Posted by Cleggy on Sep 2, 2010 in
PR
As I blog this, myself and the Editor of Irish Racer Magazine have just returned home from a short trip over to the Manx Grand Prix in the Isle of Man.
It was a low pressure trip where we went with the intention of working on a couple of features for issue #99 of Irish Racer Magazine due in the shops in early October. The Weather, Food and ‘banter’ could not have been better and it was just what the Doctor ordered!
Issue #98 of Irish Racer will hit the shops tomorrow and just like waiting for Buses, I have one of my Photographs of Keith Amor from the recent Armoy Road Races used as this months front cover image. Inside I have up to a dozen other images published in another excellent issue which this month features Keith Amor, Dean Harrison, Dan Sayle, Bruce Anstey and all the regular columns from Guy Martin, Jeremey McWilliams, John McGuinness etc
Tags: Armoy Road Races, Bruce Anstey, Dan Sayle, Dean Harrison, Guy Martin, Irish Racer Magazine, Isle of Man, Jeremey McWilliams, John McGuinness, Keith Amor, Manx Grand Prix
Posted by Cleggy on Jul 7, 2010 in
PR
Issue #96 (July 2010) of Irish Racer Magazine hit the Shop Shelves this morning. This is the TT review issue and it also features Joey Dunlop on the tenth anniversary of his death. Also inside are features on Aussie David Johnson, Klaus Klaffenbock, Sandra Stamova and Bryan Staring along with all the regular columns from the likes of Guy Martin, Kirk Jamison, Jonathan Rea, Eugene Laverty, John McGuinness and a straight-talking new column from Ireland’s last Grand Prix winner Jeremy McWilliams.
It has been another excellent issue for myself in that I have over twenty of my images published in the magazine this month, including the popular Eye Candy page.
Tags: Bryan Staring, David Johnson, Eugene Laverty, Guy Martin, Irish Racer Magazine, Jeremy McWilliams, Joey Dunlop, John McGuinness, Jonathan Rea, Kirk Jamison, Klaus Klaffenbock, Sandra Stamova
Posted by Cleggy on Jun 13, 2010 in
Bike Racing
The Senior TT is the final race of the Isle of Man TT fortnight and it is ‘the big one‘, the one that everyone wants to win.
With the Senior being the last action of the week, engines are tired, riders are mentally drained and its inevitable that there are a few retirements from this race, but no one could have predicted the drama that was to unfold.
The Senior started more-or-less on time and in excellent conditions with only a strong Wind causing concern to the competitors. Two laps in to the race and Guy Martin had a spectacular crash at Ballagarey corner where Paul Dobbs lost his life earlier in the week. Thankfully Guy survived the crash, but such was the devastation of the wreckage that the race had to be Red-flagged to allow a Fire engine to get on to the circuit and extinguish a fire created by the exploding fuel in the tank of Guy’s race bike.
When the race was restarted later in the day John McGuinness set the early pace, but Ian Hutchinson was keeping within a second of him and eventually moved to the front. McGuinness was soon a retirement though giving Hutchy a commanding lead over Conor Cummins and Keith Amor. But then Conor Cummins crashed off the side of the Mountain at the Verandah and Keith Amor retired at Glen Helen leaving Hutchy with an unassailable lead.
I decided to leave the Car in Nobles Park and walk up to signpost Corner to Photograph this race, working my way back to the paddock shooting at a few locations along the way. A 300mm Nikon lens helped me capture this image of John McGuinness at Signpost Corner.
John McGuinness at Signpost Corner
Ian Hutchinson won the 2010 Senior TT
Ryan Farquhar was delighted to finish 2nd in the Senior TT after enduring a difficult practice week where he struggled to modify the British Superbike spec., MSS Kawasaki in to a bike suitable for racing the demanding Isle of Man TT Mountain Circuit.
Ryan Farquhar was delighted to finish 2nd in the Senior TT
So the TT is over for another year, just 50 more weeks until we are all back on ‘the Rock‘ to do it all again.
Tags: an Hutchinson, Ballagarey, Conor Cummins, Glen Helen, Guy Martin, Isle of Man TT, John McGuinness, Keith Amor, Mountain Circuit, MSS Kawasaki, Nikon, Nobles Park, Paul Dobbs, Photographs, Ryan Farquhar, Senior TT, Signpost Corner, TT, Verandah
Posted by Cleggy on Jun 5, 2010 in
Bike Racing
The Friday of practice week is my traditional evening for meandering through the paddock, holding area and start grid capturing candid images of the racers and their machinery. This year was no different, lots of candid images of the racers, their race bikes, and of course the all important glamour promoional Girls.
With practice now completed and the first race of the 2010 Isle of Man TT now upon us, Michael Dunlop headed the times in the Superstock class.
The Superbike race looks like being a fierce battle between John McGuinness and Ian Hutchinson for the race win. But this is the TT, anything can happen!
Tags: Ian Hutchinson, Isle of Man TT, John McGuinness, Michael Dunlop, TT
Posted by Cleggy on Jun 4, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Any competitor who undertakes the challenge of racing at the Isle of Man TT first has to serve their apprenticeship. By that I mean they have to put time in to learning the circuit, learning how to build a Race bike to cope with the demands of the 37 mile pure Road circuit etc
Likewise as a Photographer it takes time at the TT to figure out how to create good TT images. The temptation is always to throw on big glass and shoot tight like you would at a short circuit Race meeting, but TT shots usually work best when shot a bit looser to capture some of the environment, and evening practice sessions are best for this as the setting Sun helps cast a warm glow across the scenery.
I ended up shooting at the Gooseneck last night, I had not intended to go there but after checking out Two other locations and deciding that the light was completely wrong I hastily used the back roads to get to the Gooseneck. Here I used a 70-200mm zoom (at approx 105mm) to capture John McGuinness powering up the Mountain on another fast lap. The Photographer on the inside of the corner is none other than good friend Stephen Davison whose Photography has met World wide aclaim.
Still using the 70-200mm zoom I changed my own position to allow me to shoot side on.
Tags: Gooseneck, Isle of Man TT, John McGuinness, Photographer, TT
Posted by Cleggy on May 11, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Earlier tonight saw the opening practice session for the 2010 North West 200 Road Races. With Roads scheduled to close around 5pm, and myself stuck in work at Antrim until 4:30pm, I made the decision not to attend as I would have been unable to make it up to the circuit, get myself signed on and the car parked up before the Roads closed. Instead I am venturing up on Thursday for the daytime practice session, which at this stage is looking a bit iffy with the Irish Weather!
The move to daytime practice is a great idea (despite it costing me one of my all too few days of annual leave from the day job) and its a move that the competing Teams are all in favour off. Hopefully the Weather won’t turn out to be as bad as is being predicted.
In this blog posting I displayed a Photograph of Ryan Farquhar’s new Kawasaki Superbike, which at that stage he hadn’t even ridden. Ryan got a few laps on the bike at a damp Kirkistown Race circuit yesterday morning before taking it out tonight for first practice for Saturday’s North West 200 races. Despite the lack of time on the bike Ryan managed to post a time that would leave him 6th quickest in a session headed by Honda’s Steve Plater and John McGuinness.
The evening’s practice/qualifying session for the North West 200 Race saw a lengthy delay due to an oil spillage when Gary Johnson’s engine blew up. Lets hope that Thursdays qualifying session sees no such delays and gives us some good light to capture some nice images for the various publications we represent.
Tags: Antrim, Gary Johnson, Honda, John McGuinness, Kawasaki, Kirkistown, North West 200, Photograph, Ryan Farquhar, Steve Plater, Superbike
Posted by Cleggy on Apr 25, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Australian Cameron Donald made the headlines at last years Isle of Man TT practice when he set an unofficial new lap record for the mountain circuit only to crash out of the very next practice session. Cameron sustained shoulder and ligament damage that would end his season there and then, robbing everyone of the opportunity of seeing him and current TT circuit maestro John McGuinness going head-to-head.
Yesterday saw Cameron Donald return to racing action for the Relentless Suzuki by TAS racing team at the Cookstown 100 road races. I captured this image of Cameron leading Michael Pearson in the opening Superbike race.
Cameron Donald leads Michael Pearson at Cookstown
Even before I had returned home from Cookstown, Suzuki Racings PR man was on the phone requesting some Photos of Cameron Donald for a press release. Below is one of my images used on Suzuki’s website.
Tags: Cameron Donald, Cookstown, Isle of Man TT, John McGuinness, Michael Pearson, Relentless, Suzuki, TAS
Posted by Cleggy on Dec 22, 2009 in
Bike Racing To finish of the year 2009 I thought it would be good to do a blog posting showing a few of my personal favourite images (published and non-published) of the year. The first in the series of ‘best of’ blog posts will be a selection of my favourite candid or non-action images. Feel free to leave a comment on my selection.
As always you can purchase from a selection of my vast Photographic Library by selecting from my online galleries.
William Dunlop’s girlfriend sits nervously on his Superstock machine whilst tuned in to the practice commentary on Manx Radio listening for updates on how William is progressing out on track on his CD racing Supersport 600 machine.
1/250th f7.1 70-200mm f2.8 VR
Guy Martin deep in thought at the 2009 Isle of Man TT races.
1/250th f9 70-200mm f2.8 VR
Mats Nilsson.
1/250th f9 70-200mm f2.8 VR
Andrew Neill, another rider lost in his own thoughts, oblivious to the camera as he psyches himself up to challenge the Isle of Man TT Mountain Circuit. Sadly Andrew Neill was fataly injured just over One Month after this image was captured.
1/250th f9 70-200mm f2.8 VR
A jubilant Guy Martin being interviewed by the press just after winning the 2009 Ulster Grand Prix Superbike race.
1/250th f5.6 17-55mm f2.8
The English brothers (Robert and Chris) pretend to Arm Wrestle for my camera on the World famous Dundrod road race circuit prior to setting off on a fund-raising walk.
1/250th f9 50mm f1.8
Cameron Donald and Conor Cummins line-up to set off for their final practice session of the 2009 Isle of Man TT practice week. Cameron sensationally lapped quicker than anyone else the previous evening, but sadly this lap would end in disaster as he crashed out and suffered injuries that would finish his 2009 racing season.
1/250th f9 70-200mm f2.8 VR
HM Plant Honda’s John McGuinness prepares to set off during qualifying for the 2009 North West 200.
1/250th f9 17-55mm f2.8
Not a very flattering angle but still a nice backlit portrait of HM Plant Honda’s Steve Plater during qualifying for the 2009 North West 200.
1/250th f13 17-55mm f2.8
Kirk Jamison asked me to take some PR photographs of him for a thank you to his sponsors, in this case RST Leathers.
1/200th f13 50mm f1.8
Kirk Jamison and Tim Martin of MAR-Train racing.
1/50th f4 50mm f1.8
Mark Lunney at Mondello Park during the evening sunset
1/250th f9 17-55mm f2.8
William Dunlop sprays the victory champagne round a promotion girl after winning the second Supersport 600 race at the 2009 Ulster Grand Prix races.
1/800th f6.3 70-200mm f2.8 VR
Tags: Andrew Neill, Cameron Donald, Candids, Conor Cummins, Guy Martin, HM Plant Honda, Isle of Man TT, John McGuinness, Kirk Jamison, MAR-Train racing, Mark Lunney, Mats Nilsson, Mondello Park, Nikon, North West 200, Steve Plater, Tim Martin, TT, Ulster Grand Prix, William Dunlop