BTCC @ Donington - Difficult weekend.

[dunganick]

So as you probably all know it was BTCC at Donington park last weekend. I've now shot Donington three times and i have decided it is officially my least favourite circuit on the calendar (pending taking a look at croft). The place is so big that you cant really explore too many corners on the circuit if you want to get back to the podium afterwards. Perhaps another day to explore would of helped.

Anyway enough excuses, here are some i do like.

As always please do comment, positive or negative.

1. Traditional Jordan leaving the garage picture.

2. The Lesser spotted Audi, actually had a great weekend with Rob chucking it around just having fun.

3. Mr Jackson had a pretty decent weekend, here you can see where the crowd has been relocated to.

4. Another take on that shot.

5. Plato's car lies ruined as his partner in crime has a fairly decent race 2.

6. MacDowall is one of the few to hop the kerbs infront of the new spectator position.

7. Excuse the post, i cant be bothered to clone it out.

8. Bit of Marmite. One of my weird back of the grandstand photos. Bit dark this one.

9. This doesn't really work imho, garage is too dark. But it does tell a story.

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

I see what you tried to do with that last image, almost works.

I know what you mean about the track though. I did a few drift events, luckily it was using the Melbourne loop and final chicane, so nice and compact. I imagine the whole circuit is a different story!

 

[Tony Hunter]

Mopeds ftw,nice pics.

 

[DaveDreads]

Excuse my ignorance but is it difficult to make a living from motorsport photography?

Don't worry your not looking at a potential competitor, my lens struggled at a recent showjumping meet,
so motorsport is way out of it's league. :dapprove:

Obviously Sportstock is a stock agency but do you have a staff position with a mag?
Or are you pure freelance and just paying to go to race meets and hoping you can sell the images to agencies?

I only ask because I was shocked at the amount of photographers with press vest on when I watched
it on the tele, thats some competition when trying to earn a living.

 

[Just Plain Yates]

photos five and six are good.

 

[dunganick]

Excuse my ignorance but is it difficult to make a living from motorsport photography?

Don't worry your not looking at a potential competitor, my lens struggled at a recent showjumping meet,
so motorsport is way out of it's league. :dapprove:

Obviously Sportstock is a stock agency but do you have a staff position with a mag?
Or are you pure freelance and just paying to go to race meets and hoping you can sell the images to agencies?

I only ask because I was shocked at the amount of photographers with press vest on when I watched
it on the tele, thats some competition when trying to earn a living.

Hi Dave,

I am really the wrong person to ask. I have considered trying to make a proper living from motorsports photography, but its barely possible (and is not my intended career, although until recently has been basically my sole income). There are about 10 national level professional photographers in the UK. Maybe only 3 or 4 making a living purely on motorsports photography. So you can imagine how hard it is to work your way in. There are about 4 or 5 magazines in the country that will buy national level photos, and 90% of papers will not pay for images as they can get free images in exchange for letter of accreditation (the reason why you see sometimes literally hundreds of media at national level events). So there are very few outlets to make money from it.

Sportstock is my own website. Im basically the only person working for it. Although i have paid people to cover other events if needed. But its been a bit of a non starter truthfully, i couldn't come close to competing with Jakob Ebrey, LAT, Getty etc... Any paper considering anything other than the mainstream agencies is mad. But at the same time, if you don't try these things then they will never happen. Who knows one day it might get there.

With regards to your issues at the show jumping, don't rule out motorsport, its actually fairly easy on the lens. Whilst the car might be moving at 100mph, its usually a fair distance away and as such the focus has to travel less distance to track the car. So you will tend to find pretty much any lens can track a car with ease (as long as its bright). Cars are also very contrasty with numbers, stickers etc.. so the AF has something to lock onto. Horses are generally 1 colour so there isn't much there to help the AF lock. Get out and give it a go!

Hope that answered a few questions.

 

[DaveDreads]

Cheers for that mate, very helpful.

I had done some research into motorsport photography, but with anything thats very popular the're are hundreds of keen amatuers,
diluting the market for professionals. (A fact I found out years ago when trying to sell landscape images)

TBQH I don't have the money to travel to motorsport events or even pay to get in. LOL

Since I let my studio go i've been finding it hard to make a living out of photography, hence the ill fated showjumping
shoot whick I f*cking hated as I can't stand horses! :S

If i'm going to get ran over on a shoot i'd rather it was a race car instead of a p1ssing horse!

I will try it in the future but I need some bread and butter work first.

 

[Riad]

Nice set mate

3 looks the best to me!

 

[Naith]

great to see a different take on a series i adore

 

[Rob Clark]

Great pics as usual Nick I liked the infield viewing area by the new chicanes, although looking at the size of the kerbs I can see why most kept away from them !

 

[Andy.]

Love the movement captured. It really gives a feel of the action of the day.

 

[JJ!]

I like em, first one is best for me! My only complaint is that arse is a bit flat - find me a more curvy one next time please?!