PH Blog: why stills photography still matters

It is not possible to have zero interest in photography if you are a motoring journalist - if you did a large portion of your working life would be consumed by an activity that offered no reward or satisfaction. Just as many car photographers become decidedly handy behind the wheel because they spend hours chasing roadtesters around Europe, so many keyboard-warriors end up quietly knowing a thing or two about DSLRs.

At this point Garlick will berate me for my shoddy iPhone images.

Anyway, hacks may not like to admit as much, but imagery became the most important aspect of motoring media many years ago. Just try selling a package of words and pictures as a freelancer and you'll quickly learn this. Great pictures, average story? Easy sell. Hemingway on the N24 and a few grainy iPhone shots? You won't shift it.

I have always loved being involved with taking great still images. There's an unparalleled professional synergy at work, and when you get it right - a particular piece of driving, on a rigorously researched location, captured with optimum use of light - it is the most rewarding part of the job for me.

The lead shot was the Nurburgring in 2004. Great weather with a friend driving my then long-term Clio V6 and, one of the very best auto snappers in the business, Mark Bramley hanging from the passenger window. It's the perfect action photograph: vivid, fast, intense. You can see the hand on the wheel - it makes you want to be there, in that car.

Sometimes, of course, it just happens with no warning. No set-up, just a moment of instinct and a result you can't believe. This is equally enjoyable.

Again, the Nurburgring, this time 2007. I was just messing about the night before a VLN test and met one of the very best F1 snappers (and 993 devotee) Darren Heath in the car park. From memory, he was shooting a new Rolls Phantom with Nick Mason for a Sunday Times feature. Anyways, being the arch idiot that I am, when I overtook them later that evening I pulled a silly slide. A few days later he sent me this. I could have spent hours setting this up with a lesser talent and completely failed to capture the frame. It's not a perfect image, but it perfectly captures that moment in a way a video clip never could.

Now everything's digital there's instant gratification too, but it wasn't that long ago we used to wait for strips to come back from the processing lab and leg it over to the light-box to see the results of derring-do. And the occasional shunt.

However much I enjoy the added drama of seeing a car moving, often sliding in full HD video, there is something about a great still image that I find more powerful - just as a great novel always defeats the most intense film experience.

Why all this photo talk? This video on the Drive channel I produce content for went live a few days back. It's a deliberately indulgent piece about going out and taking great photographs. It just reminded me how much I enjoy the process.

Chris

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