Thought I would share my day of motorsport togging with you guys. My 'do nothing' approach to getting interesting work finally seemed to be stalling this past few months, so I was quite pleased when this showed up in my inbox as I was still unsure about the whole 'photography as work' thing.
Two weeks ago the organiser of this contacted me and asked if I would like to shoot the event for them. Aside from lots of minor things I've had 3 'major' photography gigs in the past 2 years (Venice for Olympus, Paris for DSLR User and a wedding) and I've pretty much hated them all, but at least this time it was my main photography passion, so I said yes as it seemed a nice event to try things out. It being a charity thing there would be no payment, but free entry, a press pass and a free passenger ride was more than enough considering I was intending to go as a paying visitor/passenger anyway.
Saturday came, along with torrential rain and 25mph winds. On the plus side, my Sigma has at least been working well lately after a few serious blips in the past few months (otherwise I wouldn't have accepted the job) so it felt good wandering out of the paddock with exclusive unlimited access to the entire circuit.
3hrs of soaking wet shooting later and things seemed pretty good, some nice atmospheric shots in horrible conditions, I wandered off further round the circuit, found a new spot, then...'f--', the dreaded 'lens isn't talking to body' message that has plagued me for months was back. Gutted. Two hours later it kicked back into action and I was away again. Finally the day closes out as it started (heavy rain and high winds), I sign out and head home to sort the shots, hoping that my aim to get some interesting compositions in terms of layout for text etc worked out ok (shots are being used for next years event, programme, flyers etc)...
A couple with layout in mind...
Send the pics off, thankfully they love them and distribute them to the press etc, and even better a follow up with them wanting to discuss how I can help gain additional charity revenue for next year (the idea possibly being to sell pics after the event next time around)
So, did I finally enjoy a 'photography job', albeit one on a volunteer basis? Almost, whilst I loved the angles available as a press tog and had absolute freedom to get whatever shots I wanted, I still felt like a few weekends of that would put me off for life...and I really don't want that considering how much I love it. Hopefully it looks as though I've got a nice fun yearly gig and all for a good cause, but I think it's finally confirmed that photography for a living is just not for me.
Two weeks ago the organiser of this contacted me and asked if I would like to shoot the event for them. Aside from lots of minor things I've had 3 'major' photography gigs in the past 2 years (Venice for Olympus, Paris for DSLR User and a wedding) and I've pretty much hated them all, but at least this time it was my main photography passion, so I said yes as it seemed a nice event to try things out. It being a charity thing there would be no payment, but free entry, a press pass and a free passenger ride was more than enough considering I was intending to go as a paying visitor/passenger anyway.
Saturday came, along with torrential rain and 25mph winds. On the plus side, my Sigma has at least been working well lately after a few serious blips in the past few months (otherwise I wouldn't have accepted the job) so it felt good wandering out of the paddock with exclusive unlimited access to the entire circuit.
3hrs of soaking wet shooting later and things seemed pretty good, some nice atmospheric shots in horrible conditions, I wandered off further round the circuit, found a new spot, then...'f--', the dreaded 'lens isn't talking to body' message that has plagued me for months was back. Gutted. Two hours later it kicked back into action and I was away again. Finally the day closes out as it started (heavy rain and high winds), I sign out and head home to sort the shots, hoping that my aim to get some interesting compositions in terms of layout for text etc worked out ok (shots are being used for next years event, programme, flyers etc)...
A couple with layout in mind...
Send the pics off, thankfully they love them and distribute them to the press etc, and even better a follow up with them wanting to discuss how I can help gain additional charity revenue for next year (the idea possibly being to sell pics after the event next time around)
So, did I finally enjoy a 'photography job', albeit one on a volunteer basis? Almost, whilst I loved the angles available as a press tog and had absolute freedom to get whatever shots I wanted, I still felt like a few weekends of that would put me off for life...and I really don't want that considering how much I love it. Hopefully it looks as though I've got a nice fun yearly gig and all for a good cause, but I think it's finally confirmed that photography for a living is just not for me.
