Published Work – Gatebil Magazine

2016 has been a year of polar opposites, work wise I have been incredibly busy, photographically I have been very quiet. I have shot much less but what I have shot has gone much further. Because I have been shooting for clients and not myself a lot of my work has remained on hard drives until they have been published. In July I attended an event called GATEBIL at Rudskogen Motorsenter in Norway. If that name rings a bell, it is because I went last year which you can see here. This is hands down my favourite motorsport event I have ever had the pleasure of attending and this year I got the extreme honour of shooting for their own magazine, predictably called GATEBIL MAGAZINE. I was tasked to shoot several feature cars, one of which is this super rare, Steatlh B7 which is one of one! What I didn’t know until this month was that I made the front cover. And I don’t mean I got a small picture on the front cover…I GOT THE MAIN IMAGE! Thanks guys! Anyway, here is a few images that didn’t make the cut. Thanks to Jan Øivind Ruud and Team RR for being so helpful during the shoot and thanks to Kaj Alver for getting me the gig.

SHOOTINGDAVE

Halloween – behind the scenes

How’s it going guys, did you have a good Halloween? Have fun during Guy Fawkes night? Well as usual on Halloween, Amy and I put on a little photoshoot to celebrate old hallow’s eve. I even bought a smoke machine for the occasion. Previously I had used smoke pellets and they work great but they just burn a little too hot which always makes me a little nervous and scorching the ground or setting fire to a model.

This year we headed down to my parent’s house and roped my sister into joining. Amy and Clare went for a gothic witch look where as I bought some props to look like Jason from Friday 13th. Here are Clare and Amy’s finest efforts:

And there here is some of me:

Clearly this is a strobist (off camera lighting) setup so for each photo I also included a lighting diagram along with the camera settings to help you if you wanted to create something like this at home.

SHOOTINGDAVE

 

Gatebil – favourites.

Sun, trees, tarmac, rocks, undulating terrain – add in the whiff of high octane fumes and the shrill sounds of a highly blown in-line 6 engine and you might be able to get close to picturing Gatebil.

Previously I had shown you what the human element of Gatebil was like, this time I want to show you the real reason people make this pilgrimage from all over the Globe to just south of Oslo Rygge. It’s for the cars, they are the stars of the show, exploiting every inch of real estate on track, pulverising tyres into carcinogenic smoke which washes lawlessly across the elevation changes in the Rudskogen Motorsenter.

To the uninitiated the internet hype and videos from Gatebil fill you with you both excitement and frustration, yet again you missed another event but you have just begun planning your trip across Europe for the next event. Well for the last few years I was in that camp, I was the uninitiated. That was until July this year when I made the trip with fellow photographer Bill. Both Gatebil virgins, both had had enough of watching videos and hearing stories, it was our time to go and see what the fuss was about. Writing these posts makes me feel reflective, I felt like I didn’t get what I wanted out of Gatebil, I felt like I failed in my duties as a photographer to effectively convey they emotions and atmosphere of the event, But a few months down the line, looking back through what I captured, I did ok, I did captured enough to spark memories and emotion looking through these photos, to me as a pretolhead, this is what I get excited about. The test will be, whether you like them. Here are my favourites from the track action. Enjoy.

SHOOTINGDAVE

Gatebil

You might be thinking “What is Gatebil?” and unless you are seriously into your cars, then you probably won’t know, in essence though. You see events like Formula 1, Le Mans and Goodwood Festival of Speed are what most people think of when you say motorsport events, these are televised or at least they are known as they have been going on for years. So why Gatebil, what makes this one something to know about?

What initially caught my eye was the various car builds that were making an appearance at Gatebil, Norway has some pretty strict rules when it comes to modifying cars and driving them on the roads. So in order to scratch that itch to build, faster, louder more exciting cars, Gatebil was formed. People come from all of Europe to attend, to how of their insane builds on a track, not only that but they come to camp, to party and hang out with like minded people. It is a festival after all.

The main stage parties were well documented all over youtube but it was the parties in the camp sites that were something of legend. Sure, it is just a race track with a paddock garnished with insanely powered drift cars and time attack cars from all over the world but it would be a shame not celebrate this momentous occasion without sharing a beer or two with your fellow petrol heads.

Instead of re-purposing my blog post on FUELTOPIA I won’t to show you the side you don’t see, the camp parties, the people, your comrades, the celebration that is Gatebil. Here are my photos from the absolutely stunning Rudskogen Motorsenter in Norway.

SHOOTINGDAVE

Behind the Scenes: Honda Civic Type R

Some of you may or may not know that I am an Automotive CGI Artist at a company based in the heart of London. I create images for brochures and websites for many different car manufactures. One of which is Honda. Whilst on a photoshoot for the new Civic Type R I decided to capture some behind the scenes imagery whilst working with top automotive photographer Rob Tomkins. My job isn’t necessarily to photograph cars. I recreate the lighting and the studio in 3D to try and replicate the lighting Rob does. Working with a true professional like this is a great way to learn how studio lighting really works. As a CGI Artist you have a good idea how it works but seeing it in the flesh really helps improve your work flow. These may not be the best behind the scenes photos but they look pretty nice 😉

 

Do check out Rob’s site http://robtomkins.co.uk/ he is talented and knowledgeable guy and is happy to answer my questions (of which there were many). Thanks man!

SHOOTINGDAVE