Just over a week ago Amber Tutton posted on her Facebook page that she had a laser pointer and wanted to do a shoot with it.

Immediately the cogs in my brain groaned and whirred into life (they take a while to get going these days!) and my first thought was Cat Burglar probably because one of my favourite comedies was Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and anybody who has seen that will know the scene I was thinking of ;)

So I immediately got in touch with Amber and said 'When are we shooting then?' 

Of course Amber being Amber she was up for shooting something different straight away and was ready for action!

After talking about the outfit I had to find a studio and after being impressed with Saracen House the last time I went I contacted Andy to make sure they had a smoke machine and of course they did.

The next available time that suited us all was less than a week away and thats when the first sign of panic set in!!

I need props, mainly Frikkin Laser Beams (Thanks Dr Evil) as I know the one green laser I had would be good but nowhere near enough. Luckily my nephew had three more (I don't know why either, that might explain all the plans crashes near where he lives)

So lasers sorted now for the cat burglar scene I was thinking I need a big fake diamond or lots of little ones, could I find some? Could I hell this was about two days before and the panic was growing rapidly.

After trying joke shops and hobby craft I finally thought to check with work as they do conferences and might have something.

Success they had some clear plastic beads that would be perfect, phew as this was the day before.

So with less than 24 hours to go I had everything I needed but still had lots of ideas.

Shoot Day:

Arrived at the studio with props etc in hand and discussed with Andy my plans and he was well up for it and gave some good ideas too.

Amber arrived looking exactly as I had asked, a true professional as always.

So then we rigged lasers around the studio with mirrors positioned to bounce them around the room and got the smoke machine warming up.

A single soft box was set up and camera on a tripod set at 30 second exposure (lowered to 20 seconds later on which worked just as well)

Then with smoke billowing Amber knew just the poses to do and had her own ideas which worked out a treat also she was not afraid to look silly and produced a great expression for the final shot.

The evening went really well and the only enemy was time as I had lots of other ideas but was not able to put them into place but I came away happy with the results.

Amber as always was absolutely fantastic and I don't think I could have done it with anyone else and Andy was a great help too mainly being smoke provider and laser pen holder as we had no sharks and the mutant sea bass were unavailable (go and watch  this - Austin Powers )

Anyway I have typed enough just see the sample pics here then go off and look at the rest of the pictures on my website.

Many Thanks to Amber and Andy from Saracen House for helping me get something different.

You can see the rest of the pictures at the link below.

AMBER AND FRIKKIN LASERS

You can see more of Ambers Work at her website 

AMBER TUTTON

Last but not least check out Saracen House

SARACEN HOUSE

Well, not a good start to Easter and especially Easter Thunderball thanks to the good old British Weather!

Fridays practice and initial qualifying was the best day of the weekend but even so the good old British weather put the mockers on things causing about half of the days events to be postponed to Saturday.

I arrived nice and early on Saturday morning to find that unfortunately nothing was running so the only option was to make use of the wonderful hospitality provided by the always cheerful Suze Morris who also introduced me to the delights of Lemon Curd Milkshakes!!

I had a walk around the pit area which is open to everyone which makes drag racing quite unique and the drivers and mechanics are extremely friendly and love talking about their passion.

By about 11am the skys had cleared (well tried to) and the eager drivers were queuing up to put their best times in.

For those not familiar with drag racing, you can find more information on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_racing

But trust me when I say it is a lot more than just going as fast as possible down the quarter mile straight.

With the weather how it was over the whole weekend the racing was a very much stop and start affair but there were other things happening at Santa Pod including a circus for the opportunity to get out of the rain for half an hour.

There was also stunt shows, including motocross, drifting, jet beetle, monster trucks and of course FireForce 3 Jet Car So plenty to keep everyone entertained

The crews involved in making the track dry worked extremely hard and I have a lot of respect for them as their patience was tested a lot with the raining stopping just long enough for them to get the track dry enough for racing only to start raining again straight after.

None the less everyone seemed remarkably upbeat and didn't let anything phase them.

When the weather did hold off, as well as the Drag Cars and Bikes there was also the spectacle of Santa Pods very own FireForce 3 Jet Funny Car capable of speeds up to 300mph and the crazy Frenchman Eric Teboul on his Rocket Powered bike which makes him the fastest person on two wheels (and mad as a box of spanners!)

Despite the rain Santa Pod got as much racing in as the weather and other outside influences would allow (If the track gets too cold it is unsafe to run as the cars cannot get grip so its not just the rain) and continued into the evening every day.

I thoroughly recommend coming to one of the drag racing events held at Santa Pod just to experience the pure power and noise of Top Fuel Dragsters

Lets hope for better weather next year.

You can see all of my pictures at the link below.

EASTER THUNDERBALL 2012

Recently I was lucky enough to receive a season pass for the Britcar series of endurance races.

Those who do not know what is is here is an excerpt from Wikipedia 

Britcar is an Endurance Motor Racing series formed in 1997, as a result of a discussion in a Nürburgring bar between Willie Moore and James Tucker. Folklore has it that James Tucker and John Veness formed the organizing European Endurance & Racing Club (EERC) with a £10 note found on the ground. The foremost aim was the re-introduction of a 24-Hour Race in Britain.

Competing cars vary from the Renault Clio RS through BMW M3s, Porsche GT3s, a stalwart of the series: the Marcos Mantis GT, and exotics such as the Mosler.

The successful first year of competition was in 2002, and following tremendous growth in 2003, it attracted Sky Sports coverage in their Motor Sports section in 2004. The first year of the Britcar 24-Hour Race was 2005 which was won by Rollcentre Mosler of Martin Short.^[1] This was followed by packed grids in 2006 season culminating in a capacity field for the 24-Hours.^[2] EERC became a Motor Sports Association (MSA) approved Championship in 2007 as well being the now essential 24 hours. It played a supporting role to the British round of the A1 Grand Prix. The presenters of the well known British car show Top Gear took part in the 2007 event, coming third of the five diesel cars, and 39th overall, at the end of the 24 Hours.

Such is its current popularity that over-subscription now means that there are reserves waiting for grid positions.

On Saturday 24th of March after a few beers the night before (usual form) we made an early start to Silverstone Circuit to ensure we could cover every aspect of the day. 

After a very foggy start, the fog was burnt away by glorious sunshine and what was to be a very good day.

With passes around our necks we were able to gain access to just about everywhere including the pit lanes even during the race.

Wee also got some great tips from some of the regular press who advised us that its OK to drive to different sections of the track which w

as very handy to know.

With the access we were able to get we could get some fantastic locations trackside and the marshals and stewards was extremely helpful.

At one point we drove around to the new Pit Complex known as The Wing due to the shape of the building, it is a very impressive place and I look forward to seeing it in all its glory in the British Grand Prix.

One thing that was interesting is that the new pit lane is significantly lower than the track I am will look forward to seeing what differences that may have during the Grand Prix

We were able to get some fantastic pictures and I am certainly looking forward to the next race at Donnington.

You can see the rest of the pictures in the gallery which can be found HERE