CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Today I fly home to Scotland after a busy week at the home of Italian motorsport, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza near Milan.   The week started with the two day Official Test for the European Le Mans Series and concluded yesterday evening after two days testing for the FIA World Endurance Championship. I was able to get trackside for a couple of hours in each of the tests and here is a selection of my favourite action images shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 or X-Pro2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...

The cars lined up at the first corner - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF50-140mm f2.8 The FIA World Endurance Championship 2017 season is now underway after two days of track running at Monza in Italy for the Official Preseason Test, The Prologue. Part of the proceedings is to take two special images, one of the group of static cars showing the size of the 2017 grid and the second is the car to car racking shots.   Both of these official images were taken by fellow X Photographer John Rourke and I rigged a GoPro Hero 5 Session and GoPro Hero 5 Black to record a timelapse video of the proceedings for the official website of the FIA . The video above was of the group shot at the first corner at Monza.  Fujifilm X-T2 + XF16-55mm f2.8 The car to car tracking shots took place on Saturday lunchtime after the morning session was concluded and my job was to organise the cars at the end of the pitlane and brief the drivers on the procedures to follow.  Once John wa...

Isola dei Pescatori With the European Le Mans Series Official Test complete and the FIA World Endurance Championship pre season test, known as The Prologue, setting up on Friday at Monza, I had one day to take the opportunity to travel the 65 miles from Milan to Lake Maggiore to relax and take a few pictures. We have taken family holidays near Lake Garda and Lake Como and we love this region of Italy, so the opportunity to visit the second largest of the Italian lakes was too hard to resist. I decided to head to Stresa on the western side of the lake.  I parked the car and walked down the promenade to get a good view point of the small islands of Isola Bella and Isola Pescatori (Main Picture). A Visit to Lake Maggiore from Fuji X Adventure on Vimeo . Lake Maggiore - courtesy of www.visitstresa.com  After lunch I headed up the lake, following the shore road up to Ronco, which is just over the Swiss border.  I then back tracked down to Pallanza wher...

The old banked track at Monza is a 'must see' for anyone interested in motorsport.  The track has not been used for racing for many years and it is amazing to think that drivers would race around the steep banking at speeds of over 150mph. Yesterday we used the banked track at Parabolica, the famous last corner at Monza, to stage a three car picture featuring the 2016 European Le Mans Series championship winning teams.   This shot was of the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage. The British team won the LMGTE title in dramatic circumstances at Estoril last October.   The image was shot on a Fujifilm X-T2 and a Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ----------------------------------...

I hear it said a lot that motor sport is difficult to shoot without a media pass.  Well that is very true for circuit racing, especially at the big venues like Silverstone or Le Mans, but there is one form of motor sport that does afford great access for spectators and that is rallying.   To prove the point I went along to the opening round of the British Rally Championship the Border Counties Rally in Jedburgh, which was also Round 2 of the Scottish Rally Championship.  All the access during the event was on a spectator pass, I paid for the car park on the special stage and I shot from the designated areas. The result was a great set of images that couldn't really have been bettered if I had been wearing a media vest.  Yes the media photographers could visit all of the special stages, where as spectators were limited to a few, but the pros had to submit a plan of the areas they wanted to visit for approval by the event safety manager BEFORE the event and the...