Evaluation

To start with I was exploring two different avenues for this project -
 

- Band Photography – Focusing on underground metal bands

- Car Sports Photography – Focusing on Off Road cars

Quite quickly the band photography idea was abandoned as I explored this option it became increasingly obvious that everyone does band photography to some degree, making it especially difficult to end up with a piece of unique work, or at least something different to the norm.

Whereas Off Road Car Photography is definitely different to the norm and created an interesting project for me. It has given me a chance to explore a different side of action style photography especially working without any real idea of what I could photograph at the shoot.

The biggest issue I faced throughout this project was reliability of the Pay & Play sites around the UK since many of them are owned/heavily used by the MOD & Police for training there was always a chance an event could be called off last minute. Luckily for this project the weather was not a key issue, as rain and mud would only add to the ‘off road experience’ however none the less some of the shoots had excellent light which gave some incredibly vibrant and bright images.

There was a continual air of danger when on location considering I am photographing large 4x4s off road where their movements and actions can sometimes be unpredictable. Some locations forbid pedestrian/foot access which meant I had to shoot from within my car, an interesting obstacle but yet one overcome with ease. 

I did not feel a QP Card was necessary or particularly usable within this project as I was constantly surround by mud, rain, water and god knows what else. It can be seen in some images mud on my lens… Also considering that 90% of the photographs taken where fast action shots, a QP card could not be used.

Presented in a ‘Cover & Twelve’ format through my website does work however I believe it would have been far better to have presented it as an advertising campaign very similar to what I did for my FMP. What I was afraid of was not getting to enough locations in order to build a solid body of work – this is due to their nature, one site one day per month – luckily I found a location that ran events every other weekend giving far more shooting opportunities.

Overall it was an interesting project and taught me much about photographing outside, on location with limited equipment on a tight timeframe.