Season-openers of long championships are always interesting times, with so many new variables to consider. Phillip Island with the grass, the rolling slopes, and the blue Bass Straits is a photographer’s dream.

Vibrant colour, varying light, flowing lines, textures and patterns – combined with new bike liveries – offer myriad possibilities for composition and detail.

To add to all the new variables, as a photographer, the weather decided to go from wet to cold and windy to beautifully sunny to harsh sunshine and light haze that played havoc with reflections and highlights.

While the Kawasakis and Ducatis stayed with the green and red, Yamaha offered stronger contrast with the shocking pink and orange for their respective riders. Honda though with the Red Bull sponsorship, was a transformed livery.

This year, I worked to a slightly different self-defined brief, to try and capture more of the aggression, with an almost more violent and darker mood. I also tried getting more experimental with compositions, and less tied to conventions such as sharpness and detail. I hope the images speak for themselves.

With the new format of the two races split between Saturday and Sunday – at precisely the same time of 3pm – and a warm-up on Sunday morning, it opens up interesting opportunities to capture lots of close action on track.

Individual photographers have a chance to take a breather, study their work overnight, and get back on track with new plans and possibilities.

Autumn in Phillip Island is a fabulous time with some beautiful sunshine and light often changing to brief spells of cloud and rain in mostly windy conditions.

Combine that with a gently rolling topography, the blue backdrop of the Bass Straits, a fast, flowing and twisty circuit with bikes leaned over for most of a lap and crowds very close to the edge of the track – and you have a photographer’s dream.

Infinite possibilities to combine breathtaking light, shadow, colour, texture, lines, curves – into drama, emotion and surprise.