2024 Review

Reflecting on 2024 through the eyes of SAM LAW.

I covered roughly 60 events this year, 7 of those outside of Sydney; 2 being interstate (SA & TAS). The number of images shot was down - 36,574 and even less being edited & published at just under 23% to paying clients, Facebook Albums, Instagram Posts, Reels or Stories.

I’ve chosen 2 images per month that highlight something in the month, or have a nice story to tell. There’s plenty more that could be published or said, and I’m kind of bad at culling, so I’ve also included “cutting room floor” image(s) as well, for those that didn’t quite make the cut.

Thank you to all of those who have supported me throughout the year, especially clients and customers, along with the shares, comments and likes. Every little bit helps as a freelance photographer, and it's a privilege to be able to get out and #SNIPE as much as I do.

01 - January🔗

A really quiet kick off to the year with only a couple of events.

We've been covering plenty of DrivingSports events over the years, and I can't really recall them ever running a South Circuit. Not often that we see drift trains running around SMSP; not sure if it's a skill/driver issue or an organiser issue, but this one was refreshing to see, pushing up the hill into the fading sunset.

I'd been seeing a fair few socials around Southern Highlands Cars & Coffee to warrant a visit; so a sparrows start at 4:30am got me down into the South End of Berrima with enough time to #SNIPE as cars rolled in, and there were plenty of them to fill the space around. It was hard to pick a shot for this, but the PepperGreen Estate Chevy through some greenery just pips the post.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

02 - February🔗

Plenty more on in February, making it harder to select my favoured images for the month.

Collecting Cars ran their first Coffee Run to Rose Hill Racecourse with Chris Harris attending. Thousands of people turned up causing traffic chaos both coming and going. The Chrome Temple Lamborghini Countach sitting pretty with a rising sun in the background just pops.

The boys at STASH launched their partnership with AMMO NYC with some workshops by AMMO Founder Larry Kosilla, and a car meet to follow. This F40 sitting perfectly inside the STASH facility at the wash bay was just too perfect a shot, even with a McLaren Senna sitting under the lightbox, which you can see in the Cutting Room Floor images.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

03 - March🔗

My first interstate trip for the year to Adelaide Motorsport Festival, and I'm pleased to have been able to create some really nice images.

It was pretty cool to see Liam Lawson out to drive; at the time he was a Red Bull reserve driver, but has since signed on to drive the 2025 season. Here he is lining up in the Leighton House Porsche 962, and you'll see him ripping a 4 wheel burnout in the Ford Transit Super Van in the Cutting Room Floor images.

It'd been a long time since I had shot a Ryugi Battle, but it was good to get back and shoot volume 37. The event featured a 2v2 Kids Breaking Battle, 2v2 All Styles Battle, and an invitational 7 to smoke. This image of Bboy Jeff in a 1990 stands out; there's a good sense of motion with the t-shirt and the arms, but his face and feet are sharp and clear.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

04 - April🔗

This month I was learning to balance a full-time day job along with photography.

I've been working with AutoHaus Hamilton for a few years now, covering their Porsches & Coffee events. When they put the call out to meet at STASH, it was a really nice pairing, just like these 2 interesting beauties - Triple Yellow and a RoughRoad (Rothmans inspired). This shot was also not publicly available since the roller door was closed, so sits as a nice BTS image.

Daylight savings ended at the start of April, which means a softer and later light in the mornings as the sun comes up later. This is a perfect opportunity to head out east to Centennial Park for Eastern Classic and catch some interesting sun-lit images such as this Fiat badge.

Cutting Room Floor

05 - May🔗

2nd month into a full-time job with a growing work-load and changing responsibilities meant less photo things.

Benzin & Bardan put on a couple of 'Family Nights' where friends/family were invited along to dine on meals by Bardan. This image, titled 'The Reason', is a fitting a summary of the nights.

Since stumbling across The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride I've been captivated by it and drawn the the characters & machines that it brings out, along with their fund-raising efforts. Top it all off, the blokes that organise it are alright too. This year they kicked off with a new starting point; South Eveleigh, that also varied the route they travelled; rather than snaking through Hyde Park and the CBD, across the Harbour Bridge to Luna Park, they ducked out around Rozelle & Balmain, over the Anzac Bridge and under the Harbour Bridge which meant that we could grab this shot; something that helps showcase Sydney with it's landmarks. I wanted something with the Opera house in it as well, but as the event is held at the tail end of May, preparations for VIVID installations had blocked some views.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

06 - June🔗

June was a really quiet month!!

Who photographs the photographers?? I brought my camera out to Bron's 50th celebrations, but didn't really shoot too much. The night was spent celebrating, listening and connecting with people.

I've been covering Beat The Blue as an unofficial photographer for almost as long as they've been around (since CheeseSteak & Cars). This image of James from DrivingSolutions as they gave mention to one of his protégé drivers - Marcus - a 12 year old who really knows how to handle a car on the wetpan thanks to some natural talent and a bit of instruction from the guys at DrivingSolutions.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

07 - July🔗

From a quiet June to a few KMs covered in July with a couple of weekends in Marrickville, Eastern Creek, Ingleburn and Newcastle!!

The boys from The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride had been working on another venture - Donut Garage, which saw them convert part of their Warehouse/office in Marrickville to incorporate a kitchen where they bake and sell Donuts!!! I got along for their soft launch before following up a week later to cover their launch day which saw some really great vibes, amazing cars and sell out crowds lined up for Donuts!!!

Always some amazing machines around at Newcastle All Japan Day and this Marlboro Liveried Tommi Makininen Evo sitting on the outskirts of the meet just stood out.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

08 - August🔗

Plenty of things to see and #SNIPE in August!!! With WTAC coming up at the end of August/start of September, it was a great opportunity to get my backside trackside to help push my eye back into a Motorsport frame of mind.

I spent the first weekend of August at the track shooting NSW Motor Race Championship Round 5 (including Australian Formula 4 Round 3), with Australian Drift Club doing a night on the South Circuit in between. This shot of Joel Goff drifting his Ford Ranger with a newly added #324EVER Levi Lion brought a few tears to the eyes after his recent passing.

Now into it's 3rd year, Snowfoam's Unmarked brought some more cool cars and vibes to The Venue in Alexandria. The atmosphere and lighting setup make for some cool shots.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

08.01 - World Time Attack Challenge🔗

Despite being 3.5 days - half day media launch, 1 day practice and 2 days of comp, World Time Attack Challenge is a hugely busy time, but well worth the time and effort. This year I thought it was worth their own section of highlights and cutting room floor.

Feras Qartoumy brought his twin-turbo Corvette back to Sydney to defend his Pro-Am class win of 2023. His 2024 season had kicked off well with an outright win at Japan's Attack Tsukuba in February, so he was looking to keep it going, however an engine rebuild 2 days before the event left him in a bad spot. Despite the problems leading up to the event, Feras still managed 2nd step on the podium behind R8 1:1 AKA Fat Cat.

There were plans early on for Dai Yoshihara to drive the Evasive Motorsports / ENEOS Motor Oil Honda S2000RS, however some shipping issues meant that it didn't make it out to Sydney to compete. Dai still managed to get out to WTAC and we caught him as he made his way out for a few laps on practice day in JDMYard's Honda Civic Type R. Here's hoping he's back for WTAC 2025!!

Cutting Room Floor🔗

Taking on the reigns for the Show n Shine were Donut Garage; bringing a wealth of event management behind them, but with a fun party vibe and a diverse reach of vehicle makes and models. Co-owner Mark's Race bred RX7 is a beautiful piece of machinery.

Matt Mingay and his crazy Hot Wheels Stunt Crew were back with a kids zone to play in, drift cars and stadium trucks to drift and jump up and down the main straight, complete with pyrotechnics.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

There's a huge team of officials that help make WTAC work, and Jess, the super clerk of course, grabbed me to take a group shot. Putting them all on the stairs so that they could all see me, with the sun poking through the SMSP Hamburger and pulling funny faces came out a treat!!! I'm not the greatest people person, but I love to showcase people where I can.

One of the most special photos from 2024 is this shot of Darryl Clarke as we paid tribute to his legendary son Levi after losing a battle with brain cancer. Every WTAC I'd see Levi & Darryl and we'd have a quick catch up and check in before going off and doing our thing. His #NVRLFT mentality is something that still rings true for many in Australian Motorsport Culture, and may it do so for years to come!!

Cutting Room Floor🔗

09 - September🔗

We try and take a small break after the madness of WTAC, but then it's straight back into it in September.

SubiNats 2024 was a long one with 16+ hours spent at the track. They ran 3 different track layouts across the day for their SuperSprint, with a Shotgun Shootout, Show n Shine and Motorkhana, plus support from Subaru Australia bringing in some factory and Rally cars. All of these were brought on track for a group shot which you can see in the Cutting Room Floor images, but this image stands out as everyone was rolling out and forming up for the final shot.

Classic cars and Dapper Dressed Gentlefolk is how the Distinguished Gentleman's drive rolls and Mark's Series II Cosmo is the perfect example (complete with running issues).

Cutting Room Floor🔗

10 - October🔗

A super busy month in October, and with Daylight Savings kicking in, the lighting changes add some drama here and there.

The Vogue American Express Fashion's Night Out has been running for years, and I really enjoy taking the time out to go and #SNIPE something different. I think that this shot of Actress Courtney Clarke (Home & Away, Paper Dolls) is pretty striking, just that perfect little moment. I ended up playing with camera settings and shooting styles later in the evening, applying some low shutter speeds to grab some motion runway images that you can see in the Cutting Room Floor shots.

Woolloomoolivin' has become an annual block party with some really great vibes, performers and battles. This image layers some of the elements with the background of Woollo'.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

11 - November🔗

A little bit of local travel throughout November.

We got back to Pheasant Wood Circuit in Marulan for the first time since COVID-19 to #SNIPE Eastern Drift Championship. It was good to be back there with some impressive elevation changes and interesting track layout, that also has some good spectating areas. Here's Sciacca and Gricey pushing hard across the finish line. Sciacca in his HardTuned S14 took out the round. Gricey has been through the wars for the last couple of years, but continues to battle where and when he can.

The Berry Motorfair has been running for a few years now and I finally made the trek down to check it out. The picturesque Coolangatta Estate Winery makes for a pretty stunning backdrop. The variety of top tier cars spattered throughout the estate was well curated, however the placement left things a little lacking for me, as plenty of cars were bunched up in the village green, when there was so much more real-estate available. The placement of this beautiful Alfa-Romeo was just what the doctor ordered, so much so that there were a couple of shots that make the review.

Cutting Room Floor🔗

12 - December🔗

Another bumper month as everyone tries to wrap up their year and meet prior to a well deserved break.

#SNIPING precious moments like these makes the tireless hours of travel, shooting and editing worth it!!! Ray placing his son in the drivers seat of Dom's R33 at the ImportMonky end of year meet. When we left home, it was hot and humid, and along the trek down to Ingleburn there was rain, hail & flash floods to battle through, but we do the things that we do for the things that we love.

Early in the year Brodie had asked me about going to shoot DriftLeague, their latest iteration of Drifting Tasmania. I had to decline as we were cash poor with no job, but when the final rounds as a double header popped up, I had to pull the pin and go for it. The vibes and community of drifters was pretty amazing, plus the DriftLeague branding just has a great presence. Looking forward to heading down again in 2025 for (at least) a Drift Collective round.