So much material was shot at Rennsport Reunion. Cameras were everywhere, taking pictures and film of interviews, paddock atmosphere, practice sessions and races.

I shot a few thousand stills there, and saw lots of film crews shooting what looked like very promising video. I’m sure there’s lots we will never see: videos shot by drivers with GoPros mounted to roll cages or what have you, but it’s a joy to have this one available.

Brian Redman races the 908/3 on track with 917s and all the rest. The sound drops out of sync sometime in the middle, but it eventually comes back and gives us the sound of a 917 at a fair crack of throttle being caught by the 908.

I vote it for video of the year so far. Something better has a month to show up.

Top Porsche amigo, John Gray, and wife Marti put up with me for a few days while I was out in California: I’m blessed to have such fun people in my life. I was lucky enough to hook up with other great mates also, but Gray just sent me this pic so this one is for him!

He calls it Green Ness – I think you can see why. I’ve seen Metallic Green on many 911s around the world, but it never looks as good as it does in California.

Here’s the man, the car and another top Porsche mate from North Carolina, who has asked to remain anonymous. Well, what he said was “never tell people you know me”, which I think is the same thing!

Back in the UK after ten days in California. Jet lag be damned – have got straight back to work on the new garage/studio out the back and processing some pictures from my ten-day working tour. Here’s a hole worth 40 tonnes of spoil: 140 tonnes removed from the back so far and I think we may hit 200.

Anyway, back to Porsche. The TwinSpark Racing blog carries the story of Waldegard’s 911T from the 1968 Monte which was at the event. I didn’t spend half enough time with it, but I’m sure I can get more info from Björn when next we meet. I was born the day after this car crossed the line in 10th place. Love that.

Björn is driving a Tuthill Porsche for Race4Change in next month’s Safari Rally: I am blogging for all the interested parties and have a Waldegård feature in this month’s Total 911 magazine. It’s a good piece and a good-looking piece: more details when the issue is on sale.

Friend of Jamie Lipman, J F Musial and his team did the official Porsche video post-Rennsport. Jamie describes it as ‘shrink-wrapped awesome’, and he is right. Have a look at this and put Rennsport 5 on your bucket list. Don’t let us down!

This is currently going slightly ballistic on my Tumblr page. I call it “Big, Bad and Dangerous to Know”.

I took this at a low point in the weekend. Yes, there were low points! It was late in the afternoon, I’d just been refused a photo pass without prior approval and then scolded by a track lady for standing on a low wall for five seconds. I was dehydrating, sunburnt, carrying a heavy photo bag and life was generally shit.

But life don’t stay shit for long when you’re surrounded by classic Porsche machinery. Standing next to the famous Jeans RSR, the crowds parted for half a second and I was ready to rock. Bam! In the Nikon. I see it as a double page opener for my Rennsport story: we’ll see how that goes.

Ten minutes later, I was in the rental car with a bottle of water, aircon on and the Zuffenhaus boys in the back. We had an early dinner at Baja Cantina, then I dropped them for their flight home and headed off to bed early.

When I woke up, everything was all better. Sleep is the best cure for what ails ya.

Am back in our US home-from-home at the minute after a monumental weekend down at Rennsport Reunion. Thanks to the folks at Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway, all of whom could not have been nicer, and to Andy Schupack at Porsche North America who helped me out with everything I asked for.

I’m doing a piece on the event for one of the UK mags – not sure who yet – but will tell the whole tale in due course. Let’s just say it was non-stop work with breaks for Baja Cantina, so if I told anyone reading that we might be able to hook up and it didn’t happen, now you know why that was.

Friday was HOT! Spent most of the day with great friend Aaron Winans from Zuffenhaus US, as Aaron is a lot of fun and has a very observant eye. We were still in the paddock when everyone was closing down, and I managed to get the security guards to let us ask Porsche if we could shoot some of the central display with no people around. Got the thumbs up so made the most of it.

New 911 looked great, as did the 918 and the rest. Surprise of that section for me was Sally, the Cars 911/996 welcoming people as they entered the Porsche paddock – kudos to Porsche for not taking that too seriously. Everyone I spoke to loved it.

Some truly great cars parked under the Laguna paddock marquee, under umbrellas, in the garages, in the tents, in the trucks, on the track, in the corrals, in the car parks: EVERYWHERE. I only had two and a half days to do my bit, so could not capture everything.

Early in the weekend, I decided to major on two ideas: the story of the event from my point of view, and TwinSpark Racing’s patron, Gijs van Lennep, driving his Le Mans Porsche 917 from 1970 at a track that was likely not suited to the set up and gearing. Both are great stories, so hopefully you’ll get to read them in print sometime. Final thanks to Sharon and company at Gunnar Racing for helping me out with access to the 917 while parked up.

Here’s a few pics to get you started. I’ve got about 2,000 frames to work through, but three features to write before Thursday and probably four separate shoots to organise, so no time to do much processing at the minute. More when I get time!

Arrived in Monterey last night for Rennsport Reunion 2011. First job was to catch up with the Grays and finally meet Mr East Coast Porsche himself, Tommy Johnson.

Hyatt Monterey is again the home of the R Gruppe massive. The car park was somewhat bereft when I arrived, as all were at the Baja Cantina – a great little Mexican joint/steak house on the Carmel Valley Road. We didn’t get there until after 8, so a lot of 911s had left by then, but we bumped into the Dutch contingent and were invited to gatecrash their table (sorry guys!).

Lotta fun there then more chat in the car park before calling it a night. I’m staying up in Pacific Grove so got to the hotel here at 11. Pacific Grove is a divine spot, well away from the hubbub. This peaceful location on the Pacific coast sets the scene for a weekend of work and track time: really looking forward to it.

Gonna do some writing here this morning and head to sign on about midday. Will upload some pics from the track as soon as I can get an Internet connection.

Our little jaunt to Spa with TwinSpark Racing on Monday was a lot of fun. The day started damp, but a light breeze and intermittent sunshine got the party started soon enough. By the time everyone was back on track post lunch break at 1 PM, the Tarmac was bone dry and speeds began to climb. Here’s some iPhone pics from the day.

Leonard Stolk had brought The Hulk, TwinSpark’s Viper Green ex-Ben Pon RSR. This car has just won the Dutch Historic GT Championship, so is plenty fast enough for fun. Everyone who climbed out of the passenger seat TwinSpark had slipped into the newly overhauled cabin for the day was most impressed!

I thought all the cars there were pretty special. Bringing a 911 to Spa in October is the mark of a true 911 enthusiast, so everyone who attended deserves a round of applause. As I was going straight to Heathrow after the event, to fly to California for Rennsport Reunion, I came in my eBay GTi and used it to skate around Spa’s infield roads, finding the best spots for photos. I’m quite pleased with the results.

Coming home was an event. The Golf developed a driveshaft knock outside the circuit gates, which sounded sure to fail en route, likely leaving me stranded on the hard shoulder of the E42. Should that have happened, my plan was to crawl it as close to Lille Eurotunnel station as possible, abandon it there and catch the train back to Blighty.

In the end, the noise seemed to evaporate after a few miles of autoroute. The stopgap GTi showed Porsche-like spirit, taking me to the (absolutely rubbish) EasyHotel Heathrow for an overnight stop and then on to the airport no problem the next day. I’m writing this from the verandah of WEVO Towers in San Francisco, where the temperature is a balmy 24 degrees! The driveshaft is on my list of more stuff to do when I get home.

This weekend is Rennsport Reunion IV at Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway, and the Porsche Race Car Classic in nearby Carmel. I’m at Rennsport but didn’t sort a ticket for the RCC. Still, I hope to bring you pics from both events. Stay tuned for more!

A quick blog before I leave the hotel for the TwinSpark Racing Spa track day 2011.

Weather here is quite nice: cold side of mild, with a nice breeze drying the mist off the trees. The boys have all left to go do sign on and briefings. Pretty sure the format is open pit lane so they can come and go as they please: no doubt a few people will end up sliding off and bringing out some red flags, so there’s no rush first thing in the morning.

The forecast is for sunshine later on this afternoon, so we’ve brought wets and slicks for The Hulk: our Viper Green Twinspark 3.0 RSR that just won the Dutch Historic GT Championship in the last round at the Nürburgring. Leonard has fitted the passenger seat, so we’ll see who ends up occupying that later.

I just waved Paul’s and Mark off in their 3.2s: two fine examples of ImpactBumpers.com future feature material. These boys love their old 911s. Life is good in an air-cooled Porsche!

More pics coming as I find myself some wifi. Hotel wifi is excellent, but I am outta here soon and headed straight for Heathrow afterwards: flying to California tomorrow for Rennsport Reunion 4.

A few months back, I spent some time in London with Leica, the camera people. I’ve had a D-Lux 4 for a few years and recently bought a D-Lux 5. The Leica meet was part of a feature I was putting together for Total 911 magazine, but the ideas gained and exchanged will go much further than that.

My mentor for the day was Brett, the Leica M photographer. Brett made the point that colour is not the only look. Black and white can be used to take the viewer on a journey. It’s also great for representing shapes and textures: like engines, for example.

Brett advised me to trip back through my Leica D-Lux 4 pics, and revisit some in black and white. I chose this one to use as an example.

This is the Porsche Museum last December. It’s the 928 marine engine, set by the windows looking out towards Stuttgart city. I imagined the main road leaving Zuffenhausen as an artery, streaming life towards the centre of Stuttgart, and played with that idea in some other pics also. If one thinks of Porsche as part of Stuttgart’s heart, then the motor might be powering the town. It was a fun idea I didn’t make the most of, but sometimes that is better as it gives impetus to return.

Brett suggested taking some focus off the exterior and driving the eyes to the subject: engine.  We can do that with a crop. Both Leicas will shoot a 1:1 square crop, so let’s imagine that’s how it started.

Then we switch to black and white. The process involves a contrast setting that can lighten the tones considerably. I like it: more allure to the metal in this treatment. The airbox/plenum and those twin pipes have gone all smooth and sexy*: naughty, naughty 928 engine designers.

A little bit of lightening brush brings a halo effect to the exhaust edges, and a little bit of sharpening adds a svelte edge to the headers and turbo pipe.

Part of me has given up on compact cameras for everyday use, as I use my iPhone for so much stuff now: must be getting on for six or seven thousand shots in the two years I’ve had an iPhone. I still have a micro 4/3rds Panasonic GF1 compact and some great lenses to go with it, but not used the kit all that much.

If I was shooting this again, I would take a different approach, but there’s no doubt I would stick with the black and white, as I like what it has done here. Why don’t you try the same? Pick a shot that has bugged you since you took it and switch it into B&W: the results can be surprising.

*If no one else can see this, then I truly am a Freudian nightmare. Porsche Design/DaVinci Code – all in the same boat maybe. Ha! Same boat – marine engine. The mind is off on its own.

A great orange RSR hillclimbing video has been doing the rounds of the ad-packed ‘German Car Scene’ blogs lately. It shows the Porsche 911 of Swiss hillclimb driver, Willi Jenni, competing on a number of national championship rounds. This is it:

My orange 911 Carrera 3.0 came from Switzerland, and was maintained out there by former Swiss hillclimb champion, Alain Pfefferle, who won the title in a Porsche 935. Here’s Alain driving Bergrennen Oberhallau 2010 in the car: note this is a real one!

Also note just how tidy these boys are on track: there’s very little opposite lock. Sideways might look fun, but tyres hooked up and pushing the car forwards is the fastest way to go.

Oberhallau 2011 will be held at the end of this month: 27/28 August. You can follow live web timings on the Bergrennen Oberhallau website here. I’m going to have to get myself to one of these events one day: they look absolutely superb.

No matter how many horror stories you hear about the Swiss speed camera obsession, Switzerland is a great place to go mountain climbing in a 911. The drive that little brother Sammy and I enjoyed at the start of the 2010 TwinSpark Racing Bergmeister Tour was absolutely unforgettable. The fact that it was totally illegal might have had something to do with it, but who can tell with hindsight?!