Tips for motorsport photographer

[Pizzamannen]

Hey!

So I've asked to work free as a photographer on 2 events at Red bull ring in Austria. Both parties were happy with my work and I've been invited to join the racing series for 2016 as a media photographer if I want.

Do you have any tips?
I never went to photography school. I know you can just shoot away thousands of photos. But someone has to flick thru them. Do you do your editing yourself? Or do you leave your sd card to media responsible at the event and they check thru your pictures?

I mainly ask the events if I could photograph for free I give them all my photos for them to be able to use for there website / promotion whatever.
For 2 days i took like 3000 photos and I worked hard on going thru the photos my self checking cropping and tones and so on. At the end I ended up with 1259 photos which were sharp and looked good.

But it took me one and a half days. So the guy in charge got the pictures a bit late. So do you pick a lot less? Like the 20 best photos and send it via email quick ?

Just want to hear some ideas .

Thanks!

[redshoes]

I suspect the first tip should be 'don't work for free'.

[JohnD]

If it gets you a "PHOTO" tabard and a priviledged place at trackside, I'd do it for nothing.
John

[andrewc]

Tip 1: Don't do it for nothing. Get something in return. A photo credit doesn't pay for a camera service.

Tip 2: Its your job to deliver a number of top quality photos, edited for general usage, in a prompt manner. How you achieve that is up to you - but cherry pick the best and work on those.

[Alexander Matveev]

Hi Pizzamannen!

During the last two years I am in a very similar position as yours, shooting the events for free in return for media access for me and edited pictures for the other party.

On the one hand, I tend to agree with the above replies to not work for free, which means you shouls always have some money in your pocket to actually pay for your own services (equipment, travelling, accommodation, ..., less ticket price ). But on the other hand that gave me a much closer access to the track and paddock (of course, bearing in mind to always be in line with the safety regulations!). Now I would hardly visit a motorsport event as a spectator to be somewhere there in a big crowd, far behind the fence and away from any action and quick information, with only some exceptions.

As for the number of pictures, it is an extremely rare case that anybody would ever browse through a 1200-picture album, be it a local rally sprint or a Formula 1 GP. I'd say, some 200 pictures is an absolute maximum of what they would expect from you (of course, the case of several hundred cars during the event is 'a bit' different), given they would still browse through them to pick the best ones, but those should better be your 'top' shots and preferrably capturing the key events and personalities of the race weekend. Sometimes the organizers could ask to just download your shots right from your card right on the track, but I prefer to never do it that way, as they would hardly be accurate with choosing the best shots and, moreover, they would hardly even bother to edit them, so the result would most probably be worse than if you do it yourself.

[NaBUru38]

I'm an amateur (and terrible) photographer. I take a point-and-shoot camera to sports events in Uruguay and upload the photos to Wikimedia Commons.

I do it for pleasure and to contribute to knowledge about my country, so I don't care about earning money.

Life is making choices according to what you wish. So if you rahter attend races and take photos for free than stay at home, then do so. If you don't, then don't work for free.

[Miguel]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Life is making choices according to what you wish. So if you rahter attend races and take photos for free than stay at home, then do so. If you don't, then don't work for free.

I wish it were this simple, but it's not. Someone working for free makes it harder to get paid for those who already are or want to be. It's killing motorsports photography and it's not helping the quality of photography either.

[rwintle]

Originally Posted by Pizzamannen

Hey!

So I've asked to work free as a photographer on 2 events at Red bull ring in Austria. Both parties were happy with my work and I've been invited to join the racing series for 2016 as a media photographer if I want.

Do you have any tips?
I never went to photography school. I know you can just shoot away thousands of photos. But someone has to flick thru them. Do you do your editing yourself? Or do you leave your sd card to media responsible at the event and they check thru your pictures?

I mainly ask the events if I could photograph for free I give them all my photos for them to be able to use for there website / promotion whatever.
For 2 days i took like 3000 photos and I worked hard on going thru the photos my self checking cropping and tones and so on. At the end I ended up with 1259 photos which were sharp and looked good.

But it took me one and a half days. So the guy in charge got the pictures a bit late. So do you pick a lot less? Like the 20 best photos and send it via email quick ?

Just want to hear some ideas .

Thanks!

My advice would be to ask the people you're handing in to what they want, *before* the event starts. I don't know anybody who would be happy with 1,200+ photos handed in. How will they be used? Are they going to put an album up on a Facebook page or website? They're going to need a couple of dozen, maybe same day, maybe a day or two later. In a news item online? Maybe a couple delivered same day. Are they keeping them for reference purposes? Maybe more, but not urgently.

Rule #1: find out what the client wants first, then deliver exactly that.

Of course, if they just said "for the website, promotion, whatever" - that's symptomatic of them not paying for the service. People who pay know what they are paying for, generally speaking.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed your experience and didn't get too killed by going through all those photos. I have steadily decreased the number of photos I take at motorsports events over the years (or any events, really). Life is too short to be looking through thousands of photos when hundreds would do, IMHO.

[jase]

Motorsport is full of those giving their work away for free, series love you, drivers love you as they don't have to pay a full time pro fro the same thing. Problem is, the pro has experience, and that experience comes with a cost, especially when it is their actual job rather than a hobby, who will then be expected to work for less. It may get your foot in the door, but you will never recoup expenses.
How do you pay for your insurances? What if your camera gets damaged, or worse,you get hurt?

3000 images? Too much work

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Miguel

It's killing motorsports photography and it's not helping the quality of photography either.

Explain?

I accept that the pros have many years of experience, but others are entitled to have the chance to get a foot on the ladder. I'm an amateur, have never had any media access, but I have had photos published (and have been paid for them - although I didn't ask for payment). Life doesn't stand still and pros can't expect to have the 'field' left entirely to them. I guess if your work is good enough, people will be willing to pay for it and you may too join the ranks of the pros.....

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I accept that the pros have many years of experience, but others are entitled to have the chance to get a foot on the ladder. I'm an amateur, have never had any media access, but I have had photos published (and have been paid for them - although I didn't ask for payment). Life doesn't stand still and pros can't expect to have the 'field' left entirely to them. I guess if your work is good enough, people will be willing to pay for it and you may too join the ranks of the pros.....

There is a lot of junk out there - people go to a meeting, take 3000 images and then upload them all to faceache, twotter or whatever. A little bit of quality control would limit that to 10-20 - doing everyone a favour.

I'm in the same boat as you - amateur who enjoys taking snaps at meetings and has had a few published (only of friends cars - in MN, Autosport and assorted local papers). In those cases I haven't taken money away from a pro - if the pics weren't free the publication concerned either wouldn't have bothered with a picture or wouldn't have bothered with the article at all. Having photos in papers helps keep their sponsors happy so I'm happy to help where I can.

As far as buying photos from pros - I do that too (for events I've competed in). Why? Well - on some events we do there are strict rules about who can be in the venue (no spectators, no in car cameras, no cameras allowed full stop - apart from the pro and they're told where they can and can't point the camera) so the pro is the only choice anyway. Other events the pros have better access so can get shots of the car that amateurs (no matter how good they are and how good their gear is) just can't get.

Prices vary greatly between photographers but usually a deal can be done if you're buying 10+ photos (as digital images) - it helps as well if you're a regular customer!