Guest Shooter: Stephen Mahon

Posted on 19 Mar, 2015 by Scott Jones

The latest PHOTO.GP Guest Shooter is Stephen Mahon, who writes:

I’ve had cameras from an early age and got my first SLR camera at the age of 15. It was a Praktica MTL50 and everything about it was completely manual, so it gave me a good understanding of the basics of photography (you had to try to make each shot count). Since then I’ve drifted in and out of photography but have become a “serious” amateur in the past 3-4 years and it has just happened to coincide with my other re-discovered passion – Motorbike Racing.

The Road Racing Scene in particular allows you to get up-close and personal to the action without the need for a bazooka-size lens attached to your camera. I’m proud to say that Ireland has produced some of the world’s best Road Racers and this is a tradition that continues on every year.

Of course, the Isle of Man TT [shown above as Guy Martin passes over The Mountain] is the pinnacle of Road Racing and it’s something every race fan should visit at least once in their life.

My current go-to gear is an 8 year-old Canon 1d mk2 and a 15 year-old Canon 300mm L lens. I also have a 600d as a 2nd body, a Tamron zoom lens and a cheap wideangle lens.

I constantly try to convince myself that I don’t need anything better at the moment, but I also still drool over the latest gear reviews!

For me it’s all about the photo and emoting a response from the viewer. I’m not too fussed on the pixel count or if you can see the stitching on the leathers when you zoom in to 1000%…

I am always pushing myself to try to get a different angle or viewpoint in a photo and with every shot I take, I’m learning something new.

If I don’t get the shot in-camera, I’m not afraid to admit that I’ll quite happily crop or rotate a photo in post-production to make it more dynamic and give it a bit of a boost. Having said that, I’m not a fan of over-processing an image just because it’s the latest fad (i.e the “HDR” craze).

At the moment I’m really enjoying my photography, meeting loads of great people along the way and who knows where it will lead me…

I really like Stephen’s approach, especially that he is staying with the equipment he has, not worrying about chasing high resolution for its own sake, or evaluating images by looking at individual pixels. I also like that he makes the most of the local racing scene by covering lots of Roads events. Experience is MUCH more valuable than the latest gear, so I respect how he uses what he has and shoots frequently, which is the best model for improvement.

I’m grateful that Stephen has shared some of his work here on the PHOTO.GP site. Cheers, mate!

You can see more of his work on his website, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Stephen Mahon Irish Roads Faugheen Road Races, County Tipperary