Showing posts with label Andrew Northcott. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andrew Northcott. Show all posts
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Goodbye and thank you RoadRacerX...
I had seven cover images with RoadRacerX magazine during the last five years.
Normally the end of the year is filled with anticipation. Yes, things change and a new year ushers in a feeling of rebirth. On Friday, New Years Eve a magazine with which I have worked with since I started shooting motorcycle racing closed it's doors. My photographs appeared many times in this magazine (and online)so much so that I am grateful that through RoadRacerX I was able to secure additional work and visibility I possibly wouldn't have attained anywhere else. Working alongside Chris Jonnum and Laurel Allen ("CJ and "LCA" respectively) I covered many of the world major racing series as a "retained" freelancer.
This image of Eric Bostrom was one of my favourites and was the first image used in what would become an annual tradition from thereon out. RoadRacerX's Pictures Of The Year feature which would highlight photos from such greats as Andrew Northcott and Mirco Lazzari to name a few...I would go on to have numerous opening spreads featured in this magazine along with many many others, along with assignments and opportunities as a result. I wrote two features for the magazine. One of Ben Spies when he burst onto the world stage in the World Superbike series in 2009 where I interviewed him at Phillip Island in Australia. Earlier this year, 2010, I would again visit Phillip Island where I would interview Roger Hayden (brother of Nicky Hayden) and Jason DiSalvo on their championship attempts at World Superbike. Again I would supply the text and the images for the feature. Yes I can write too!!
My proudest moment though came with the my first ever cover on a magazine in the USA, my adopted home. It was a picture of fellow countryman Neil Hodgson, aboard the Parts Unlimited Ducati Superbike. I still get a chill when I look at the cover, knowing how I felt at the time. With that I will simply say. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of one of the best road racing magazines on the planet. With some fo the best people working inside it's covers. Thank you.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Catching up. Part3. Mugello, Rossi, Gelato and a little Russian glamour
Italy is beautiful.
There aren't may words to describe Tuscany. The feeling about being in the countryside has a greater effect on the senses than words can describe. From the fireflies in the evening, the soft warm early morning light. The little tuffs of fluff that seem to be a part of the air in the Italian countryside. The softness of the air. It's immersive. Everything from the start of the day through to the end has colour. The trip to the track took us along single lane roads that were devilishly winding, in places with drop offs that wouldn't be good for the car. On the way back form the track in the evenings, we would drive pass torch lit entrance ways to 17th century hilltop castles.
All the races went off with out a hitch, with some interesting crashes. In the 125 race there was a huge high side (which left pieces of the bike high up in the crash fencing) then in the Moto2 race a bike went down, then jumped the track about 100 feet way from me, landing on top of the air fence. This job does have it's dangerous moments. Sadly, the race wasn't terribly exciting, with Dani Pedrosa taken the lead and simply running away with it. Jorge Lorenzo would finish second with tearful Andrea Dovizioso taking third. I was also very grateful for the help from Andrew Northcott on Sunday allowing me to pillion around the track with him during the MotoGP race. The service road doesn't need any more traffic and Andrew makes light work of covering a race and I always feel I learn something valuable.
After three plane transfers, Salt Lake to Minneapolis, then Minneapolis to Amsterdam onto Bologna, I'm more than happy to sit outside the airport and wait for Mr Motomatters, AKA David Emmett to arrive. We'll be sharing the travelling and a villa in Tuscany whilst we cover the Grand Prix at Mugello. Unbeknownst to us we arrive on June 2nd. Which is a national holiday in Italy and it is only when we arrive at our villa are we informed by Simone, the villa owner, that all the shops are closed. Hmm, we have no food, water, BEER, whatever. He did mentioned that there might be some shops open int he centre of Florence/Firenze, so without further ado, we set off into the heart of Firenze in search of things to eat.
The centre of Florence is now a permit only access city, however, on holidays, it's okay to drive into the city centre. So we did. Fortunately, we found some shops open and were able to at least buy exactly what we needed to create dinner for that evening. We also had a lightning, commando photo stop tour, in other words pulling up, stopping, hopping out the car, taking photos, and then back into the car and off again fortunate in the fact that there was very little traffic. A rare event indeed. With a gelato to round off the the arrival walkabout it was back to base.
Thursday, late afternoon, I spent a couple of hours in the company of Nadia Giletti. Having walked around on the Tuesday with David Emmett, I spent a couple of hours walking around Florence with Nadia taking photos (of her). Exploring a side of photography that is new to me and one I'd like to pursue in greater depth. I was fortunate enough that Nadia was happy to be my subject. No, in reality I was thrilled. She has a presence and is very comfortable with herself, which made taking photographs of her in situ, with large groups of people looking on, very easy. For me, it is something I have to overcome as I always feel I'll peeling back the layers of people. I always feel like I'm intruding on someones privacy. That said. Thursday was a good day.
With the hillsides covered in olive trees. Houses covered in rose bushes and fields full of poppies, it was sometimes difficult to think we'd be heading to a race track. That said, it was a great way to start and end ones day. Casting my mind back to 2006 during the 990 era, I never made it to race day. I had a great Friday back then, and it was a full days of on track action. Followed by the Saturday, the traditional Valentino Rossi Mugello Helmet unveiling. However, during the afternoon I would develop a temperature. Sunday morning, we drove to the track, but after getting to the gate, I felt too unwell. Emily gave away her tickets to a lucky family and we took an easy day out and went to Lucca.
Not this year! I felt fine, the weather was good, the valleys surrounding the race track were lush and green and it looked like everything was set to be a great weekend of racing. That would all change on Saturday. When Valentino Rossi had a nasty high side and broke his lower leg. Without having to go into details as no doubt it has been reported on ad-nauseum, it was interesting to watch the effect this had on the mood race track and more importantly on the fans who were in attendance.
I was at the medical centre watching events unfold as they brought back Rossi's very broken Yamaha M1 on the back of a recovery vehicle. Now, I understand the level of support this talented man has worldwide, but watching people openly cry as they gathered around the truck was something else to see. It was almost like watching a funeral cortege. Photographers, TV crews and fans alike were gathered around this truck all craning their necks, reaching out with cameras in hand just to get a shot of this damaged bike. As I mentioned to Chris Jonnum of RoadRacerX, it was as if someone had shot the Pope…
Then, people started to leave the track. There were traffic james outside the track at 3pm, something that would've been unheard of in a typical race weekend. People were leaving in droves. What would this mean for Sunday? It was like the genie had been let out of the bottle and had evaporated to boot. The party boy racer wouldn't be here on Sunday. With news updates coming in minute by minute, it was apparent that Valentino Rossi had sustained quite a nasty injury. Taken into surgery immediately, it transpired he would be out for a good few races to come. The chatter in the media room changed from what happened to what would happen? With an already rather thin grid, things could look a little desperate.
Sunday arrives, and it looked like the fans turn up as normal to watch the race and to also send get well wishes to their injured hero. With banners all over the race track, a telephone interview with His Rossiness from hospital it was (almost) business as usual. It did look like the economy had taken a toll on the number of spectators attending from previous years, and the smoke bombs, especially those in yellow, appeared to be down in numbers, but the passion for the racing and what Mugello is about, was and is still there.
I still don't get a full weekend at home. Next update Silverstone...
Monday, May 10, 2010
Jorge Lorenzo loves Jerez (and Sherry too...)
Tio Pepe..or Uncle Joe (or Jose), but not Jorge..! 
Interestingly this is/was my third visit to Jerez inside twelve months. The same time last year was for my first visit to region for MotoGP, the second visit in October 2009 was with my wife Emily as a holiday, and now, here I am again in the same wonderful town for MotoGP once again. I love coming to Jerez. Truly feels like home.
Fortunately, just prior to my leaving, the "volcano that cannot be pronounced" appeared to have known about my visit and started behaving itself towards the end of the week that I had planned to leave for Spain. Air France had started returning to its normal transatlantic flight schedules and I could stop panicking about whether I would get there or not. I arrive into Malaga Monday afternoon via Charles De Gaulle, pick up the rental car (A BMW series 3 diesel - again) and head towards Jerez along the coast. The sun is out, it's warm and with the windows down I take a nice easy drive along the main toll road that runs from Malaga, through Marbella, past the rock of Gibraltar and turns inland where one finally ends up in the city of Jerez. It's a nice drive. The toll roads are hardly used and the view along the way is spectacular.
Arriving into Jerez I park just outside my accommodations, and after a brief chat with Alice and Jim, the apartment owners, I am in. I decide that I need to run to Carrefour to purchase some supplies for that evenings dinner, plus some beer, wine and water and I just make it in time before the store closes at 10pm! And they really do close. With supermarkets here in the USA they'll announce over the PA that the store is closing in 5 minutes and that's fine, but here, they turn all the lights off!! They obviously have no idea how hard it is to buy Leffe Brun, or at least differentiate between the Blonde and the Brun simply by using the incandescent glow of a Sony Erricson W600i mobie phone. It's all good. I pay, and I head back to the house. A shower, a quick dinner creation and it's time for bed. I sleep like a log.
Tuesday rolls around, and I really do not get out of bed until noon! OOPS! I decide that perhaps it's time for a change and instead of taking the car out for a drive, I decide to go for another walk around Jerez. It's a pretty little town, with narrow streets, pretty flat with no major hills so to speak. I decide that maybe I should go to a different "Sherry House" for a tour vs going to Tio Pepe as I do each time I visit. I arrive at the Sandeman bodegas and along with 4 other people we're giving a tour around the front end of the business. In fact, it's only a 30 minutes tour, and although it's well presented it just doesn't come upto the quality tour that is the one given at Tio Pepe. After this tour, in which felt a little rushed, I decide to kill some time, go for a walk and go back to the Tio Pepe bodegas for the 18.30 tour later that day.
In the meantime I have a couple of hours to kill. I decide to visit the Alcazar of Jerez. Emily weren't able to visit this building last year, and it's just across from the Tio Pepe bodegas so it makes for a good side trip fitting in nicely with the schedule. Due to the time of year, again, I have this place to myself so I just walk around, then sit on a bench and soak up the lovely warm sunshine whilst enjoying the perfume being given off by the flowers in the garden. Perfect. The Alcazar closes at 5.30, so I leave head over to Tio Pepe, purchase my ticket and sit in their orange groves waiting for the tour to begin. The tour starts and by 7.45pm we're done, so a few purchases in the souvenir shop and I'm heading back to the apartment. Shower, dinner, a chat with Emily over webcam, then it's off to bed. We'll head off to Seville and their Alcazar on Wednesday.
I love sleeping without the use of an alarm clock. I wake at 9am. Make coffee, have some chocolate all bran, shower change and am out the door by 11am. The drive to Seville is quite pleasant. About an hour. Arriving into the city through a 6 lane wide boulevard, I have forgotten the street peddlers from last year who like to try and sell you packets of tissues. It's odd. I have never thought about little packets of tissues being something that someone would want whilst sat at a traffic light. Maybe the Spanish buy more of these little packets of tissues than anywhere else. I suppose it's less of an intrusion that someone washing your windshield and then trying to demand you pay the for the work you never wanted in the first place. Everyone has to try and make a living some how so I can't truly knock it. I suppose it isn't much of a stretch to be someone trying to sell photos huh?
I park in the same place Emily and I parked last year. Oddly enough in parking space #46! I then head up to ground level and make my way to the Alcazar. It's off season, the weather is perfect, the crowds are manageable and I enter the Alcazar. This place is a must see. It's simply so nice to walk around, sit in the shade, listen to birds and watch people doing the same. It's a world away from what I do normally, the noise, the crowds, so for me, these outings to locations such as these are a way to recharge and just be a visitor. The Alcazar is for want of a better description, a castle. It's a walled palace, with gardens, baths, shaded walkways with palm trees, fruit trees, gardens and waterfalls. Exquisite. I leave a couple of hours later and stop for some tapas, after all, this is where tapas started! I go for tuna with tomatoes on toast, and a nice big glass of cold beer and kill an an hour or so watching people eating ice cream watch me eating tuna. Time to head back to Jerez.
Thursday the real world of motorcycle racing, or my "job" kicks back into gear so it's off to the track I go. Arriving early afternoon, Thursdays have become a bit of a "White Elephant" in terms of doing any work. With engines being "blipped" in the garages below as the teams prepare the bikes for the weekends action, the only thing that really happens on a Thursday is the press conference at 5pm and that's it.
Friday mornings are a little busier than Thursdays, but with no on track action until Friday afternoon, everything is very low key. Even the number of fans attending on a Friday is less, possibly because they're not willing to spend money for half a days activities, and the accompanying costs of hotels etc. Why not arrive Friday evening for the weekend and save a days expenses?
Oh that's right!! I'm here to photograph the racing! I am going down with the flu as this seems to be the time of year I catch something and it tries to incapacitate me. Andrew Northcott has agreed to help run me around on his scooter (too kind and I am immensely grateful) and so at least I can pace myself over the weekend and not make myself any more sick than I need to. Sitting in the media centre with David Emmett from Motomatters, Julian Ryder and Toby Moody from Eurosport along MotoGP technoboffin Neil Spalding, the off track entertainment is already taken care of.
The weekends events follow their well scripted chronological paths, with Friday afternoons practices, Saturday mornings practices followed by Saturday afternoons qualifying. The weather is again, perfect. The crowds on Saturday fill the hillsides and add the signature colour that would be repeated ten fold on Sunday.
Sunday. Race day arrives. It is a huge event, with air horns, whistles and a new feature, someone has brought in a ships foghorn that when "tooted" simply obliterates any other noise coming from the crowds. With huge crowds lining the hills, and with men trying to get their pictures taken with scantily clad umbrella girls, the smell of food being cooked mixed in with cigarette smoke, race day get's underway. The 125's and the new series Moto2 have their fair share of excitement and fairing to fairing battles, and initially MotoGP looks like it's going to be just another procession to the end. But no. Sadly Ben Spies drops out, and the field spaces out as usual with Spaniard Dani Pedrosa taking off on his own race in the distance. But that wouldn't last for long. We witness Jorge Lorenzo starting to run everyone down, catch and pass them. He passes Nicky Hayden, then passes Valentino Rossi and now he's closing in on Dani Pedrosa. In the meantime I am being whisked around the track at amazing speeds by Andrew Northcott from one shooting location to another and we simply witness Jorge Lorenzo catch and then pass his fellow countryman. Only to go on to win the race.
It was a Spanish hat trick, both the 125cc class and Moto2 class were won by Spaniards. Now the MotoGP class has been won by Jorge Lorenzo. Another Spaniard! The crowds are going bezerk! I am in the stadium section on the outside of the track and the noise is deafening as Jorge Lorenzo dismounts, plants his now customary "Lorenzo's Land" flag and walks to the tyre wall, whereupon he jumps up and salutes the crowd. After a few moments he returns to his bike, hops off in another location and jumps into a small lake..which we do not see from where we are located. We head back to shoot the podium and wrap up the days visual events. In a few hours after editing images, and uploading them to our various outlets, we head back to the apartment. After packing and getting ready to leave the next day we head off to bed.
Monday, it's a swift drive to Malaga via Ronda. Tuesday, it's time to head home. Next race is Le Mans. We'll see what a swift visit to France brings!
Interestingly this is/was my third visit to Jerez inside twelve months. The same time last year was for my first visit to region for MotoGP, the second visit in October 2009 was with my wife Emily as a holiday, and now, here I am again in the same wonderful town for MotoGP once again. I love coming to Jerez. Truly feels like home.
Fortunately, just prior to my leaving, the "volcano that cannot be pronounced" appeared to have known about my visit and started behaving itself towards the end of the week that I had planned to leave for Spain. Air France had started returning to its normal transatlantic flight schedules and I could stop panicking about whether I would get there or not. I arrive into Malaga Monday afternoon via Charles De Gaulle, pick up the rental car (A BMW series 3 diesel - again) and head towards Jerez along the coast. The sun is out, it's warm and with the windows down I take a nice easy drive along the main toll road that runs from Malaga, through Marbella, past the rock of Gibraltar and turns inland where one finally ends up in the city of Jerez. It's a nice drive. The toll roads are hardly used and the view along the way is spectacular.
Arriving into Jerez I park just outside my accommodations, and after a brief chat with Alice and Jim, the apartment owners, I am in. I decide that I need to run to Carrefour to purchase some supplies for that evenings dinner, plus some beer, wine and water and I just make it in time before the store closes at 10pm! And they really do close. With supermarkets here in the USA they'll announce over the PA that the store is closing in 5 minutes and that's fine, but here, they turn all the lights off!! They obviously have no idea how hard it is to buy Leffe Brun, or at least differentiate between the Blonde and the Brun simply by using the incandescent glow of a Sony Erricson W600i mobie phone. It's all good. I pay, and I head back to the house. A shower, a quick dinner creation and it's time for bed. I sleep like a log.
Tuesday rolls around, and I really do not get out of bed until noon! OOPS! I decide that perhaps it's time for a change and instead of taking the car out for a drive, I decide to go for another walk around Jerez. It's a pretty little town, with narrow streets, pretty flat with no major hills so to speak. I decide that maybe I should go to a different "Sherry House" for a tour vs going to Tio Pepe as I do each time I visit. I arrive at the Sandeman bodegas and along with 4 other people we're giving a tour around the front end of the business. In fact, it's only a 30 minutes tour, and although it's well presented it just doesn't come upto the quality tour that is the one given at Tio Pepe. After this tour, in which felt a little rushed, I decide to kill some time, go for a walk and go back to the Tio Pepe bodegas for the 18.30 tour later that day.
In the meantime I have a couple of hours to kill. I decide to visit the Alcazar of Jerez. Emily weren't able to visit this building last year, and it's just across from the Tio Pepe bodegas so it makes for a good side trip fitting in nicely with the schedule. Due to the time of year, again, I have this place to myself so I just walk around, then sit on a bench and soak up the lovely warm sunshine whilst enjoying the perfume being given off by the flowers in the garden. Perfect. The Alcazar closes at 5.30, so I leave head over to Tio Pepe, purchase my ticket and sit in their orange groves waiting for the tour to begin. The tour starts and by 7.45pm we're done, so a few purchases in the souvenir shop and I'm heading back to the apartment. Shower, dinner, a chat with Emily over webcam, then it's off to bed. We'll head off to Seville and their Alcazar on Wednesday.
I love sleeping without the use of an alarm clock. I wake at 9am. Make coffee, have some chocolate all bran, shower change and am out the door by 11am. The drive to Seville is quite pleasant. About an hour. Arriving into the city through a 6 lane wide boulevard, I have forgotten the street peddlers from last year who like to try and sell you packets of tissues. It's odd. I have never thought about little packets of tissues being something that someone would want whilst sat at a traffic light. Maybe the Spanish buy more of these little packets of tissues than anywhere else. I suppose it's less of an intrusion that someone washing your windshield and then trying to demand you pay the for the work you never wanted in the first place. Everyone has to try and make a living some how so I can't truly knock it. I suppose it isn't much of a stretch to be someone trying to sell photos huh?
I park in the same place Emily and I parked last year. Oddly enough in parking space #46! I then head up to ground level and make my way to the Alcazar. It's off season, the weather is perfect, the crowds are manageable and I enter the Alcazar. This place is a must see. It's simply so nice to walk around, sit in the shade, listen to birds and watch people doing the same. It's a world away from what I do normally, the noise, the crowds, so for me, these outings to locations such as these are a way to recharge and just be a visitor. The Alcazar is for want of a better description, a castle. It's a walled palace, with gardens, baths, shaded walkways with palm trees, fruit trees, gardens and waterfalls. Exquisite. I leave a couple of hours later and stop for some tapas, after all, this is where tapas started! I go for tuna with tomatoes on toast, and a nice big glass of cold beer and kill an an hour or so watching people eating ice cream watch me eating tuna. Time to head back to Jerez.
Thursday the real world of motorcycle racing, or my "job" kicks back into gear so it's off to the track I go. Arriving early afternoon, Thursdays have become a bit of a "White Elephant" in terms of doing any work. With engines being "blipped" in the garages below as the teams prepare the bikes for the weekends action, the only thing that really happens on a Thursday is the press conference at 5pm and that's it.
Friday mornings are a little busier than Thursdays, but with no on track action until Friday afternoon, everything is very low key. Even the number of fans attending on a Friday is less, possibly because they're not willing to spend money for half a days activities, and the accompanying costs of hotels etc. Why not arrive Friday evening for the weekend and save a days expenses?
Oh that's right!! I'm here to photograph the racing! I am going down with the flu as this seems to be the time of year I catch something and it tries to incapacitate me. Andrew Northcott has agreed to help run me around on his scooter (too kind and I am immensely grateful) and so at least I can pace myself over the weekend and not make myself any more sick than I need to. Sitting in the media centre with David Emmett from Motomatters, Julian Ryder and Toby Moody from Eurosport along MotoGP technoboffin Neil Spalding, the off track entertainment is already taken care of.
The weekends events follow their well scripted chronological paths, with Friday afternoons practices, Saturday mornings practices followed by Saturday afternoons qualifying. The weather is again, perfect. The crowds on Saturday fill the hillsides and add the signature colour that would be repeated ten fold on Sunday.
Sunday. Race day arrives. It is a huge event, with air horns, whistles and a new feature, someone has brought in a ships foghorn that when "tooted" simply obliterates any other noise coming from the crowds. With huge crowds lining the hills, and with men trying to get their pictures taken with scantily clad umbrella girls, the smell of food being cooked mixed in with cigarette smoke, race day get's underway. The 125's and the new series Moto2 have their fair share of excitement and fairing to fairing battles, and initially MotoGP looks like it's going to be just another procession to the end. But no. Sadly Ben Spies drops out, and the field spaces out as usual with Spaniard Dani Pedrosa taking off on his own race in the distance. But that wouldn't last for long. We witness Jorge Lorenzo starting to run everyone down, catch and pass them. He passes Nicky Hayden, then passes Valentino Rossi and now he's closing in on Dani Pedrosa. In the meantime I am being whisked around the track at amazing speeds by Andrew Northcott from one shooting location to another and we simply witness Jorge Lorenzo catch and then pass his fellow countryman. Only to go on to win the race.
It was a Spanish hat trick, both the 125cc class and Moto2 class were won by Spaniards. Now the MotoGP class has been won by Jorge Lorenzo. Another Spaniard! The crowds are going bezerk! I am in the stadium section on the outside of the track and the noise is deafening as Jorge Lorenzo dismounts, plants his now customary "Lorenzo's Land" flag and walks to the tyre wall, whereupon he jumps up and salutes the crowd. After a few moments he returns to his bike, hops off in another location and jumps into a small lake..which we do not see from where we are located. We head back to shoot the podium and wrap up the days visual events. In a few hours after editing images, and uploading them to our various outlets, we head back to the apartment. After packing and getting ready to leave the next day we head off to bed.
Monday, it's a swift drive to Malaga via Ronda. Tuesday, it's time to head home. Next race is Le Mans. We'll see what a swift visit to France brings!
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