The Full set of pictures from the 2011 FIA European Finals at Santa Pod can be found here

The 2011 season on the whole both in europe and here in blighty has been dogged by less than idea weather. I got to the track pretty late on friday night and was greated with some pretty awesome sun set light , which I hoped was an omen for what the weekends weather was going to hold.

Unfortuntly by the time Saturday Morning Rolled round we was back to being in thick cloud cover. Cloud cover can cause some real headaches the cars just reflect the white clouds and it all looks very washed out and drab, not cool! However with some photography tricks you can soon use the cloud cover to your advantage and produce something cool. I love the reflections in the side of Roger Johansson’s pro mod 

Thomas Lindstrom is a driver I haven’t seen before but his Mopar Pro Stocker was certainly hard to miss with that awesome paint job.

Its really great seeing some of the young blood come through into drag racing, you have the lindbergs in pro mod , Adam Gleadow  and Joe Bond in NFAA and the finals saw 19 year old Kenni Neergaard jumping in a Top Fuel Dragster for his first competitive weekend. Bellow one of Kenni’s young team Torques a head down between rounds

I always love shooting the awesome Pro Mod of Mats Eriksson, with that wild green paint and awesome burn outs it always produces some great images.

Scandinavian Timo Lehtimaki has spent the last couple years just doing the odd events in and around scandinavia , some pretty knowledgable people we seen around his pits over the course of the weekend and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Timo in the coming years.

 Staying with Top Fuel Anita Makela Warms up the Fuel Car in the pits prior to First round of Eliminations.

Multi Championship winning Andy Carter Has stuggled all year and his luck doesn’t improve as Sparks billow out of the clutch as his slows through the shut down area.

Gordon Smith gets a little warm as possibly the worlds smallest funny car fire erupts from the MPM oil funny car

The other MPM Oil Supported car of David Vegter burns out in front of the capacity crowd.

As the sun set on saturday I snapped this frame of Timo Harbermann  sitting in his car, the 2011 season for the Harbermann Family certainly has been as dominating as previous years, and it has really lead to a close season with in the TMD ranks for both A Fuel and Top Methanol Dragsters

Now every one loves a good bit of night racing, who doesn’t but with Drag Racing not having any big money TV backing the lighting on track is some what lacking, AKA its a black hole which when the sun has set competly can make it a bit of a challenge.

Yep its pretty dam dark, must be a interesting feeling flying off into the murky abyss at 300+mph

Chris hartnell push started off down the track to signal the start of Sunday’s activities

Johan Lindberg waits to run 

Smoke Fills the cockpit of Thomas Lindstrom’s pro mod as he backs up from his burn out

The Crew Check under the body of the MPM Oil’s Funny car before its last run of the weekend. I put my camera on the ground and just vaguly pointed it in the right direction for this shot, don’t think it came out too bad at all.

Thats it for this time, make sure to subscribe or “like” us on facebook and be sure to check back soon for the 2011 year in pictures post, I promise it’ll be a good one

Last time I got to go drag racing it was easter, the sun was out and it was un seasonally warm, unfortunately the great weather didn’t last by the time we got to the Main event, it was cold baltic, this causes me two problems, one I hate the cold and two over cast skies really aren’t the best when your trying to take punchy images.

The big story out of the weekend was Henri Joosten’s nitrous pro mod fire, a rare accident that completely gutted the car

Unlike america Europe doesn’t have big commercial teams, its nearly all private teams doing it out of their own pocket on a sometimes shoe string budget, its never nice seeing some ones hard work go up in smoke, especially when its to the point that they can’t afford to return, after 27 years  Henri is having to call it a day and is going to be throughly missed in the pits as a great racer and a generally all round nice guy.

One of the plus sides to over cast skies is that if your really lucky you can get some great header flames from the fuel cars, the down side is that because of how flat the top of the body is you get really bad reflections that make the cars look crap so using a CP filter you can cut through the reflections.

The Strong head winds were causing tire smoke to disperse pretty quickly which did give some unique photo opportunities.

Part of my plan for the weekend was to shoot some driver portraits, unfortunately the clouds somewhat scuppered my plans as they cast really strong reflections on the screens, however I did still manage to get what I wanted from the pro stock racers by using a handheld  flash through the front window and shooting through the side window to give a pretty cool look .

Micke Callin holds on as he’s towed down the staging lanes.

Conrad Stanley sits as he has his Hanns device secured by a team member.

Jeff Kline was flown over from america by MPM oil to shoot for them all weekend, a real great guy and a blast to shoot with however it was clear from the outset that the rest of us mear photographers were doomed ! The Man can multi task  (gotta be a first for everything) .

Grabbing a lift with the canon reloaded team to the top end I arrived in time to shoot some parachute shots, because of the strong wind every one was slowing down really quickly which made it incredibly easy to shoot however the wind was also causing parachutes to get very close to the wall, the chutes are pretty easy to spot, its the tiny little drobes that are about 5 ft behind the chutes that can cause carnage .

Avid Grodem gets very close to the centre line, nocking the blocks over with his headers

Four times european top fuel champion Andy Carter coasts to a stop after struggling with a under preforming car all weekend

The Top end can get very boring, especially when they hold the racing to let a demonstration occur, to try and entertain my self while we waited I tried to see how good my reactions were with getting the sky divers to look like they were stood on top of the gantry , don’t think I did too bad!

For the final pro session of the sunday, and what turned out to be the final pro session of the weekend I ended up back on the start line with some great light.

Lex Joon burns out in front of a near capacity crowd at the FIA Main event.

Ex top fuel racer Linda Thun is driving a very vibrant Pro Mod this year.

Unfortunately the rain came down at 9 o’clock on monday and didn’t stop all day , letting Tommy Johnson Jr sail away (I make no excuses for the bad pun) with the points lead after the first round !

It always rolls round way to quickly the beginning of the end is the friday night at the national finals, the last race weekend of the year before every one hides for 6 months till it warms up again. This weekend was a little different from the norm, as I had some readers from Practical Photography magazine come and join me for the day to experience shooting drag racing, an article that should be out shortly ! Having them with me made a intresting and refreshing challenge that made me take stock and think about why I was doing what I was doing and it also gave me a bit of a kick to find something a little different.

Racing this late in the year gives you some great low level light that really hangs a round that you can just have so much fun with!

Unfortuntly Saturday was the only good day and sunday saw rain, lots of it !

This results in racers getting bored and doing odd things while they wait

Here we see super Pro ET driver Pete Walters has modified his golf cart, with wheelie bar and all!

That wraps up drag racing for this year , a very damp end to a great year!

If I could only do one drag race meeting a year then it would have to be the FIA european Finals, the final round of the season its got it all big speeds , big classes and every one going for broke. It promises to give some great racing.

Above John Bradshaw burns out at dusk in his 350z real slow shutter speed about 1/20th and then rear curtain flash to keep some sharpness to the image.

I always try and get to shoot Mark Flavell where I can not only does he put on a huge burn out but also the reflective paint work means you can get a little bit creative.

When you go into Finland you notice that the spectators often bring their sofa or arm chairs with them, its not very often that you see that sort of activity in the uk so when I spotted this I had to grab a quick snap!

They even packed the throw cushions!!!!!

Possibly the worlds easiest photo to take in drag racing is the head on shot as a Top Fuel car launches, dead easy but always looks amazing

Andy Carter Launches off the line at sunset.

Janne Ahonen Launches off the line at sunset, the biggest issue with shooting these is making sure that the force as they go past doesn’t know you over, because you know some one is going to catch is on camera. A bit like this Santa pod fail anyway back on track (pardon the pun)

Ok Ok I know I normaly promise you that I’m only going to bring you cool images and this is nothing special but this one puzzled me for an age, the tonal range is way off can only assume that I have caught the flash off a fellow photographer, which happened to be firing at the same exposure as what I was shooting, what are the chances of that !

A little late but my clouds finally made it to the party, just in time for TMD!

But I didn’t get to enjoy the fluffy clouds for too long before I got dragged away. . . . . . . .

To hang out of a lift some 20ft above the shut down area this was shot on the 16-35,I’m just above turn off one you can just see the gantry in the distance

but with a 1000mm (ish) lens

Pro Classes over there was no point hanging around for the slower classes as the run off is so long they don’t need to pull a chute  so I headed back up to the start just as the sun was starting to drop!

its evenings like this that make me feel like a small child in a candy store

The Problem is its always over far to quick and you end up working in a very very dark hole

which is never fun!

Shortly after that photo was taken I was asked to leave the middle as I’m not good enough to be shooting there, which is news to me, with my knuckles wrapped I scuttled off to somewhere more akin to my skill level and stood with every one else.

And shot that, I know I know rank amateur at best!

That wraps up all the interesting stuff. one round to go before its all over for another year, let me know what you think and don’t forget to subscribe!!

2010 is drawing to a close, snow is settling on the ground, what a better time to take a look back at what 2010 had to offer for european drag racing.26,000 pictures over the season, and I’ve thinned out the junk, got rid for the mundane and left you with the good stuff !

This post is going to be picture heavy, with few words so enjoy, let me know what you think !

Well thats it guys for this time, Don’t forget to come and join me over on facebook, and there will be lots more, soon !

Ok Ok so I have a love hate relationship with blogging, but we’ve been seeking council and we are back talking again, I have loads and loads of stuff in the pipelines over the winter, so subscribe, join me on facebook and tell your friends cause I have some quarter mile pics your not going to want to miss !!!

Mopar Nationals is a new one for me however a couple of clients wanted pictures so I shot on over to get it covered, not too sure what to expect with it being nothing more than an american muscle RWYB weekend. Run what you bring (RWYB) can often be difficult for pictures as they rarly have cars with the same explosion and dynamic application of power that you see at race weekend. To compensate for this you have to find other ways to make the point / statement.

The flip side to it being a RWYB is that you can often get better access or get to places that you can’t always so its a case of swings and roundabouts.

Most of the day was this real flat light.

Its a case of finding a balance between a decent exposure and getting enough “punch” into the image to make it stand out .

Here I’ve used a Circ Polariser to cut through the reflections caused by the white clouds to keep the detail in the frame while giving it plenty of punch.

Also unlike a race weekend where most of my clients interest’s lay solely on the track these lifestyle events are more about the entire  weekend and all the activities that go on, because of this its always well worth splitting time between track and pits.

I’m not gunna bore you with the dull stuff cause lets face it, your here to see cool pictures. So with out further a-due onto the cool stuff !

The clouds broke late afternoon and lets behonest it would be rude not to use the late afternoon sun and blue skies to create some cool photo’s

When I saw this Elk roll round into the bleach box the last thing I was expecting was a pro mod stye rolling burn out , I love the way the light just throws texture and depth into the thick white smoke.

Fire force jet car does a couple of demo runs at events like this, as a rule I don’t normally shoot it, however it dawned on me that with this low light and the afterburn flame I could get some real cool photos so I stayed put and let rip, I’m pretty happy with the results !

Cool Don’t you think!

You always know good light is going to come to a end. The sun dropped bellow the bank and the light soon disappeared

That pretty much ended it for me so I jumped in the car and headed back home.

I have a love hate relationship with blogging but were back on speaking terms and I have loads more to keep you guys going over the long and cold winter, so subscribe and check back often!

The organisers at Xtreme Wheels are a pretty media savvy bunch of people, heck cheif organiser Dan Welberry runs 3t Creative the Design and Marketing company behind 4 times European Top Fuel Champion Andy Carter, so to say he knows a thing or two about media would be a under statement.

Asked to shoot the show for marketing and promotional purposes for next year’s show and to also give them a strong set of picture to push out to editorial interests. Its a unusual way to work but it certainly does hold benefits for all parties!

Anyway enough Jibber down to the pictures

I always like getting up and out early to grab clean images at car shows as its always quite and you get some nice light

The Show had some pretty special guests for a book signing, see how many you can name.

Car shows are often really segregated Vw shows for the VW guys hot rod shows for the Hot Rod Guys and so on, Xtreme really went out to break the mould with a mix of everything

They had Dragsters

Hot Rods!

A lot of hot rods !

Heck even the odd camper

Along with the static show there was also a demo Arena that was busy all weekend again with a real mix of machines

.

And Plenty of Big Burn Outs

Which saw the spectators disappear into a cloud of smoke. . .

Unfortunately the entire weekend didn’t go by incident free, as both Dave Grabham and Vince Gibbs miss judged the conditions

Needless to say the crew were a bit upset

Did a mention that there was a monster Truck? No Well there was one of them too! and it did what it does best crushed a load of cars. . . . . .

. . . . . and generally made a mess

Before We get started Welcome to the new look blog I hope its easier to get around and find cool stuff with than the old one was. Also the post’s are going to take on a new style. Hopfully a lot less “here is a load of cool shots” and more of a here is a cool shot, here is how I went about the thought process to do it. However for it to work I’m gunna need your feedback on what you wanna know, and any questions feel free to ask.

Anyway down to business!

Clicked off way too many photo’s however I was desperate to try and get something different. That was my own personal battle. The track busy hosting many battles no more so that in Top Fuel which saw Urs Erbacher back from america and on the best form in  years setting a New European Record and taking the event win. What a better way to start his assault on the title than taking the first win in reigning champion Andy Carter’s back garden.

Another very personal battle that was taking place was John Bradshaw‘s bid to get the skyline  under the 7.57 held by Heat treatments in New Zealand and set a new world record,  not contempt with going a thousand or so under  the record hea 7.45 putting it firmly in the hands of the brams racing team.

Anyway enough about battles and lets get down to what were all here for, the pictures !

Friday saw nice skies and thusly prompted a barrage of text’s to my phone asking if I had the clouds on special order, the answer is no I don’t however it would be rude not to use them seeing as they had made a effort to turn up!

I really like shooting some of the slower classes you can really push your self on the shutter speed

Some times you can push it a little too far

No too sure if it works or not, thoughts?

Saturday saw me again with other priorities, the joys of being a freelance photographer, however apparently I didn’t miss much as it rained, the super pro guys (and girls) didn’t like the idea of a swimming pool so set to clearing the pits

Sunday Saw me play around with some different things, not saying these all work. Some do , some just don’t and a few need a little polishing before the angle is nailed. Thoughts and options are welcome, drop me a comment at the bottom

If you haven’t already twigged the above were all taken from spectator points

By the time I got to the top end the sun was setting fast, not intrested in shooting the stock YAWNSVILLE head on parachute shot like every one does I threw the 16mm on (I’m a punk, I know) and tried to work with the low light that was around.

Yet another picture ruined by the copyright but unfortunately some people don’t quite understand that this is my living and feel its ok to steal my pictures, so until they learn it’ll have to stay. Anyway rant over . Love the shot above the way the sun lights up the chute and rim lights the car . So much more interesting than the dull head on shots like

However the good news is the watermark doesn’t block the shot so its not all bad. . . . .

A quick lift thanks to Anita Makela and I was back at the top end, not wanting to produce the same 3/4 shot as the rest of the guys that were on the start line I looked to really push what available light there was. A few quick adjustments and I have some beautiful colours to play with

A Quick tip! When shooting anything its always well worth thinking about recent news items or developments. In america one of the tracks no longer  allows team members in front of the car during burn outs, So I made sure to shoot something local that relates to this news, you never know when it might be needed

Due to the very dull condition header flames were pretty apprent all weekend which was nice as nothing beats a set of  8ft bunny ear’s on a fuel car

I’ve really wanted for a while to get the close up 3/4 behind shot as they launch off the line headder flames cutting across the image into the dead space. Knowing I had everything in the bag by the time the quarters Came round I gave it ago

My picture of the weekend has to be Dan larsen burning out against a setting sun. Which for me just sum’s the event up perfectly

Neutral Density Filters, are nothing more than a tinted pane of plastic, glass or sometime resin but what do they do?

There not complicated regardless of what some people say, just think of them as sunglasses for your Camera. The tinted glass simply reduces the amount of light getting to the lens and then the sensor. Which means you can do two things, one use a slower shutter speed and two shoot at a smaller F-Stop,

Practical Example !

Your off walking in the Yorkshire Dales (or what ever your preferred national park is) and  you across a beautiful scene of a lake with the sun just dropping between two hilly peaks. There is a gentle breeze rippling across the lake you decided that you want to blur the water using a slow shutter speed.

Unpacking the camera you dial in the settings F10 and ISO 50 which gives you a shutter speed of 1/4th slow but not slow enough. . . . . . . . Digging around in your bag you find your ND 0.3 Filter that gives you a exposure of half a second, slow but not slow enough, you dig around in you bag a bit more (its a big bag) and find your ND 0.6 that gives you a 1 second Shutter Speed, which you decided is enough to give you the look you wanted and you click away.

So instead of shooting at f20 to get a 1 second exposure and having to deal with all the nasty Dust spots, chromatic abrasions and the such like you have been able to shoot at f10 and still get the shutter speed that you wanted.

Strengths of tint

There are about 4 common strengths of ND Filters however you can get them up to and beyond 10 stops. Working out which filter you need is pretty simple as Neutral Density filters come in 1 stop differences.

ND 0.3 –  1 Stop Darker

ND 0.6  - 2 Stops Darker

ND 0.9 – 3 Stops Darker

ND 1.2 – 4 Stops Darker

And so on, so going back to the Practical example earlier if you want to loose 2 stops of shutter speed you’d use a 0.6 Neutral Density Filter. If you wanted to loose 4 stops you could use a nd 0.6 and a 0.3 together, it’s really that simple!

One Step Beyond

Neutral Density Filters don’t just come in solid tints they also come in what’s called a Graduated ND Filter these are Tinted at one end and not at the other with a gradual fade between the two. They allow you to do one brilliant thing and thats lower the exposure of the sky while keeping the correct exposure on the ground. giving you big fluffy clouds and plenty of detail in the shadow areas.

From left 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 ND Grads

The above shows how the three different ND Grads Effect the exposure, In conditions like this I would look at using a ND 0.3 just to under expose the sky a little and make it a nice deep blue.  However if you were wanting to go about it properly and not just gestimate like me the trick is to zoom into the foreground so it fills the frame and take a meter reading then zoom in on the sky so it fills the frame and take another reading, work out how many stops difference that is then select the most suitable filter(s), (you can also do the same by spot metering if you have this function available). Again I just gestimate where to position the filter but if you want to be exact about it. frame up the shot, slide the filter in step the lens all the way down using the DOF preview button, this will make the difference between the top and bottom of the filter very clear then slide the filter up and down till its spot on.

What to buy

Like everything in the world its very much a case of the more you spend the better quality product you get. Most filter company’s produce ND and ND grad filters but I’m a big Fan of the Lee Filters by far the best quality set up that I’ve used, however you do pay a premium for them. The other brand I would look at are the Hitech set ups however they can have a purple tint which is annoying to say the least.

Polyester or Resin

Again how much money do you have to spend, I don’t see the point of having £1,000+ lenses then putting sub quality filters on the front just to save 20 quid or so. Resin is best but Polyester will work if your on a budget. Be warned though the Resin can be brittle

Screw in or square Filters

Neutral Density Filters come I both square and Screw in, some people prefer Screw in and other prefer square, I prefer square for two reasons.

1. You only have to buy one to fit all your lenses

2. For the big filter sizes they work out cheeper.

Grads

Graduated Neutral Density filters on the other hand only come in rectangular  as you need to be able to slide them up or down to get the tint over the right part of the frame.

If you go for Square filters your going to need more than just the filters, your also going to need the required adapters to fit your lenses and also a filter holder .

Bellow is a list of what you’d need from lee (why aren’t these guys paying me?)  to get started.

The Foundation Kit

The Suitable Adaptor Rings

Although the filters come in a protective wallet I can’t recommend the Multi Filter Pouch enough,

and then what ever filters you want.