Thunderbirds Are Go !!

With their last two European visits being in 2001 and 2007, The Thunderbirds, the U.S.Air Force Display Team  made a rare UK appearance at RAF Waddington during the first weekend of July 2011.
Based at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada the team are very different to most of their European counterparts as they operate a front line fighter aircraft, the F-16, rather than a training aircraft. As a result their show is more about noise, speed and presence when compared to the likes of our own Red Arrows.

Thirty Photo Sandwich - British Touring Car Vectra

Whilst spectating at the recent Touring Car qualifying I decided to try something a little different. The photo below is a composite made up of thirty seperate photos and shows the line taken by Tony Gilham in his Vectra around part of Oulton Park.

To take the photos, I set the camera up on a tripod, set both the focus and exposure manually and the tried to fire off photos at fairly regular intervals using a cable release. There was some trade of between depth of field and shutter speed, but I worked on the fact that the car would be that small in the frame and it didn't matter if it wasn't sharp all the way through the image.

In photoshop I then arranged opened the first two images as layers. I then erased areas of the top layer so that you could see the car coming through from the layer below. These two layers were then flattened and the third image introduced and the process repeated.

It was quite labour intensive but the result of the thirty images combined is shown below (click on the photo to open a larger example).

Whilst the result is far from perfect, it is a starting point and has given me a few ideas for some alternative uses of the technique.

British Touring Car Championship - Oulton Park 4th June 2011

Not quite a busman's holiday or day out, but pretty close. For the first time in ages I found myself attending a race circuit simply for enjoyment rather than work.

My motorsport photography work has never included the British Touring Cars or its support packages, so for a change I took the opportunity to pop into Oulton Park as a spectator for the BTCC qualifying.

Spectating does of course have its advantages over working trackside, I was able to enjoy a picnic and pint with friends on the grass banking.

I still couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the current crop of Touring Cars.....

The crowd were also treated to a spirited display by a pair of Spitfires from the BBMF

Halfpenny Green At War

Over the weekend of the 21st and 22nd May 2011 Northern Forties Re-enactment Group staged the first of what will hopefully become an annual event at Halfpenny Green. With over 200 re-enactors and numerous military vehicles on show, a flavour the 1940's returned to this wartime airfield.

For me, being based on the airfield, this was something of a 'home' event. But whilst I should have probably taken a large number of photos, I took very few. In the end I spent so much time simply looking at the exhibits, talking to the re-enactors and enjoying the weekend with friends, (even taking part in the evening hangar dance) that the weekend was over and the camera hardly came out of its case.

Below are a very few examples from this excellent event...

NORC Interclub Comp Safari - Baden Hall 29th May 2011

Big Boys Toys - Hitachi EX1200 High Reach

DSM's Hitachi EX1200 High reach is fitted with a 62m high reach boom making it one of the largest in the country. Whilst the final shot in the small sequence below shows the true reach of the machine, it also becomes dwarfed by its surroundings. With this in mind I tried to keep the machine as the focal point of the images whilst maintaining a presence of the clients branding.

BHI Parkside Bromsgrove

Due to open to the public today, 17th May 2011, Parkside is a new build landmark three-storey state of the art medical centre sited in the centre of Bromsgrove. As well as bringing two existing GP Surgeries into one location the facility also includes a Pharmacy, a Physiotherapy Practice, a Dental Practice, an Optician and a Nursery.

Perspective-i was commissioned to undertake photography of the completed building and to provide images for a four page newspaper feature due to appear tomorrow.

For further details see Bromsgrove Healthcare Innovations