Sun, Sep 27, 2009
The Business Times

By Christopher Lim

MOTORSPORTS presents a unique challenge for shutterbugs because of the combination of high speeds and dramatic situations.

Award-winning photographer Paul-Henri Cahier has been following Formula One for years and has captured classic photos of some of the greatest race drivers of all time.

But last year's Singapore Grand Prix race presented a unique challenge for him since it was F1's first night race.

"Night time is such a different shooting condition and the light can be so peculiar," explains Cahier, who is in town not just to take photos of this year's race, but to launch a three-week- long free outdoor exhibition along Orchard Road of his best photos from last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

"Street circuits are always a bit special because there's a lot of fencing, and that makes life difficult for photographers because your opportunities are much fewer and you have to find holes in the fences or good vantage points," he adds, commenting on the challenges of shooting here.

Cahier's insights on camera settings and lens types are particularly interesting because he was an early adopter of digital camera technology, which he continues to use, and his methods have been tried-and- tested in the field.

Unsurprisingly, his rule of thumb is high sensitivity settings for standard shots that require clarity, whereas his creative compositions are often crafted with much lower sensitivity married with slow shutter speeds of as slow as a quarter or an eighth of a second.

Cahier is planning on discovering new vantage points and trying new shooting angles during this year's race in Singapore, but he considers the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi to be the most interesting challenge yet.

"It will be a sunset race that begins during daylight and ends at night time," he points out.

"You get the best of two worlds, and you get that great end-of-day light that's very warm and soft, with long shadows. We'll also be going into darkness progressively and it will probably be very difficult but very interesting."