Richard Sloman
Active Member
Blimey, don't you just hate having to write these kind of posts? I never know what to put, so I'll just state the facts! 
My name is Richard, 34, based currently near Bristol but have lived all over the place, but only ever really feel at hhome in south Devon.
I was first handed an SLR by my dad when I was about 13, with a few lenses, filters and other assorted accessories that cost the grand sum of £20 second hand. I can't say I really took to it, as I seemed to spend more time faffing with all the dials than I did taking photos and film was just a pain, so after only a few outings the camera disappeared into a cupboard never to be seen again.
Then about 5 years ago my wife and I bought a little digital pocket camera (as you do) for all the weddings that we seemed to be attending on an ever increasing basis and I was hooked. I got a nice bonus from the company I was working for at the time, my wife got her own horse and I decided to blow the (now considerably smaller) remainder on a DSLR.
I was out and about with the new camera at every given opportunity, and I then decided to have a look around the local area to see if there was any motor sport events going on to try my hand at. Turns out I lived about 30 minutes away from the Prescott hillclimb, and one visit became another visit, and then I noticed the people photographing trackside, found their websites and wondered if I could do any better. One email later and I was very, very kindly granted trackside access for the events the following year and used this as a good reason (read excuse) to trade in my consumer lenses for some professional glass.
Eager to try it out I decided to go and watch a fellow member of a relatively obscure Peugeot owners club at a trackday (it's amazing what you find to occupy yourself with as by this time I'd been made redundant) and just happened to be in the right place at the right time as their official 'tog wasn't able to attend that day and half an our later I'm stood at the end of a runway while a bunch of amateur Lewis Hamiltons tried their hardest to not run out of talent. That became a bit more regular and despite the 2 hour drive and long walks around cold, wet and windy (or baking hot with no shade) airfields it was hugely enjoyable, made even more fun by people offering me their hard earned money for photos and I decided I'd like to do it full time, and after having been turned down for numerous job interviews I didn't really have nothing to lose.
A few other leads and bits of work here and there and things were improving, not as quickly as I'd liked, but steadily and the wife and I were just about getting by. Then she went and threw a very large spanner in the works and told me to get a "proper job" because she was going back to university for 3 years.
So now I'm spending my week days writing software and websites for a well known company, and at the weekend I'm still one of the official photographers for the Bugatti Owners Club who own and run the Prescott hillclimb, and I've just completed a year working at Shelsley Walsh by kind invitation of the Midland Automobile Club.
I don't consider myself an expert my any means, I tend to ignore any rules and conceptions and just shoot when I see something I like, but what little wisdom I may have is yours to try and prise out of my head.
And that's me in a relatively large nutshell. Other than that I'm a Canon user, and I got married in an ice chapel 150 miles north of the Arctic circle in Finnish Lapland that didn't get much over minus twenty when we were there
My name is Richard, 34, based currently near Bristol but have lived all over the place, but only ever really feel at hhome in south Devon.
I was first handed an SLR by my dad when I was about 13, with a few lenses, filters and other assorted accessories that cost the grand sum of £20 second hand. I can't say I really took to it, as I seemed to spend more time faffing with all the dials than I did taking photos and film was just a pain, so after only a few outings the camera disappeared into a cupboard never to be seen again.
Then about 5 years ago my wife and I bought a little digital pocket camera (as you do) for all the weddings that we seemed to be attending on an ever increasing basis and I was hooked. I got a nice bonus from the company I was working for at the time, my wife got her own horse and I decided to blow the (now considerably smaller) remainder on a DSLR.
I was out and about with the new camera at every given opportunity, and I then decided to have a look around the local area to see if there was any motor sport events going on to try my hand at. Turns out I lived about 30 minutes away from the Prescott hillclimb, and one visit became another visit, and then I noticed the people photographing trackside, found their websites and wondered if I could do any better. One email later and I was very, very kindly granted trackside access for the events the following year and used this as a good reason (read excuse) to trade in my consumer lenses for some professional glass.
Eager to try it out I decided to go and watch a fellow member of a relatively obscure Peugeot owners club at a trackday (it's amazing what you find to occupy yourself with as by this time I'd been made redundant) and just happened to be in the right place at the right time as their official 'tog wasn't able to attend that day and half an our later I'm stood at the end of a runway while a bunch of amateur Lewis Hamiltons tried their hardest to not run out of talent. That became a bit more regular and despite the 2 hour drive and long walks around cold, wet and windy (or baking hot with no shade) airfields it was hugely enjoyable, made even more fun by people offering me their hard earned money for photos and I decided I'd like to do it full time, and after having been turned down for numerous job interviews I didn't really have nothing to lose.
A few other leads and bits of work here and there and things were improving, not as quickly as I'd liked, but steadily and the wife and I were just about getting by. Then she went and threw a very large spanner in the works and told me to get a "proper job" because she was going back to university for 3 years.
So now I'm spending my week days writing software and websites for a well known company, and at the weekend I'm still one of the official photographers for the Bugatti Owners Club who own and run the Prescott hillclimb, and I've just completed a year working at Shelsley Walsh by kind invitation of the Midland Automobile Club.
I don't consider myself an expert my any means, I tend to ignore any rules and conceptions and just shoot when I see something I like, but what little wisdom I may have is yours to try and prise out of my head.
And that's me in a relatively large nutshell. Other than that I'm a Canon user, and I got married in an ice chapel 150 miles north of the Arctic circle in Finnish Lapland that didn't get much over minus twenty when we were there
