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New Images on CD Options     28 August 2008

Today we have begun to offer new options for our images on CD, after doing a bit of a search around the web for similar motorsport deals we have tailored our options to hopefully suit everyone's requirements, we still offer our great CD service, along with a glossy 8x12in print. 

And I have to say compared to our competitors in NSW and VIC we are streets ahead in the services we are happy to provide let alone price, in fact you'd be hard pushed to find a photographer down country that will offer the full resolution images for sale.

If you click here this will take you to our pages that describe what we now have on offer from each race meeting.  Please feel free to contact us if you need any further info.

Thanks again, Darin.

Proof Sheets     20 August 2008

We have been closely looking at the number of images that get viewed on our web site and the number is pretty large, but it's only a small percentage of the images we upload to our galleries.  Most of the race meetings I have been too in the past 6 months or so have seen us upload around 3-4000 images per meeting, that's a huge number of images we sort into groups, process through Photoshop to resize and watermark, build the multiple web pages and much more. It takes many many hours to do this. 

What we are going to now do is upload a good cross section of the images we shoot from each class into sample galleries, & spend some time photo shopping them to be just right.  But what we are also going to concentrate on our Proof Sheets, in the past we have made up proof sheet sets for clients who'd like to see all of the images of their car, and then order CD's or printed images from this.

We will continue to do this and will encourage clients who want to see all of the images we capture of them to order the proof sheets.  We are going to charge a nominal price of just $5.00 for this service, and this will then be credited against any order you make from the proof sheet, be that CD's or printed images.

Another reason we are doing this is that our web site is now over 4Gb which is huge, and has over 400,000 images and files - it's just too big!  We will keep the galleries that are already up there, but the ones now outstanding will be the new lite version of the gallery, so to speak.

I'd like to thank all our customers and hope we can continue to see your support, and of course orders come through.  Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to make any comments on what we are doing.

See you at the track soon.

Cheers, Darin

WOW Busier than ever!          8 June 2008

Ha I have to laugh when I read my last post, it was some 3 months before my last!  Now this one is some 7 months since my last, and primarily the big gap has been time, and lack there of.  You see my life consists of my family first and foremost of course, then was my IT job (that pays the bills) our motorsport photography and our business of Real Estate Photography that we own.  Well that all changed last Friday, my IT job of 10 years has come to an end, a down turn in retail has left the IT company I worked for with no choice but to down size, and unfortunately the Brisbane office was to suffer.

I guess as they say as one door shuts another opens, I have joined my wife in the Real Estate photography side and have a new even better focus on the motorsport photography which I love.  And the new time, working from home lets me spend more time with our boys, which is great as there's plenty of weekend's away with the racing.

We have been really busy and I know I have said that in the past but we are even more so now, and our 2 week sojourn to NZ for the V8's and a weeks holiday has really made it hard to keep up with our orders, the Phillip Island book and plenty more.  It is great being busy, just trying to catch up!  If you have an order and are worried about the delays please rest assured we will get to it, you can contact us here if you need to though.

Soon we will be taking orders for our Digital Realism Year in Images 2008 and we are also doing a special book for the QLD Super Sprints from Morgan Park Raceway, so as they say keep an eye on this space (the web site that is).

This past month has seen quite a few of our images used in both Auto Action and eNews magazines, in fact we covered a 2 page spread in Auto Action for the AMC (AASA) event at Queensland Raceway, it was great to be contacted by them to shoot on their behalf.  Click these images to see a copy of the articles. Cont below..

Our web site continues to grow, with both images and hits, last month we had a record 500,000 hits which includes images and pages, and we welcome a new Advertiser Pit Stop Lodge Bed and Breakfast from Warwick, owned and run by Yves Stocks (who races a cool Cobra).  Its a fantastic place to stay if you are down in Warwick racing and I recommend you checkout her web site:

Don't forget to mention you saw their advert here on Digital Realism!

Sorry news this week is the demise of Leaded Magazine, Mark has informed me due to economic pressures on him and his advertisers has meant he has had to shelve the printed Leaded Mag for the mean time, which is a real shame, I for one will miss the great read Leaded is and was.  Mark was instrumental in me getting my CAMS Accreditation running numerous images from many events.  Mark will continue the Leaded web site so keep up to date of events and the likes on there.  Hopefully we will see Leaded in the bookstores again in the future.  We will continue the great relationship we have with Mark and Leaded, and they will continue to be our Blog Supporter.

So far this year we have been to: QLD Super Sprints A, QLD CAMS State Champs MPR Rnd 1, the Sprite National Challenge, QLD CAMS State Champs MPR Rnd2, Hamilton NZ V8's, HRCC "No Frills" meeting, AMC (AASA) QR Round and the QLD Super Sprints B, much more to come!

Till next time - See you at the track

Cheers, Darin

Book now uploading to USA Printer            15 Nov 2007

Forgive me but it is almost 3 months since my last post, OMG where did the time go, its been flat out with most weekends having a race meeting of some kind, somewhere.

It's 1.45am QLD Time and as I write this my server is uploading the proof for our end of year coffee table book, Digital Realism Motorsport in Images 2007.  I'm blown away by it, there's over 500 images in the book, and it looks bloody good, mind you I'm biased.  I should have the proofs back in about 14 days, then when it's checked the orders will be filled, they'll take about 2 weeks to come from the USA.  Hopefully here before Christmas!!!!

More info on the book can be found here.  I'll update the blog with a bit more soon, I promise!

Till next time - See you at the track............

Cheers Darin

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!!             30 Aug 2007

WOW I cannot believe how long it has been since I posted something in this Blog, 2 months, we have been so busy this past 2 months.  I remember saying below that we had been busy, well that was nothing!!

What have we been up to, well since my last post we have been at: Rnd 3 QLD State Champs at MP, the fantastic SunCoast Classic at Noosa (with Leaded Mag), DJR, 888, SBR & WPS V8 Supercar Test Days, QLD Super Sprint B @ MP, the HUGE Historic Warwick event where we have produced a book specially for the 30th Annual meeting, and just last weekend I was at MP again for Rnd 4 of the State Champ.

So all up in those events we shot approx 19,000 images!  Holey mackerel!  We have been very lucky to have our images published all over the place, firstly thanks to Leaded Magazine who seem to run with heaps of them from many of the events we get to, the Warwick Daily News runs lots of them as well after an event, we have images and editorial coming out in Australian Classic Car, Race Mag and maybe 321Iginition, a number of community newspapers have been using them as well.  And this month we were published in both Auto Action and Motorsport News.

Auto Action ran a pic of Karl Reindler I shot at the DJR test day and Motorsport News ran a small article I wrote plus and image of the Kangaroo Boards now in use at Morgan Park Raceway.

As I write this I'm preparing 4000 images to go up on the web from the last QLD State Champs @ MP, it'll be a very late night.  Tonight I have also updated the Morgan Park web site with a press release as racing at the track has been suspended because of the Horse Flu, see here for more.

Our web site is getting huge traffic now, we are getting around 2500-3000 visit's per month with around 550,000 hit's (that's pages and images viewed) I reckon we'd be a pretty good place to advertise on!

Well that will do for now, still have to get these galleries up tonight, well tomorrow morning at about 2am I'm thinking.

Till next time - See you at the track............

Cheers Darin

Winter's here in Tropical QLD          21 June 2007

Now being a Kiwi one would think I'd be used to the cold, and I thought I was till this week in Tropical Brisbane, damn the wind was cold!  Mind you I hear it's snowing in Canberra, which is a pain as that's where I'm heading in a few weeks time! Doh.  The family back home tell me the other day they hit the balmy temp of 6°C at midday!

This has been a rather busy couple of weeks for us with the Australian Motor Racing Series (AMRS) at QR, Super Sprints at Morgan Park and the Shannons National Meeting again at QR, plus the next installment of the CAMS QLD State Champs is next weekend at Morgan Park Raceway.

Checkout the AMRS galleries here, there's a sample of around 80 images from the 1200+ I shot over the course of the weekend, this was a great event with some really amazing race cars.  Feel free to request a proof sheet from the gallery.

This month we have had some of our images published in the Australian Classic Car magazine plus (and you heard it here first) we will also feature in the forthcoming Leaded Magazine so make sure you get a copy as we may have featured you!

We are working on a very novel idea that we hope to be able to release the details of late next week, so as they say watch this space!  That's about all I can say at the moment.

This weekend the V8's are in tropical Darwin where it will be a sticky 31°C.  So I'll be snuggling up here in front of the telly taking in the sights of the V8's at the top end of Aus.

Till next time - See you at the track............

Cheers Darin

Team Kiwi Racing          6 June 2007

It's been too long between drinks they say, well for me it's too long between blogs! I cannot believe the last time I wrote was back at the beginning of May.

Unfortunately this Blog is not full of happy stuff, well it maybe for some but not me.  Today and yesterday poor ole Team Kiwi Racing (V8 Supercars) is splashed around the media, no money no race by the looks.  Seems to be a s*%t fight between TKR and Ford Australia or FPR I should say.  I have a direct line to David John but I think its best I stay out of his way.  For the past couple of years I have helped TKR out with their merchandise sales in an IT role and on site a some race meetings selling the stuff myself. 

I was heartened when the New Zealand public dug in their pockets to help TKR out after Paul Radisich managed to write off the Holden at last years Bathurst.  But I'm pretty pissed at him now, the Rat has left the sinking ship, so much for his support when TKR showed him respect and support after the crash, they could have (and maybe in hindsight should have) let him go last year. 

Maybe Gene Rollinson should have gotten a drive, he showed talent at the last round in Winton in the Fujitsu races.  Gene is ex TKR staff and driver apprentice and a nice bloke to boot.

As for the New Zealand business community - blood from stone comes to mind here, now if TKR were racing an Americas Cup Yacht you'd get plenty of money,  Come'on Kiwi Businesses what the heck are you doing, you should be behind TKR in a big way, for god sakes they are racing only some 2000kms away it's not the other side of the world.

I hope they do make the grid at Eastern Creek - for me as a kiwi living here in Oz it's a very special link back to home.

Boo FPR, and BOO Paul Radisich.

Now to some good local stuff, I just spent the weekend with the family at Morgan Park Raceway, what a great time we had with the Super Sprint's "B".  Checkout the gallery here.  This is a great way to go motor racing, checkout the MPR web site for the calendar, and go take a look.

The past couple of months have been busy for us, this month we get a bit of a breather, even get to sit down and watch the next V8 Round this weekend!!

Don't forget to checkout our Blog Sponsor Leaded Magazine, it's a great read and a keeper, unlike many other motoring mags on the scene!  Plus keep an eye out for our images and stories in it!

Till next time, see you at the track!

Cheers Darin

Morgan Park Raceway                 13 May 2007

WOW what a month we have had, we have been really busy as you can see from the web site, every weekend we have added new galleries, even 2 in one weekend.  That's over 5000+ images for the month!

Along with that we have also just launched a sponsorship program with Morgan Park Raceway, we have been privileged to sponsor and design Morgan Park Raceway's first official web site.  It's been a month in the planning but it's now a reality and a hit at the same time.  The web site is enjoying good traffic and already has links on local and national car club web sites. 

This weekend I was at MPR for 2 days with the HRCC Historic Meeting (another well run race meeting from HRCC and of course all of the volunteers and officials at Morgan Park).  Once again I shot over 1600 images for the weekend.  (Edited: recounted 3000 IMAGES!!) (The images will be posted on the site very soon).

Anyway what I was going to say was at the meeting I was getting great feedback about the new MPR web site.  If you have a club that would like a link on the site, just use the contact us form on the MPR site and Bill or TC will get it set up.  Bill and TC mentioned that they have already had an enquiry for private testing from a professional race team in VIC?!

Finally I get a weekend off, next weekend, except we've got concreting to do, damn it! - Must be a race meeting somewhere.

Till next time, see you the track....

Cheers Darin

Historic Hill Climb                          23 April 2007

Sunday just gone I was privileged to be one of a hand-full of photographers at the annual Mt Cotton Historic Hill Climb, what a great day out and for only $5.00.  For this you got a whole days motorsport entertainment.  There was some great racing, a few thrills and spills as well.  Not to mention a HUGE variety of racing cars.  Checkout my gallery for the Hill Climb to see them all.

I was invited by the guys who publish a great Club, Sport and Classic car magazine called Leaded Magazine, this truly is a great read, does this sound like an advert, will it is!  You see we are going to be working closely with Mark and Jason covering local motorsport and other events when needed, and we are looking forward to it.  If you don't have a copy of the mag, have a look at their web site or drop into your nearest news agency and grab a copy, Issue 7 is out this week.

The well run weekend was organised by the Historic Racing Car Club of QLD (HRCC.org.au).  If you are after some great motorsport I recommend a day at Mt Cotton.  There's an MGCC Tighe Cams meeting this Sunday, racing from around 8am.  I'll be there once again for the day.

Its a busy weekend for motorsport this weekend, with the QLD Champs event at QR, drags at Willowbank and the Hill Climb.

Till next time....

Cheers Darin

More Real Racing                              2 April 2007

Well yet again another CAMS State Championship Round has come and gone at Morgan Park, and again the racing was top notch, well done I have to say to Bill Campbell and his team (the circuit looks a picture), all the officials and of course all of the competitors, you turned on a real spectacle.  Some of the closest racing you will ever get to see, actually some may even say TOO close :-)

I have to say the Gemini's put on a huge show, from Friday testing where I was flabbergasted at the close running just in testing!  Congratulations to Rebecca Dawes on winning the best presented car for the weekend, we will be providing Rebecca with a free 20x16inch print as part of her prize.

We have a very exciting project just getting underway, Digital Realism is sponsoring and designing a special website for a very well known group of people, all I can say at the moment is "watch this space".  All will be reveled soon!

Over the course of last weekend I shot in excess of 2000 photographs, most of which will be ending up on the web site for all to see, we'd love to hear your comments on our work and this can be done through our contact us page.

See you at the track.....

Cheers Darin.

Yesterday I was on business at Deception bay which is north of Brisbane City, after seeing my client I had a lunch break and went for a small drive and found myself at the old Lakeside Raceway, what a shame it has come to this, the whole place is run down there's grass growing out of the tarmac and all the windows are smashed in the control tower.  The place needs a lot of work.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see racing at Lakeside in its hay day, I did about 7 years ago get to drive around the circuit in a rental car, I think this was just before it was shut down.  I believe damn pressure from the local council and residents shut this place down, short sightedness I say, legends like Dick Johnson learned their trade there, from what I heard it was a fairly unforgiving place if you left the black stuff!!  Part of Australian Motor Sport History going to ruin.

It was like being in a ghost town, if you get the chance stop and have a look, you can easily climb over (or through) the metal gate and wander around, not sure of the legality of this!  I didn't have my camera as I would have taken a few shots of the place, next time I'm up there I will.

If there's anything I can do to help revive racing up there I will, you can checkout the Lakeside Motor Racing Enthusiasts web site here, why not hop on the bandwagon and help them out.

Cheers Darin

So often these days in the digital world we seem to take a quick look at the images we shoot and file them somewhere on our computers, I'm not just talking about me, I'm guessing that's what most "clickers" do, be it an SLR or a point and click.  Sometimes a really special image may get printed be it the typical 6x4 or maybe even a larger image.  I have plenty of them in boxes and folders in my cupboard or stacked next to my PC.

But on the odd occasion I really like to finish them off and get them framed or block mounted, take the extra time and attention and spend a little bit of cash.  Today I completed a job for one of my clients from the Mt Cotton Hill Climb, he purchased one of our images of his brother competing (he's a competitor as well) as a special birthday gift.  Luckily my framer let me pick it up late this evening!! But that's another story! :-)

I guess what I'm getting on about here is maybe we should on the odd occasion spend a little more time and finish off what we started or set out to do, so folks with this in mind we are now able to offer framing of all our images or block mounting if that is what you are after.  If you are interested in these services just let us know with your order.

What else is happening in the world of motor sport around us, well the V8's are out again this weekend in Perth, good luck to all.  There is also the QR Championship Series which I hope to get to for a while at least over the weekend.  On TV there is the NASCAR on at 9.00am on Pay TV on Sunday, and of course the count down to the second round of the State Champs at Morgan Park the following weekend!

Cheers Darin

This weekend I went to the fabulous MGCC Mt Cotton Hill Climb circuit on a very hot Sunday.  The first round of the Tighe Cams 2007 series was held by the MGCC and was patronised by some 80+ competitors and plenty of spectators.  The racing started promptly at 8.30am and continued right through the day till late afternoon. 

There were some interruptions though namely the off track excursion by car 16 a grey EVO 8 that headed towards but avoided the trees only to spectacularly roll across the circuit right in front of the crowd.  I got to shoot him skidding off until he disappeared down the hill, after that all I heard was crunch and the smashing of glass.  The lucky driver was helped out of the car fairly shaken, the car was a mess. 

Check out the images in gallery 1 of the Hill Climb galleries.

It was great to see such a diverse range of vehicles from single seaters to classic tin tops there really was something for everyone.  It was way to hot for lap times to drop but there were some really fast times on the day.

Also great to catch up with some of the CAMS flag crews whom I've met at Morgan Park.  The next round of the Tighe Cams series is 29 April, but before that it's the classic cars turn, I'll be there for that, and I cannot wait.

Cheers Darin.

Well the first round of the V8 Supercars has come and gone, I as a petrol head loved it of course.  I would have preferred to be there but hey we don't always get want we want, besides I for one think that Channel 7 have done themselves proud.  The coverage of the V8's was very good, I think the commentary team will take a bit to settle in, a part from the regulars such as Crompton and Denyer.

But what really had me excited was the support races, this was great and to see a number of other classes was brilliant.  I hope we get to see plenty of this throughout the year.

Tony Cochrane from V8 Supercars Australia said the ratings were up 27% on last year, not sure how they measure this but that's got to be good news for motor sport.

We have started a new advertising program that will allow companies to advertise on our web space, this is to replace all of the Google Adverts you see around the place, I have had a couple of enquires from my customers about this so I thought we'd give it a go.

Click below to go to the Advertise with us page.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to see some real racing, real door handle to door handle and even closer! I spent the whole weekend at Morgan Park Raceway down in a small sleepy town called Warwick, it reminded me of home actually.

Morgan Park is a stunning circuit and although this is my second trip there it was even better than the first, the whole circuit has been completely resurfaced and a damn good job has been done on that too.  Everyone involved should be most proud of the work done.  A new outright track record was set by Carlo Chermaz in a SuperKart 250 at 59.794, this was a real blinder of a lap.  (Damn these guys are hard to photograph!) Checkout the SuperKart web site.

Back to the racing, there were 9 classes for the weekend 36 races including State Championship events, this was the CAMS QLD Motor racing Championship Round 1 and what a round it was.  Personally for me the Gemini's stole the weekend, with 20/21 cars entered there was some real close racing right through the pack, well done guys and gals!

I shot over 1200 images for the weekend and some 900+ have ended up on the web site, I couldn't choose my best shots so I photo shopped some of the real classic's and have displayed the rest for the competitors to see.  Already some of the images are being displayed on the likes of the QLD Gemini and Formula Vee web sites, or check out my links page for more details.

The next round at Morgan Park is only 30 odd days away, and I'm preparing for it all ready, see you all there.

What else has happened.. I got my first sniff of the V8 Supercars a week ago with the testing out at QLD Raceway good to see them back on the track, and most with new liveries.  And of course this weekend is the first round the Clipsal 500, unfortunately the deal I was putting together hasn't yet come to fruition but we are still working on it!  Never say die!  I'll just have to be happy in front of the Plasma with a few cold ones!

I'm in this business because I love motor sport (of all kinds, if it has a motor I'm happy) and I love taking photographs, best of all I love seeing my images displayed for others to enjoy, be it on someone's wall or web site or in a magazine or posters.  So help me with my addiction and buy some of your favorites be it printed or on CD/DVD!

My images can help you promote your enjoyment in motor sport and maybe help you get that next sponsor.

Hmm was bloody dusty out at MP poor old camera will need a clean now, there are some dust speckles on some of the images, but don't worry I have the technology to remove them!

One last thing, I have tried some new galleries for the MP images, I'd love to hear your comments on their layout, did you find them hard or easy to navigate, do you have a preference for a specific layout or have you seen one on another web site that I should look at, send me an email or contact us through out contact page.

Till next time......... Cheers Darin.

I have to say the countdown to the V8 Supercars is really on, Channel Seven had their launch on telly this week with a couple of cars and supposedly 29 drivers, unfortunately I slept in and missed most of it!  Mind you they did keep repeating some of it throughout the day.  Then the same day V8 Supercars Australia had their launch, I'm guessing my invite got lost in the post!  Again by all accounts (and again on telly) it was all glitz and jazz!  I think there was more than a few on the stage that looked a bit sheepish (that's not Kiwi lingo for all my Aussie visitors!) better behind the wheel than on stage.

Most of the liveries seem to have been released now, I see in and around a few of the motorsport forums there being mixed emotions, of course the underlying argument is whether you support - Ford vs Holden.  Personally I haven't seen any I don't like, Lowndes car seem a bit devoid of additional smaller sponsors, so I'm guessing that Vodafone has given them a stack of dosh for the 07 Season.  HRT released theirs this week, a bit the same old, bit more chunkier on the doors with the driver lion combo (you can check it out here). 

I have one team I cannot wait to see and it will be their first year in a Ford and a return to the blue oval for Paul Radisich with Team Kiwi.  Hopefully the 07 season will be extra special for TKR now that they have the backing of Ford (Holden didn't do much for them here and back home) and FPR oh and a competitive car.

Most of the teams will hit the track next week for their first test day this season, about bloody time I say, I'm sorry but I'm getting withdrawal symptoms!  To combat this I dropped by DJR and was surprised to see that only #17 was ready for next weeks testing, the 18 car was still basically a shell.  After that I crossed the M1 and stopped at SBR my god they had cars for Africa and transporters.

On the local circuit the first CAMS event for QLD will be held Saturday and Sunday week at Morgan Park in Warwick.  I will be there for 2 days with the new camera gear.  Not 100% sure of all the classes running on the weekend but if you are down that way make sure you drop by the circuit for some close fun racing, and an excellent weekend I'm sure.  Say "hi" I'll be running around in the yellow day-glow safety jacket, oh and with a bloody great lens and camera on my side.

To all the competitors going to MP don't forget to check out the new gallery here on our site after the event.  We have some new formats coming for our printed images, so watch out for them as well.  Join our Blog updates or our newsletter to receive news of new galleries, plus how you can get discounts on your photographs.

Till next time... Cheers Darin

My First Blog                                                                                     9th February 2007

Well what can I say, I'm a motorsport fan of the biggest kind, I've been around it most of my life, mainly back home in New Zealand where I grew up in a small town called Feilding (yes it is spelt that way!)  There is a circuit there called Manfield which they began building when I was born I believe, some 30 mumble years ago, when I was old enough to skateboard my sister and I would have races around it, well one lap a day I'm thinking seen as it is some 3.x kms long.  A great place to grow up, my father was a grid marshal and for a time chief grid marshal, I myself went on to be one as well for a while.

I have always had an interest in photography and it was only last year that we bought a photography business (as you can see by this web site) which has allowed me to spend some more time at the tracks, now in Aus of course. This year I will be chasing all kinds of racing from Karts to hill climbs to what I believe is the echelon of Australian Motorsport - the V8 Supercars.

We are all about quality images, quality shots, quality printing and most important QOS - quality of service, if you are not happy we will make it right!

Enough about me.  This week I managed to catch the launching of the DJR Ford Jim Beam race team, albeit on the net with their live streaming, wow haven't we come a long way with technology, it was like being there, well except for the "buffering" every 3-4 mins.  The Queensland V8 teams have a practice day coming up very soon which I hope to attend, keep an eye out for that, if you want more details sign up for our blog.

Lastly sorry for the adverts throughout our site, but it does help us fund the web site.

Well that's enough for today, happy surfing - Motorsport - bring it on!