Posted by Cleggy on Jul 24, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Earlier in the week (Thursday afternoon) I took a half days leave from ‘the day job‘ to Photograph a quite unique assignment for the new issue of Irish Racer Magazine (going to the publishers this Thursday).
It was a fun shoot, rounded off with a great Chinese Meal in the Red Panda, Antrim and I can’t wait to see the images in print and read the fun interview with the Three lads. Due to an exclusivity agreement I can’t blog the images from the shoot until after the Magazine is in the Shops.
Today was a return to short circuit racing at Bishopscourt in the latest round of the Irish Clubmans championships which included Two Open National races. I really hadn’t intended to go to todays racing but the big chief Editor asked me to go and shoot a few images of Lisburn’s David Haire for another feature.
I got there just in time for the opening Supersport 600 Race which saw a great battle between Nico Mawhinney and Timothy Elwood with Mawhinney just holding on for the win.
I then shot a few quick portraits of David Haire (head and shoulders, 3/4 length and full length) keeping it simple with basic Nikon gear, one remote Nikon SB800 flash triggered by the Nikon SU800 controller onboard the Camera’s hotshoe.
After that I just shot a couple of Races (Marshall Neill won both National Open Races) and had a good ol chin wag with friends in the paddock before heading home. Me oul Jock mate Derek Wilson was there snapping away and rummaging through the pockets of the Marshal’s to scrounge a free lunch ticket. I dunno the depths that that Man is prepared to sink to just to avoid paying for something himself!
Next Saturday sees the resumption of pure Road racing with the Mid-Antrim 150 Road races. Last year Ryan Farquhar had a Four timer, will the opposition be any closer this year?
Tags: Bishopscourt, David Haire, Irish Clubmans, Irish Racer Magazine, Marshall Neill, Mid-Antrim, Nico Mawhinney, Nikon, Nikon SB800, Nikon SU800, Road racing, Ryan Farquhar, Timothy Elwood
Posted by Cleggy on Jul 19, 2010 in
Bike Racing,
PR
Ask any Road racing fan to name an iconic image of Irish Motorcycle racing and the bets odds are a heck of a lot of them will mention the jumps at the Kells Road races in County Meath. Photographers’ images from these jumps have been used on countless Magazines, Newspapers, Books, Calendars, Race Programmes etc and go a long way to promote the event, attracting sponsors money to the races.
This year the Kells club and Chief Marshal agreed that only Five accredited, insured photographers at any one time could Photograph at either jump, a fair and amicable agreement on the grounds of safety. Then about Ten minutes prior to the start of practice that agreement was over-ruled by the powers that be and we were told that no Photographer could shoot the jumps except from the same areas that the public can shoot from. Needless to say there was uproar with the Photographers association even talking about a mass boycott of publicity for the event. However a boycott would not hurt the right people, nor would it help the sport which is already in a very fragile position.
Whilst supporting the sentiments behind a boycott I could not fully support it as I had pressure on me to deliver images for Adelaide Insurance and Irish Racer Magazine. Adelaide not only sponsor the Kells Road races but they also advertise in Irish Racer and sponsor the Irish Racer Awards dinner.
Why one side of the Road is deemed safe and the other side declared as too dangerous I don’t think I will ever understand that thinking! In my opinion nowhere is safe and I’m personally prepared to photograph anywhere that I myself feel comfortable with. As it was I shot some images from the ‘safe‘ side of the Road.
In this image I used a wide angle Nikon lens to capture Australian racer Cameron Donald is in mid-flight on his Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing Superbike.
Towards the end of practice the cruel side of the sport reared its ugly head again claiming the life of Stephen Larkin and predictably in this nanny state we live in today there is now yet another call for Road racing to be banned. Should we now also ban driving to work? or ban Horse riding?
On Race day Adelaide insurance had a few PR girls to assist with PR and out on the grid prior to each race. I again used a wide angle Nikon lens and the ever reliable Nikon SB800 flash gun to capture this image.
Race day was blighted by constant light rain, which then turned to heavy rain by mid-day and eventually conditions became too wet for racing to continue. Definitely not a Kells road race to remember, from what is normally an excellent race meeting.
In my Photograph below, TT race winner Adrian Archibald huddles under an umbrella with fellow racers Davy Morgan and Michael Dunlop.
Tags: Adelaide Insurance, Adrian Archibald, Cameron Donald, Davy Morgan, Irish Motorcycle racing, Irish Racer Magazine, Kells, Kells Road races, Michael Dunlop, Nikon, Nikon SB800, Photograph, Relentless Suzuki, Stephen Larkin, TAS
Posted by Cleggy on Apr 12, 2010 in
PR
Portadown Motorcycle racer Chris McAloran is a die hard fan of Two-stroke race bikes. The former Irish ‘Two-Fifty’ Champion now mainly competes in England in the ACU 250GP National Championship, but because of Government emissions laws the two-stroke racing classes have been on the wane and as a result Chris, David Craig and others who compete regularly ‘across the Water’ find it a real struggle to even get a mention in the bike racing press let alone the local and national newspapers.
Chris McAloran – 1/160th f1.6
Chris managed to win one of the Two races at the opening round of this years championship but it went laregly unnoticed in the press and so, having known Chris many years now, I offered to do a shoot with him so that he could have some high quality images fit for publication in the hope that it might raise his profile and command a few column inches.
Chris McAloran – 1/800th f1.6
We started off shooting some images, in a few grungy locations, with just the available light as we waited for the evening Sun to get lower in the Sky.
Chris McAloran – 1/640th f1.6
Chris McAloran – 1/1000th f2.5
I then introduced some artificial light in to the images, courtesy of Nikon’s excellent SB800 flash guns, to achieve something a bit more creative. The flashes and the falling ambient light levels added to the mood of the images.
Chris McAloran – 1/640th f4
Chris McAloran – 1/250th f13
Chris McAloran – 1/250th f11
Chris McAloran – 1/250th f11
Tags: Chris McAloran, David Craig, flash, flash gun, Motorcycle racer, Nikon, Nikon SB800, Portadown, race bikes
Posted by Cleggy on Mar 14, 2010 in
PR
So today I drove down to the County Fermanagh lakelands to do a wee shoot with the lovely Julianne Elliott, big sister to Josh Elliott the teenage rising star of Irish Motorcycle Racing who will be competing on the World championship stage in 2010. Whilst there I also shot some images to be used throughout this season for Josh’s press releases.
The Weather had been good all week and luckily today was equally as nice, though quite cool temperatures due to the stiff breeze. I arrived at my destination at approximately half past Two which gave us ample time to have a natter and scout out a few locations for doing some shots whilst the Sun was still high and the light harsh.
Our first shooting location was in the grounds of Florence Court House a National Trust property.
I used shallow depth of field from a wide aperture to focus the attention on Julianne.
1/1250th f3.5 85mm
A shady Woodland area provided a great setting for this next image.
1/2000th f2.8 85mm
1/2500th f5 85mm
One remote flash helped balance the exposure with the ambient light for this image of Josh sitting on a Cannon with Florence Court House behind him.
1/100th f8 55mm
We then travelled a short distance to Enniskillen Town to take create some images in the location of Enniskillen Castle. By now the sun was providing much warmer light, though still quite harsh and I had to use remote Nikon SB800 flashes to balance the exposure.
If you would like me to do a Photo shoot with you, get in touch and we can discuss a location and fee.
Tags: County Fermanagh, Enniskillen, Enniskillen Castle, Fermanagh, Florence Court, Florence Court House, Josh Elliott, Julianne Elliott, Motorcycle racing, Nikon, Nikon SB800, SB800
Posted by Cleggy on Nov 15, 2009 in
Location shoot,
Models Newry school girl and ‘wannabe’ Model Aisling Gorman-McGeough arranged a time-for-photos (TFP), location fashion shoot with me to obtain Photographs for her modelling portfolio to assist her in her quest to land more modelling and PR girl jobs. Aisling has done brolly girl assignments at various Thundersport races in the UK and more recently was Alastair Seeley’s brolly girl at the Mondello Masters event back in October.
Aisling and I originally decided on Tollymore Forest Park for this shoot, but a few days prior to the shoot the good old Northern Ireland Weather was horrible so we re-scheduled closer to home at Gosford Forest Park just outside Markethill. Gosford was more convenient for both of us just in case the Weather would turn nasty again, however we got lucky in that we had a dry and sunny Autumnal morning for our shoot.
This was such a different shoot to what I normally do but Aisling was great to work with, and even though it wasn’t all that warm a day she was still prepared to pose in summery clothing throughout the shoot and for one so inexperienced at modelling she worked very well to instruction.
1/60th f9 Nikon 85mm f1.8
I decided to keep it simple utilising a maximum of two Nikon SB800 flashes at any one time, controlled from the camera by the Nikon SU800 Infra-red controller, and I only brought Three lenses the Nikon 50mm f1.8, the Nikon 85mm f1.8 and the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8
1/60th f9 Nikon 85mm f1.8
1/60th f9 Nikon 85mm f1.8
One change of Clothes and one change of location gave us an opportunity to use the Autumnal sunshine as a backlight to this set of images. The sunshine helped to reveal the gorgeous rustic colour palette of the Autumn leaves. I originally tried this with the 85mm lens but shooting directly in to the sun was causing flare through the lens so I switched to a longer focal length.
1/250th f7.1 Nikon 70-200mm f2.8
Taking a few steps to my right I was able to frame Aisling against the dark shadowy bark of the trunk of a Beech Tree whilst still keeping some of the Autumn foliage as background.
1/250th f7.1 Nikon 70-200mm f2.8
We then walked on round the Forest Park until we came across this wall which I envisaged would make a nice lead in line to a portrait shot allowing me to use differential focus to isolate model Aisling and the bonus was that the sun was still back-lighting her.
1/250th f7.1 Nikon 85mm f1.8
1/160th f3.5 Nikon 85mm f1.8
One final change of outfit.
1/200th f4.5 Nikon 85mm f1.8
Finally to finish off the shoot some fun larking about and experimenting with colour.
1/100th f5 Nikon 85mm f1.8
1/160th f4.5 Nikon 70-200mm f2.8
Tags: Aisling Gorman-McGeough, Fashion, Gosford Forest Park, Location shoot, Model, Nikon, Nikon 50mm f1.8, Nikon 70-200mm VR f2.8, Nikon 85mm f1.8, Nikon SB800, Nikon SU800