Despite having been an enthusiastic
motorsport spectator/photographer from a
fairly young age, mainly at stock car racing
events and some race meetings at Ingliston
and Knockhill circuits, I didn't attend my
first rally until 1978. A rally-mad work
colleague of my dad had seen some of my
stock car pics and invited me along to the
Granite City Rally. He had just started
taking photos at rallies with the intention
of selling prints to competitors but he
didn't have the facilities to develop and
print his photos and this is where I came in
as I had a darkroom and all the necessary
gear. At this point I should remind our
younger friends that everything back then
was on 35mm film and had to be developed and
processsed in a darkroom using chemicals -
life in the digital age is a lot more
comfortable, believe me. As well as forming
a two-man photographic team on rallies, I
provided all the darkroom services which, in
hindsight, was a heck of a lot of work but
it was a whole new, enjoyable adventure for
me at the time.
The following year my 'team mate' had to
give up attending rallies due to family
commitments but I carried on as I had now
really got into the sport, although the
number of events I attended tailed off
somewhat during the 1980s. For the 1981
rally season I teamed up with George and
Sandy Topp of TM Photosport but we went our
separate ways again at the end of that year. I was also still
a regular at stock car meetings and, during
the 80s and 90s, managed to obtain official
infield access to a number of championship
meetings both in Scotland and England and in
1989 was appointed as one of the official
track photographers when GMP Promotions
began racing at Cowdenbeath Racewall. For
those of you who may be interested, I have
some of my stock car racing photos online at
www.retrostox.co.uk.
In 1993 I took an enforced lay-off from all
motorsport events as my partner and myself
were building our own house which took up
all of our time. The intention was to return
to photographing at Racewall when the house
was complete but, for a number of reasons,
this never happened.
It was to be 2011 before I attended a rally
again - ironically the Granite City once
more. By now of course, digital technology
had taken over the photography world and,
unsure as to how serious my return to the
sport would be, I didn't want to spend a
fortune on gear so initially bought a used
Canon 20D with 18-55mm kit lens to start me
off. I have since gone through 40D and 60D
models before settling on my current 7D.
Numerous lenses have also come and gone but
I now have a pretty good all-Canon lens
range in my bag.
A sizeable part of this website is devoted
to some of the photos taken from the 1970s
to the 1990s and, when more time permits, my
intention is to revisit some of the poorer
quality scans that are currently on the site
and attempt to improve them.
As I am now getting on in years (cue
violins) I cannot really see me committing
to attending every rally or race meeting but
I hope to still go along to selected events.
In the past couple of years I have become
more involved in covering smaller Targa type
rallies or classic car events. These are so
much more informal with less emphasis on
official accreditation.
I hope you enjoy your visit to the site - if
you have any queries about the photos (past
or present) please drop me an email at
frank@raceandrally.co.uk.
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