Time to catch up!

It’s been about a month since I wrote anything on my blog, that’s not because I’ve not had anything to post. More j haven’t had the time to post it. Since j last wrote there has been WTCC, BTCC and last weekend BSB. some highs and lows in there.

WTCC only visits the uk one time each year and with it’s large grid and comparative to BTCC, large factory team entry it’s a great race series. Ontop of this it seems like they have more imagination when it comes to painting their cars. Something BTCC is very much lacking in.

Anyway onto some photos, I will just post a selection of my favourites from each day.

Firstly WTCC

Rob Huff was the local driver for this event, He certainly had the crowd behind him

He would later come up against the other Brit, Andy Priaulx….

Learning to photograph bikes again

Last weekend was BSB @ Snetterton, i made the effort to attend it as ive only done 1 BSb meeting prior to this one, BSB isnt normally my thing, i prefer cars, but bikes seem to have a much more loyal following at the moment.

I arrived on Sunday to discover that they had run out of media tabards, crap i think, i wont be allowed trackside, the signing on guy explained i could still go trackside as i was signed on etc… but i just wouldnt have a tabard. The end result of this is getting stopped every 2 seconds by marshals asking why your trackside, and probably making all the other media guys think ive just hopped the fence.

Anyway, the first BSB event was a short free practice session, just as well for me as the bsb only run two races each day (at most meetings) and without free practice that would leave me less than 1 hour in the day to get all my shots.

The lighting for practice was odd, it was overcast but bright in the background.

Typically in free practice the bikes are not really going for it, just getting a feel for the track, afterall they dont want to bin-it just before the race. As such you wont get many wheelies etc… and your best off just going for some nice leaned over shots. The last Chicane at Snetterton is superb for this.

Better late than never….. i hope

Well its been ages since my last update, since then we have had one more round of the BTCC, this time at Oulton Park. This is yet another circuit ive never photographed before, so a bit of a learning curve when it comes to finding my way around and shooting the right places at the right time.

I was only able to make the Sunday on the weekend, so instead of driving up Saturday evening and sleeping in the car (made that mistake a few weeks ago at Donington) i chose to get up at 5.00 and drive up, thankfully Oulton park doesn’t start racing until 12.00 on a Sunday so it wasn’t that bad. Once i got there and got totally lost trying to find the media centre i had time to quickly grab my tabard and head out in time for the first BTCC grid to form up.

For this weekend i had decided to try a few more grid girl shots, something i normally dont bother with as i dont have any clients after these shots (just lots of mates, who are convinced this is all i do for the whole weekend).

The weapon of choice was lots of borrowed equipment, a Canon 10-22, Canon 580 ex and charge pack (mounted to the 40d), the 10mm is an awsome lens, but far too short for this sort of thing really, but never the less i carried on. Some of the results below:

Tried a few with car and grid girl:

After not long it was time to head down to the last corner to get a pack shot. Simply the sun was facing the right direction for this corner and it was close, it also transpired to be a very nice angle.

BTCC go swimming at Donington

10.00 Saturday Evening saw me Driving down the M1 on my way from work to Donington for the 3rd round of the BTCC. An awful nights sleep in the car and it was Sunday. I stumbled my way into the paddock and managed to find my way to the media centre (through aimlessly wandering around). Once i was signed on i decided to head down to the pits and have a look, see who was about. There were a few teams check weighing their cars so i tried to re-create my seat shot from brands (unsuccesfully)

I Carried on mooching down the pits, taking a quick snap of  Harry Vaulkards car (as he was sitting at 2nd on the grid for the first race… an excellent show considering where he normally qualifies)

BTCC Mix it up a bit!

This weekend was Thruxtons’ Turn to host the BTCC, They only visit it once a year as its hardly the centre of motorsport in the UK. However its fast and for spectators pretty entertaining viewing. Thruxton is for want of a better description, a big loop with chicanes each side of the start/finish straight, this means you can pretty much guarantee where the action will be. This weekend was no different, seeing massive crowds by Club and the Complex and no-where else. Besdies being fast, Thruxton is also famous for its large kerbs. At Brands Hatch catching a 2 wheeled moment is unusual, at Thruxton its almost as easy as finding a 4 wheeled moment, this can certainly make for spectacular photos.

The weekend started with a 2 hour drive up to Thruxton, nice and close still (Oulton this weekend is a different matter entirely) meant i left at 7.30 and made it in time for the start of free practice. Getting there just as the BTCC went out i signed in, got my tabbard and headed to the closest corner (Club), Almost immediately i remembered why Thruxton is one of my least favourite tracks to photograph in the mornings. Compaired to most tracks in the UK thruxton is back to front. The sun is a pain in the morning and then gets better. To start with the sun is right into your lens. The Complex is a little better as the sun is off at about 30 degrees to you, but casts shadows across the cars.

Anyway, Free Practice did give me a chance to get some shots of the new faces this meeting, Matt Jackson (RML), James Thompson (Team Dynamics, having punted Shedden out), Paul O’Neil (Team Sunshine) and the Revised paint Scheme for late comer Plato.

Once i had those done i could move onto getting some typical Thruxton shots, Typically these are cars on 2 wheels, The wind on the Saturday was very strong particually at the complex, making slower shutter speed stuff near impossible. Because of this i stayed mainly at Club and shot head on shots.

I was just moving down to the Complex to get some nice going away shots like these:

When the practice stopped and the recovery trucks were sent out. 10 Mins later this arrived……

British Superbikes have a Wheelie good time!

Bit of a late post this time as im back at univertisty now, but heres a quick recap of the 4 day bank holiday weekend.

The weekend started off with Testing on Friday, i only did a few mins Friday as i just wanted to get a few shots for a clients site to cover the weekend with the current liveries.

As with any weekend i started off with a few bogo shots,

I noticed that a tog i was shooting next to was photographing 1 bike and the rider was looking at him coming around druids, so i shot this over his shoulder:

Eventually the pack started to bunch up as they tested their pace against each other, meaning i could get a few sneak peaks at a nice pack shot coming through clearways. Only being ruined by a lack of spectators and some lovely catch fencing.

A Quick Play with some slow shutter speeds, not quite the same with bikes as it is cars……

BTCC at Last!

Saturday and Sunday was the long awaited return of the BTCC to Brands Hatch for the first round of this years championship. Saturdays weather was pretty poor to start with resulting in pretty disappointing crowds, However Sunday was amazing weather and the crowds were as healthy as ever.

Alot of the time on Saturday was spent again getting shots that i needed for clients, so some good standard shots of particularly the motorbase and Cartridge world teams.

With a good stock of standard photos i was able to start doing a bit more experimenting. Heading over to the pits to see if i could get some mug shots of the drivers i also played around with some slow shutter/wide angle pans.

I gave a new type of shot a go, slow pans as cars returned into the pits, Not a total success, the shutter speeds needed to be slower, but its another shot im going to use in the future……