From the archive – For What Car magazine, 1986. We borrowed the ‘new’ Renault Savanna from the Paris Motor Show as it closed on the first day and did night shots around the city with two other cars. Ended up doing this dawn shot as a last ditch effort to get a cover before returning the car to the show at 8am for the second day. A deadline dreamed up by someone still tucked up in bed! The final cover and layout, from What Car? December 1986.
A Top Gear shoot from an early issue of the magazine in October 1997. Clarkson driving a Jaguar XJR…not fast. This was actually shot in his driveway, with the car doing about 5 mph and me walking beside the car with my trusty old Mamiya RB.
As I spent many years chasing rainbows, sunsets, moonrises or any kind of moody excitement happening in the sky whilst on car shoots, I acquired the knickname ‘The Prince of Darkness’. A couple of jornalists in particular knew that if they came out with me, they would always miss their tea. Sorry guys!. Old habits die hard. But here are some shots for you, without tin boxes!. I found these photographs whilst searching for something else this afternoon. Taken a couple of years ago, they illustrate the spectacular cloud formations that can occur at certain times of the year on […]
This is probably one of the scariest shoots I’ve done – not least because I was expected to get the shot in one run as the Spitfire was very expensive to hire. I think it was around £700 for one fly-past. This was a discounted price too, as it was returning from an airshow in Weymouth. It took place at RAF Duxford in Cambridgeshire, where the car was parked in the middle of the runway. Using a long lens, I followed the plane pretty much as a gunner would have done in trying to shoot it down. It must […]
My colleague Jason Ingram recently posted a few photographs on his blog, illustrating the use of his iPhone with an App called the Hipstamatic. This made me curious. Although I have owned several mobile phones with built in cameras, I had never used them to take photographs. As I nearly always carry a bag full of professional kit, the photographic capabilities of a mobile phone have always been excess to requirements. That is until recently, after I finally succumbed to fashion and bought an iPhone! On a family outing to A Garden Party To Make A Difference, staged at three […]
Just before Christmas I started editing the hundreds of car photographs I took between 1989 and 1997 for a series of books. All classic cars, ranging from Austin 7 ‘Chummys’ through to rare Ferraris, it was interesting to see them again after they had been confined to a filing cabinet for many years. During the process, I found images of my all time favourite car, the Citroën DS. One particular model was a 1964 Citroën ID 19 Safari, captured in Yorkshire on a hillside, with a rainbow in the background. It had taken me 11 years to get this shot! Spending […]