Behind every picture there’s a story.
This is the story of being behind the
camera at SBK Phillip Island.
BEHIND THE LENS
R
ocking up to Phillip Island on the first day
of World Superbikes Round 1, I did have a
slight sense of foreboding. And it wasn’t
about the Phillip Island weather... I’m quite
used to that being in a world of its own
and going from sunburn to hypothermia
in half an hour. The source of my worries was
my accreditation as a media photographer. I’m
reasonably new to this game and don’t take
anything for granted. Being given infield access to
a big event is a big (for big, read huge) deal to me
and what Dorna giveth, Dorna can taketh away.
OK, maybe I was being a bit paranoid as I did have
the coveted email confirming my accreditation, but
I’d had one of those back in October for MotoGP
and that hadn’t gone so well. A misalignment
of planets meant that when I got there I didn’t
actually have access to the infield of the track
to shoot, which limited me to shooting from the
spectator areas and that took a couple of days
50KIWI RIDER
to resolve, which wasn’t ideal. In the meantime
I did have access to the media centre where at
least the coffee was good, and I got to meet
some international photographers whose work
I really admire... you’ve got to look on the bright
side of things, even if it’s a bit of a stretch.
But coming into World Supers, I really hoped
that I wasn’t going to get a re-run of the
MotoGP experience, because I love the event
and really wanted to get into the thick of the
action. In the end, I shouldn’t have worried
as the planets had a different alignment;
as well as infield track access, Dorna rather
unexpectedly gave me pit lane and grid access
as well – something of a big smiley moment.
TELL A STORY
What’s it like to have all that access thrown at you?
As my colleague, and monumentally talented and
experienced photographer, Andrew Gosling says,