The Race

The British Touring Car Championship came to Thruxton racetrack in Hampshire on the last weekend in April, with 3 rounds of racing on the Sunday. Before the racing got underway a pit lane walkabout was the order of the day, with all of the drivers signing autographs. Knowing about as much about Touring Cars as most people do, I was glad to spot a few faces I knew. Jason Plato has long been a favourite of mine and this was his first appearance of the season.



Despite having announced their forthcoming withdrawal from the BTCC, VX Racing proved firm favourites with many people, and in the first round of racing secured 1-2-3 on the podium, with reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi leading team mates Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan home in style.



Crowds at Thruxton seem to be pretty fluid but we found our spot in good time, and had a great base from which to enjoy the racing. Spectators are not allowed access to approximately 60% of the circuit, so naturally the crowds gather at certain points. The Complex (comprising the corners Campbell Cobb and Seagrave) was our viewpoint, and provided plenty of action as the drivers slow from around 125mph to around 55mph to negotiate the circuit. Above we see Fabrizio Giovanardi negotiating The Complex in the lead and in style. Below, a common occurrence during the day - this time its Martyn Bell pushing things to the limit.





Moving slightly further through The Complex gave an alternate angle as the cars scream around the track. Quite often the shorter wheelbase cars clipped a curb here and went onto two wheels. Tom Chilton was a particular expert at that.



The power and sounds of these cars and the skill of the drivers has to be seen to be believed, and BTCC at Thruxton is an amazing day out for anyone interested in Motorsport. Having never taken pictures of motorsport of any type before I was delighted to get some decent images. I hope you can see in the pictures something of the story of the day.

See more of my work at www.robincaddy.co.uk

Trading Air

Southampton has a long and proud association with the sea. Known around the world as the home of the finest cruise ships and ocean-going liners, the Port of Southampton is also one of Europe's largest commercial ports. A familiar site to locals, a great many ships come and go with their cargo in containers. These containers are stored in yards within the Docks; some empty, others with their cargo still inside. Each container is nine and a half feet high and forty feet long, and it is common to see them stacked as many as six high, in long impressive rows.



When confronted with such a mass of containers the mind starts racing to come up with some way of translating such obvious potential into pleasing pictures. The containers are lined up almost like terraced houses in some northern street, often with dark forbidding alleyways between the rows. Trying to find a composition that showed this aspect of the yard is something that escaped me, and is still rattling around my head looking for a solution. (Height may be the answer, stacked nearly 60 feet high a ground-level shooting position may be the cause of this problem)



Eventually I decided to concentrate on shapes, patterns and colours, to try and reduce the enormity of the scale of the yard to something more easily digested. Some close-up views accentuated the sameness to the view, others highlighted the subtle differences from container to container. The detail shots here represent some of the ideas I felt worked best. Another trip to the Docks might give me further room to explore the best ways to present this subject. As the light levels dropped, and after my excellent photographer friend Steve had finished an especially enjoyable shoot of his car within the Docks, I asked him to adopt the position, and trained an SB28 on him and an SB28 on the containers some 20 metres away (both triggered by Steve's Pocket Wizards, the backlight had full CTO gel, the light on Steve had 1/2 CTO gel). Steve specifically wanted the logo in the background to be prominent, which works well. There's also a lot of potential to de-focus the background here and use the suggestion of shapes, textures and colours in a more subtle way. Expect to see more shots from this opportunity-filled environment.

In Bloom

Spring is a time of new-birth and returning colour to the land around us. The symbolism of new beginnings can often give new inspiration for approaches and techniques. Before the daffodils and tulips of March come the crocuses of February.

I headed out on an epic photographic journey to my back garden. Quite a trek as you can imagine. A small clutch of crocuses were in an area of shade on a bright day, and I decided to make some close ups of them. I used two different lenses (a 100mm macro lens and a 50mm) with and without extensions tubes. The first picture is a useful way of setting the scene.

The way that extension tubes work is both their joy and their sorrow. In my case they have no electrical link to the camera body thus I had no control over aperture selection. You do end up working very close in to your subject, mere centimeters away. This closeness and magnification allows us to see details we wouldn't usually be able to see with the naked eye, but also means that the area of the subject that stays in focus is tiny. In the example below literally millimeters.

Focusing can be a hit and miss affair but to see something so exquisitely beautiful so close up opens up a new world. I deliberately left the composition to reveal to us what the subject was. It is clearly a plant, and a view we have seen before, but not often in such proximity.

I think it works on many levels, and a more abstract approach coupled with such limited depth of field would have presented too much of a mystery. Whereas I hope this picture reveals a little more of the splendour of the humble crocus.

God Save the Queen

Southampton has a long and famous association with great Cruise Liners. The local economy derives a great deal from these superb vessels, and many locals take a great pride in "their" ships even though they may never have seen the insides of one. One of the greatest of them all is the Queen Elizabeth the Second. Today she left Southampton for the final time before heading to her new home and conversion to life as a floating hotel in Dubai. The people of Southampton bade her a very fond farewell. Today we also marked Armistice Day, 80 years on from the end of the Great War. The two minutes silence was marked by the dropping of one million poppies over the QE2, a fitting act for a ship that had served during the Falklands conflict. In 1982, she carried 3,000 troops from the Fifth Infantry Brigade and 650 volunteer crew to the south Atlantic. She was refitted in Southampton in preparation for war service, including the installation of three helicopter pads and the transformation of public lounges into dormitories. The Queen Mother, on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, welcomed her home. The Captain of the QE2 responded to the Queen Mother's welcome: "Please convey to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, our thanks for her kind message. Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 is proud to have been of service to Her Majesty's Forces."



Named as the successor to the Queen Elizabeth, the QE2 is named in honour of the Queen Mother, not Queen Elizabeth the second, and (confusingly) was launched by Queen Elizabeth the second in July of 1967. She weighs in at 70,327 tons and is 963 ft (294 m) long. While much smaller than modern cruise ships, she has a far more elegant visage than most. As she came into Southampton this morning she carried 1.700 passengers and 1,000 crew. Amongst the guests on board for the events throughout today was HRH Prince Phillip. While the eyes of many were on the QE2 those on board were taking in all that was going on around them.



Around 1:40pm the QE2 was given an aerial salute by a Harrier Jump Jet, another truly magnificent piece of engineering. The sense anticipation of seeing such an amazing machine over Southampton water, was more than matched by the reality. If only a photo could convey the sheer noise of the Harrier! The pilot flew her with grace and poise and it was a great way to celebrate the QE2's place in history.



The celebrations continued into the evening with the QE2 leaving her berth at 38/39 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 terminal to acknowledge the crowds at Mayflower Park and to be waved-off with a superb fireworks display. The noise of the explosions and the sounding of what seemed like every ship in Southampton's whistles made sure that even those who had not been able to see her off in person knew that this great lady of the seas was bidding a final farewell to her home of nearly 40 years. She will be greatly missed.

I Am The Sea

Is it me, for a moment?


Much of the time when I head out to take photos I make for Lepe Beach, one of my favourite places near Southampton. Just a stones throw away (well a couple of miles)is Calshot, with its activities centre, shingle beach and views dominated by Fawley power station. Having decided to put the Bronica camera to more use, I loaded up with several rolls of film both monochrome and colour slide film. (The slides will make an appearance here when they come back from being processed)



It was a glorious autumn afternoon with clear blue skies and dramatic side-light from the slowly setting sun. I hoped the sun would bring out plenty of detail in the landscape. I used Ilford Pan F, which is a low speed film sacrificing speed for very fine quality. Using the Bronica is a very tactile process. Manual focusing, hand-held light meter readings and careful composition using the focusing screen make this a very considered approach. Just 12 shots per roll of film makes you work harder before pressing the button.



The use of a tripod and using non-zoom lenses makes you think more about your subject, and is initially a constraint. That constraint actually becomes a freedom and liberation of the mind, freeing you to avoid the obvious and tune yourself to a different way of seeing. The last picture in this series to be taken was the picnic table, a shot which shouted out to be taken. It will be interesting to see how the slides turn out, as working in colour seems so different after a couple of hours of tuning into a monochrome view of the world. I'm also going to think about applying some toning effects to these images, so you may get to see them again in a different way soon.

A Day In The Life

Seventy years ago life was very different, Society was very different, the world was very different. Pretty much everything we use on a daily basis or have come to rely on so much either didn't exist or has changed unimaginably. Cars, phones, computers, food, jobs, clothes. All so different then, and Europe was on the brink of repeating the unthinkable and plunging into another catastrophic war.

When I visited Normandy in June for the D-Day commemorations, many things struck me. Looking back on it now four months later, and reviewing the hundreds of pictures I took, I can trace how my thoughts changed over the few days we were there.

Initially I was attracted to the restored vehicles, and the people dressed in period attire. The lives of a time long gone recreated today. I'm not sure I fully related to these people though. I didn't (and don't) understand their reasons for doing this. Not so much with the vehicle side of things but with the fatigues and uniforms.

So I started to train my lens and my mind on the details themselves. They seemed to offer an authenticity that could not be matched by the people playing at being soldiers. I removed the human element almost entirely or used it as a backdrop or almost a mannequin. Not interested in the person, but selective parts of their clothing or equipment or vehicles. Telling the human story without any actors taking a leading role; the props were the stars in a way.


Soon in the trip we started to visit some of the cemeteries. The enthusiasm for guns and tanks and jeeps overshadowed by the reality of what War means. The sheer scale of what is before you. The challenge to your capacity to understand death on such a large scale. The care and pride that is taken in their upkeep. The surreal beauty of the place and the grief felt for so many giving their lives.

The shadow of death loomed over every beach, and at every crossroads. The Normandy of 64 years ago seemed so tangible, and I felt a great sense of sorrow and inadequacy. We are so far removed from that reality, yet it forced itself into my consciousness. I could not have done what those men did, I could not have been what they were.

It was whilst paying our respects to the dead that we started to see more and more of the living. Those who must feel a memory return with every footstep they take on the land they trod once before. These men became the story of D Day for me over the rest of the trip. The services and parades we witnessed showed a mixture of pride and sorrow. Of triumph and of loss. The story of all the men whose lives changed so much, written on the faces of those still with us. Each one a unique story. Each one a unique set of memories and emotions. And each one both a challenge and an inspiration.

Back to Basics

2008 has not been a very productive year, as far as my life goes and with my photogrpahy too. I've bought a couple of cameras that I've yet to use in anger, and am using that as a spur to greater discipline when it coems to my photography. Hopefully I'll be able to show you the results from this soon.

One camera that continues to inspire me though is my Holga. For those of you who don't know its about as far away from digital perfection as you can get without making your own pin-hole camera!

The results are unpredictable, focusing is a guess and the lens is probably made from recycled lemonade bottles. At best....

And yet...

And yet it's a delight. Image making, like life, isn't about perfection. It's about feelings and emotions and discovering new ways of seeing things. On a recent trip to the Isle of Wight I visited Dimbola Lodge, an excellent photo gallery.
I took the time to head to Freshwater Bay, with my Holga as my companion.

And together we had a perfectly great time. Simple. Calm. Unhurried. He's a good friend that little plastic chap. I should make good friends with his mates the Lomo and the Bronica.