I am not a full time professional photographer but I am fortunate enough to have my work published in a few specialist motoring publications as well as PR work and web sites.
I received a call from IDMC with a last minute request to cover their Jubilee Rally, part of the HRCR championship. The regular photographer was sick and unable to make it. The jubilee rally is a historic rally and comprises regularity road sections and special tests.
The secret to getting good useable pictures is preparation and my first task was to search the internet for pictures from previous events to see where the best shots were taken. The most spectacular shots were taken in the Quarry.
There are a number of challenges to photographing these events, the early start, the cold and winter light. I try to have at least one picture of every car as I am often asked for images by the participants. However, this rally uses reverse seeding which means that the highest ranked teams run last. So by the time you have photographed the top cars, the cars running at the front are already two tests further on, making it impossible to cover all parts of the rally.
It was an early start on Sunday morning with a two hour drive to the start at Leyburn Auction Mart. It was busy and cars were leaving on their regularity runs every few minutes. I took a quick trip around the car park and snapped a few pictures of cars, people working on their cars and plotting their routes. Though as a rule these were not pictures that would be of interest to most publications.
Probably the trickiest shots are the regularity runs. It sounds easy enough, snapping cars as they pass you on the road. But a rally car in a line of traffic is of no interest and I needed to pick a spot where I could take a series of pictures that looked like different locations. Using a 35-70mm lense I was able to move around a small length of road and get a few different looks. By incorporating road signs, overhanging branches and village signs I was able to get the sense of cars driving through the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.
It wasn’t possible to catch all the cars as I had to head off to the tests but I got enough to show that the event was a test of navigation skills.
I headed off to Metcalfes farm to scout out the best spot to catch the action. Fortunately all 8 tests were located on the farm and so it would be easy to get round them on foot. I headed for the third test, Quarry as these would be the most dramatic images and the cars would be filthy from the previous two tests.
The conditions were challenging, the sky was cloudy with the light alternating between dull and bright. The sun was low and cast deep shadows creating problems for camera exposure. I walked the course a couple of times and tried out a number of different spots. In the end I selected an elevated position which allowed me to take three shots, a water splash head on, a wet corner and a 360 round a cone followed by a slalom.
Using a 70-240mm zoom I was able to catch the head on water splash at 240mm and a quick twist dropped to 100mm for the corner and back up to 240mm for the 360 cone turn. Timing was critical as the cars needed to be caught in the sunlight between the shadows. The next couple of hours were spent snapping away and even though it was being viewed through the lense I could still enjoy the variety of approaches.
The first cars through were the least experienced and they made steady progress. Every now and again a car failed to appear at the water splash having taken a wrong turn and appeared at the 360 before turning round and heading back to the start to take the correct route. Some cars were dramatic and I would like to mention in dispatches the MR2 driven by Chris Haygarth, he certainly knows how to have fun. The last cars through were the most experienced and drove quickly and smoothly and managed the 360 round the cone with great skill.
The afternoon was spent at the romantically named Sludge Tank 1 which was every bit as pleasant as you can imagine. Fortunately the marshals had put some tape around it to stop any wayward cars landing in the pit!!!! Unfortunately the light was fading fast and the later cars were lost behind their headlights.
Once the last car passed through I trecked back to my car and headed home. After a bite to eat I set about editing the pictures. I reduced the 1200 images down to 200, with at least one of every car. Of these perhaps 20 would be of interest to the publications. I sent the images to the client and posted of some of my favourites to my media contacts and social media.
Congratulations to the winners; Darell and Nicky Stanniforth in their Mini Cooper S.
I want to finish by thanking all the club members who planned, ran and marshaled at this and all the other club events. They are the backbone of motorsport in this country.
Full event report by Henry Carr available here
