mendaman's photostream  

If I was to try and pin point a start for my interest in photography (which was driven by a passion for motor sport) it probably began (in earnest) with a visit to the first Snetterton (Willhire) 24 Hour in 1980, where friends of my brother had entered an MGB GT V8.

Then in 1982, I visited the May bank holiday ETC (European Touring Car) event at Donington to witness the beginning of Tom Walkinshaw's relationship with Jaguar, where he had entered a lone XJS (with Motul sponsorship) to challenge the dominance of BMW. The potential of the car was obvious when he put it on the front row, though it didn't last long - in 1983 (with backing from Jaguar) they were back and winning races.

After taking the title in 1984 Jaguar and TWR progressed to sports cars and I followed (though I did make it to Le Mans in 1983 and only went to one sports car event in both 1985 & 6) - I never looked back until I drifted away from sports cars in the late 90's.

In the late 80s/early 90s I had a brief foray into "live" reporting for RIS (Racing Information Services) but struggled to post reports from races (via Compuserve Information Service) due to the lack of suitable hardware and continual problems with phone connections. I gave this up just prior to the service being introduced to the Web (which may well have been a mistake!!).

My choice of weapon (for photography) was a Canon EOS 650 and then later on an RT (great for motor sport with the fixed mirror). I started with two Canon zooms (35-70 and 70-210) and then at a later date got a cheap Sigma 400mm (though I did have a semi-automatic OM10 for a short while!).

I put my SLR down until last year when I went to the SPA 6 Hr with a new Digital Canon 450D SLR & EFS 18-55mm - hopefully I will now make further events, having invested in a new camera!

Thankfully my 20+ year old lenses work with the 450D (though the Sigma 400 is a little limiting as it will only works in AV, on f5.6 and it can't be chipped!!).

By the way - PLEASE DO LEAVE COMMENTS - THEY ARE ALL APPRECIATED AND I WILL ALWAYS TRY TO RESPOND.