Recent Editorial Work – Milestone71 Porsche 964
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: May 2015 Location: Wörthersee, Austria. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Porsche Museum
With a day to spare on a recent European road trip, I couldn’t fight the urger to head south to Stuttgart and take in Porsche’s famous museum. Far more than just a typical automotive museum, the Porsche Museum is an attraction for both car fans and non-car fans alike. The first thing that greets you is the incredible exterior of the building. I would never claim to be an architecture aficionado, but this left me in complete awe. But for all the steel and glass on the outside, how the museum itself is laid out, in its ever so slight upwards spiral, is a true work of art. During my visit, the museum was celebrating 50 years of the Porsche 911 and as such, the majority of the collection reflected arguably the greatest sports car ever built. Still, there was plenty on display to satisfy the appetite of even this part-time Porsche fan.
Kremer Porsche 962C-K6/03
It’s not often that someone throws open the doors to their collection and tells you to pick whatever you want, but this was exactly the situation I found myself in earlier this year. I shot an overview of the facilities at Mondello Park last year, including an overview of their racing collection which included this Kenwood liveried Kremer Porsche 962C which raced at Le Mans in 1989. I returned in the middle of January to shoot the car in isolation for an ’80s theme on Speedhunters. You can read the full story which is linked at the bottom of this post, but for now here are some excerpts from the shoot. Shot exclusively for Speedhunters.com / Full story here
Photos of the Year 2012
It’s actually quite difficult to write a review of a year whilst trying to avoid every cliché available. I guess it is always good to take the time to look back and appreciate things and learn from mistakes. Speaking personally, 2012 was a bit of a hit and miss year. Although there were certainly some fantastic moments, there was also a lot of time that needed to be endured rather than enjoyed. Photography wise, I don’t think I built upon my technical skills and ideas as much as I would have liked to, mostly due to a lack of field work in comparison to other years. However, these are all things I can focus on for 2013 and try to evolve further as a photographer. I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who comes here, to those of you who take your time to send me e-mails and everyone I’ve interacted with over the last twelve months. I hope that your best moments of 2012 are your worst ones in 2013.
Nürburgring 24HR ’12 – Part Three / The Race
I’m sure I’ve certainly said this before, my year revolves around the Nürburgring 24HR. It’s the centre of my world, an event that I dream of during the winter, look forward to in the spring and reminisce about during the summer and autumn when it’s over. It’s an event that has everything, and I mean everything – the greatest racing circuit on earth, changeable weather, an almost impossible variety of cars, hundreds of thousands of animated spectators and fierce racing. This, sadly, is my final N24 post for 2012 but not my last Nordschleife related one. Be warned though, there are around 40+ images after the link so these might not best be viewed on a mobile device …
Nürburgring 24HR ’12 – Part One
I’m quite a lucky person. I’m working in my dream job, traveling the world and photographing fast cars. I honestly couldn’t ask for more. Even the variety of events that I attend is often breathtaking, there’s never a dull moment. When you have it so good and yet one event still stands out above all the others, then you know it’s special. For me, the annual Nürburgring 24HR is the centre point of my year. It’s such a challenge to shoot but it’s just so rewarding in many different ways. We’ve just wrapped up our coverage on Speedhunters (which is well worth a look as always) so I thought I’d start catching up with things on here too. The first part of this story documents our arrival at the ‘ring on the Wednesday before the race …
RWB Number One – Composite Image Build
Post processing a digital photograph is one of the most important aspects of modern photography. Sure, you’ll hear plenty people complaining that it’s ‘cheating‘ but you’ll usually also notice the same people can’t tell their arse from their elbow when it comes to editing an image. After all, even traditional film photographs need to be dodged, burned, exposed etc. before they are fit for purpose. I guess it comes down to each individual situation. Personally, if I’m shooting an event I’ll limit my PP work to a minimum in order to ensure I can get my photographs out as soon as possible and also to give a fair and honest reflection of what occurred. I do think it’s wrong to remove / add items to an image which is to be used for traditional journalism purposes. That is cheating in my opinion. If you’re tasked to create an image fit for advertising or promotional use, then all bets are off. It’s requires a huge amount of thought and vision both during the shoot and through the processing stage. Although I currently don’t shoot a whole lot of commercial work, it’s something I’m interested in. Whenever I have spare time, I usually find myself searching the web for the best contemporary examples of high end commercial photography. I then try and figure out how the image was lit and processed and see if I can replicate it. This is all part of a personal drive to improve my skill set. What I’ve included below is the images which were used in the creation of the above image. It was pretty much an afterthought to use this shot so there are definitely a lot of things I would have changed if I was shooting it again. But what I really wanted to […]
Number One
With December just about to roll around (memo to self, buy Christmas presents) the motorsport season is well and truly done for twenty-eleven. The off-season gives us a chance to relax, reflect and reminisce about the season. We can finally sit back and begin to take everything in. Because their is so little shoots during these dark months, I usually spend my time trying work on my processing styles. This usually involves going absolutely and completely overboard with my processing to the extent that it might make your eyes bleed. But it’s for good reason. By pushing everything up to eleven, it helps me figure out just how far is too far. From this I can scale things back and find a happy medium. I’ve always wanted to try and create a processing style which pays homage to old photographic prints that have faded, been marked etc. I shot this 993 Porsche recently for Speedhunters and thought it was the perfect shoot to revisit and experiment. You can check out the original feature for comparison here. The rest of the images are after the break …
Manthey Racing to Retire from VLN & N24 Races?
Popular motoring journalist Chris Harris tweeted earlier that the iconic Manthey Racing Porsches will not be found contesting the VLN and Nurburgring 24 Hour races in 2012. According to Harris, the Balance of Performance system is stacked so heavily against the GT3 R that Olaf Manthey has decided to call it a day. Since 2005, Manthey have claimed five out of six outright wins at what is billed as the hardest endurance race on the planet (the Nurburgring 24 Hour) and a staggering 24 VLN race wins in the same time period. One would hope that Herr Manthey has something up his sleeve …
2011 ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hour – Part Two
I’ll conclude my 2011 ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24HR coverage with the second and final part of images. These images take place in chronological order from the Friday qualifying sessions right through to the race end on Sunday evening. Nearly a month later and I’m still feeling the effects of the N24. It’s truly the most difficult event one can photograph during the motorsport season. However, it also rewards you for your perseverance. Read on for more images …
2011 ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hour – Part One
I’m slowly trying to come around after a couple of very intensive weeks of work. Bouncing from the legendary Nürburgring twenty four hour race to the wild festivities of Gatebil in Norway has taken its toll on this Speedhunter. There are quite a lot of shots from the twenty four hour that I want to share so I’ve decided to split the coverage into two, chronologically ordered pieces. The first part will take you from our arrival in Germany on the Tuesday before the race to the Thursday night after qualifying. The rest of the story is after the break …
Back from Hell
Apologies for the lack of updates recently folks, I’m still trying to get back on track after another amazing Nürburgring Nordschliefe experience. Lots of fresh stories over on Speedhunters and I’ll be sure to get some photographs up here before I head to Norway next weekend for Gatebil.
Random Snap #12
It’s been quite a while since I just uploaded a random snap to the site. I’ve just made some small design changes which I think simplifies the site a little further. A big thanks to Derek at DT Solutions for his endless patience for when I muck up the changes. December will be a month of reflection on Speedhunters and I just happened across this image of the #1 Manthey Racing Porsche from the 2010 ADAC 24Hr Nürburgring at the Quiddbacher-Hohe / Flugplatz section of the Green Hell. It should be a great month on the site so be sure to keep checking in.
Rig shots …
2008 saw me acquire my first rig. It’s served me well but It’s limitations are starting to get on my nerves. Since I’m about to retire it, I thought I’d show some of the best shots it created …