After our lengthy interview, we asked Stuart Bowes to supply his top 5 rally photos, and why they're so special to him.Stuart Bowes: Only 5? Some of my real favourites are not even action, and surprisingly a lot of them are even right here in Australia.
1. Carlos Sainz on York Railway in 1991 – great iconic Australian WRC shot. Well before auto focus cameras, in the shadows, shot on film, pin sharp, perfect attitude on the car, very high speed and just one chance to jag it!
No other car did anything like it, only Carlos. Even he reckons it’s still one of the best shots ever of him in action.
2. Peter Glennie on the Australian Safari in 2004 – this was the closest I reckon I’ve ever come to being hit. You couldn’t pick a more remote location in the Australian outback, NW of Broken Hill right near the iconic dog fence.
Fellow photographer, Mark Horsburgh, and I had left Tibooburra before sunrise and had driven for hours out to the SA border through endless sand hills. When the sun came up we found this one location and decided it will do.
We thought we had wasted out time until we heard Peter Glennie belting across the clay pan on the other side of the sand hill, out of sight. He was absolutely flat out and never backed off as he came up the sand hill.
Little did we (or he!) know he had no brakes when he came over the top – that was close as he landed well off the road and right next to us both – very close, but we were still talking about it years later.
3. Rally Australia 2005 – The penultimate one in WA and this corner was great as the photographers could stand in a hole right on the inside of the corner, but you probably can’t do that today!
Not to mention the giant brown snake that slid across the road between cars, which had the European guys running for cover! It epitomises the absolutely commitment the drivers have to their notes, and they see nothing that distracts them, only the road ahead.
4. Rallye Catalunya – While this shot is from 2003, it’s more the location and the driver I like than the actual pic.
Sainz in front of a Spanish home crowd. You just can’t imagine the noise when “King” Carlos performs in front of them. Not the best shot by any means, but a very memorable location with that enormous bridge and tens of thousands of spectators.
Every year it just got bigger and bigger. I seem to recall the last year I went there we waited hours to get out, such was the number of spectators.
5. The last shot is not from a rally at and not even taken by me, but my good mate, Ryan Lahiff, at the 2010 F1 race in Bahrain. Ryan is a brilliant photographer, as he’s gone on to show. We dragged him around the world to a number of F1 races and he never let us down.
The this shot of Fernando Alonso, hours after winning, with his trophy and national flags is fabulous. As any good photographer knows, the chance of jagging someone else’s flash going off at exactly the time you took your shot is very rare, but the lighting is brilliant and a real display of Ryan’s opportunistic talent.
I like to think we played a small part in his development and opened opportunities, just as others had done for me more than 20 years earlier.
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1. Carlos Sainz on York Railway in 1991 – great iconic Australian WRC shot. Well before auto focus cameras, in the shadows, shot on film, pin sharp, perfect attitude on the car, very high speed and just one chance to jag it!
No other car did anything like it, only Carlos. Even he reckons it’s still one of the best shots ever of him in action.
2. Peter Glennie on the Australian Safari in 2004 – this was the closest I reckon I’ve ever come to being hit. You couldn’t pick a more remote location in the Australian outback, NW of Broken Hill right near the iconic dog fence.
Fellow photographer, Mark Horsburgh, and I had left Tibooburra before sunrise and had driven for hours out to the SA border through endless sand hills. When the sun came up we found this one location and decided it will do.
We thought we had wasted out time until we heard Peter Glennie belting across the clay pan on the other side of the sand hill, out of sight. He was absolutely flat out and never backed off as he came up the sand hill.
Little did we (or he!) know he had no brakes when he came over the top – that was close as he landed well off the road and right next to us both – very close, but we were still talking about it years later.
3. Rally Australia 2005 – The penultimate one in WA and this corner was great as the photographers could stand in a hole right on the inside of the corner, but you probably can’t do that today!
Not to mention the giant brown snake that slid across the road between cars, which had the European guys running for cover! It epitomises the absolutely commitment the drivers have to their notes, and they see nothing that distracts them, only the road ahead.
4. Rallye Catalunya – While this shot is from 2003, it’s more the location and the driver I like than the actual pic.
Sainz in front of a Spanish home crowd. You just can’t imagine the noise when “King” Carlos performs in front of them. Not the best shot by any means, but a very memorable location with that enormous bridge and tens of thousands of spectators.
Every year it just got bigger and bigger. I seem to recall the last year I went there we waited hours to get out, such was the number of spectators.
5. The last shot is not from a rally at and not even taken by me, but my good mate, Ryan Lahiff, at the 2010 F1 race in Bahrain. Ryan is a brilliant photographer, as he’s gone on to show. We dragged him around the world to a number of F1 races and he never let us down.
The this shot of Fernando Alonso, hours after winning, with his trophy and national flags is fabulous. As any good photographer knows, the chance of jagging someone else’s flash going off at exactly the time you took your shot is very rare, but the lighting is brilliant and a real display of Ryan’s opportunistic talent.
I like to think we played a small part in his development and opened opportunities, just as others had done for me more than 20 years earlier.
