A Journey to Motorsport Photographer

So after years of photography in nightclubs I decided to take my photography in a different direction and bring two things that I really love together… Cars and Cameras! Moving forward I will be focusing on motorsport with the goal of shooting the F1

However I know this journey will not be easy (or cheap) so I will documenting this journey all the way as a kind of journal, something to look back on in future and for anyone looking to get into motorsport photography this will serve as a guide. So where do I start, well the most obvious place is at the track, I am currently lucky enough to be a Supercar Instructor for a track experience company so I get to drive nice cars and on downtime can shoot the cars on track to practice. But what if you dont have access to Supercars on a regular basis, well another option is open track days, a lot of racetracks have days where the public will use their own cars on track and this makes for a great opportunity not only to practice shooting high speed moving cars but also to get access to the pits and network and if your really cheeky go for a ride!

Now it’s all well and good going to track days and shooting everything from pocket rocket Fiesta ST’s to 700hp BM’s but I know I will also need some form of actual race cars from a main event which is where the not easy or cheap part comes in as I will be limited on what part of the track I can be on and most events don’t allow access to the pits unless you have Media Accredited Access which is only given out by a governing body and applying for it. A good example for this would be Goodwood Festival of Speed, they hire out a company to shoot their events however you are able to apply to the event as a Photographer or Content Creator in exchange for Media Access, so this will give you access to the pits and other places which the public are not allowed to go. Now I know some events are hundreds of pounds to get into, the F1 tickets can be insane prices, but if you do searching like I did you can find some more budget friendly options to start with. My local track Lydden Hill has both Rally Cross events and Race events throughout the year and are better priced for starting out, it won’t be McLarens on the starting grid but the action will make for great photos and lots of practice

Now as for kit I am pretty well sorted for the moment, here is my kit list…

Canon EOS R

Canon RF 15-35 2.8

Canon RF 70-200 2.8

Sigma EF 24-70 2.8

EF - RF Adapter

TT Artisan RF 50mm 1.4 Tiltshift Manual Focus

Tamron RF 85mm Manual Focus

DJI Mini 2

DJI Action 4

Canon Speedlight

Viltrox Light Panel

RGB Light Bar

RGB Light Panel

Various Filters, ND, CPL, UV, Star Prism

This kit will do me great for both photo and video for the time being and will upgrade more as a go along, there are obviously more experienced people than me with better lenses, talking of which bring me to my next advice of who to follow in motorsport photography, there are plenty out there whose content you can see but lets talk about one of my favourite Larry Chen! If you don’t who Larry Chen is you must be newly born or living under a rock as he was one of the Hoonigans which was created by the late Ken Block, his work spans decades and has some of the most iconic motorsport photography out there from Drifting to Baha, so this is a good opportunity to go back and watch their content and see how you can improve yours

I will leave it here for this one but will go further in later posts