Darren Woolway - Photographer

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Darren Woolway - Photographer Commercial Photographer based in Sheerness, Kent, specialising in Automotive & Product Photography.

Come visit my website for more of an idea of what I do http://www.darrenwoolway.co.uk

Sometimes the light does the hard work for you.One of the things I loved about photographing Croatia Challenge was never...
03/10/2026

Sometimes the light does the hard work for you.

One of the things I loved about photographing Croatia Challenge was never quite knowing what the forest was going to give me.

Most of the course was under a dense canopy, so I was constantly moving between deep shadow and small pockets of incredibly hard sunlight. Add mud, dust, smoke and moisture into the air and suddenly those little shafts of light become visible.

That's exactly what happened here.

The haze hanging above the vehicles caught the sunlight coming through the trees and created this almost cinematic pool of light, while everything around it fell away into much deeper greens and shadows.

I could have lifted the shadows and tried to recover more detail from the forest, but I actually wanted to go the other way with these. Keep them dark. Keep the contrast. Let parts of the scene disappear.

For me, motorsport photography doesn't always have to be about freezing the biggest splash, the fastest corner or the most dramatic moment.

Sometimes it's simply recognising when the light, environment and subject have lined themselves up for you.

And then being ready when they do.

Shot on the Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

Winning doesn't always look like winning.Before Erik Kristancic and Anej Blazic stood at the top of the Adventure Class ...
03/10/2026

Winning doesn't always look like winning.

Before Erik Kristancic and Anej Blazic stood at the top of the Adventure Class podium at Croatia Challenge 2026, there were moments like this.

Caught amongst other competitors, wheels buried in churned-up ground and a co-driver out of the vehicle working with the recovery equipment.

That's what I like about these photographs.

If you only saw the podium at the end of the week, you might imagine a winning performance as one long sequence of perfectly driven obstacles. Extreme off-road racing isn't like that.

You get stuck. You recover. You work out another line. You keep moving.

And over several days of competition, it's that ability to keep solving problems that matters.

Photographically, I also love how crowded these frames feel. Vehicles overlap, people disappear between them and the forest seems to close around the whole scene. It's messy because the reality of the competition is messy.

Erik and Anej went on to win the Adventure Class at Croatia Challenge 2026.

These are some of the moments that came before the trophy.

Shot on Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

Sometimes a photograph needs to show just how big the obstacle really is.Close-up action shots are great for showing fly...
02/10/2026

Sometimes a photograph needs to show just how big the obstacle really is.

Close-up action shots are great for showing flying mud, spinning tyres and the violence of an off-road car fighting for grip.

But step back and suddenly you get a completely different perspective.

This section of the Croatia Challenge Circuit Race was a deep, narrow gully that had been churned into thick mud by the vehicles ahead. From higher up the bank, I could use the shape of the terrain itself to frame the competitors and show just how confined the route had become.

In the second frame, the co-driver further up the gully adds another sense of scale. You can see the distance between them and just how much terrain still has to be negotiated.

That's something I've really enjoyed about photographing extreme off-road racing. Sometimes the strongest image isn't about getting closer to the action.

It's knowing when to pull back and show where the action is happening.

Croatia Challenge 2026.

Shot on Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

Sometimes the light does all the work.One of the things I loved about photographing the Croatia Challenge was how quickl...
02/10/2026

Sometimes the light does all the work.

One of the things I loved about photographing the Croatia Challenge was how quickly the light changed once you got deep into the forest.

These were both shot using nothing but the natural light coming through the trees.

Most of the scene had already fallen into deep shadow, but every so often the sunlight found a gap in the canopy and created these incredible little pools of light.

The second image is probably my favourite example.

The co-driver stepped directly into one of those pools and suddenly he was separated completely from the dark background. Then I noticed the hard shadow being thrown onto the bank beside him.

No flash. No additional lighting. Nothing staged.

Just being in the right position when the light, the competitor and the moment briefly came together.

That's one of the things I enjoy most about motorsport photography. The action is completely outside your control, the light is constantly changing and you have to make decisions quickly enough to turn what's happening in front of you into a photograph.

Croatia Challenge 2026.

Shot on Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

Deep in the forest, things start to look a little different.Away from the open sections of the course, Croatia Challenge...
01/10/2026

Deep in the forest, things start to look a little different.

Away from the open sections of the course, Croatia Challenge becomes darker, tighter and considerably more unforgiving.

Deep mud, steep banks, trees closing in around you and another competitor waiting behind while you work out how to keep moving forward.

From a photography point of view, these are some of my favourite conditions. The vehicle in the foreground is almost completely lost in darkness, but that headlight cutting through the frame gives just enough separation to lead you towards the second car buried further into the scene.

It isn't the clean, perfectly lit motorsport photograph you might normally aim for.

That's exactly why I like it.

It feels like being there.

Croatia Challenge 2026.

Shot on Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

Not everyone in the forest is there to race.While the competitors of Croatia Challenge are pushing their vehicles throug...
01/10/2026

Not everyone in the forest is there to race.

While the competitors of Croatia Challenge are pushing their vehicles through mud, water and some seriously difficult terrain, there are people positioned throughout the course whose job is much more important than getting a good photograph.

The medical and safety teams are there, watching and ready.

Off-road racing takes place in environments where reaching someone isn't always as simple as driving an ambulance through the gate. Competitors can be deep in the forest, away from normal roads and tackling terrain designed to challenge highly modified 4x4s.

It takes a much bigger team behind the scenes to make an event like Croatia Challenge happen safely.

As a photographer, I spend so much time pointing the camera towards the cars that it's easy to overlook the people standing just outside the frame.

Sometimes it's worth turning the camera around.

Croatia Challenge 2026, Circuit Race.

Shot on Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

Finding traction in the chaos.This is probably one of my favourite things about photographing off-road motorsport.There'...
30/09/2026

Finding traction in the chaos.

This is probably one of my favourite things about photographing off-road motorsport.

There's so much happening in a fraction of a second.

The suspension working. The vehicle leaning into the terrain. Mud hanging in the air. Sunlight breaking through the forest. And somewhere amongst all of it, the driver is trying to find enough grip to keep moving forward.

Freeze that moment and suddenly you can see everything that your eyes barely had time to register as it happened.

Another moment from the Circuit Race at Croatia Challenge 2026.

Captured on the Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

Commitment beats cleanliness.There are moments in off-road racing when finesse goes out the window.The wheels are fighti...
30/09/2026

Commitment beats cleanliness.

There are moments in off-road racing when finesse goes out the window.

The wheels are fighting for traction, the mud is coming over the bonnet and the only sensible option appears to be keeping the power down and seeing what happens next.

For a motorsport photographer, these are the moments you're waiting for.

The difficult part is remembering that everything flying through the air is heading towards you too.

Croatia Challenge 2026 Circuit Race, captured on the Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

When driving isn't enough, somebody has to get out and work.This is the side of off-road racing that the big mud-slingin...
29/09/2026

When driving isn't enough, somebody has to get out and work.

This is the side of off-road racing that the big mud-slinging action shots don't always show.

When a vehicle is buried this deep, the co-driver becomes every bit as important as the person behind the wheel. Out into the mud, finding the line, handling the winch and doing whatever it takes to get the team moving again.

By this point in the Circuit Race, I'm not entirely sure there was much vehicle left that wasn't covered in Croatia.

Captured at Croatia Challenge 2026 on the Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

Sometimes the mud wins.Different cars. Same section. Same problem.During the Circuit Race at Croatia Challenge, this str...
29/09/2026

Sometimes the mud wins.

Different cars. Same section. Same problem.

During the Circuit Race at Croatia Challenge, this stretch of the forest was absolutely brutal. One vehicle after another came charging into it, throwing mud high into the trees and fighting for whatever traction they could find.

Swipe across and eventually there isn't even a car left in the photograph.

Just mud.

Lots and lots of mud.

From a motorsport photography point of view, this was one of those places where you find your position, keep the shutter going and hope both the camera and photographer survive whatever gets launched in your direction.

Captured at Croatia Challenge 2026 on the Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S.
uk

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