My experience being a Rally Photographer

The world of rally is a really fun and adrenaline filled part of life! It gets your heart pumping and palms sweating, just like when your exam results are going to be announced. The only difference is that you love this type of rush as you see cars fly by you at speeds you cannot imagine! The best part about being a noob photographer is that you get to go and learn to click amazing pictures, since pictures of moving objects are toughest to click (from my personal experience). But i do love it and continue doing so! Let me just put a disclaimer stating that I am not a professional, but I do it because I love it.

Here are some of the pictures that I have clicked over the past few years, starting from a digicam and working my way over to mobile photography and then to a borrowed DSLR!

Here, we have an autocross race that was conducted in the city of Mangalore (my city). This is a shot of my good friend, Dean Mascarenhas back in the days when he was a wizard on the bike. He would finish up with college, just to run back home to hop on his bike and practice his wheelies and shit.

There's a funny story behind this picture. We have once again with us, Dean, who moved on to driving at the age of 18 (started long before that, but let's just say he started once he got his license). Just after this picture was clicked, he decided to hit a stone that was lying by the side, lift his car and make it run on 2 wheels, and then land it back so hard on the ground, that his gearbox broke down. I promise you, I am not making this story up!

The ugly side of rallying! As I had mentioned in my earlier post, one mistake and it's all over! This picture depicts exactly what can be the down side of making a mistake. The driver overshot a turn which ended up with him landing inside a hedge after jumping over a fence.

This was the first time I got to see one of the infamous Subaru Impreza's whipping across a Rally stage, and my god, it was the devil in disguise. With it's huge turbo spool and insane backfires, it gave every petrol head a shiver down their spine. Well, until it broke down due to stones getting settled in it's turbo, causing it to break down. We never got to see it again, sadly.

Just when we thought we would never get to see any more fire spitting cars, came along this mighty beast, the Mitsubishi Evo. It was came, it saw and it conquered as well. This car would pass by us in the blink of an eye, and all we could see was a cloud of dust left behind with it's insanely loud backfires in the background.

And then of course, there's the fruit of your labor, in the form of being victorious! Champagne showers, a small prize for your hard work and results. But the satisfaction of being the fastest in that rally, priceless.