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Official Volvo Ocean Race Photographer

IRELAND, Galway, 6th June 2009, Volvo Ocean Race, Leg 8, PUMA. (Ian Roman)

Volvo Ocean Race snaps up top race photographers

Alicante, Spain – June 28 – The Volvo Ocean Race has appointed two photographers with a wealth of sailing experience and knowhow to cover the 2011-12 race, starting in Alicante in October.

New Zealander Paul Todd is a former professional sailor with over 20 years in the photographic industry. Paul served as picture manager during the 2005-06 edition of the race and has worked for several Volvo Ocean Race teams.

“I grew up on boats and have been sailing all my life. When you grow up with a sport you have a passion for it, a feel for it,” Todd said. “When I’m shooting I can see why the crew are doing what they’re doing and anticipate what’s going to happen next. That can lead to great shots – pictures that a non-specialist maybe wouldn’t get.”

Todd has also covered five America’s Cups, shooting for commercial clients, and most recently was the official photographer for the WSTA/Louis Vuitton Trophy. He has published several books dedicated to race photography in Europe and North America. He currently lives in Alicante.

Ian Roman, one of the UK’s leading marine photographers, used to race dinghies and swapped a job in finance in the City of London for a life shooting international regattas. He covered the 32nd America’s Cup and during the latter stages of the race took on the role of official photographer for Britain’s TEAMORIGIN.

In 2008 he started working for the AUDI MedCup as official photographer, a position he has held ever since. Throughout this busy schedule he has found time to cover events such as the World Match Racing Tour, the 33rd America’s Cup, The St Barth’s Bucket and the Extreme 40 series.

“I raced dinghies in multiple world championships but after a while I found myself wanting to be out there shooting more and racing less,” said Roman. “Like Paul, I just have a passion for the sport and that passion brings understanding of the sport that can make all the difference.”

The Volvo Ocean Race, the sport’s premier monohull offshore race, is a grueling test of skill, strength and endurance, covering almost 40,000 nautical miles over nine months of racing.

After starting in Alicante on October 29 it concludes in early July in Galway, Ireland after taking in eight other ports in four continents.

 

 

Jul 04, 2011 | Categories: Featured Article | Leave A Comment »

A Very Difficult Job

FRANCE, Marseille. 17th June 2011. AUDI MedCup Marseille Trophy. TP52, RAN. (Ian Roman)

From the title you might be expecting me to start whinging on about what a tough job I have trying to photograph racing boats as they dart around the ocean, but you would be wrong.

I love my job, I find it hugely rewarding, and nothing gives me more satisfaction than looking back on a shoot well done.

I want to write  just a few lines about the people with the really tough job, the unsung hero, (but unsung no more). The photo boat drivers.

For me to be able to take my perfect shot I do not have the luxury of being able to walk around my subject, assemble my tripod use lighting to fill in any shadows, and then slowly and methodically start shooting. I am in a small photo boat chasing massive race boats, up to 150′ long bearing down at up to 25knots, often turning around racing marks only to charge off in the opposite direction. I have to choose my ideal shooting position in advance, patiently wait as the boats approach, and in the space of a few seconds hope that the lens and camera settings I have made in advance are suitable for the unfolding scene.

Now maybe this doesn’t sound too hard, but I am not positioning the photo boat myself, the boat has a dedicated driver and it is only with their skill that we arrive in the right place. And there are other considerations, often their first language is not English, maybe they don’t speak English at all! And the big hole in my education is a complete lack of language skills! So to get over the noise of the engines I use hand gestures and shout the odd word in pigeon English to try and indicate where I would like to be, while the driver is looking on at me as some kind of lunatic with arms flailing like a windmill on a stormy day.

Even when we have arrived at our preferred destination there are many other issues, factors such as tide and prevailing wind quickly move the boat out of position, support boats, camera crews and race officials can appear from nowhere and potentially block our view of the race track. These are all difficulties which our unsung heros have to deal with, and did I mention that I’m often not the only photographer on the boat?, there are other photographers who might want to be in a slightly different position, and are telling the driver to move a little to the left or right (or maybe even a completely different part of the race track!)

On top of this the drivers have been briefed by race officials as to where they can go and where is definitely off limits, and we are maybe screaming that we need to be in these off limit areas.
The reality is that without the hard work, amazing driving skills, and ability to diffuse arguments that would challenge a full time counsellor  the photographers wouldn’t get close to the action and certainly wouldn’t get any of the stunning images we are so proud of.

I have been very lucky to work with some of the best drivers in the business, people who are way over qualified, Olympic medalists, World class sailors, professional yacht skippers, Mark Covel, Adela Gonzalez, Johno Fullerton, Phil Plumtree, Tom Powrie, Gus (Sail for Gold, Weymouth) Simon Morgan, The Portuguese guy in Marseille who did not speak a single word of English, and many more I haven’t been able to name check. To all of you, a huge thank you.

The blog would not be complete without also recognising the helicopter pilots who do an incredible job of putting their machines in amazing positions while I try and describe where I want to be in three dimensional space, with clear and concise directions like “No, No, over there!” I clearly remember Mike Burns from Atlas Helicopters  while we were following boats around the back of the Isle of Wight looking at me and saying in a very calm voice, “Ian, this helicopter weighs three tons and what you are asking me to do is physically impossible.” So Mike, Sorry, and thanks for your understanding!

Jun 30, 2011 | Categories: Latest Blog, People, Photography, Sailing | 5 Comments »

Website Redesign

SPAIN, Valencia, 33rd America's Cup, 8th February 2010, Scheduled Race Day 1, racing postponed. The photographers wait for something to happen. (Ian Roman)

I’m not sure if this weeks blog is a blog or a thank you.

I have for a long time wanted to incorporate a blog into my website and at the same time have the flexibility to add pages with video’s or text information. I am a big fan of using Twitter and Facebook, both are great platforms for getting a short message across but not really suitable when the message is  500 words or more.

Photoshelter hosts my site and they do a fantastic job, the company is incredibly pro active, they are always improving the site and constantly hosting webinars and distributing quality information to help photographers with their work.

One area that isn’t covered in a standard package is the ability to host a blog, but Photoshelter have addressed this by teaming up with WordPress and together they offer some great functionality. There is only one small problem, I loved the look and feel of my old site and didn’t want any of the standard off the shelf templates that WordPress offer.

This is where things got a little complicated, there are some in depth tutorials offered by both WordPress and Photoshelter on how to customise the base templates, but my skill set is photography, and the idea of me undertaking a website integration was well outside my comfort zone.

Photoshelter recommend a number of web designers but they are all based in the US and I wanted someone local who I could meet face to face to discuss my needs. DSM are a local design team who have many years of design experience. What impressed me about the team was that with a relatively short chat where I explained my needs they were able to translate this into a fully functioning design layout, and more than that they had some great suggestions of their own which has made the site function a lot better.

Oh, and did I mention that I had a pretty short time line to get the work done, and they were able to meet that as well.

 

May 31, 2011 | Categories: News, Photoshelter, Technology, Wordpress | Leave A Comment »