New Event at Santa Pod - Dragstalgia

On Saturday I went to the new event for 2001, Dragstalgia at Santa Pod.

Unfortunately it was p**sing down when I arrived and I spent all morning in the media center with the odd venture out for a few pics around the showground.

But come about 3pm the rainclouds were replaced with blue sky and the track was dry enough for the cars to start running and it was a great sight to see all the old style dragsters running down the quarter mile strip.

As well as the time trials though we were also provided with the always great spectacle of a memorial flypast by a spitfire which suddenly appeared over the track and made several passes.

Then with the sun slowly setting it was time for the cacklefest. This is where dragsters were lined up down the middle of the track and revved for all they were worth popping and 'cackling' away.

Then came the highlight of the show, the Flaming Burnout!

Due to health and safety madness this is a very rare sight and certainly something I haven't seen before.

It is very simple - The burnout box or 'bleach box' which is the area before the start line where racers perform a burnout to warm and clean their tyres, is doused with petrol and also the tyres of the car and evrything is ignited! The driver then performs a burnout which produces a spectacular sight.

This picture explains it much better than any words can

Although I only stayed for one pint (driving) the night was ended with Rockabilly bands and a burlesque show which went on until 2am.

I will definitely be going to Dragstalgia 2012

Many more pictures on my website http://www.darrenskidmorephotography.com/dragstalgia

New Toys

This month my bank account was looking pretty healthy (surprisingly) so I decided to buy a new toy

The Yongnuo Yn-560 is a great manual flash for the money, its almost identical to the Canon Speedlite 580 EX II but at a fraction of the cost, I am very tempted to buy another.

But wait now I have that flash as well as my 580 EX II and Nikon SB 28 I now dont have enough receivers! (Reaches for debit card again!)

So I am also now the owner of a set of 4 Yongnuo RF-603 Transceivers

Being transceivers rather than seperate triggers and receivers is very handy because if something goes wrong with one of them I just use another as the trigger. They are autosensing so as soon as I put one on a flash and the other on a camera, a quick press of the test button lets them talk to each other and assign the camera one as the trigger and the other(s) as receivers. Range is over 225 meters outdoors which is as far as you could want in most situations.

I will be expecting a Christmas card from Yongnuo this year!

Now I am off to play with my new toys.

Off to Mod Nats!

Time to get the camera gear ready for a weekend at what is now one of the biggest modified car shows of the season Modified Nationals

Its always good to catch up with friends and have a beer or two (or three)

Hope to see you there

A couple of pretty busy weekends and met a few celebrities

I know I know I am crap at updating this blog, so I'm sorry, OK? Happy now?

Anyway hope everybosy had a good Easter and enjoyed the extra bank holiday, cheers Will and Kate. Harry pull your finger out so we can have another one soon!

I was fairly busy over the Easter weekend and this last weekend covering Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod and Truckfest at the East of England Showground

Both weekends provided the opportunity to get some up close pics of the following celebrities

Lucy Pargeter - Chastity Dingle from Emmerdale
Gemma Merna - Carmel Valentine from Hollyoaks
Martin 'Wolfie' Adams - World darts champ
Alex Deborski from Ice Road Truckers
Naughty Norman and Fireman Sam!!!!
Lacey Turner - Stacey Slater from Eastenders
Special mention has to go to Samantha Womack (née Janus) - Ronnie Mitchell from Eastenders who I absolutely fancied the pants off when she was in Game On and she still looks might fine now!

You can see the pics on my website http://www.darrenskidmorephotography.com/ under the Events section

But here is one of the lovely Samantha :)

Catch up with you all soon

Another great shoot

Had a great shoot with Sophie Beacham recently


I am really pleased with the result and so is Sophie so thats a relief :-)

Click on the pic to see the full gallery

Thanks Sophie x

Pictures from the weekend.

Had a great shoot with Emma and Charlee on Sunday, doing some fun Comic Relief themed pics. Big thanks to the girls especially as both of them were poorly

Check out the rest of the pics HERE

What a great weekend!

My friends Emma and Charlee came up from Portsmouth to visit me and do a shoot this past weekend and what a crazy shoot we had!

We did usual glamour type stuff but then did some more fun stuff including a Comic Relief themed shoot which was great fun.

I will get the pictures up as soon as possible