The Mach Loop can be found in north west Wales and is an RAF training ground for low level flying. Last year a few of my photography minded friends headed up to the Loop to photograph the aircraft as they completed their training. Due to work and unfortunate timing of the trips I was unable to make it in 2007

It's been an objective of mine to ensure that this year I get up to the Loop to try my hand at photographing the aircraft. Sticking to my plan I'm booked to join some friends in Wales for three days in March where I hope to capture some reasonable images for my first try at this technically challenging photography.

We're all hoping for reasonable weather and a good bit of activity through the valleys. All being well I should have some photos posted here later in March once we return.

This weekend I hope to attend the annual South Downs Stages tarmac rally at the Goodwood Motor Circuit near Chichester, West Sussex. It's usually a fairly relaxed event with entrants competing for the quickest times on stages marked out with cones and wooden palettes on the circuit.

I shall be arriving around 8:30 in time for the first car on track at 9am.

Full details of the event can be found at http://www.southdownsstages.co.uk

UPDATE : The final gallery from the event can be found in my gallery

It's about this time of year I begin planning the events I intend to visit in 2008. After visiting quite a lot of airshows in 2007 I am hoping to attend many of them again this year. I'm hoping the dates don't conflict too heavily with the various motorsports events I was to visit.

The list is based on the dates I can find for events but I will update the blog with other events and date changes as required. Later in the year I hope to have an online version of my event calendar available where all my planned events will be listed.

January

• 13th - VSCC New Years Driving Tests at Brooklands

February

• 2nd - South Downs Stages at Goodwood
• 9th - Wyedean Forest Rally
• 23rd - Rallye Sunseeker

March

• 24th - Truck Superprix at Brands Hatch (Indy)

May

• 2nd - 4th - A1GP at Brands Hatch (GP)
• 25th - 26th - Goodwood Aero Club Vintage Fly Display
• 24th - 26th - Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch (GP)

June

• 7th - 8th - Biggin Hill 2008
• 28th - 29th - Lydd Airshow

July

• 11th - 13th - Goodwood Festival of Speed 2008
• 12th - 13th - RIAT 2008 at RAF Fairford
• 19th - 20th - Farnborough Airshow 2008

August

• 14th - 17th - Eastbourne Internation Airshow (Airbourne) 2008
• 24th - Dunsfold Wings and Wheels
• 30th - 31st - RAFA Shoreham Airshow 2008

This weekend I will be travelling to see the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford in Gloucestershire. It’s about 160 miles away (about 3 hours according to Google maps) and to make better use of the trip I will be camping there so that I can see both days of the show.

My current plan is to head over late Friday afternoon after work to a campsite recommended by a friend. The campsite is run by Totterdown Farm and costs a very reasonable £10 per night for a pitch and has the advantage of overlooking the base. My current thinking is that I will only watch half of the show on Sunday before driving back early to avoid most of the traffic. This should give me some time to rest when I get home and possibly a chance to check through my photographs.

I’ve never been before but the line-up at this event looks very impressive and I have heard good things about it. I’m very much looking forward to it and I’m hoping that the weather turns out to be nice for some good photographs.

My ticket arrived today for the 2006 Goodwood Revival. I will be attending on the Saturday of the event. I would have liked to have made it to the Sunday as well but a commitement on Saturday night means it's not really practical. At least it saves me the rather steep price of £45 for the Sunday ticket!

This bank holiday weekend looks set to keep me busy with my photography if the weather stays nice. On Saturday afternoon I hope to get out for the first time in a while for some local landscapes. I've started noting locations as I come across them but unfortunately most of them are not to easy to get to. The distances really require me to drive but often there is nowhere suitable to park to take the shot. Driving back from Wilshire and the Gurston Down Hill Climb last Saturday I saw some great points along the A27 that I need to get back to in the right light. This weekend I hope to get to a few spots suitable for me to do some panoramic shots.

I've decided that I may have to take up cycling again. It would be a good way to get to the harder to reach unique locations and take some more original photographs. My fitness is not what it used to be though so I can't bank on riding to far!

Anyway, back to the original point of this post... On Sunday and perhaps also the Monday I would like to get to Magnificent Motors which is held on Eastbourne's seafront. This is an annual display of over 400 classic vehicles from Austin 7's and London buses to army vehicles and motorbikes.

It'll be the first time I make it to this popular event and I intend to make the most of it if the weather plays fair. I will be concentrating on static car shots, including some detail work but I'd also like to do some more general shots to capture the feel of the event. Last year it pulled crowds of 25,000 so I may have to fight my way through them to get the shots!

With January more or less past I can look forward and make plans for February. The days are starting to grow longer and it will give me more chance to get out and take photographs. My day job keeps me busy from 8:30am until 5:00pm and over the winter months that means no chance for weekday photography. In the last few months I've seen many great sunsets and evening skies from my office window that I've had to miss because I'm working, but as we head into February that should start to change.

2006 will be my first full year with the Canon EOS 20D and I intend to make the most of it. I plan to make many trips around the south to capture the great landscapes and architecture we have on show. As the evenings get longer it will give me plenty of time to head out after work and shoot the beautiful Sussex countryside. I already have a list of locations I'd like to photograph and I'm adding to it on an almost weekly basis. This should see my galleries grow at a much quicker rate than they have done over the winter.

This month will see me working on a new digital filing structure for this year so that I can organise and process my shots more quickly. As part of this I am also developing a new backup scheme for my photographs, archiving copies to DVD incase of hardware failure. Taking the leap to RAW shooting has increased my processing time and as this year marches on I will be working on my processing workflow to improve my efficiency. This is particulary important when it comes to processing the hundreds of motorsports images I intend to shoot in 2006. One of my aims for this year is to reduce the amount of time it takes for me to get the photographs of a motorsport event online. I'd like to try and get most events processed within 2-3 days at most.

A friend has pointed out that there is a stages rally event taking place at Goodwood this Saturday. I'm currently hoping to make it as it should offer some good photography. The event is free which makes it event more enticing!

The sun never did show it's head again so I've remained in doors all day. I guess I'll have to hope that next weekend is better. By then I'll have my new Cokin filters to test and play with as well.

I've made the decision to give tomorrow a try. A friend and fellow motorsports photographer has convinced my that the trip will be worthwhile to see some rare cars on the historical circuit and the weather is not looking too bad at the moment. The event starts at 10am so I'll be setting off at around 8.

Wish me luck that the weather plays fair tomorrow!