{"id":52183,"date":"2018-09-19T13:40:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T12:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/?p=52183"},"modified":"2018-09-21T13:27:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T12:27:11","slug":"focus-andrew-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/people\/focus-andrew-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"FOCUS on Andrew Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our FOCUS for this edition is<\/strong> Andrew Soul
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What kind of cars would Essex boy Andrew Soul like to shoot? And how did he get started in photography? We had a quick chat.<\/p>\n

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Influx: How\u00a0did\u00a0you\u00a0get\u00a0into\u00a0photography?<\/em><\/p>\n

Andrew Soul: “It wasn\u2019t hugely planned to be honest. I\u2019ve always lived roughly 20 minutes from Brands Hatch, and as a young kid I would go there with my Dad. It was the early ’90s when I started to go and the BTCC was at its absolute peak, which was what got me into motorsport. My Dad always liked to take his SLR out and about with him and would always take it to races, snap a lot and hope that he\u2019d get a few that were good enough to go in\u00a0the photo albums that we all kept back in the day. I always had a sense of excitement of waiting for the photos to come back from being developed and I was the one that put everything in albums and labelled them up, so looking back now I\u00a0probably did have an interest in\u00a0photography, without really knowing.<\/p>\n

“Fast forward many years and our Father\/Son racetrack visits became less and less, but we\u2019d still try and make one every so often. In\u00a0roughly 2010\/11 we were due to go to an\u00a0event at Brands, but my Dad wasn\u2019t well and couldn\u2019t go. Rather than miss it, I said I\u2019d still go and I\u2019d like to attempt to take a few photos on his camera myself, not knowing how to do anything other than how to press the on\u00a0button! After that one day and many unsuccessful photos taken, I realised I actually quite liked trying to take a photo, so I regularly went back as a spectator and kept trying to learn at everything from many cold, wet club meetings to few higher\u00a0profile race weekends.<\/p>\n

“In 2012, before I expected to be honest, I got my first break when I spoke to a\u00a0contact at a local newspaper who was interested in carrying some stories and photos on Luciano Bacheta, a local racer who was flying high in Formula 2. My first weekend in front of the\u00a0spectator fence was a hugely surreal time! I felt sure I was going to get shouted at for trespassing or something! To this day I still find it a tad surreal that I do what I do and that drivers etc. know who I am. I will never take it for granted.”<\/p>\n

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Influx: What kind of subjects do\u00a0you\u00a0like to shoot?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Soul: “It\u2019s always been motorsport for me. But then I did\u00a0have an assignment for a bread\u00a0company earlier this year and unlike racing where you don\u2019t get to drive your subjects, you did get to eat all of the food!! So I\u2019m more than open to change\u2026”<\/p>\n

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Influx: Are there any images\u00a0you’re particularly proud of?<\/em><\/p>\n

Soul: “I\u2019m very much my own harshest critic, but every so often I get something that I\u2019m happy with. There are a handful that stand out over the last few years. One in particular is the photo from the Brands Hatch\u00a0pit lane when the cars are being pushed back. There had been a red flag towards\u00a0the end of the session and I knew that most, if not all, of the cars would be pushed out at the same time as the drivers clambered for track space. I had an idea that by using a really slow shutter speed I could greatly exaggerate\u00a0the movement of the cars being pushed and\u00a0hopefully grab a bit of the green\u00a0flag\u00a0that was about to be waved above me to show that it was the restart of the session. Thankfully pretty much every car (other than Tom Ingram’s, damn\u00a0you Speedworks!) was pushed out at the same time so my idea pretty much worked, although being super-critical like I am I\u2019d no doubt like to improve it! It\u2019s still the most liked photo I\u2019ve uploaded to my Instagram account though, so perhaps I should just give myself a slap.<\/p>\n

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“Other than that, one I took of Jack Goff at the final BTCC round of last year will forever catch my eye I think. I\u2019m not one for sticking my camera in people\u2019s faces and\u00a0intruding on them as they\u2019re preparing for battle, but every so often I do. More so if I know them and their character. I\u2019ve worked with Jack on and off for a few seasons now, so I tend to know that he\u2019s not going to throw a diva strop (like some!) if I try and take his photo whilst he\u2019s\u00a0getting ready and, if anything, he\u2019ll just throw in a few\u00a0catalogue poses for good measure. Jack\u00a0‘ASOS.com’ Goff that he is.”<\/p>\n

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Influx: How do\u00a0you\u00a0feel about camera phones?<\/em><\/p>\n

Soul: “I love them to be fair. It gives you the opportunity to store memories from whatever and\u00a0wherever you experience in life. I mean it\u2019s slightly annoying when you stumble across someone who takes a phone photo and it looks too good to be taken on an iPhone but you know, that\u2019s probably just jealousy\u2026”<\/p>\n

Influx: “Is there a particular vehicle\u00a0you’d love to shoot one day?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Soul: “I\u2019m an Essex boy, so\u00a0naturally I\u2019m always drawn to Fast Fords and even though I\u2019ve come across them in passing in\u00a0various races, I\u2019d love to have some proper time with some Sierra Cosworths. So if anybody out there owns one and wants some photos then shout!!”<\/p>\n

Influx: What makes a good photo?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Soul: “I always think photography is subjective. Yeah you could all follow the old fashioned, set rules, but where\u2019s the fun in everyone doing the same thing? For me the photos I take that I like the most are the ones that include blur and colour. The more of both the better.”<\/p>\n

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Influx: What advice would\u00a0you\u00a0give yourself if\u00a0you\u00a0could travel back ten years?<\/em><\/p>\n

Soul: “In the summer of 2015 place an extremely large sum of money on Leicester City to win the Premier League.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t