Motorsport Photography

[ch37]

I know we have quite a few motorsport photographers here (amateur and pro), but as far as I can tell, no dedicated photography thread other than the "where are all the car pics" thread which is mainly for automotive photography.

Hopefully this can be a place to share/discuss. I would suggest not piling in with 100 similar panning shots from one event, a few best shots from each event seems to keep these kind of threads more active and less tiresome elsewhere.

I've been shooting on and off for about 20 years now, all 'behind the fence' but recently a few cool opportunities have come up to experience how the other half live. Also had an incredible opportunity to work with Jamey Price and Drew Gibson on a Le Mans photography course this week, an unbelievable eye-opener from two of the busiest working pros in the business (still in shock that they asked me to be involved!)

Anyhows, here's a few from Supercarfest at the weekend (which probably straddles automotive and motorsport, but these are all action shots!), one of my favourite events to shoot.

All Sony a9 and Sigma 105mm 1.4. Panning shots almost always manually focused and generally pushing the limits of what I'm capable of in terms of shutter speeds!

1/40, f16, ISO50


1/160000, f1.4, ISO100


1/10, f16, ISO50


1/30, f16, ISO50

[djsmith74]

I've been following your Instagram & Flickr pages for some time now, and am always in awe of your panning techniques. Somehow, you manage to make 'blurry' shots look fantastic!. I will go through my Flickr page and see if I can dig out some motorsport shots, but they're nowhere near as good!

Edit - do you shoot in burst mode, and pick the best shot, or have you refined your technique to a point where you can capture a single panning shot?

[djsmith74]

I have been through my archives, and cherry picked the best of a bad bunch from a variety of events....

Dragstalgia 2022-94.jpg by djsmith46, on Flickr

Prescott Historique 2022-76.jpg by djsmith46, on Flickr

VHRA Pendine Sands Races 2021-85.jpg by djsmith46, on Flickr

VHRA Pendine Sands Races 2021-120.jpg by djsmith46, on Flickr

Atomic Weekend-78 by djsmith46, on Flickr

[ch37]

djsmith74 said:

I've been following your Instagram & Flickr pages for some time now, and am always in awe of your panning techniques. Somehow, you manage to make 'blurry' shots look fantastic!. I will go through my Flickr page and see if I can dig out some motorsport shots, but they're nowhere near as good!

Edit - do you shoot in burst mode, and pick the best shot, or have you refined your technique to a point where you can capture a single panning shot?

Burst but at the lowest possible speed (my Sony a9 does about 5fps in Low Mode, 20 in High!), I'd rather 3fps to be honest, if your pan is simply not in sync with the subject having an additional 19 frames isn't going to make it any better, just means a lot more to cull!

That rather than single shot as it at least gives you a couple of different compositions if you do nail it. I hate distracting backgrounds so if there is a cone or something for an otherwise spot on pan, I'll move to the next frame when it's out of shot. I typically prefer rear 3/4 shots for some reason, so if I can get my eye in with the first one or two frames the last one is often the one I'll pick.

[JagYouAre]

Nice shots and a nice idea for a thread.

I am right at the bottom end of 'amateur' but I do try and take some nice panning shots when I get to motorsports events. This is one of my better efforts at Le Mans last year. Woke up early to catch the sun rise and you can make out a glint of sun on the front headlight, which I thought was nice.

Taken on Olympus EM1MkII with 12-100mm lens (at 86mm), cropped slightly. (1/100 f4.5 ISO200)

[toasty]

A couple from me. I used to like taking all the kit to race tracks but it's always a pain to find somewhere you can see over/under/through the fences and, if you do, it's crowded.

[_Hoppers]

Here's a couple of my favourites from the local village drag strip!

[ch37]

JagYouAre said:

This is one of my better efforts at Le Mans last year. Woke up early to catch the sun rise and you can make out a glint of sun on the front headlight, which I thought was nice.... with 12-100mm lens (at 86mm), cropped slightly.

I discussed this at length regarding Le Mans earlier this week, I was really surprised at how you don't need a big lens in many places. I had a 500mm with me as I'd thought I'd need it, but most of mine were below 200mm (full frame). Next year I'll be taking a 35mm prime and a 70-200 2.8 and I'll be perfectly happy with that. A fave of mine...

150mm full-frame from a public position

[Tony1963]

One of my favourites from when I was allowed onto the starting area at the Pod in 2018.

[StevieBee]

My first pro-gig was a motor sport shoot for Ford in the 80s. If you ventured into a dealer in the late 80s, early 90s and recall seeing a huge backdrop featuring a bunch of Formula Fords tearing round Paddock Bend at Brands.... that was mine! Have done the occasional paid shoot over the years but remains largely a passion than pro subject. A few from the vaults:







Also like to have a bit of a creative fiddle around now and then:

[Derek Smith]

StevieBee said:

My first pro-gig was a motor sport shoot for Ford in the 80s. If you ventured into a dealer in the late 80s, early 90s and recall seeing a huge backdrop featuring a bunch of Formula Fords tearing round Paddock Bend at Brands.... that was mine! Have done the occasional paid shoot over the years but remains largely a passion than pro subject. A few from the vaults:







Also like to have a bit of a creative fiddle around now and then:

I like the photos of the cars in the pits, with pit crews and drivers. I've viewed a few races from the pits and, in many ways, it's more exciting that the race itself.

I don't know why, but I did not expect the mechanics to be so enthusiastic. Always worth listening to with their opinions of the drivers, not only as drivers but their relationships with others in the team. I remember one, with complete disdain, saying of one driver at a very rainy Silverstone, 'It's wet. He won't try.' Another time there was much excitement in the commentary team of one car slowing, and the car behind closing, so much so that they'd be past before the end of the race. One mechanic was studying the times. He said, 'It's fuel. They'll have to stop. They should do it now, but [the team owner] won't want to admit he's miscalculated. Another two laps, and he'll have to bring him in.' The commentary team were falling out of the press room with their excitement, right up until another two laps when the car came in.

One of the drivers span off, collecting stones and much criticism from the leading team driver. I asked the car's mechanic what he felt, and he said, 'I'd much rather they lose places through trying too hard than not trying at all.'

Not enough credit given to the mechanics. One reached into a car just into the pits. He put his bare arm between the bodywork and the exhaust pipe. I could see the hairs burn off.

[StevieBee]

Derek Smith said:

I like the photos of the cars in the pits, with pit crews and drivers. I've viewed a few races from the pits and, in many ways, it's more exciting that the race itself.

I don't know why, but I did not expect the mechanics to be so enthusiastic.

Photographically, you're right. I'm always trying to shoot a car in a way that's not been done before or from an unusual position. Sometimes it works, but often it's just a another pic of a racing car.

I was snuck into the LeMans pit by a mate who worked for the team. Actually, I didn't sneak in at all, they were very welcoming despite the absence of any press credentials. They are certainly a focused bunch which is remarkable at 2am. And there's always something to shoot.

[jurbie]

I'm not shooting as much as I once did but I'm still doing a bit to keep my hand in.

Here are a few from the pitlane from the recent British GT Silverstone 500.

[Derek Smith]

StevieBee said:

Photographically, you're right. I'm always trying to shoot a car in a way that's not been done before or from an unusual position. Sometimes it works, but often it's just a another pic of a racing car.

I was snuck into the LeMans pit by a mate who worked for the team. Actually, I didn't sneak in at all, they were very welcoming despite the absence of any press credentials. They are certainly a focused bunch which is remarkable at 2am. And there's always something to shoot.

Thanks for that. I took two images of Fanny Duchateau. Very fast and disciplined driver. I felt they showed the difference between what we see outside the pits and what they have to put up with.



Oddly enough, this was the first, and last time, I ever called out to an attractive woman, 'Fanny', and she turned and smiled at me. Later, below, as she got out of the car after a very productive period in the car, during which she was told to increase pace, which she did instantly then hit the target time lap after lap. Impressive. The mechanics actually smiled. That's one hell of an endorsement.



I could feel the heat coming from her. The inside of the TVR was overpowering to me when they opened the door when I was kneeling down to get a good shot.

A driver failed to come into the pits when told to for two laps. The team leader was not amused by missing his time in the car and stomped around. When the driver eventually deigned to drop by, the third driver asked him what his excuse was. See if you can guess which is which.



Not good images, either technically or artistically, but they do tell stories.

[Dave.]

Over 7000 images on Flickr, never really thought they were any good.

Not uploaded any for ages, latest ones on there are from 2018

Got a bit disheartened by it all to be honest, especially when Flickr went downhill. I had pro for a good few years but it lost its value so dropped it a few years back.

Still have a load of unprocessed NEFs to go through.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dave-/albums

[covboy]

[GravelBen]

I still shoot a bit of rallying, though only a few rallies each year these days. Its a good few years since I shot any circuit racing.

_DSC2088 by Ben, on Flickr

_DSC3144 by Ben, on Flickr

_DSC6460 by Ben, on Flickr

_DSC7269 by Ben, on Flickr

_DSC5418 by Ben, on Flickr

_DSC2005 by Ben, on Flickr

Excuse the somewhat obnoxious watermarks, I put them on the flickr copies so that when people use them without permission instead of buying copies at least I still have some degree of credit on them.

Quite a few albums on flickr too... https://www.flickr.com/photos/gravelben/albums

Edited by GravelBen on Thursday 25th May 01:08

[ch37]

Dave. said:

Got a bit disheartened by it all to be honest, especially when Flickr went downhill. I had pro for a good few years but it lost its value so dropped it a few years back.

I use Flickr but only as a storage/backup site now, the social aspect of it has pretty much died off. I happened to notice I have quite a few recent photos with zero views the other day, and I so called have nearly 1000 'followers'.

Instagram is superb for Motorsport photography community, I've made a lot of friends, chat to people daily on there and often bump into people in real life now at events. I've never gone out looking for work/accreditation but all my opportunities have come via just sharing photos there.

[Dave.]

ch37 said:

I use Flickr but only as a storage/backup site now, the social aspect of it has pretty much died off. I happened to notice I have quite a few recent photos with zero views the other day, and I so called have nearly 1000 'followers'.

Instagram is superb for Motorsport photography community, I've made a lot of friends, chat to people daily on there and often bump into people in real life now at events. I've never gone out looking for work/accreditation but all my opportunities have come via just sharing photos there.

During lockdown I started posting on IG, but it took too long doing 1 pic at a time on the phone. I tried to automate it but couldn't find a way without spending money, which took all the fun out of it for me.

[giveitfish]

I’ve always looked forward to seeing your rallying posts Ben

This shot really hits the spot for me, love it!

GravelBen said:

_DSC6460 by Ben, on Flickr