The smell of Castrol R...

Another quickie post, with a couple of pictures from my first photographic specialisation, motorsport.

I let it go for a few years, when I went pro full-time, but have been getting back into it again over the last couple of years (a back story I won't go into). Here's a nice image from last week at the Brands Hatch Formula 3 and GT meeting...

Caterham Superlight R300 championship race on Sunday 19th July. The cars are leaving the Indy circuit
behind as they race onto the GP circuit, and No32, Paul Wilson, fended off his rivals to win.
Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8 + 1.4x converter, 1/800th @ f8, ISO 250, - 0.3 compensation. Trick here is to keep
enough spin in treaded tyres and a little motion blur in the background , yet keep a high enough shutter speed
that fast racing cars stay sharp when they pass through the plane of focus; even here with the excellent D3 AF
doing follow-focus right up until the shutter opens

The "tilt' is applied after the event in Aperture, because I forgot to get one here in-camera (doh!). I think I could get some better angles in the pic if I'd done it then - told you I was still trying to get back into this! Having said that, I do like the original and so it's up on the study wall as an inkjet print at the moment.

More after the break...

Help, I think I may...

...have a bit of a problem brewing!

I became interested in photography early enough that black and white was still “the done thing” though, like many people, found the lack of any darkroom was a big problem. Colour Neg had begun to take over by the time I had professional aspirations, and I learned to shoot colour transparency in any event, as it was the best medium for the market where I made my first sales.

The arrival of digital technology changed everybody’s outlook on processing their pictures. With easy access to even the most humble personal computer, people who would never have considered getting their hands wet in dev and fix were able and willing to work in the new Light Room. For enthusiasts who previously had no darkrooms, processing and creating was now just a matter of kicking their kids off the PC of an evening :)

More after the break.

Dark, and yet smooth...

Been a bit light on the blog front lately, folks - sorry! Here's a quickie one about a picture from a job on last Saturday's list...

The pic request was action from a Darts Tournament, during the practice sessions early on Saturday. It was to include some of the local regulars at this annual tournament, and at its usual venue at a leisure complex at the "Holiday End" of Sheppey.

Here's the request:

DATE: Saturday, June 4

TIME: 10-11am for practice. Event starts at 12pm.

PLACE: Merlins, Leysdown, ME124RB (01795 xxxxxx)

EVENT: Sheppey Darts Classic

CONTACT: Organiser Tony Cox 077xxxxxxx

CATEGORY: Darts

SLUG: SP CLASSIC

REQUIREMENTS: Pics of players in action. Maybe best to do when practicing, as no flash during play.

Local players pls, names such as Paul McDine, Geoff Harkup. Norfolk defending champ is Andy Belton.

Tony Cox will help if need any.

More after the break...

Be careful what you wish for…

She was tall, dark, leggy. I was always at a distance, never permitted in her presence. She was, I was told, out of my class, forbidden. I could only look on with envy, lust even. Then one day last year, I was allowed, no, encouraged to whisk her to a cricket match and fondle her…


Much more, after the break.

“And they were all … orange” (with apologies to Coldplay)

It’s May, so it’s election time again. With the General Election out of the way for a few years, this time it was just our local council wards who were choosing their councillors. In a rare vote for common sense, it was decided that an overnight count was NOT required for this, so it was off to the local sports hall on Friday last week. I was lucky. Many of my colleagues were obliged to work a 24hr+ shift, covering those who still felt self-important enough to hold an overnight count. (Or perhaps, thanks to our bosses..)

Now, the rival paper’s snapper and I have a name for this place – “The Orange Temple of Doom”. It has possibly the worst lighting I have ever seen in a hall. Orange sodium vapour lamps give a terrible colour cast and there is precious little light anyway. An utterly dismal place to shoot....

More after the break. 

Good Things...

A random selection of things that I think Are Good. The number seems to increase as I type, too. They're in no particular order of importance, either. Not all are immediately related to photography...  


NB; it goes without saying that family and friends should be on this list. At the top, if importance were attached. Cherish yours.

1. Cups of tea. Some days I run on them.
2. Readily available public toilets (an important balance if relying on 1, y'know)
3. The Nikon D3/D3S (OK, and EOS 1DmkIII/IV - I'm not blind to the other side...). We might moan about the size and weight of digital Pro bodies but my god, they REALLY get the job done these days. And just compare them with an F and its F36 motor and battery pack? Not so big and heavy, after all, hmmm?
4. The North Face Men's Amplitude Jacket, in two-tone grey, with the zip-in thermal liner, AND a Berghaus Spectrum fleece under that. A little bit of waterproof warmth through one of the coldest winters for years.
5. Photo Mechanic. The most robust of captioning programs. And $150 (call it £100) well-spent.
6. Modern diesels. If you are a freelance, I would not be running anything else. And they're more relaxing to drive, because they have that precious commodity - torque!
7. Apple MacBook Pro (and no PC alternative... Not even a high-end Sony Vaio). The extra money you begrudged spending means that, treated with the care they deserve, they keep running. And running. 
8. Apple Genius Bars. Just like anything, Macs will sometimes fall over. The Genius Bars seem very good lately at getting them going again.
9. The British Touring Car Championship. A race series I slightly lost touch with over the last few years appears to be growing in health and competitiveness again.
10. Strobist. And Joe McNally. Do I need to say any more?
11. ThinkTank Photo rolling camera bags. How to get a shedload of heavy gear from A to B.
12. ThinkTank Photo StreetWalker HardDrive. How to carry a lot of the above from B to where you need to use it. Without doing even more harm to your back.
13. Apple Aperture 3. Ingest, Edit, Select, Caption, Adjust in Raw, Export. A beautiful interface - especially in full-screen - almost as robust a captioner as PM,  not slower than LR (!) and with good basic raw profiles. Another reason for the MBP.
14. Tea in the garden, downloading.
15. The 300mm f2.8... Nikon or Canon, sharp enough to cut! If sport is in your brief, probably the most flexible long glass if you can only run to just one super-telephoto. Any recent one works fine with the 1.4x extenders, Nikon users have the excellent 1.7x too, and even the 2.0x are OK for news work with care. 
16. Ansmann battery chargers - keeping your NiMH AAs charged AND in top condition, six, eight and more at a time..
17. PocketWizard ControlTL system. See earlier posts. 
18. Broadband. How good is it NOT to have to go back to the office to upload? The tea's better for a start.
19. Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly. "Bugger, dust specks". BZZZZZZT. Swipe. "Bye bye, dust".
20. The Speed Graphic Catalogue. Hmmm, what's my bank balance look like?
21. Indian Restaurants. The best place to retire to with good friends and colleagues after a long (hopefully productive) day's shooting. 
22. Autofocus. I can still out-think my cameras for exposure, if I so choose.  I cannot out-focus them.
23. Yorkies (four-legged variety).
24. D700/EOS 5Dmk2 - 95% of no.3, but in a smaller, lighter package when needed. Seriously considering adding the first to my bag.
25. 27" iMac. Expansive screen and processing power for the space-poor office.

Just a little selection, for fun. You can probably think of your own additions that make life a bit better, sweeter, funnier...

The price of flexibility and range.

Taking Nikon's iTTL/CLS to the next level...


As mentioned previously, I stumped up for a set of PocketWizard Control TL radio remotes recently. I love Nikon's iTTL/CLS (Creative Lighting System), for its ability to let me get a flash off-camera, yet still use TTL, quickly. It's especially quick with a D300 and SB900 combination, as the D300's little on-camera flash can be set to just Command, and the SB900's remote control mode is another click of its rotary on/off switch - simple. It's the (not much) time thing again - local press photography.

iTTL/CLS does have some limitations, though, which are frustrating to run into and not be able to overcome. This is where the PocketWizard ControlTL system comes in...

Nikon D300, with a MiniTT1 in the hotshoe, SU800
above that as Commander, and an SB900 on a FlexTT5 on an
AS21 stand. The MiniTT/SU800 is a nicely compact setup.

More after the break.