Go Fast, Turn Left…

Let’s talk about discovery for a second. I don’t mean the documentary channel on sky, I mean actually discovery something. My latest discovery is Sideburn Magazine. A magazine that brings you some of the coolest dirt track related news and features from around the world. Their world, a world I previously hadn’t been privy too. They were having a launch party for the upcoming season of Dirt Track Racing. Something which I now have to attend.

Anyway, back to this discovery. It is no secret that I am petrolhead, I love cars specifically and always have. I grew up on RallyCross, Touring Cars and Formula 1, my family had a love affair with fast Fords and I could identify any car down the street on what exhaust pipe it had alone. Motorbikes weren’t really within my remit. You normally fall into the car OR the bike category, rarely both.

What I am try to get across to you is that I had my eyes opened (widely) to a whole other type of racing that I never knew existed. Sure I’d heard of speedway racing but this is different. This seems, and I am sure I will get told off for this, a lot cooler. The bikes are more akin to cafe racers which in my eyes are works of art. This was all new to me. New faces, new machines, new circuits, new rules, new style. I am literally on my first step down this path and I cannot wait to show you more. For now, enjoy some photos from the launch party.

 

Full write up on FUELTOPIA

SHOOTINGDAVE

The Music Cube

A while back myself and Amy went down Westfield at Stratford to take part in the Music Cube. We were given minimal information, just a time slot and a date. All we know about the event was that it was a slight twist on the silent disco concept.

The idea behind it was that there would be an artist, in a sound proof cube, and we would be standing out it listening through a set of rather tasty Sennheiser URBANITE headphones. The dance floor that we were standing on would also pulse and vibrate to the music. I was expecting full on earth quake scale vibrations but the slick thing was, they were subtle enough for you not to realise. The idea was to get you to dance by feeling the music.

Now as you might have gathered the artist was the talented and super cute Chloe Howl. I have to hand it to her, she sounded awesome, super clean sound and a tight band.

So what was the experience like? Did the concept work? Well it isn’t quite the same as being at an actual gig BUT… the vibrating dance floor got moving, the sound was incredible. It was more like standing in the studio with the artist, the sound was so clean that it didn’t matter where you stood on the dance floor. Personally I loved shooting through the glass with all the reflections. I thought it made for some interesting shots. I also think shooting a singer is pretty cool, lots of emotion and expression going on. What did you think?

 

 SHOOTINGDAVE

Drift Allstars: The Smoke

Welcome ladies and Gentlemen to The Smoke. The last time the capital saw this much smoke was during the Great Fire of London in 1666 and I can tell you back then it wasn’t caused by tortured rubber on scorched asphalt. The Smoke seen here today was thanks to Drift Allstars. If you follow me on facebook then you will know that I pretty fond of the event that took place in Stratford, London. However I want to show you some of my favourite shots from the weekend and why it was such a good weekend for me. During the course of the weekend I decided to change my shooting style a little bit. I was armed with a 300mm f/4 L IS USM lens and for the most part of Saturday, it did not leave my camera. This meant that I was shooting with slightly faster shutter speeds than I normally would use. Consequentially I ended up with far more “keepers” than normal. So when I returned on that Sunday I thought that as I had covered a lot of the “safe” shots that I wanted, I could spend the day dicking about. I therefore proceeded to use all the lenses I had with me which was my trusty 50mm f/1.4 USM – my beloved 135mm f/2 L USM and the 300mm f/4 L IS USM which rent from Lens Locker. I also experimented a lot more with shutter speeds using super fast shutter speeds and some super slow shutter speeds. I think the highest I went to was 1/1250th of a second and down to 1/10th of a second. As a result I have a lot of shots that look very different and it was kind of like re-discovering photography for me. Trying new things out, making mistakes and learning. I will definitely be doing it again next time!

SHOOTINGDAVE

Drift Allstars: Setting the scene

Drift Allstars has FINALLY returned to London and this time the setting was the iconic Olympic stadium in Stratford. I for one was positively shaking with anticipation at what would be unleashed this weekend and it looks like I wasn’t the only one. The excitement in the air was thicker than the tyre smoke. Well almost, some of the drivers were reducing visibility down to a few meters. And more than likely shaving a few years off of life expectancy due to smoke inhalation. Did anyone mind? No! If anything it only amped the crowd up more! This time the paddock was restricted access only mean that spectators were straining to get a glimpse of the favourite drifters, during the event people were clambering on any obstacle to gain an elevation advantage over the deep crowds stacked against metal railings. The pressure was momentarily released when punters were allowed in for the drivers signing session and to get up close the weapons on display. Then nerves were once again fraught as the Top 16 battles began. I will leave the report for you to find over on Drift Allstars but it had to be one of the strangest finishes I have ever seen in drifting but congratulations to Piotr Wiecek who drove PHENOMENALLY all weekend!

Stay tuned for next installation which will showcase the talent from the weekend…

SHOOTINGDAVE

Panic on the streets of London

…well not really panic, more mild anxiety. Actually not even that. Saturday London was strangely subdued, Brick Lane was quiet, Spitalfields was practically empty and Shoreditch was a ghost town. To the East Londoners credit, it was about noon and I doubt they would have risen from the payday fuelled hangovers.
I met up with fellow #Fueltographers Phil (Paps) and James (Lowmileage) as well as our friend Brad in North London. We grabbed a coffee before making our way East with me acting as the clueless tour guide.


I’ll admit it had been far too long since I had shot on the streets and this was the first time with the new set-up. Feeling the benefits of group mentality I opted to shoot with a 50mm on the 5D3 instead of cowering in the long-range comfort of the 135L on a crop body. This required me to get much, much closer to my subjects. To the point where I could almost reach out and touch them. (I didn’t, I’m not weird).


And it was after warming up through Shoreditch/Brick Lane I realised something, no one gives a toss if you point a camera at them! Conclusion; East London is full of posers! I am of course kidding Eastenders, no need to take your wayfarers off and stare ironically at me.
I took the guys down to Spitalfields Market which is often bathed in soft diffused light with loads of layers and nice backgrounds. Although all three of them got distracted by a man steaming a hat.
Afterwards we headed down towards London Bridge, stopped off at a coffee shop to grab something to eat. Which incidentally was a rookie mistake as after lunch we went to Borough Market…which.is.full.of.food!
We took some photos of each other and then of some cheese…
Before marching down to South Bank to search out some skateboarders.
Found Cantona’s Dad on the way…
…and a Utd fan dreaming of former glory days. (Wow that was odd, two football references in one blog, very unlike me).

At the South Bank we found some skaters but it wasn’t exciting enough for us to stay, plus the weather looked as if it was closing in.


We started heading in towards Soho as the light was fading. We stopped off at a pub to decide where to head off to next. We decided the right thing to do was try and bully James into buying a 400mm f/2.8 lens from Nikon so we headed off to Park Cameras on Oxford Circus.
As we arrived on Oxford Circus, it pissed it down. Hardest rain I have felt in a long time! Hence no more photos. It was a good day, I think we all gained some confidence in street shooting and I learnt not to hide behind long focal lengths.
SHOOTINGDAVE