Le Mans 2008

The annual 24 hour race at Le Mans in France is historic as it is spectacular. This year saw the return of both the Audi and Peugeot diesel race cars, each battling for the outright win this year. In the GT1 class both the Aston Martini's and the Corvette's were each battling for the class win. In both classes the racing was expected to be close, tough and a true display of endurance racing. The 2008 edition did not disappoint, with extra emphasis being placed on the '8' as Tom Kristensen and Audi successfully won their 8th Le Mans race win in the past 9 attempts. In the GT1 class the 009 Aston Martin was able to hold off the Corvette challenge, but with only four and a half minutes separating the two top GT1 cars after the whole 24 hours of racing.

Paul Chapman Pictures was on hand to capture as much of the action as possible. Throughout the whole weekend the weather conditions changed from summer sun, to April rain showers, from early morning sunrise to middle of the night darkness. All of which created difficult photography composition. (Although he lack of sleep probably didn't help at this point)

The circuit naturally provides some beautiful scenes, with the amphitheater at the Dunlop curves being a personal favourite. The addition of the glistening racing cars on track set the scene for photographs. More importantly it allowed Paul Chapman Pictures to use for the first time some newly acquired photographic equipment. Up until now all of the photographs which have been published on www.pcpimages.co.uk have all been taken with a Fuji 5600 digital camera. This time Paul Chapman Pictures was armed with not one camera but two! The second camera which many of the photographs were taken with was a 35mm film Canon EOS 5 camera. The decision to use a 35mm film camera was taken for a number of different factors, but the idea of using older (but by no means inferior) 35mm equipment at such a historic racing event seemed the perfect match.

The majority of the photographs that will be published on the website will be uploaded by the end of the week, once they have all been developed. At the same time the YouTube video will be finalised and posted on the pcpimages YouTube channel, which of course can be found in the top right hand corner of this blog too. In the mean time Paul Chapman Pictures is now beginning the organisation process of the next motorsport event to be attended - the Formula Student competition at Silverstone between the 10th and 13th of July.

We hope that everyone will enjoy all of the photos and the YouYube video, the experience gained at this years Le Mans event will continue to improve the quality of the websites content.

In the meantime heres a sneak peek preview of what to expect to be uploaded onto the website within the week... A Peugeot LMP1 race car in full pursuit of a possible first place.

Many Thanks.

Paul Chapman Pictures Abroad!

Hello again, with another monthly round up of all the goings on here at PCPimages.co.uk. During the 14th-18th of May Paul Chapman Pictures travelled with the Oxford Brookes Racing Team to America, more specifically to Detroit and the Michigan International Speedway. Oxford Brookes University were the sole British representatives of the FSAE competition, a competition in which student designed, managed and built racing cars compete to be the best in the world. Paul Chapman Pictures was on standby for the whole of the four day event to capture all of the action as it happened to the Oxford Brookes Racing Team. However Paul Chapman Pictures still found time to capture the excitement and atmosphere of many of the other international teams that were taking part. These photographs can of course be seen online at www.pcpimages.co.uk.

As part of the work carried out for the Oxford Brookes Racing Team Paul Chapman Pictures has once again created a YouTube video which encompasses all of the trials and tribulations of the Oxford Brookes Racing Team over the whole four day event. The video can of course also be seen here on this blog page, in the top right corner - check it out now!

Now that Paul Chapman Pictures has begun to spread its wings in the global motorsport arena, we decided that we liked the idea of travelling sooo much, that we thought we'd do it again this month!!! Paul Chapman Pictures can confirm that we will be present at the 76th running of the world famous 24 Hr Le Mans race in France! We hope to be able to come back with plenty of photographs which will of course be uploaded onto the website a.s.a.p, and the complimentary YouTube will follow later on after the event. Whilst attending the Le Mans race it will be an opportunity for us to try out some new photographic equipment which was recently bought to bring much higher quality photographs to you.

Whilst attending the race weekend in France we will be unable to process any orders, or respond to any emails sent to us. However any orders will be processed by mid day of the Monday after the race has finished. So again we will be out of the office from Thursday 12th June until the Monday morning of the 16th June.

Please find attached one of the photgraphs of the Oxford Brookes University Formula SAE race car taken on track at the Michigan International Speedway, and thank you once again for your time and consideration in reading this blog.