Posted by Cleggy on Jul 15, 2010 in
Bike Racing
On Tuesday it was the latest round of the Irish Superbike Championships at Kirkistown Race circuit in County Down. The Weather forecast was for prolonged Rain but luckily it did not arrive until after the racing had been and gone.
Kirkistown is a very small, flat circuit with very few corners which makes it hard not to continually repeat shots that you have captured many times before. With the recent clamp down on Health and Safety at race circuits (fat lot of good its doing with racers still getting killed and spectators still getting hurt) it is getting even harder to capture anything worthwhile at this circuit. But with by utilising large glass and a tele-convertor its still possible to shoot some action.
The dedicated Medical Team do a great job of quickly getting to the scene of an incident and attending to the injured racers, here they can be seen in action attending to Jason Cash who luckily was not badly hurt in this crash. This incident happened quite some distance away from me but a 300mm Nikon lens and 1.7 tele-convertor helped me to zoom in on the scene for an image that the Medical Team were appreciative of.
I was down to a shorter lens and a very slow shutter speed ( 1/80th sec ) to capture some panning images when Scott Lonsdale crashed in front of me, sadly the shutter speed for panning images wasn’t quite fast enough to capture this crash any sharper.
Kirk Jamison and Gerard Kinghan are just Two of the many friends I have made through racing and although they are rivals on track they are also good friends off it, here they are locked in battle at Kirkistown. Sadly Gerard crashed out shortly after this and broke his Collarbone.
But Portadown’s Marshall Neill had one win and a runner-up spot, he would have had Two wins only a commentators cock-up on the number of laps remaining meant that his pit crew displayed the wrong info to him on his signal board allowing David Haire to win the second Superbike race. But Marshall still has a very healthy lead in the championship fight.
Tags: County Down, David Haire, Gerard Kinghan, Irish Superbike Championship, Jason Cash, Kirk Jamison, Kirkistown, Marshall Neill, Medical Team, Nikon, panning, Scott Lonsdale
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 20, 2010 in
Location shoot,
PR
Yesterday evening I travelled down to Greyabbey and Kirkcubbin to shoot some PR photographs for Kirk Jamison. Kirk and I had a very successful shoot last year and Kirk was wanting more images this year to give to sponsors etc.
We unloaded his Race bike (a Honda Fireblade) from the Van he was driving and wheeled it down on to the rocky shore of Strangford Lough on the Portaferry road. By this time It was approximately 7.30pm and ideally we would have just sat and waited for at least another hour or more for the Sun to get lower in the Sky.
Waiting longer would have meant the ambient light levels would have been lower and we could have shot with lower powered flashes, but we didn’t choose that option instead I setup the shots in such a way that the Sun could be used as a rim light and then I used my 400WS Elinchrom portable studio light as fill (from Camera left).
Whilst shooting the above images we were joined by Paul Lindsay Editor of Irish Racer Magazine who then asked us to shoot an image of Kirk, back at his father’s garage in Kirkcubbin, working on the bike for Kirk’s monthly column in the new issue of Irish Racer which goes to the publishers in just over a weeks time.
Tags: Elinchrom, Fireblade, Greyabbey, Honda, Irish Racer Magazine, Kirk Jamison, Kirkcubbin, Portaferry, Strangford Lough
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 Apr 7, 2010 in
Bike Racing
The Irish championship short circuit racing action moved along the County Down Coast to the Kirkistown race circuit for the second round of the Irish Superbike Championships. The early on-track action was held in cold and wet conditions, but as the day progressed it got drier, and a heck of a lot windier and the Sun even put in an appearance.
I started off where I left off at Bishopscourt by using a slow shutter speed for some panning shots. With so many Motorhomes and other background distractions at race circuits these days, panning motion blur can be used to blur a distracting background.
Cameron Donald – 300mm 1/125th
Cameron Donald – 500mm 1/320th
There was some nice light late in the afternoon to shoot the second superbike race of the day, but a very strong sidewind made it very tricky to hold the Camera and lens (with teleconvertor) steady. To minimise the effect of the wind I used the sheltered side of some Tyres and grass banking, a monopod and a low position to help me capture this image of best friends Gerard Kinghan and Kirk Jamison battling it out wheel-to-wheel at Kirkistown’s hairpin.
Tags: Bishopscourt, Bruce Anstey, Cameron Donald, County Down, Gerard Kinghan, Irish Championship, Irish Superbike Championship, Kirk Jamison, Kirkistown, panning
Posted by Cleggy on Mar 27, 2010 in
General
Today’s plan was to travel to Tim Martin’s House a few miles from Lisburn and assist the Team’s PR man (Stephen Henderson) to take some studio style Photographs of all the Team members against a White background for their Website, and then in the late afternoon/evening do a shoot of my own with one of the Team’s racers Kirk Jamison at Scrabo Tower near Newtownards.
The MAR-Train racing shoot went well and was all wrapped up within a couple of hours at which point Kirk told me the afternoon shoot wasn’t going ahead as his new Leather race suit wasn’t ready yet. That itself was disappointing, but to then later receive a text from Derek Wilson (who was returning from a days shooting at Kirkistown) informing of a nice sunset over Scrabo was very disappointing as we don’t get a lot of sunsets in Ireland!
Ah well you can’t win them all. Maybe I should start charging cancellation fees…
When I returned home I then travelled on to Dungannon to catch up with Ryan Farquhar and have some ‘craic’ with him discussing the upcoming racing season and how he was getting on at preparing his race bikes and his new race truck. We then went back to his house for a cuppa Tea and watched the World Superbike qualifying from Portimao.
Tags: Kirk Jamison, Kirkistown, Lisburn, MAR-Train racing, Newtownards, Portimao, Ryan Farquhar, Tim Martin, World Superbike
Posted by Cleggy on Mar 21, 2010 in
Bike Racing The 2010 Irish Short Circuit Motorcycle Racing season got underway yesterday at Bishopscourt for the opening round of the Irish Clubmans Championship. A dull start with a Wet Track from overnight Rain got things off to a subdued start but the Sun came out, the Track dried up and every Race ran in dry conditions.
Included in the programme was Two open Races for ‘the big boys‘ the competitors in the Irish Superbike Championship. This was an opportunity for them to get some track time on their bikes before their own championships get underway at the same venue over the Easter Weekend.
The Two open races served up the best and fastest racing of the day providing good action for Photography.
Portadown’s Marshall Neill is one of Ireland’s under-rated racers who normally competes in the British Superstock Championship. For 2010 Marshall will be racing at home in the Irish Superbike Championships with the odd race ‘across the water’. Marshall’s first race of the day saw him have a minor crash but he showed what he was made of in Race Two by winning. There is a lot of racing to go before the 2010 Irish Superbike Champion is crowned, but already Marshall Neill is looking like a contender.
Marshall Neill leads Denver Robb, Kirk Jamison, Brian McCormack and Richard Rea at Bishopscourt
James Dickson #16 in the middle of the pack at the start of the second Open Race
Tags: Bishopscourt, Brian McCormack, Denver Robb, Irish Clubmans Championship, Irish Superbike Championship, James Dickson, Kirk Jamison, Marshall Neill, Motorcycle racing, Richard Rea
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
Posted by Cleggy on Dec 21, 2009 in
Bike Racing As previously mentioned in this blog posting I recently had the opportunity at very short notice to join in on a photo shoot for Irish Racer magazine. At the time I was told that the shots were for Kirk Jamison’s monthly column as a follow up to a previous press release to say that Kirk would be riding for Tim Martin’s MAR-Train race team in 2010. I had agreed not to publish the images online until the magazine was in the Shops.
The first shot image that I created was of Kirk and Tim down in the workshop. Upon entering the workshop I immediately scanned the room for a shooting location that would give me a clean shot with not too much distraction in the background, whilst also assessing the quality of the light within the workshop.
1/60th f7.1 50mm
The interior lighting consisted of a few flourescent tubes and the light levels on this cold, wet, winter’s night were far from brilliant for Photography so I knew I would have to call upon Nikon’s trusty SB800 speedlights to provide some extra oomph to the light, but small light sources produce harsh light and so I also grabbed a White shoot-through umbrella to increase the apparent size of the light source (relative to the subject aka Tim and Kirk) which would also help to soften the light. (Nikon’s SB600 or SB900 speedlights could also have been used if you don’t own an SB800)
There was a conveniently located empty Motorcycle work bench where I had planned to create the image from and I utilised that to get myself up approximately Two feet higher so that I could eliminate most of the ceiling lights; and shoot more or less at eye level with Kirk who was sat astride one of Tim’s race bikes which was itself on top of yet another Motorcycle work bench.
Below is the lighting setup diagram for the above image.
I then left my colleague Stephen Henderson to take a head ‘n shoulders mugshot of Kirk and a few shots of him on a mini-moto machine before we all went back in to Tim’s Kitchen for a nice big mug of Tea where I then shot a few candid images of Kirk and Tim enjoying ‘a bit of banter’.
I didn’t know at the time that the magazine was also going to be running a separate feature on Tim Martin and so in these images I focussed on Kirk Jamison. Had I of been informed otherwise I would have taken a few images where I had focussed on Tim. Either way it didn’t matter too much as both images were published.
1/60th f4 50mm
Tags: Irish Racer Ma, Kirk Jamison, Kitchen, MAR-Train racing, Nikon, SB800, SU800, Tim Martin
Posted by Cleggy on Dec 21, 2009 in
Bike Racing Just in time for a last minute Christmas stocking filler, Issue 91 of Irish Racer magazine has hit the shop Newsagents’ shelves. This issue has interviews with Keith Amor, Ian Lowry, Tim Martin and Shannon Johnson as well as features on the Macau GP and the Kings of Wanneroo event held recently in Australia.
This issue is a bumper 80 page double issue (December and January) giving the staff at Careva Publishing a well earned break for the Christmas and New Year period. Well most of them have earned a break, the editor on the other hand should be bright as a daisy after his mammoth holiday to Australia under the pretence of Work!! Nope I’m not jealous at all.
Considering the Irish racing season finished in mid October I wasn’t expecting to have any of my images published in this issue so I was a bit surprised to find out that I had 13 of my Photographs published. Thank you to Paul and all the team at Careva for a brilliant year, rest up over Christmas and here’s to making the magazine even bigger and better in 2010!
Tags: Ian Lowry, Irish Racer, Kirk Jamison, MAR-Train racing, Shannon Johnson, Tim Martin