This year, I was invited by Street Machine magazine to attend the annual Summernats festival as one of their ‘snappers’. As you do when a leading magazine like Street Machine invites you to their event, you accept the invitation.

Having never attended the mayhem that is the Summernats festival, I was super excited at this opportunity for more than one reason. Having previously gone a road test trip with Wheels magazine as an assistant photographer, I was very keen to continue my learning curve as a photographer and to be able to contribute to my first magazine. I say that it’s my first time contributing, because I’ve only ever had images published before through submissions. This is the first time I’ve had the call up.

Held in Canberra every year, Summernats was run from Thursday 5th Jan to Sunday 8th Jan. 4 days of total mayhem! Lucky for me, being part of the Street Machine crew for the weekend, I had access to all areas, as well as a license to capture the mayhem on film… well, digital cards these days – but film sounds way cooler.

Being such a massive event, where Street Machine put together a magazine dedicated to it each year, they employed 11 snappers to capture the whole thing. The result? About 4,000 images per photographer over the 4 days. Wow! I just did the sums in my head… that’s a lot of images that they’ve got to go through to select which ones to use for which stories.

Highlights for the weekend for me:

• Getting introduced to legendary drag racer, Victor Bray and hearing his stories. As well as getting advice from him about photographing the burnouts: “get as close as possible to the cars”. Thanks Victor.
• The burnouts… Wow! Victor’s drag car was insanely loud, even with ear plugs in.
• Miss Summernats – a great bunch of girls. Wonderful to work with them!
• The hundreds of awesome cars on display throughout the weekend.
• The Screaming Jets – I’d always been a bit of a fan of theirs, but had never seen them play live. Well, my chance came when I had to photograph them up close on stage. What an experience!! Still get chills rockin to “Better” on stage with them!
• General mayhem at the 25th Summernats festival (Chrome Jubilee). I will never forget my first Summernats…
• And of course, the lads from Street Machine magazine. Unbelievably welcoming and accommodating to a newbie like me. I hope I get the same opportunity to do it all over again for Summernats #26.

Enjoy some of the pics that I took during that weekend. For more awesome pics and a great recap of the event, check out the Street Machine Summernats 2012 Annual – on sale now!