Posted by Cleggy on Mar 21, 2010 in
Location shoot
Last weekend Clubmans Motorcycle Racer and I.T. Guru (aka Geeky Nerd) John Shearer contacted me with regard to me doing a shoot with his Race Bike so that he could obtain a good Photo to hand back to his Sponsors as a thank you.
My people spoke to his people (yeah right) and the plan agreed was that we would shoot it on the track at Bishopscourt either in the morning before the racing started or in the evening when the racing had been completed.
Due to overnight rain the day dawned a bit dull with flat, uninspiring light and the track itself was wet, so I decided to do the shoot in the evening as the Weather forecast was for the showers to die out and drier warmer Weather moving in. That is exactly how it panned out and when the racing was over we got down to business.
I decided to make use of all Three of my Nikon flashguns for this shoot, and there was also the remnants of a nice Sunset to work with. Whilst I was shooting the bike my good mate Derek Wilson shot this image of the lighting setup.
Below is the selected image that I delivered to John, I’m sure he will be well pleased with it.
Yamaha R1 in evening sunset. AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
It would be great to own a nice big, long, custom built studio for this kind of shoot where you can control the lighting exactly how you want it. But I don’t have such resources at my disposal and so the most of the lighting shoots I do are outdoors working on location. Working on location has its challenges eg Wind blowing over light stands etc, but the results are always worthwhile.
Tags: AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED, Bishopscourt, John Shearer, Motorcycle racer, Nikon, R1 Yamaha
Posted by Cleggy on Feb 27, 2010 in
Bike Racing,
PR
Bushmill’s CCTV Engineer Coyles Wright sounded me out a few months ago about doing a few Photographs of the new Race Team that he was putting together to contest the Irish Motorcycle racing championships. All the pieces of the jigsaw fell in to place and a date was set to do the shoot.
The evening before the shoot (last night) Coyles sent me a text message panicking about the heavy Snow that was falling up his part of the Country but we agreed to go ahead with the shoot and luckily the next morning (today) dawned without a major fall of Snow. With the forecast for a bright afternoon I was confident the shoot would go ahead as planned.
Coyles choice of location for the shoot was the famous ‘Dark Trees’ near Armoy which have been Photographed my numerous Photographers over the years. I immediately started thinking about the location and whether to try and shoot it all available ambient light or to introduce some flash light to the Photographs and whether or not everyday traffic would be an issue. If using flash I knew I would need to be able to hide the flashes and light stands so that they did not intrude in to the scene.
Coyles assured me it was a quiet Road with very little traffic, but on the day we were constantly having to push the bikes to one side to allow the free flow of traffic. I initially fired off a few frames using just the available light, but I soon realised that it was not illuminating both race bikes and riders evenly which was then my cue to extend the light stands and power up the Nikon SB800 flashes.
1/250th f5.6 AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
The addition of some artificial flash light and a tighter composition made for a much stronger image.
Because these images were shot specifically for a press release to be sent to the Biking press I knew that a ‘mugshot’ of each racer would also be required.
Coyles Wright
Michael McKinley
Below is a lighting diagram explaining how these images were created.
Tags: AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED, Armoy, Bushmills, Coleraine, Coyles Wright, Irish, Michael McKinley, Motorcycle, Motorcycle racing, Nikon, Photographs, SB800
Posted by Cleggy on Feb 20, 2010 in
Carsport With the start of the Irish Motorbike racing season still some weeks away and no Motocross on this weekend, myself, Derek Wilson and Brian McNeill decided to travel to Fivemiletown for the Omagh Motor Club’s opening Motorsport event of this year the Spring Rally. The popular clubman event is based at Fivemiletown with a familiar format of challenging stages through the Mullaghfad, Crocknagrally, Jenkin Hill forests and the entry list included Subaru Imprezza’s, Mitsubishi Evos and of course a Car rally wouldn’t be a Car rally without some old MKII Ford Escorts.
Cars, aka four wheeled tin boxes, just don’t do it for me, I’m just not in to them. So long as a Car gets me reliably from ‘A’ to ‘B’ in a modicum of comfort thats all I ask for. Maybe it is because im not in to the whole Car scene that I rarely Photograph them, or maybe its because there are so very few good Carsport Photographers/Photographs around, either way I knew this event would be a Photographic challenge because February in Ireland is a struggle for light levels, throw in the light sucking canopy of a Forest for good measure and its fair to say I anticipated coming away from this event with only a handful of decent images.
A heavy overnight frost left lingering Fog to add to our Photographic woes and although the Sun threatened to burn through a few times, it just didn’t quite manage it. Whilst a bit of warm sunlight would have helped the Photos, the flat even light that we did get was easy to expose for and I managed to capture some pleasing images.
MKII Escort, sideways on the gravel track Forest roads during the Spring Rally near Fivemiletown hosted by the Omagh Motor Club.
1/500th f8 AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
This MKIII Escort cuts the corner a bit too tight during the Spring Rally near Fivemiletown.
1/500th f6.3 AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
Drifting round the corner this MKII Escort sprays Stones and Gravel out behind it.
1/500th f6.3 AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
For the below shot of a Mitsubishi Evo drifting round a bend on the gravel tracks of the Forest, I used some subtle fill flash to enhance the photo.
1/250th f13
Again I used some subtle fill flash to enhance this Photograph of a MKII Escort during the Spring Rally near Fivemiletown.
1/250th f13
First stage of the Twelve scheduled stages and this MKII Escort came to a sudden heavy stop having drifted wide and broken the front steering/suspension.
1/400th f11
The competitors in the Spring Rally got Two runs over each of the Six stages, this gave us a chance to capture some images from different locations.
1/1000th f5
1/800th f5.6 300mm
The unmistakable style of a MKII Ford Escort, ‘Tail’ out drifting sending stones everywhere, rear suspension compressed and the ‘Nose’ of the Car high in the Air as the driver accelerates hard.
1/1000th f5 300mm
1/800th f4 300mm
As always you can purchase from a selection of my vast Photographic Library by selecting from my online galleries.
Tags: AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED, Fivemiletown, Forest, Mitsubishi Evo, MKII Escort, Motorsport, Omagh Motor Club, Photographs, Spring Rally
Posted by Cleggy on Feb 6, 2010 in
Motocross
After another long (and mentally draining) week of Work at ‘the day job’ the weekend finally arrived and the destination for me once more was the Desertmartin Motocross track near Moneymore in County Derry/Londonderry. Last evening (Friday) saw me charging up all my Camera and Flash batteries in preparation for shooting the Motocross today. It all boils down to the Five P’s Perfect Preparation Prevents Pathetic Performance!
1/1250th f3.2 ISO640
Motocross Photography is not something I participate in all that often and so I am still learning the ropes and experimenting to get a feel for what which shots work and which do not. Having very recently Photographed Motocross at Desertmartin I knew that it offered good access to a variety of vantage points without the requirement for ‘big Glass’, needing nothing larger than my 200mm Nikon lens. The Motocross photographs that I captured on that previous visit to Desertmartin encouraged me enough to have another go at it this weekend, and at the same time I learned a few things that day that I felt would help me to produce even better images this weekend, if blessed with even a half reasonable days Weather and light.
I was wakened from my sleep by the sound of torrential Rain bouncing off the Roof Tiles and I very nearly stayed in my Bed, but the Weather forecast was for a damp morning, drying up and even the possibility of some Sunshine.
My ‘Jock’ mate Derek Wilson also ventured out to Desertmartin ensuring that there was plenty of good natured banter between us all day long, slagging off each others photographs and the all important debate about whos turn it was to buy the Burgers for lunch, him being a tight Jock meant that I had to buy the Burgers yet again, but I live in hope that one day he will put his hand in his pocket!
The on-track conditions were quite soft due to the overnight Rain but luckily there was no further Rain during practice or racing, but neither was there any decent light which meant that it was a struggle to get decent photographs and come the early afternoon the light levels fell even further so in the end I called it a day, earlier than planned, and headed for home.
1/1000th f4.5 ISO1600 Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
1/640th f5.6 ISO1600 Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
1/800th f4 ISO2000 Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
Star World Superbike racer Jonathan Rea started out in Motocross before taking to the Tarmac racing but he still keeps a keen interest in the Dirt scene whilst sponsoring a rider. Jonathan is a very down to earth guy and is not afraid to dirty his hands, here he is washing down this rider’s race bike (just before he accidentally knocked it over, ooops!).
1/500th f5.6
As always you can purchase from a selection of my vast Photographic Library by selecting from my online galleries.
Tags: AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED, Desertmartin, Jonathan Rea, Moneymore, Motocross, Nikon, Photographs, World Superbike
Posted by Cleggy on Jan 29, 2010 in
Bike Racing Last night those members of the North Armagh Motorcycle and Car Club who were present at their meeting voted by a small majority to not run the Tandragee 100 road race in 2010. Below is the press release issued by the club.
"Due to the current economic climate and circumstances beyond our control, the North Armagh Motorcycle and Car Club Ltd., have with regret taken the decision to defer the Tandragee 100 National Road Race for one year.
The Club has every intention to run the Race again in 2011.
The Club would like to extend grateful thanks to our sponsors and land owners for their continued support.
"
As one of those present at the meeting and having listened to all the behind the scenes information it is my opinion (for what it is worth) that the Club had no option other than to not run the race this year.
A blog posting is always better when accompanied by a Photograph, here is one of my images from practice night of last years Tandragee 100 where Andy Farrell ‘keeps er lit’ on the Cooley Hill road.
Nikon D300 AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED 1/1000th f5.6
Tags: AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED, Andy Farrell, Kawasaki ZXR400, Nikon D300, North Armagh Motorcycle and Car Club, Tandragee, Tandragee 100