A Quiet Afternoon Drive.. NOT! The Mazda MX5 SE
- At December 24, 2010
- By Jack Chauvel
- In Automotive
- 1
A quiet afternoon drive turned into a howling ride through the twisties of the Royal National Park just south of Sydney. With the aim of getting some car shots, we headed off from the southern suburbs after 6.. for a trip down to Stanwell Tops and the lookouts for a backdrop. Even with photography in mind, I quickly changed my tune on the purpose of the trip.. it was definitely just for the ride.
My friend George has a stunning example of an 04 Mazda MX5 SE… it feels like a go kart on steroids with the grip and stability to match. Not to mention it has a certain character and look which definitely doesnt fit within the regular stigma for this car. Infact I would say it is up there with one of the best, most exciting and fun rides ive had the pleasure of sitting in!
So how about this photography business? Forgot about that for a second 🙂 Our intended location was the Stanwell Tops lookouts at the Southern end of the national park (on the northern border of the Illawarra region). This was a big learning curve for both George and myself as we have very limited experience with using Off Camera flash.. bolster this with having temperamental flashes, not the best triggers and no diffusers.. we had fun but our shots didnt quite turn out the way we desired.
Never fear.. this has only increased our hunger to improve and try more.. with a large variety of fun drives and shooting locations within short distance of Sydney there is no doubt we will get up to more mischief in the very near future. I would like to say a big thank you to George for taking me along and giving me some insight into his history of car ownership. He is very knowledgeable and experienced and he might just sway my decision on my next car purchase!
Ill leave you with a shot.. of us shooting back into the National Park on the drive home.
Till next time..
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GTR. Godzilla.
- At October 13, 2010
- By Jack Chauvel
- In Automotive
- 0
A very good friend of mine Xiao picked up a 93 R32 GTR Skyline a few months back… an iconic piece of motoring history, at least for my generation 😉 In celebration of this vehicle there was a cruise organised through the Skylines Australia Car Club for the 21st Anniversary. This club holds regular events in celebration of all skylines as well as general Japanese performance motoring.
It has been 18 years since the GTR left Group A racing and appearing at Bathurst for the last time.. with much controversy. The itinerary for the day was me getting picked up bright and early (7:30am) after getting to bed late (5:00am) and picking up a couple of others before heading to the meet spot.. Penrith. From there the R32GTR’s would line up and leave first, heading up Bells Line of Rd to Bell, and heading back across to Mount Victoria before cruising down to the Edge Cinema in Katoomba.
Awaiting us at the Edge Cinema was a few show cars, importers, parts stand, cold meat pies and a 2 hour highlight package of the 1992 Bathurst Race. The idea was to have all the R32GTR’s lined up in the car park, on display and photos with judging and prizes going to best presented and other specific class titles. It did go a little AWOL.. one of the lead cars had no idea where he was going and turned off the main cruise route. This resulted in the majority of the R32GTR’s who were to arrive first in a large precession.. turn up mostly behind many of the other cars.
After much faffing about.. looking at cars.. checking out mods and seeing some rare specials we all headed into the cinema to watch the highlight package… or so we thought. After about an hour an announcement came up.. saying they had played the 1991 highlights package instead.. doh.. one hour wasted. So they started the 1992 and we trudged through it.. some great racing and lots of controversy with Jim Richards calling the general fan population a pack of assholes at the end.
A bit disjointed, well you get that in blog posts sometimes… the prizes were given out to roughly 20% of the original attendance and we made the trek to Maccas and headed down back to Sydney through Winmalee to show Xiao a road he hadnt driven before. All in all it was a pretty good day.. photography wise Im very happy with my shots.. a bit different to usual. Ive used tight crops (due to using the 50mm on my d90 and not having much space) and with the overcast cloud it created bright and even lighting on the car. This has allowed me to play around with the post processing a fair bit more and come up with some pretty great results.
I had a great time, getting home well after 8pm… and making me very tired up until today 🙂 I am a car enthusiast.. and I really cant wait to get my hands on a performance machine I can call my own. I have recorded a video but have not yet been able to process this yet 🙂 Hopefully I will have the opportunity to do so in the next few days.
Till next time..
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