Goodwood – The Festival of Speed 2015

Since there are several Galleries related to this story,

the headline text only leads to the Cars and Trucks, so

follow the other links here for more galleries from the day

Installation & Style et Luxe

Cars and Trucks

1911 Fiat S76

Bikes

Red Arrows

Eurofighter

Statics

I count myself very fortunate in being able to visit Goodwood twice a year to photograph some of the moments of my day at the Festival of Speed and the Revival Meeting. This year I was twice blest, for my colleague Martin Evening helped Lord March with some technical guidance and was offered two tickets for the Festival; his wife was not interested in joining him so offered me the chance to join him.

Sadly on the morning he found himself unable to go due to having suffered three consecutive sleepless nights, so my journey was due to be unaccompanied, as at six o’clock in the morning I was unable to contact my daughters or other colleagues to offer them the second ticket. Fortunately I did have the opportunity to let Lord March know and he asked me to convey his best wishes and he could rest assured he could come along to the Revival in September.

But I am getting ahead of myself – I made my way to the Saturday meeting unaccompanied, as my guest, my younger daughter was using her ticket and coming down separately with her young family. I made good time from Bedfordshire arriving before eight o’clock, and it was truly Glorious Goodwood (even though that term is reserved for the horse racing activities). Normally my first port of call was to the SuperCars Paddock, but this location was now the Brooklands Paddock, which was fortuitous, because my friend Simon Diffey was due to race a Connaught which was parked here. I caught up with him later. 

I always look forward to seeing the installation in front of the house as it is always memorable and makes for fine images as the light falling on it changes throughout the day, and today was no exception – it must be very challenging to dream up a new and exciting work each year.

Knowing that trekking back to the car takes too long, choosing which lenses to bring is not easy, but I reckoned that I had to have a general purpose wideangle zoom, for shots of individual cars in the Paddocks or otherwise close by, but for action shots the most effective would likely be the 100-400mm on the 7D MkII, so for the former I chose the 24-105mm on the 5D MkIII. The other prerequisites were spare batteries and cards. Shooting entirely in raw means I load up both bodies with 32GB Cards as these are the fastest ones I have, and means changing cards is kept to a minimum.

Stationed for some of the time in the Sponsors’ Enclosure at the closest to the first serious corner meant that I rarely needed to use the full extent of the long lens, and so for the Sunday I decided I would try to get away with bringing the 70-200mm. Later in the day when the Typhoon was aloft the 400mm end of the telephoto was essential. I must be a glutton for punishment, because to to take so many images in raw format means I will be sitting in front of a computer post processing in some of the hottest days of the summer! But when I look back at what I have taken I am more than satisfied, and I hope those viewing my galleries enjoy sharing my day in pictures.

I met with some very nice people, some of whom I hope I might meet again, one of whom was the designer of a previous Kenny Roberts bike and I hope he likes the shots I took of it as it went up the hill.

An AoP Evening with Ray Massey

The Association of Photographers put on an evening in the converted place of worship that is Church Studios, with Ray Massey, a leading advertising photographer who talked about how he became a photographer and how the landscape has changed over time, and how his earliest techniques influenced and moulded the way he works to this day.

The audience of over thirty souls listened and watched intently, and one of the number stood up at the end to say how he felt many gathered here might be pleased to have taken maybe just one or two such images over their careers, he was astonished that there were so many and varied and of such a high standard of creativity that he had done. From the applause at the end of the demonstration, the audience agreed with his sentiment.

Coming from out of town, and not being familiar with the environs of Camden Park Road, I made sure that I would be on time, by ensuring I arrived well before the appointed hour, which gave me the time to walk around and ‘capture’ (a word that is anathema to Ray!) some images from around the neighbourhood. It was during this time that I came across a man called Rem whom I met when I caught his eye as he was resting on a park bench smoking. He was trying to learn where he might find places of interest in the area. In the course of our conversation I suggested he could do worse than go to the meeting I was later to attend and informed him it would cost a tenner – he seemed unfazed by this, and I wondered whether he would be there – he was!

I took a handful of pictures in the somewhat variable light before the evening show, and later when leaving I was able to take advantage of the very different lighting that prevailed on my return to Kentish Town Station. I had wondered whether I should take my camera with me, but I feel I made the right decision, which was not to break the habit of a lifetime of having a camera with me at every opportunity! I hope I have captured (that word again!) the essence of my afternoon and evening.

Fortuitous Visit from Colin Bowles…

A friend of longstanding and retired fellow photographer Colin Bowles needed to vacate his own house so that a group of Keep Fit Ladies could spend the morning in discussion with Jennie his wife, so asked whether he might visit me in my new home. Naturally I was delighted and as I put down the phone and unlocked the front door, I spotted the arrival of a strange wheeled contraption on the opposite pavement surrounded by several Amey workmen. I decided to investigate.

I crossed the road and enquired what this device was, and on learning of its purpose, realised here was a heaven-sent opportunity to photograph these men as they put the machine to work. I asked whether they had any objection to my photographing them at work and they were more than happy, so before they had a chance to start I headed back at a run to grab my camera and get to work. I reckoned Colin would take just over half-an-hour to come from Stopsley, and I was sure he would fully understand my grabbing the bull by the horns and making the most of the chance I was being offered. Fortunately for me, he took longer than that and in fact I lost no more than five minutes of our time together to take the last few shots to complete the story from start to finish, and part of that time Colin was nursing his ankle which had been very painful from the moment he awoke.

I will let the gallery of pictures tell their own story as I watched the old lamp standard have its wiring and fuse system replaced before the contraption was brought to bear to support the stressed concrete pole whilst it was cut through by a Stihl grinder, for that then to be brought safely to the ground where it was further cut into manageable lengths to be carried to their van, and the erection of the new far lighter replacement with its swivel joint and its signage applied. Such opportunities present themselves very infrequently and since I really need paying work, here was the chance to show my mettle and see whether I can win some work on the strength of the quality of the work and the speed with which I can get the gallery up on my blog.

I handed out some of my newly-addressed business cards and learned from one of Amey’s personnel who had been handed my card that the designer or manufacturer of these fittings was based in nearby Kempston, and he, Andy White from Amey, gave me his card and the name of the engineer, Frank Hardy of Hardy Engineering. I look forward to hearing whether anything comes of this chance encounter. I am hoping Colin can visit more often if he can bring me luck like this!

Brogborough – a Therapeutic Visit

My priorities since the house in Caddington was definitely finally selling and I could rest assured that the house for which I had put in an offer was definitely going to become my new home, have been exclusively concentrated upon ensuring that the move was made as efficiently as possible without the distraction of my involvement in photography, I made just one concession, because the event had been planned long before the sale, and that was to relax in the company of fellow photographer Geoff Dann by visiting  Clerkenwell during its week of Design celebrations. Today I had two electricians helping to transform my new third bedroom into an office to house the essential electrical paraphernalia that are now the essential tools of the digital photographer.

I spent the early part of the day seeing that what I planned was capable of being achieved, and answering any questions that arose, and trying to ensure that the mountain range of boxes somehow allowed access to those areas that needed twin and switched sockets where either none existed previously or were single and unswitched, the office needed a minimum of twenty four, and these were to come mounted on a board on a separate circuit.

The weather was fine with a promise of sunshine and hopefully a breeze, so once I knew all was underway, I decided I needed therapy and the conditions seemed to promise a remedy just a short cycle ride away – the lake at Brogborough, and the undoubted windsurfing fraternity eager to be on the water, so I gathered my gear together and strapped it in the basket newly-mounted on my push-bike and set off. On arrival the medicine was there in abundance as were the windsurfers, and I took a long draught  as I set to mounting the EOS7D MkII with the Tamron 150-600mm onto to the gimbal head atop the newly-purchased Giottos carbon fibre tripod. I sat down right by the water’s edge and gave myself just over an hour to capture a few shots to break my self-imposed fast and get my ‘fix’.

The wind favoured those who enjoyed jumping and so I imbibed with relish when the surfer’s desire matched my own, whilst there was a lull in the human activity on the lake, I turned my lens on a young family of ducks who with their mother in attendance braved the turbulent waters close to the shore where I was ensconced. Little did I know at this stage how that family were to become the unwitting stars of a small drama played out upon the shoreline. I turned my lens back upon the main scene and spotted one man who seemed intent upon jumping and managed to capture at least something of the action.

The wind dropped and several surfers returned to shore amongst them the hero whose small jump I had witnessed and I let him know by thanking him for his display. He came over and said that there seemed to be a small amount of air beneath the board. The wind picked up and the sun joined in and he took to the water again, and this time there was no doubt about there being air beneath, for which I was very grateful.

Soon after this we spotted three lone ducklings braving the increasing swell and even finding themselves ignominiously being flung ashore – the drake was nowhere to be seen and several surfers then decided this was a situation that could not be endured and a plastic bin was commandeered to attempt to scoop them from the maelstrom, and return them to the family group, the first two were soon scrabbling away safely in their makeshift lifeboat as their human saviour attempted to scoop their sibling to join them to be returned to their mother. However, that was not to be, he or she, feared these great human warriors were out for sport and he/she was not in the mood for playing their game, and for the next several minutes he/she managed to outwit the machinations of these evil giants which was causing both great mirth and much concern in equal parts in the observers of this tragi-comedy unfolding before us all – we may be giants in stature, but we were no match for this plucky ducky! Sheer weight of numbers finally completed the rescue by which time the mother and the rest of her fold were back on the scene so all three were finally reunited with the family, and we all heaved a sigh of relief and were really happy for the mother.

My allotted time was up, so after a chat with one man, André, who had somehow emailed me concerning some shots I had taken, though I had never received the message, I apologised and hopefully we can meet up again and sort things, as we found we were both close neighbours in the village of Marston Moretaine! I returned to the house in good time thanks to a following wind, and I was glad of the medicine.