Posted by Cleggy on May 19, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Each year the North West 200 gets harder to Photograph, more and more restrictions are placed upon media Photographers in the name of safety.
With limited access and often having to compete for clear shooting space with the general public, not to mention favouritism by the promoting club shown to ‘the chosen Three‘ you really do have to choose your location carefully. This year I based myself around the Primrose Hill and York corner section of the circuit to give me a few different locations all within relatively short walking distance.
I generally look for a location that will give me a variety of shots from the one spot so that I can maximise the potential of the location rather than endlessly shooting similar looking images. For this location on the inside of Primrose Hill I was able to shoot head-ons, rear shots and climb a high Grassy bank to get an elevated shot looking down on the bikes.
Situated very close to the start / finish area this location is ideal for a first lap group shot of all the Race Bikes screaming round the left-hander.
William Dunlop in the thick of the Supersport race action at the 2010 North West 200
After a lap the slower riders from the B and C groups became a bit more strung out and I was able to turn around and shoot some rear shots with a 70-200mm lens (at 135mm) to allow me to capture more of the scene and include the Sea in the background as the spectators watch the action unfold.
William Davidson during the Supersport race at the 2010 North West 200
Climbing up to the top of a Grassy bank gained me some elevation allowing me to shoot down on the bikes, this time using the 200mm end of my Nikon 70-200mm lens I was able to isolate a single Bike for a shot with a slightly unusual perspective that you rarely see in Irish racing Photographs.
Ryan Farquhar during the Supersport race at the 2010 North West 200
But the main talking point of this years North West 200 was the performance of Alastair ‘Wee Wizard’ Seeley who won Two Races for the Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing Team and in doing so managed to become the first local winner of a Superbike Race at the North West 200 since Philip McCallen way back in 1997.
Alastair Seeley celebrates winning the main North West 200 Superbike race at the 2010 North West 200
People think that the job is finished after the chequered Flag drops on the last Race of the day, but my Monday and Tuesday evenings of this week were spent captioning and key-wording all my images, then culling out the lesser quality images, before culling them a second time so that I then had a good tight selection of publication worthy images.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Nikon, North West 200, Philip McCallen, Photograph, Photographers, Primrose Hill, Relentless, Ryan Farquhar, Superbike, Supersport, TAS, Wee Wizard, William Davidson, William Dunlop, York corner
Posted by Cleggy on May 5, 2010 in
PR
Issue #94 (May 2010) of Irish Racer Magazine hit the Shop Shelves today. Hot off the press it includes features on Glenn Irwin, Marshall Neill, Alastair Seeley, James Ellison, Bridgestone’s new BT023 sports touring Tyre, a preview of the upcoming International Road Race the North West 200 and all the usual monthly columns from riders like World Superbike star Jonathan Rea, World Supersport star Eugene Laverty, Road racing’s funny guy Mr Guy Martin and Irish Superbike contestant Kirk Jamison.
Back in early April I met up with the 2009 Irish Supersport champion, Glenn Irwin on a lovely Spring evening and done some PR photographs with him (Blog post here). The images from that shoot have been used in this months Irish Racer Magazine for this months ‘the big interview‘ feature.
Along with my images of Glenn Irwin I have multiple other photographs published in another good Month for me. Go grab a copy of the Magazine now while stocks last.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Bridgestone, Eugene Laverty, Glenn Irwin, Guy Martin, Irish Racer Magazine, Irish Superbike, James Ellison, Jonathan Rea, Kirk Jamison, Marshall Neill, North West 200, Photographs, World Superbike, World Supersport
Posted by Cleggy on Feb 25, 2010 in
Motocross,
PR
It feels like ages since the last issue of Irish Racer magazine was published as the staff at Careva Publishing took a well earned Christmas/New Year break.
Today the latest issue of Irish Racer magazine hit the shelves of all good Newsagents and inside its pages are interviews with World Supersport star Eugene Laverty, Road racing legend Ryan Farquhar, Josh Brookes as well as regular monthly columns from World Superbike star Jonathan Rea, Road Racer Guy Martin and of course the ‘Wee Wizard’ Alastair Seeley and Kirk Jamison.
I recently met up with Alastair one bitterly cold day in January and shot some Photographs of him on his new Relentless Suzuki RMZ250 Motocross bike putting in some Winter fitness training. Two images from this session have been published in this issue of Irish Racer magazine along with another eleven of my images getting my Photographic year off to an excellent start.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Careva Publishing, Eugene Laverty, Guy Martin, Jonathan Rea, Motocross, Photographs, Published, Ryan Farquhar, Suzuki RMZ250, World Superbike, World Supersport
Posted by Cleggy on Jan 30, 2010 in
Bike Racing,
PR
Another heavy overnight Frost meant a chilly start to the day as I set off for County Down to Photograph Alastair Seeley and his new Relentless Suzuki RMZ250 Motocross bike that he will be using for some Winter fitness training. With a clear Blue Sky and some sunshine I was hopeful of capturing some nice action images with my trusty Nikon’s.
Just as I sat down to write this Blog posting the Editor of Irish Racer Magazine contacted me to say “Keep those Seeley pics for the mag!” so I knew there and then that I wouldn’t be able to display a selection of the images on my Blog until after the magazine was published.
In the mean time here is one of the images from todays shoot that I did not submit to the magazine, having culled it during my submission selection process. I will do another Blog post at a later date with the selection of images that I submitted to the magazine.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, County Down, Irish Racer Magazine, Motocross, Nikon, Photograph, Suzuki RMZ250
Posted by Cleggy on Jan 21, 2010 in
PR
At this time of year there is no tarmac based Motorbike racing in Ireland due to the long Winter nights and the cold climate, there are however plenty of awards dinners etc to attend organised by various Clubs involved in racing or organised by the sports Governing body or even the best one of them all (which was held just last week) the Irish Racer magazine Awards dinner.
But recognition for the achievements of Ireland’s Motorbike racers, from outside of the sport, is usually quite a rare thing. Carrickfergus Council decided to hold a Civic Reception in Carrickfergus Town Hall to present a Trophy to Alastair Seeley in recognition of his success in the sport and in particular his recent British Championship success riding for Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing.
I was one of the fortunate people to receive an invitation to the Civic Reception and gladly accepted the invite as over the years I have become friendly with the massive talent that is affectionately known as the ‘Wee Wizard’ Alastair Seeley.
f4.5 AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
I shot the above image with my 50mm lens. I originally planned to shoot it with my 20mm (to show more of the environment and the photo display behind Alastair) but that proved to be too wide in such a small room capturing stray people who unwittingly encroached in to the edges of the frame. A switch to the nifty fifty proved the correct choice.
Tags: AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D, Alastair Seeley, Carrickfergus, Relentless, Suzuki, TAS, Wee Wizard
Posted by Cleggy on Nov 6, 2009 in
Bike Racing The latest issue of Irish Racer magazine is now in the newsagents. Featuring Alastair Seeley, Kirk Jamison, Josh Elliott, Marshall Neill, Billy McConnell, Maria Costello, John Anderton and all the usual monthly columns etc
I am happy to say I have over a dozen images published this month, including this image from my Kirk Jamison photo shoot from much earlier in the yeartrans.
Kirk Jamison knows the value of good PR for his sponsors and arranged a photo shoot with me earlier in the year to obtain high quality photographs for his sponsors.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Billy McConnell, Irish Racer Magazine, John Anderton, Josh Elliott, Kirk Jamison, Maria Costello, Marshall Neill, photo shoot
Posted by Cleggy on Oct 2, 2009 in
Bike Racing The final round of the 2009 Mondello Masters series takes place this weekend. Alastair ‘the Wizard’ Seeley has won every single Mondello Masters race since its inception in 2008 and is entered again for this weekend, but this time around he will be riding for the Relentless by TAS Suzuki Team. Will the wee Wizard Seeley get whacked this time?
Waterford’s Brian McCormack, something of a Mondello specialist, is entered and will prove to be formidable opposition to Seeley. McCormack has dropped out of the spotlight somewhat lately due in part to a disastrous British Superbike Championship campaign but the former Irish Superbike champion has lost none of his ability and should figure at the pointy end of the feature Masters race. Jack Kennedy who normally campaigns in the British Supersport 600 championship will also prove very stiff competition. Kennedy is a massive talent and this time around he will have a Superbike so expect the pup to hassle the Wizard all the way. Throw in the ISB regulars Swanton, Jamison, Kinghan, Dickson, Haire, Johnston etc and the ingredients are there for another exciting, close days racing.
Another ingredient in the mix is Glenn Irwin. Glenn has made massive progress in a very short racing career and is on the radar of a lot of race teams. In his monthly column in Irish Bike newspaper the confident Irwin reckons his 600cc machine will be more than a match for the talents of Seeley et al round the short Mondello track. But since the article was published his machine suffered a bit of damage at Anglesey when Irwin crashed in spectacular style, without injury. Will that have eroded his confidence?
Below is the front cover of the Mondello Masters programme complete with one of my images shot at the earlier Masters round at the start of the year.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Brian McCormack, Glenn Irwin, ISB, Jack Kennedy, Mondello, Mondello Masters, Relentless, TAS Suzuki
Posted by Cleggy on Mar 23, 2009 in
PR My recent photo shoot with Alastair Seeley at the Northern Ireland’s Children’s Hospice made it in to print in arguably Northern Ireland’s largest Sunday Newspaper, the Sunday Life
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Hospice
Posted by Cleggy on Mar 14, 2009 in
Bike Racing,
PR The common perception of ‘bikers’ in the eyes of the general public is of rowdy, leather clad, beer swilling, law breakers. But that stereotype is just so far from the truth. The vast majority of the motorcycle racing ‘family’ are genuine, sincere people who pull together in someones hour of need or for a good cause.
Alastair Seeley who races for the Ballymoney based JMF Millsport Yamaha team will be doing all he can in 2009 to help raise awareness of, and promote, the good work of the Northern Ireland Childrens Hospice based in Newtownabbey outside Belfast.
Alastair being a young father to a healthy young boy ‘Lewis’ is fully appreciative that other children are not as fortunate to be blessed with good health and has taken the opportunity of promoting the Northern Ireland Childrens Hospice throughout Ireland and the British Isles through his race efforts.
1/320th f10 17-55mm
Tags: Alastair Seeley, JMF, Millsport, NI Hospice