From an automotive photography point of view, this year has been pretty quiet for me. The amount of posts I have put up on Fueltopia has been laughable, the reason for this is twofold; work (I’m an Automotive CGI Artist) has been insanely busy this year meaning I have lost a lot of my weekends, secondly, some of the work I have been shooting has been for magazines so I couldn’t share it anyway. However, I am stoked to announce that I have now, for the first time (as far as I am aware) managed to get my work published in a magazine. It is in the Ace Cafe Yearbook which you can pick up here. Inside it celebrates all that is associated with Ace Cafe from events to music, to the culture and the people. It also includes some of my coverage from the Fueltopia Barrel Sprint. Here some of my favourites:
All Posts Filed in ‘events’
National Burger Day
National Burger Day, lets think about that for a second shall we. A whole day set aside to celebrate burgers? Gluttony or genius? Whatever your stance, this isn’t technically a national holiday (yet), it is however already up there in terms of big celebrations for me, rubbing shoulders with Halloween, Birthday’s & Christmas.
I have already expressed my praise for this event when Phil and I visited last year so there was every reason to expect much of the same from this year’s celebrations. However, this year got off to a much better start with my work deciding to jump on the burger van too. Big up’s go to City Pantry for hooking us up burgers from the lovely Patty & Bun, no joke, I ate two at lunch! It was than a furious digesting session for the next 4 hours until it was time to finish work and head of to Street Feast in Dalston Yard, East London. At the end of the evening, I managed to nom my way through a rather respectable 5 sliders. Rather talk about the burger any more, I will just get on with listing them in order of recommendation and the shoving a load of photos in your face to make you feel peckish and jealous.
Top 5 are;
1: Smokestack
2: Lucky Chip
3: Hotbox
4: Slider Bar
5: Nanban
Now in case you haven’t got the foggiest what that lot means, the menu is below.
Gatebil – favourites.
Sun, trees, tarmac, rocks, undulating terrain – add in the whiff of high octane fumes and the shrill sounds of a highly blown in-line 6 engine and you might be able to get close to picturing Gatebil.
Previously I had shown you what the human element of Gatebil was like, this time I want to show you the real reason people make this pilgrimage from all over the Globe to just south of Oslo Rygge. It’s for the cars, they are the stars of the show, exploiting every inch of real estate on track, pulverising tyres into carcinogenic smoke which washes lawlessly across the elevation changes in the Rudskogen Motorsenter.
To the uninitiated the internet hype and videos from Gatebil fill you with you both excitement and frustration, yet again you missed another event but you have just begun planning your trip across Europe for the next event. Well for the last few years I was in that camp, I was the uninitiated. That was until July this year when I made the trip with fellow photographer Bill. Both Gatebil virgins, both had had enough of watching videos and hearing stories, it was our time to go and see what the fuss was about. Writing these posts makes me feel reflective, I felt like I didn’t get what I wanted out of Gatebil, I felt like I failed in my duties as a photographer to effectively convey they emotions and atmosphere of the event, But a few months down the line, looking back through what I captured, I did ok, I did captured enough to spark memories and emotion looking through these photos, to me as a pretolhead, this is what I get excited about. The test will be, whether you like them. Here are my favourites from the track action. Enjoy.
Gatebil
You might be thinking “What is Gatebil?” and unless you are seriously into your cars, then you probably won’t know, in essence though. You see events like Formula 1, Le Mans and Goodwood Festival of Speed are what most people think of when you say motorsport events, these are televised or at least they are known as they have been going on for years. So why Gatebil, what makes this one something to know about?
What initially caught my eye was the various car builds that were making an appearance at Gatebil, Norway has some pretty strict rules when it comes to modifying cars and driving them on the roads. So in order to scratch that itch to build, faster, louder more exciting cars, Gatebil was formed. People come from all of Europe to attend, to how of their insane builds on a track, not only that but they come to camp, to party and hang out with like minded people. It is a festival after all.
The main stage parties were well documented all over youtube but it was the parties in the camp sites that were something of legend. Sure, it is just a race track with a paddock garnished with insanely powered drift cars and time attack cars from all over the world but it would be a shame not celebrate this momentous occasion without sharing a beer or two with your fellow petrol heads.
Instead of re-purposing my blog post on FUELTOPIA I won’t to show you the side you don’t see, the camp parties, the people, your comrades, the celebration that is Gatebil. Here are my photos from the absolutely stunning Rudskogen Motorsenter in Norway.
Goodwood – Festival of Speed
A few weeks have passed since I attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed and to be honest, I still can’t believe I got the opportunity to go. There is a certain magic that descends over the event, maybe it is all the build up hype or maybe it’s because you will get to rub shoulders with automotive royalty. Whatever it is, it’s worth going to experience for yourself. I was there covering the event for Drift Allstars who were making their debut there as well as doing a general overview for Fueltopia which you can read about by clicking on the highlighted links.
As I feel I have already covered the action side of the event, I would like to share a few of my favourites from around the F1 paddock.