A season of photographing at the Harewood Hillclimb in 2012

Over the past year I have been to many of the events at the Harewood Hillclimb in Yorkshire, to photograph the action for Speedscene Magazine. I’ve learnt a lot of the past season, both about photography technique, photographing for press use, and about planning my shoot for the day.

Moving around the light

One of the most important elements of photographing events outdoors, is of course light. The position of the sun moves around the circuit over the course of the day, and over the different months as the season progresses. I’ve learnt to plan which parts of the track to move to, and this allowed me to improve the photographs I’ve taken over the course of the year.

Getting into the right positions to catch the best light has been important for getting clean, well lit photographs for press use.

I often start photographing down the hill, as the sun is to the rear right of me during the early part of the morning. As the sun moves further west, moving to corners such as Orchard and Farmhouse is possible, as the front and side of the cars are lit. During the afternoon and the end of the day, both the startline and Quarry become better lit. This can sometimes feel a bit formulaic, but when the priority is getting clean shots for press, moving to the right areas was essential.

Out in all weathers

Due to my commitments to cover the event for SpeedScene Magazine, I’ve often had to go out and photograph the action in difficult conditions. The Jim Thompson round of the event was easily the wettest of the year, with constant heavy rain throughout the day. This meant that I had to use a rain cover for my camera, as well as wrap up in waterproofs.

The Jim Thompson event was especially wet, but I still managed tog et decent shots of the action.

This is unfortunately part of photographing events outside – the show must go on! It did allow me to see the effects of panning in wet conditions, with spray adding an extra element of interest with rooster tails, and droples streaming off the underside of cars.

Capturing spins and shunts

Due to the nature of hillclimbing, there are rarely accidents or incidents to capture. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen of course, and on several occasions I’ve photographed cars locking up, spinning and crashing.

A TVR locking up heavily under braking. Keeping on your toes while capturing such incidents is part of the challenge when photographing motorsport.

Luckily there haven’t been any serious incidents at Harewood this season, but there have been some spectacular photographs of car coming close to catastrophe.

This Mini came close to rolling after getting onto two wheels around the Farmhouse bend!

Making the shots count

With only a couple of seconds to photograph each car, being consistent and prepared has been a tough learning curve. Over the course of the year, I feel as though I’ve improved my consistency with capturing each competitor, even if this has meant in tempering down the style of shots that I’ve been doing. With an average of 5 runs up the hill per day, there are few chances to capture each car. Making the shots count by concentrating and preparing has been essential when being able to offer SpeedScene a selection of images to print.

Making shots count by being prepared has been one of the biggest lessons learnt this year. I captured this Peugeot cocking a wheel at the Quarry corner at Harewood.

Landmark events

After only a year since my first visit to the Vintage Hillclimb in 2011, I returned to the event with a media pass which would lead to pictures being printed in a magazine. This was a huge landmark for me, as I’d gone from spectator to photographer in a relatively short space of time. I also got the opportunity to photograph some of my favourite cars up close, including the GN/Ford Piglet of Dougal Cawley, and the GN Wasp of Winston Teague.

One of my favourite VSCC machines, the GN Wasp, races around the Quarry corner. It’s been a real privilege to photograph such amazing cars at Harewood this year.

I’ve also photographed some legendary cars, including the Metro 6R4 which featured at the Harewood Summer Hillclimb this year. Capturing these cars in competition has been great fun, and has produced some great shots.

The Metro 6R4 gets very sideways out of Quarry on a damp track during the Summer Hillclimb event at Harewood.

Looking forward to 2013

I’m looking forward to photographing the events at Harewood next year – but this will depend on a number of factors. I want to start photographing at circuit racing events in addition to Harewood, so I will be working over the winter to see if I can find any new opportunities. It’s been great to see my photograph featured in SpeedScene magazine, and I can’t wait to see more of my photographs in print.

Further viewing and reading

I’ve got several sets on Flickr, including the Harewood Vintage Hillclimb, the Harewood Summer Championship and the most recent event, the Harewood Golden Jubilee event.

If you want to attend an event at Harewood next year, visit the Harewood Speed Hillclimb website, and if you want to have a go at photographing the action, I’ve got a guide to motorsport panning photography to get you started.

Posted in: Digital, Hillclimbing, Magazines, Motorsport, Press, Techniques, Workflow