Motorsport Photography, looking back on 2008

[dunganick]

Well to steal Ukaskews' idea, i thought i might summarise this years motorsport photographing season.

Doing 1 photo from each event. The significance being i took photography up in December. So the hope would be the photos will get better as we go along.


Early New year testday: Brands Hatch, first sight of the new Seat TDI
Using canon 400d and 90-300 lense.

BTCC: Brands Hatch
Now using 400d and Sigma 100-300 F4

BSB Practice: Brands Hatch (to be snowed off on race day)
First time shooting bikes. Didnt like it much.

Dunlop Maxx: Snetterton
First outing with 40d and 100-300, keeper rate through the roof.

A1GP Raceday: Brands Hatch
First published images, (suspect newspaper editor may be blind)

BSB Raceday take 2: Brands Hatch
Really enjoyed this day, now hooked on shooting bikes.

BTCC: Thruxton
First time Trackside, suffer from poor lighting and a complete lack of imagination, end result; hardly any useable images, but one massive lesson.

Renault sport track Day: Brands Hatch
First time trying slow shutter speeds, not convinced, keeper rate is appalling, but i like results (1/60th)

BSB: Snetterton
Meet some absolute gentlemen of pro photographers, learn more in 20 mins from them about shooting publishable images than the rest of the year.

F3/GT: Brands Hatch
Lots of images i loved from this meeting, discover a less commonly used angle at druids that i use alot for rest of year.

BTCC: Snetterton
Realise how spoilt i am by the angles at Brands Hatch, for some reason decide on the day that tilting the camera is the soltuion. Later decide this was a stupid idea.

DTM: Brands Hatch
Cant be bothered to organise press pass for this event, so attend the practice and play with shutter speeds and framing. 2 photos for this one.

Probably my fav photo this year.

BTCC: Brands Hatch
Good bye Seat :dapprove:

*40d shutter breaks on 30,000 actuation's. Colchester Cameras turn it around in 12 days. - Excellent service.

BSB Practice: Brands Hatch

BSB Raceday: Brands hatch
Been looking forward to this for ages, great day out, meet yet more fascinating photographers. 2 Images again.

Well that is pretty much my 2008 motorsport season over, just the late night race at Brands in 2 weeks. Then next season.

Looking back at Early in the year i cant believe the rubbish i was turning out.

Conclusion, its all about the practice!

I cant wait for next year, im enjoying this hobby more and more.

Slow shutter speeds is an area i am enjoying more now i can pull them off better. disappointingly i am finding the massive void between a saleable photo and a good photo, meaning slow shutter speeds and creative framing has limited appeal most of the time for me.

Hopefully you found this interesting. Its been good fun looking back.

Cant wait for next year!

 

[Nigel]

Some great shots there. You can definately see a massive improvement!

How do you go about selling your images? Do you get press passes at events?

 

[Fletcher]

Some great pics.

 

[dunganick]

Right place right time, lots of foot work making contacts with local papers. Most papers need their arms twisting to use anything motorsport that isnt Lewis H.

Yes i can get passes for most events now. But if you dont intend to sell images, i wouldnt bother. Its more fun the 'bad' side of the fence believe it or not.

When i work out how to sell images i will let you know.

Its like blood from a stone normally.

 

[Jono182]

Some of those are quality pictures - i'm impressed.

 

[seb]

cool pics. really enjoyed reading it.

do you just turn up and go find a spot you like to shoot from?

 

[ukaskew]

Slow shutter speeds is an area i am enjoying more now i can pull them off better. disappointingly i am finding the massive void between a saleable photo and a good photo, meaning slow shutter speeds and creative framing has limited appeal most of the time for me.

Amazing improvement over a very short space of time. It really is all about the practice, there are no shortcuts. The BSB Raceday Take 2 (wheelie shot) is where your images really jump up a notch in my opinion.

Shame about the creativity vs. saleability thing (although after seeing the sort of F1 photos that get published I shouldn't have been surprised, they are 95% dull), that's what has really put me off going down that road, as stunning as many of your 'safe' images are, it's not something I would like to have to do all the time.

Lots of respect for going for it, it's brilliant how quickly you have managed to get in there with press passes and published images etc, and more importantly it's good to see you have done it with proper talent as well as working out how to play 'the system', as there are a lot of very average 'pros' out there.

The second year of doing it is interesting, just had mine and the progression wasn't as immediately obvious as it was throughout year one. But when I look back and compare 2007 to 2008 the difference is much bigger than I thought, all the little extras you learn soon add up.

Might make my way down to Brands for the night race, cheers for the reminder!

 

[JamieITR]

Fantastic shots and as said above you can definitely see improvement over a very short period of time.

Yourself and Chris are really a brilliant source of inspiration for this motorsport photography lark!

 

[Billy]

Fantastic set of images you have there, also as stated a good improvement from start to finish.

 

[Soph]

Some proper good pictures there. Fella loved 'em (enjoys watching BTCC and BSB!)

 

[Clart]

great pics, like the bike pics especially. Wish i could do more motorsport photography, i just don't get chance!