Tim Jones - Don James

First Stage

This morning we went to the first stages of the 2007 Roger Albert Clark Rally, held at Temple Newsam in Leeds.  This is the first Rally to be held at Temple Newsam since the Network Q RAC Rally in 1996 and was organised by the De Lacy Motor Club who are based a few miles away in Knottingley.

The Photography

It was obvious that trying to photograph fast moving objects in the shade of the trees, early on a November morning was going to be a challenge.  I took my 5D and Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 for another outing (I'm quite surprised at how much I'm using this lens), unfortunately I left my 580ex at home thinking that flash photography would be frowned on for potentially distracting the drivers.  Luckily the combination of f/2.8 and the 5D's good performance at high ISOs enabled me to work round the lack of light.

The Rally was very well organised and there were more people than I'd expected to turn out that early on a Saturday, we bought a programme and followed everyone else along the footpaths into the woods and waited for the start.  Everything began at the advertised time and as we watched the action we slowly wandered back along the route stopping for a while to take photos at good points.

I seem to be saying this a lot recently, but I've never been to a Rally before let alone photographed one.  I think more experience will be needed before I really understand the right places to stand and the best technique.  What I learnt for next time is, flash is OK (many people, including the official photographers were using it), 120mm can be too long (I could definitely have done with something wider at times) and I should have had a flask of coffee.