‘PUDGEY’S PICTURES’ JOINS THE ‘INDUSTRY & SUPPLY’ TEAM
Industry & Supply are excited to announce that Callum Pudge (best known as ‘Pudgey’s Pictures’) has joined our team.
Callum is an ultra talented photographer with a passion for all things automotive. You may recognise him from Santa Pod or any of the car shows in the Midlands.
Callum will be writing a blog and sharing his pictures from a number of events this summer.
Keep an eye out for him too, as he will also have a pocket full of ‘Industry & Supply’ stickers to share.
We asked Callum to post 10 of his favourite photos – a great taster as to the amazing images we are looking forward to sharing with you.
– Neil
Pudgey’s Pictures – Top 10 Photos
#10 | Front Engine Dragster Burnout – Coventry Motofest 2015
A nostalgia front-engined dragster putting on a show for the crowd by performing a one-handed full-throttle burnout on the wrong side of the Coventry Ring Road – not something you’d see every day right? There’s so much to love about this photo; the driver giving the peace sign, the location and not forgetting the faces of the crowd behind, surprised with the sheer noise of this car.
#9 | VW Dragster Fire-Burnout – Shakespeare County Raceway, Hot Rod Drags 2015
Something else you wouldn’t usually see is a VW-based dragster lighting up the skies with a monstrous fire burnout. This used to be a technique to warm up the rear tyres in the early days of drag racing – pouring petrol over the tyres, setting it alight then performing a burnout. The fire is over within a second but if you’re quick with a camera, you can catch the moment where the tyres flick the petrol in the air, lighting up the rear of the car.
#8 | Audi Quattro Rally Car – Stonleigh Park Special Rally Stage, Race Retro 2018
Something a bit different this time with this photo being one of my more recent shots. It was nearing the end of the second session for the Group B rally cars and the drivers were trying to get in a good lap time before the end of the day. I love the photo above as it shows the car being used to its absolute limit. Considering this was just a demo the drivers put on a fantastic show!
#7 | Ford Anglia Drag Car – Shakespeare County Raceway, Open Sport Nationals 2016
There’s something about a supercharged drag car performing a smokey burnout that you just have to love! The car above is a personal favourite of mine creating clouds at a sunny Shakespeare County Raceway – a track that will always be very special to me.
#6 | Nissan Drift Car – NEC Live Action Arena, Autosport International 2017
The Live Action Arena – an indoor arena filled with race cars, lights, smoke and fumes. The arena was very dark and low-light photography is something I’ve been wanting to improve so this was a perfect chance to play with some settings and see what I could achieve. In the shot above, I managed to capture 14-year-old drifting legend, Conor Shanahan, mid-drift under one of the spotlights with the dark foreground/background giving the photo quite an artistic effect.
#5 | Front Engine Dragster Burnout – Santa Pod Raceway, Dragstalgia 2017
Picture this – It’s the day before a big event, there aren’t that many spectators around, a racer from overseas brought his car over to race and was getting ready for his first run down the track. You might think a small burnout might be in order, right? Wrong. The driver of the car above unexpectedly pulled off a huge full-throttle, tyre-boiling, half-track burnout. Unfortunately the engine destroyed itself at the end of that burnout so he was unable to compete but he said he’ll be back next year to try again and put on another spectacular show. If you look closely you can even see the tyres distorting as the smoke pours off them!
#4 | Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car Burnout – Santa Pod Raceway, Euro Finals 2017
It was nearing the end of the day and previous rain showers meant racing was continuing into the night. The light was fading fast so I wasn’t expecting anything decent but I managed to capture the Funny Car above performing a burnout under a spotlight – I didn’t even realise I had got this photo until I got back home! The dark background and overhead spotlight give this photo quite a dramatic finish.
#3 | Top Fuel Funny Car – Santa Pod Raceway, Flame & Thunder 2016
Keeping up with the theme of Funny Cars at night, here’s Jason Phelps getting quite warm in the cockpit of the Gladiator Top Fuel Funny Car during a demo run. As dramatic as this looks, the explosion was split-second and Jason was absolutely fine but the engine, not so much. I showed this photo to the team afterwards and they didn’t realise the explosion was that big – they were quite proud!!
#2 | Willys Wars Photoshoot – Santa Pod Raceway, Dragstalgia 2015
My first photoshoot will always be one to remember. It was back in 2015 when I was asked to get a group photo of a group of 23 drag cars competing in the drag racing class, Willys Wars – a class devoted to the Willys car. We managed to organise the cars before the light faded and as I was slowly lifted into the air on a wobbly platform, I couldn’t help thinking “Is this the right lens”, “Don’t move too much”, “Have I got enough battery” – luckily everything was fine and the view was certainly worth it! A view I’ll never forget.
#1 | Top Fuel Bike Incident – Santa Pod Raceway, Euro Finals 2015
You’re probably thinking “what’s going on here”? That’s what everyone who had just witnessed this incident was thinking. Nobody could believe what had just happened. It is impossible to try and explain exactly what happened so I’ll link my full sequence of photos, along with a video from YouTube. This was an unplanned freak accident but luckily both riders were okay.
It’s so hard to keep taking photos when an event like the one above is taking place but nine times out of ten, it’s worth it in the end. I never publish photos of an accident without the driver/riders permission so I went over and saw the riders later that day to see if they were okay and show them the photos. They were very grateful to see step-by-step photos and it showed them how lucky and skilled they both were. It’ll take a lot to top the photo above.
I hope you enjoyed my 10 most favourite photos. I’m looking forward to writing some blogs and taking plenty more shots – stay tuned!
– Callum