Olivier photographed the Monaco Grand Prix. This is what was in his camera bag.

On the last weekend of May, photographer Olivier Groot covered the Monaco Grand Prix on assignment for the exclusive travel agency Story Tailor. Naturally, he captured the practice sessions and the race, but he also attended the festivities surrounding the event. So how do you pack your bag for such a varied weekend? He tells you all about it in this blog!

I had the honour of visiting – and photographing – the crown jewel of the Formula 1 season: the Monaco Grand Prix. I was there on assignment for the exclusive travel agency Story Tailor. I shot the practice sessions and races, but also the parties, dinners & stunning yachts. A varied weekend, then, where you don't want to be weighed down. Packing my bag was quite a challenge!

Two cameras, three lenses

First of all, of course, I packed my cameras: the Sony A7R V and the Sony ZV-E1. I used the A7R V for all my photos. Thanks to its impressive sensor resolution, AI-assisted AF tracking and large buffer, I managed to capture every concept and idea I had in mind. The ZV-E1 was an interesting addition for me. This camera is incredibly easy to use and its (low-light) video footage is stunning.

Over the whole weekend, I obviously needed several lenses with different focal lengths. That's why I packed the new Sony 20-70mm lens, among others. Because it goes as wide as 20mm, I no longer needed to bring a separate wide-angle lens. The huge usable range of 20 to 70mm proved extremely versatile. I also brought the Sony 35mm lens for more depth and low-light shooting, and the 70-200mm lens for telephoto and panning shots.

Panning shots

The combination of the 70-200mm lens and a Kase ND filter is ideal for panning shots. The Sony 70-200mm Mark II has become so much smaller and lighter than the previous generation that panning is easy too. I use the ND8 filter so I don't have to stop the aperture all the way down on a sunny day to reach a shutter speed of, say, 1/120s. The rule of thumb for car photography and motion blur is that you can use 1/vehicle speed as your shutter speed. Formula 1 cars are incredibly fast, of course, so you certainly won't go too slow with your shutter speeds.

For the dinners and parties, I used the 35mm lens. Its fast aperture, size, weight and quick autofocus meant I was ready to capture the action at any moment.

We spoke to Olivier a while ago about his work as a photographer. You can read that interview here.

I got to watch the Formula 1 race from a roof terrace on the straight above the start line. This gave us a sweeping view over the whole harbour of Monaco, as well as several corners of the circuit (Beau Rivage, Nouvelle chicane, Tabac, Louis Chiron, Piscine & Anthony Noghes). As the roof terrace was quite high up, I mainly used the 70-200mm lens, partly because of its optical image stabilisation.

Accessories

To shoot safely, I used a Peak Design wrist strap. I needed it both on the roof terrace and on the yacht to handle my cameras with full confidence and avoid dropping them. I also always carry a small air blower and a lens cleaning cloth. On top of that, I use a Peak Design Mobile Creator Kit phone mount so I can capture behind-the-scenes footage as well. I combined this with a GoPro 11 mini, which I could mount on the camera's hot shoe for even more behind-the-scenes shots. I also had an audio recorder in my bag to record the sound of the cars, but in the end I didn't use it.

Looking back, I missed having an underwater housing for my camera. We went swimming too, and I would have loved to capture that. Those underwater shots could have taken the whole set of images to the next level.

An overview of Olivier's gear for this trip