

I brought my trusty Canon Rebel 2000 with my little-used 24-105 lens (with it’s very inadequate f/4 aperture) and a roll of Cinestill 800 T which I rated at 3200 and then pushed two stops in development.

a dirt track, DIY cars and sponsors, and cheap poutine

Let me just say that this combo (high rating, pushing, night race + moving cars gave me some wicked grain, strange colours, and also perfectly captured the feeling of being there that night with the engines ripping so loud I thought my eardrums might burst.

high rating, pushing, night race + moving cars

So, while it’s not the F1 media accreditation I long for, it’s something and a start and did not dampen my growing love for the engine roar that I never in a million years thought would be on my obsession list.