Posted by Cleggy on Aug 10, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Friday qualifying sessions were a wash out due to persistent, heavy Rain and so the Armoy Club had to run practice sessions on Saturday morning prior to the commencement of racing, with the inevitable delay to the planned schedule of events for Saturday Race Day.
When the racing did get underway at approximately Two O’Clock conditions were ideal with Dry Roads all round the undulating circuit and even some sunshine.
The Dunlop Brothers fresh from their boycott of the Mid-Antrim were back in action and Keith Amor took the opportunity to get some ‘Seat time‘ on his bikes with the Ulster Grand Prix just around the corner.
As is the norm now William Dunlop won both of the Two-stroke Races (125cc and 250cc) but there was at least a decent battle behind him for second. The Two stroke classes are slowly dying which is a shame as they are proper Race bikes, built purely for racing and a decade or more ago produced some of the best racing seen in Ireland.
Yorkshire’s Dean Harrison was back for more on the McKinstry racing machinery and he proved that his double victory at the Mid-Antrim was no fluke by once again taking Two Race wins in the Support classes.
Adrian Archibald fresh from a high speed crash at the Mid-Antrim was back racing and showing no ill-effects.
Yet again Ryan Farquhar showed his class and undoubted skills on a Motorbike as he took Four more Race wins in another dominant season, but Keith Amor denied Farquhar a fifth when when he took the Supersport class victory.
Tags: Adrian Archibald, Armoy, Dean Harrison, Keith Amor, Mid-Antrim, Ryan Farquhar, Supersport, Ulster Grand Prix, William Dunlop
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 Dec 28, 2009 in
Bike Racing,
General Tonight I finally found time to update my online shop with a selection of images from the 2009 North West 200, 2009 Mid-Antrim and 2009 Armoy road races.
Tags: Armoy, Mid-Antrim, North West 200
Posted by Cleggy on Dec 25, 2009 in
Bike Racing Following on from my ‘Best of 2009 – Candids’ blog posting, this post contains a selection of my favourite road race photographs from the season just finished. Selecting your own personal favourites is never easy, and your choice varies each time you attempt it (well mine does anyway), but I’ve had a go at it and here they are (in no particular order).
This image of Dave Madsen Mygdal for me screams ‘TT photograph’, it was captured late in the evening up on the World famous Isle of Man Mountain circuit, the Sun is setting and casting a warm glow across the landscape whilst Man and Machine scream around the Bungalow section of the course trying to set a new personal best lap time. Man and Machine versus Mountain and Clock, yup that the TT!
1/320th f8 70-200mm f2.8 VR
A rear shot as Three competitors enter the Verandah section of the TT Mountain circuit. Again this is taken late in the evening as the Sun sets and the Mountain casts shadows across the circuit. The riders have to deal with all sorts of issues in any one lap, Sun in their eyes, lack of visibility due to fog or rain or insects splattered across their visor but still year-on-year they return to face the challenge of the Mountain circuit.
Derek Brien at the Verandah on the TT Mountain circuit. Rear shots are (for me) the hardest shot to capture on camera; but they are very satisfying when you capture a good one.
1/1000th f5 300mm f2.8 VR
Guy Martin exits the Black Hut heading for the Verandah
1/1250th f4 300mm f2.8 VR
Guy Martin at the Armoy road races
1/2000th f5 70-200mm f2.8 VR
Ian Hutchinson screams through the start finish area during qualifying for the North West 200 road races. I shot this with a relatively show shutter speed for two reasons, one to impart a sense of speed in to the image, two to blur the horrible wire cage background reminiscent of a cage at a Zoo!
1/200th f13 70-200mm f2.8 VR
Ian Lougher airbourne over Ballacrye jump at the TT. This is a location I have always wanted to shoot having spectated at it in the past. I went there this year for an evening practice session and as you can see the foliage from the Trees was blocking out a lot of the evening sunshine making it a struggle to get a fast enough shutter speed to stop the bikes in mid-air. Luckily there was a clearing in one of the Trees that allowed a shaft of sunlight to filter through on to the Road and I exposed for this light and relied on my sense of timing to fire the shutter at the right time (I’m not a big fan of the machine gun approach; mostly because I buy all my own Camera gear and don’t wish to wear it out quicker than I need to).
1/1250th f3.2 70-200mm f2.8 VR
The start of the ‘Two Fifty’ race at Kells and riders jostle for the best line in to the first corner as their pit attendants hang all over the protective barrier to get a glimpse of the action.
1/800th f6.3 300mm f2.8 VR
Michael Rutter on the JMF Yamaha in the Glen Helen section of the Isle of Man TT circuit, again another rear shot and one that show visibly just how little room for error there is for the TT competitors.
1/640th f4 300mm f2.8 VR
Ryan Farquhar was in unbeatable form at the 2009 Mid-Antrim races.
1/1600th f4 300mm f2.8 VR
For me the single best race of the whole season was the first Supersport 600 race at the 2009 Ulster Grand Prix where a high speed freight train of 600cc machines and competitors battled it out for the win with the lead changing numerous times. Ryan Farquhar riding a Kawasaki came out the victor in this one in a race which he enjoyed every bit as much as the spectators did.
1/2500th f6.3 300mm f2.8 VR
Ryan Farquhar tests his Dunlop Tyre shod Kawasaki to the limit at Tandragee.
1/1250th f5.6 300mm f2.8 VR
Sam Dunlop takes the early lead of the GP125 race at Killalane from Cousins Michael and William.
1/2500th f5.6 300mm f2.8 VR
Steve Plater and John McGuinness on their HM Plant Hondas at the Isle of Man TT.
1/800th f5.6 300mm f2.8 VR
William Dunlop is one racer I really enjoy photographing as he has a great style on a bike, here he is on Chris Dowd’s R6 Yamaha at the Mid-Antrim road races.
1/640th f4 300mm f2.8 VR
During qualifying for the Ulster Grand Prix, I was a bit indecisive as to where to shoot this Supersport 600 session from having been forbidden to shoot from my first choice location by an over-zealous safety committee. I was walking down the side of the road trying to get to Cochranstown but never made it in time as the bikes took to the circuit. I knew I was struggling for light at such a high speed section of road but decided to stay put after the opening lap as I could see there was potential for a decent image and managed to capture a few nice frames including this image of William Dunlop and Conor Cummins side-byside.
1/640th f4 300mm f2.8 VR
Poetry in motion, William Dunlop tucked in and fully committed.
1/1250th f4.5 300mm f2.8 VR
William Dunlop got the better of his brother Michael during the ‘Two Fifty’ race at the Ulser Grand Prix.
1/1600th f6.3 300mm f2.8 VR
Last but not least yet another image of William Dunlop this time on the big Superstock R1 Yamaha at Killalane.
1/1600th f6.3 300mm f2.8 VR
As always you can purchase from a selection of my vast Photographic Library by selecting from my online galleries.
Tags: 300mm VR, 70-200mm VR, Armoy, Ballacrye, Black Hut, Bungalow, Derek Brien, Guy Martin, HM Plant Honda, Ian Hutchinson, Ian Lougher, Isle of Man TT, Mountain, North West 200, Ryan Farquhar, Sam Dunlop, Sunset, Tandragee, TT, Ulster Grand Prix, Verandah, William Dunlop