| The Principal in 2006; Eight years trackside and still no idea: |
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| Nothing like a Test and Tune session to blow away the winter cobwebs. The APIRA test and Tune gave me the chance to get this year's gallery underway nice and early in the season with this lovely study of the startline at Shakey. Just look at the lovely use of Depth of Field to create all that out of focus track.... |
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| On to the Power Nationals and the first "What the hell?" picture of the year. Its probably the sky (gray was a familiar colour for the sky this year) but its nicely out of focus. Just look at all those dust spots as well, guess cleaning the lenses once a day is not enough when you are standing in burnout smoke.... |
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| Still at the Power Nationals and still no idea. I am guessing this is the startline area but that's open to debate.... |
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| Its the fourth shot of the year before we even get to a car so things must be going well. I know some of the junior cars are getting stupidly quick now but I should still be able to keep the damn things in frame.... |
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| Nothing like a stroll across the collection area at Santa Pod during the first big race of the year, the Thunderball. Naturally its even better if you have the camera hanging off your shoulder and forget to turn it off.... |
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| Back to Shakey at the end of April for the Shakespeare Nationals and a perfectly decent study of the racing groove is ruined by Steve Rawlings' Super Mod car sneaking into the corner of the frame.... |
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| Its the Shakespeare Nationals again and they are more dust spots, other than that.... |
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| Bob Day (latin name Foolaroundius Maximus) sneaks up on me and catches me unawares at the Pre Main Event Test Weekend. This turned out to be the year's only Bob day picture as an unfortunate incident involving vaulting the wall and landing badly saw him struggling with a broken leg for the 2nd half of the season, the limited mobility keeping him away from the front of the lens. |
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| My god, we made it almost until the end of May before the first close range picture of the back of the wall at the Pod, surely some sort of record.... |
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| A little night racing at the Main event. What do you mean I have to turn the flash gun on? Doesn't it just sense that its dark and get on with it??? |
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| And another record of some sort, we made it until the Main Event itself before the first crew person wandered into shot just as I hit the shutter release.... |
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| And after warming up by cutting off a Junior Dragster at Shakey I moved into top gear at the Main Event with this great cut off of Urs Erbacher's Top Fuel car. Its off centre, the wing is missing in addition to the front half of the car and just look at that camera shake. Add in some over exposure and you have a lovely effort.... |
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| Well, its either tyre smoke, raw fuel or smoke from an engine explosion hanging in the air there. Whatever it was I am sure it was mighty spectacular (From the way the photographer in the other lane is recoiling I guess someone has just lit one up) and I am also certain I totally missed it! |
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| Not a hard launch by any means by Luigi Ferretti (the bike isn't on the wheelie bars) but still to much for me to a) keep it in the frame and b) get it central.... |
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| Denny Dobson offered the opportunity to practice shooting aircraft ready for my trip to the Farnborough airshow later in the year. Thankfully there were no lamp posts at Farnborough.... |
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| The Main Event wasn't spared a "What the Hell?" picture, that looks like it could be some strands of my hair blowing in front of the lens at the top there but other than that, no idea! |
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| None for ages and then two back of the wall studies in two weekends! This one has a pleasing diagonal composition, but is let down by being both in focus and correctly exposed.... |
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| Turn camera off before climbing over the wall.... |
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| Onto the Doorslammers and here we have a lovely view of the banking, artistically shot through the supports for the VIP balcony. Either that or someone didn't switch the camera off before he sat down.... |
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| The collection are at Gary's Picnic, as seen by the Canon slung over my shoulder.... |
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| Once again the highlight of the Summer months was a trip to Sweden for the FIA race at Mantorp Park. Never one to let a change of scenery stand in the way I got right down to business with a lovely out of focus shot of one of the sportsman bike riders. A lot of sportsman bike riders seem to like racing with their bikes headlight on which offers great assistance to any aspiring school photographer as in one stroke the bright light screws up exposure and upsets autofocus systems. |
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| Ahh, one of those magical cut off shots where if you add the front bit of the rear bike to the back bit of the front one it just about makes one whole one. This one isn't spot on, there would be a little overlap, but its pretty close.... |
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| It takes some really over enthusiastic panning to get this far ahead of a Top Methanol Dragster.... |
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| I honestly don't even know which way up this is supposed to go, never mind what might be in there! |
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| Back to the UK and the Truck show offered the opportunity for a low key weekend mainly hanging out with friends. For that reason its a low key entry into the school with a simple out of focus sky shot, at least there is a hint of blue in the sky this time! |
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| Certainly one of the greatest ever in the history of the School.... The inside of the Tardis (portaloo) behind the startline at Shakey. Once again the shoulder slung Canon delivers the goods. Given the views it could have captured I think it showed great discretion to choose this as the moment to fire. Getting things well out of focus was probably also a good idea. Why do I call it a Tardis? Well because it's shaped like one and after a couple of days it hums like one as well.... |
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| God Knows what happened here. The car in the far lane is still in stage the near lane is nowhere to be seen. Looks like I got caught trying to decide which one to shot and finished up with this mess.... |
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| This has all the hallmarks of a held the shutter release down to long whilst panning with a car going past the tree. Held it so long in fact that I was taking the camera away from my eye whilst still shooting...
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| A stunning cut off which sees, I think for the first time, all 4 sides of the car cut off to some degree. The fronts missing, the wing is cut off at the top, the rear slick and headers are cut off at the bottom and the wheelie is cut off at the rear.... |
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| One of the finest Christmas tree shots for a long while, perfectly positioned smack bang in the middle of the smokiest burnout I remember Dave Grabham doing.... |
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| An interesting view of the transition from concrete to tarmac at Shakey, with a nice side order of badly out of focus armco.... |
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| From Shakey it was on to the Pod for the biggest race of the year, the European Finals. With the press day on the Wednesday and then racing Thursday until Sunday it was going to be a lot of work. I took things easy on press day but still came up with this beauty, I think it may be the back of the wall, but I can't be sure.... |
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| Press Day also yielded this lovely example, once again not only do I have no idea at all what it is, I am not even sure which way up its supposed to go! |
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| The racing proper started on the Thursday and it didn't take long for me to come up with this effort. It may be the back of the wall shot by the spare canon sat on top of the camera bag, or it may be something else completely.... |
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| The European Finals saw a great field of Top Fuel cars doing battle. This is not going to go down in history as the greatest photo of a Top Fuel car taken at the European Finals.... |
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| The European Finals also saw a return of the "wandering crew" to the school after being missing in action since the Main Event. Obviously the Pro teams must practice this as here Peter Schofer's crew man manages to completely obscure the dragster burning out.... |
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| Marc Meihuizen cracked off a 6.50 in qualifying. Unfortunately I was panning for about a 6.65.... |
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| It isn't just the Pro Teams that get in on the wandering crew action, here are Paul Marston Racing getting in on the act. Mind you given that they bring more crew onto the startline than some football clubs get in an average crowd attendance, it was only a matter of time before this happened. |
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| A lovely cut off featuring just the wheelie bar and the good old boot laces for the parachute tied to the wing struts. |
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| Er... Ummm.... Nope, no idea. |
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| Even though I know shooting cross track when the slower car is in the near lane is a bad idea it doesn't stop me trying and then regretting it. Here Steve Johnson invades the shot of Joran Persaker. |
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| One of the few times at the European finals there was nothing on track! |
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| Finally for the school it was the National Finals. A heavily rain affected meeting resulted in just one run for the one pair of Top Fuel bikes in attendance. Fortunately I was able to make the most of the one chance to round the year off in style by cutting off the front and back of Steve Carey's bike and managing to get Turbo hidden behind Steve, with a nice helping of blur to top it off. |
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| After a dismal turn out of photographers applying to join the School last year (are they all intimidated by the quality of my work?) I am delighted to say that we already have several new recruits for 2006.
Mark and Suzi Fawcus : |
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| Mark Fawcus sent this shot in, but was very quick to point out that it was Suzi that took it. Too quick if you ask me! Be proud of your work Mark, don't pass it off on others.... Taken at the Rocket City Nationals, Huntsville Dragway, Alabama Mark / Suzi nicely illustrate all the dangers of using a camera in full auto mode. with the exposure shot to hell and the focus seemingly having picked out the guy in the dark red shirt as the focal point of the image. Bonus points here for the composition with loads of unnecessary crowd milling around in the foreground and I find the speaker pole located dead centre to be a particularly pleasing addition to the overall image! |
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| Nathan Burgess : |
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delightful image from Nathan. Frank Bennett and Clayton Round setting off on side by side burnouts and Nathan has managed to perfectly capture the moment that the bloke in front raises his beer can to salute the burnouts. Bonus points here for getting neither the cars, or the beer can in focus.
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| Natasha and Justin: |
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| Lots going on in this shot as the Shockwave flopper is towed down to the line. The lack of a wide enough angle lens has resulted in all sorts of stuff getting cut out the frame and the lack of a long enough zoom means its not a nice tight shot of the engine. The clincher here though is the background, what the hell is that kid doing on the tailgate of that pickup?
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| Wow, I know compact cameras have hideous shutter lag, but when you don't get the cars at all, but the clean up crew rolling out after them, that's special!
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| Gareth Evans : |
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| Gareth is another one to suffer from idiot crew syndrome, only this time its one of the other racers getting in on the act! |
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| Ooh! Good effort from Gareth here, almost catching Jorgen Karlsson having a nitrous burp, unfortunately he has managed to cut off both ends of the car, miss the flame altogether and throw in some subtle blurring to round out a fine effort. |
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| Helen and Dean Smythe + Christine from Team Twisted : |
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| My good buddies over at Team Twisted have gone out of their way to look after me at the track this year. In return i have tried to share some of my photographic skills with them. Looking at this lot i would say they are fast learners! We open with what i think is a shot of the Wild Bunch Beach Party held one evening at a test weekend at Shakey. A nice smokey bar-b-que with the added bonus of being back lit by the setting sun means no chance of seeing anything in this shot.... |
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| A lovely picture of the wall at Shakey is only spoilt by half of Team Twisted's altered sneaking into the bottom of the frame.... |
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| A fine study in the art of leaving the camera switched on as you try and stuff it back into your overcrowded bum bag! |
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| Sitting next to Chris Hartnell in the grandstand at Santa Pod somewhat restricts your photographic opportunities! |
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| I'll swear that's the same lamp post that ruined my Denny Dobson shot! |
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