I first became aware of Darren Heath and his work as a photographer about 5 years ago whilst reading a copy of the F1 magazine which I used to subscribe to.
He is a brilliant motor sport photographer and I have have been a huge fan of his work ever since.
His works really stands out from other photographers in his field. His work can be quite abstract at times and his use of colour in really intelligent.
Formula 1 is a very colourful sport and he really does make the most of this. His portraiture work of the F1 drivers is also part of his work that I really do like a lot.
He is very subjective, capturing his subjects with a very shallow depth of field to give a great mood and feeling to his shots.
Darren Heath Website: http://www.darrenheath.com
Fig -1.
Figure 1 shows the home page of Darren Heath's website.
There is a huge amount of content on Darren's website, but this is relevant to the nature of his work. There are usually about 17 rounds of the Formula 1 World Championship.
From looking at different events on his website, he seems to average about 40 images per event.
For my website, I think that this will definitely be too many images.
I may also fall into my usual trap of trying to show too many of my images.
For this website, I want to showcase the very best of my work, I really want to be able to impress future clients.
My favourite element of the Darren Heath website is that the images on the home-page are full screen.
I am using a free website-building tool called Wix (wix.com) which has been recommended to me by a friend on another course.
At this stage, I am unsure as to whether or not I can have this full-screen layout but I will certainly try it out.
I am also a huge fan of the black background, it is just so simple, no bright flashy colours to distract the eye from his work and black really seems to bring the most out of all of the other colours in his images.
The most important aspect to me at the moment is to simply have a means to show my work digitally to prospective new clients.
JDH Motorsports Photography.
Fig -2.
From a google search on motorsport photographers, I have found this website.
JDH Website: http://www.jdhmotorsportphotography.com
JDH is the website for a photographer called Jonothan Hatfield.
In his personal biography, he states that he '' aims to bring fresh and exciting ideas to the world of motorsport photography''.
I am not too sure about this statement as all of his shots appear to be of a very similar nature and are not at all experimental. They are all very standard shots captured with high shutter speeds and deep depths of field.
Referring again back to the website of Darren Heath, his work is the complete opposite, his use of natural light is exeptionally creative. He always uses very slow shutter speeds and this is very obvious in his work and lends towards some very creative and moody images.
The JDH website is very difficult to navigate in contrast to that of Darren Heath.
There is a huge amount of imagery on this website and the images are only shown at a small size and not in a full-screen format or anywhere even close to this.
In contrast to the Darren Heath website, this website is also incredibly cluttered as can be see in Figure 3 below.
Fig-4.
The images are only shown at a small scale and this does not allow the viewer to properly examine the image.
All of the search criteria and key-wording details next to the image really detract the viewers attention away from the images and I feel that this way too distracting.
I also feel that there are way too many images.
From many years of looking at motorsports websites, I feel that it is important not to show too much of the same thing as the website user can become bored. It is really important to keep the user's attention.
In this one gallery, there are 91 very similar photos !
I personally feel that this is simply just way too many.
John Thawley.
Website: http://www.johnthawley.com
Fig-5.
I have found this website from my Google search.
It is for an American Photographer called John Thawley.
Part of his practice is motorsports so I thought that this would be another relevant website to look at.
His motorsports photography is of a very high standard and I feel that it sits in a similar style to that of Darren Heath. Stunning driver portraits, slow exposures and great use of natural light all lend themselves towards creating some really striking images.
I really like the simple layout of this website and may draw some design elements from this into my own site.
I had considered for this module, including other areas of my work such as wildlife into my motorsports website.
Thawley does this on his website but I really do not think that it makes sense.
He has a wildlife section as part of his website.
even though the wildlife images are very good indeed, I do not think that they make sense next to his motorsports work.
Wildlife and motorsports are two of my main areas of photographic practice. But after looking at this website, i am certain that I will not be combining these 2 bodies of work on the same site.
I will however definitely build a seperate website to host my best wildlife images.
Neil Lambert. - Lambo Photography
Fig-6.
This is an example of a quite badly organised website.
I feel that the front page does not look at all professional in its appearance.
The title in orange just doesn't look right to me at all.
The blue backgrounds to the section headings also look really out of balance.
The main image on the front page I feel is also way too small.
I also feel that there are way too many images on this website making it really hard to navigate around it.
When you do click on an image, it is only shown at a very small size as can be seen in Figure 7 below.
Fig-7.
For a photography website, I personally feel that the images should be shown at as large a size as possible.
Elements from these websites that I may use in the design of my own site.
I definitely want to incorporate the large image sizes that can be seen in both the Darren Heath and John Thawley websites.
The style of images that they have used also appeals to me.
Not just showing repetitive galleries of the same images as in the Lambosport and JDH website galleries but to be much more selective about the images that I will show. To demonstrate a greater diversity in my work.
The images on Darren Heath's website have always been a huge inspiration to my own photographic practice.
I have been photographing motorsport events now since 2006 and intend to showcase only the very best of my work whilst still demonstrating the diversity of the different racing disciplines that I have covered in the past.
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