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I first
started photographing rally cars in the mid seventies, after following the
Bolton Midnight Rally, an event that shocked me, It was not just the cold
night temperature stood on top of the Pennine moors, but at the speed and
skill the car and crew travelled down the moorland road, on ice, that a
stationary person had trouble to stand up on. I was hooked.
I started with a single 35mm Chinon camera with 2 lens, covering events
local to Lancashire and Yorkshire, it was just a hobby. I then started to
get noticed, a few photographs found there way into Motorsport magazines, I
was asked to be the Official event photographer and eventually I was home 4
weekends in the year, travelling all over the country. I decided that this
was the life for me, I went to collage for 12 months to sharpen my knowledge
of photography.
I started working freelance for Colin Taylor Productions in Sevenoaks, Kent,
supplying images for Rothmans, Audi, Vauxhall, Ford, Peugeot and other
prominent car manufacturers, also most major motorsport magazines. I
photographed everything that ran on wheels, tarmac or gravel, from the RAC,
including Night Road Rallies, Special Stages Rallies and off road events,
even the odd sand race meeting. In those days it was common to be away for
four days, shoot 30 rolls of film, come home, process and print the film in
the dark of the bathroom, repack my bags the following morning and set off
for another event or press coverage at a motor show.
Eventually the stress and strain started to tell and I was told by the local
doctor, enough is enough, after collapsing on Epynt at Fourways junction. Next thing
I knew, I was in a bed in Brecon hospital, discharged next day and told to
find another means of making ends meet. I worked for my father as a plumber,
things got bigger and more prosperous, the business grew and grew but still
the call of the forest was strong. I started going to events again along
with my son, Mark, who at the age of eleven got his first picture published,
and that was history as they say, but what do you do with 20,000 plus images
of rally cars and just about anything that ran on 2 and 4 wheels, along came
the Internet and the World Wide Web.
A motorsport library, somewhere to let others see all those pictures filed
away in the darkest depths of the filing cabinet, also came along the
Digital 35mm Camera, The D30 from Canon appeared, this changed forever the
way photographers worked, gone was the need to process the film, photographic
paper became a thing of the past, email a picture from the forest downloaded
onto the laptop, straight onto the editors desk in London or wherever, no
need for film.
The future of rallying looks bright, new events are springing up, even cars
used to compete in, 20 years ago are being restored for the new Historic
type event.
PhotsportUK.com came about due to Mark and myself "getting the call from the
forest again" and the arrival of the computer and the "net". We now are able
to to supply high quality images not only for Event organiser's, to help
publicise the rally, but also supply press, publicity and sponsorship packs,
we also supply images for "in house" magazines.
This web site has been designed by another good friend of mine, Mr Nick
Hill. The future of the PhotsportUK.com web site will hopefully include
on-line facilities where the competitor can purchase images of themselves,
order press packs of their team, these can be sent out to potential sponsors
as a thank you to them at the end of the year, also a page for other
photographers to put their images up on the web, this will assist in not
only helping to make this site bigger and more informative, but also help to
promote rallying and motorsport in general.
We are more than happy to help motorsport clubs, publicise their forthcoming
events, we will supply the images as required.
We will be holding a regular amateur "best motorsport picture" showcase, so
send in your images and get them displayed on our web site, you never know
who might want to use them, It could be McKlien himself who takes a liking
to them.
I hope to be adding more services to the site later in 2005 so here's to
seeing you in the forest and listening to a WRC car popping and banging its
way through the forest or the sound of the good old twin cam engine having
every last bit of power squeezed from it in an effort to propel the car to
the finish line in the least time possible.
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