Beginner Motorsport photography, where to start.

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Chris
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This year I fancy trying my hand at sports photography, more in particular motorsports i.e., bikes & rallying. As a complete newbie to this field, I have 2 main questions,

1. Where are the best places to find out about events

2. How do you go about photographing the events, i.e. do you need a pass or can you just turn up and snap away.

I appreciate that as an amateur I will be behind any safety barriers but you have to start somewhere. :)

Thanks for any help

Edit: meant to say my goal is the to further enjoy my hobby and develop new skills, rather than to generate any form of income
 
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there is lots of places chris where abouts are you ? have you had a look to see if theres any tracks near you
 
have a look on face book there is bound to be groups near you also look for things like drift days etc
 
Apart from getting involved with major circuits etc it can be as easy as finding your nearest Karting circuit and get over there for a race or practice meeting, not the indoor karting places that do the turn up and drive for an hour but look for a propper outdoor venue that run 2-strokes, chances are it will be free and you will get pretty close to the action and a very good place to start and learn the craft. Then there is also motocross, again local/club level you will get fairly close to the action and theres events going on most weekends all over the country..
 
When you say "bikes" if you mean racing on a circuit the best place to look is the events calendar page of any circuits near you. They might not have the full 2015 calendars up yet but you can keep an eye on it over the year or follow them on social media as they'll probably mention events that are coming up soon.
For stuff that isn't on a major circuit (e.g. stage/road rallies, bike trials, etcetera) you could try and find the websites for you nearest motor clubs and look at their events calendar pages too. Doing searches for nearby town names followed by "motor club" should turn up some results.
 
Thanks for the advice all, I have found a few motor clubs nearby and I've also found a local circuit which runs events, so I've pencilled a few dates into the diary.

A friend is also going to be competing with his MT 06 this year so I will probably tag along to those as well :)
 
Look up a website called 'it's my motorsport' they list rally events all over theU.K and Europe usually with links to websites giving spectator information.
 
Agree about Mallory. It's down the road from us, a great place to start, loads of different spots around the track to get snapping, and try different techniques etc. Many shots can be taken from an elevated position too, as well as good old low down shots due to fairly low fences.
 
Another vote for Mallory.

I took this at Mallory a few years back, it was shot at 70mm on my old 30D with no cropping. Access is/was rather good :)

malloryff.jpg
 
Another 'benefit' is that its quite a short lap (about 43 seconds in our racing car), so you get plenty of opportunities to catch the action.

Whilst I'm happy that Mallory Park is still here following the problems in 2013, the ladies that ran the cafe and served the best cooked breakfast at any circuit in the UK have all retired en-masse.
 
Darley Moor is a good circuit. Being a small club racing track you can get a lot closer to the racing.
 
Another 'benefit' is that its quite a short lap (about 43 seconds in our racing car), so you get plenty of opportunities to catch the action.

Whilst I'm happy that Mallory Park is still here following the problems in 2013, the ladies that ran the cafe and served the best cooked breakfast at any circuit in the UK have all retired en-masse.

Thanks for that, should give me plenty of practice )

Darley Moor is a good circuit. Being a small club racing track you can get a lot closer to the racing.

Will definitely give this a look, its only 30 mins from where I live :)
 
I've been thinking of having a go at some bike stuff myself and found this site Chris. Now whether you want to go for MX or trials, I'm not sure, but it does look like events are all over the country.

www.tmxnews.co.uk/pages/whats-on

Good luck

Di
 
Panning is a useful technique for Motorsport. You can practice that on normal cars and bikes on the public highway.

There are/were few places at Donnington to avoid the high fences that were installed to appease the F1 safety folks back in the 90's. Silverstone is also surrounded by high fencing with few places for Joe Public.

Oulton Park is not bad for fencing, so it is possible to get some decent angles from the public areas.

If you shoot rallying (and I haven't for decades), make sure you keep yourself safe as it's rather more unpredictable than circuit racing.

Try to stand where you have the sun shining from behind you over your left or right shoulder.

Shots where the car or bike are coming into the frame usually work better than when they are leaving, though that's not a hard and fast rule of course.

Take a bottle of water with you and wear a hat. I also recommend wearing walking boots instead of trainers.

Oh, and have fun!
 
I've been thinking of having a go at some bike stuff myself and found this site Chris. Now whether you want to go for MX or trials, I'm not sure, but it does look like events are all over the country.

www.tmxnews.co.uk/pages/whats-on

Good luck

Di

Thanks for that I'll have a look :)

Panning is a useful technique for Motorsport. You can practice that on normal cars and bikes on the public highway.

There are/were few places at Donnington to avoid the high fences that were installed to appease the F1 safety folks back in the 90's. Silverstone is also surrounded by high fencing with few places for Joe Public.

Oulton Park is not bad for fencing, so it is possible to get some decent angles from the public areas.

If you shoot rallying (and I haven't for decades), make sure you keep yourself safe as it's rather more unpredictable than circuit racing.

Try to stand where you have the sun shining from behind you over your left or right shoulder.

Shots where the car or bike are coming into the frame usually work better than when they are leaving, though that's not a hard and fast rule of course.

Take a bottle of water with you and wear a hat. I also recommend wearing walking boots instead of trainers.

Oh, and have fun!

Thanks Glenn, some useful tips :D

It depends on the venue and event. The major events will limit you to being behind the fences, but track days, or club days you might get a bit more access, but within reason. There's a few tips shooting through fences and how to setup

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/first-time-motorsport-tips.537057/
http://blog.darrenwardphotography.co.uk/

Thanks for the links Peter, I'll have a look. I'm thinking about starting off with a few track days to get the practice, really need to work on my panning
 
At a 'proper' circuit, unless you have valid PLI, you will or should be ejected if you went trackside. Pitwall should be OK on a trackday.

I wouldn't get overly het up about having to practise panning. Its a skill that is fairly easily learnt assuming you know the theory - a smooth motion, following through as you focus and speed the shutter. The traditional full-on sideways pan isn't used that much in the motorsport press.
 
I wouldn't get overly het up about having to practise panning. Its a skill that is fairly easily learnt assuming you know the theory - a smooth motion, following through as you focus and speed the shutter. The traditional full-on sideways pan isn't used that much in the motorsport press.

I'd disagree with you there, it might be a technic that someone can pick up, but its difficult to master and get a decent success rate, slightly easier for cars, but more of a challenge on motorbikes or F1, thats the reason why the press don't use it, is because it won't guarantee them the money shot
 
I'd probably agree, I've been practising panning for several years without a massive amount of success. Granted I don't go to that many motorsport events so by the time I've got back into the swing of it the year is almost over, but I find that if I get a good (or sometimes even a great) panned shot, it's more by luck or because I've taken a high-speed burst and can pick a decent one from the bunch. I'd hate to have been trying the technique when I was using a film camera.

I also found Oulton easier to deal with in terms of not having a lot of fencing in the way, though that might be because I'm not as familiar with Donington.
 
Any circuit that has been 'upgraded' to F1 standard seem to have ridiculously high fencing pretty much all the way around the circuit, even down the straight sections.
 
Yes, but...

Corner safety is all that has been concentrate on - run off, gravel traps, tyre barriers, armco, catch fencing, plenty of marshals and so on. On a straight cars are accelerating hard and there is generally a comparatively thin strip of grass before either a bank or a barrier so a lot more energy is still with the vehicle by the time it hits something which could easily be a spectator.

Personally I have no problems with fencing on the straights. I'd prefer a clearer view of the corner as most of the time that is where the action happens.
 
I'd disagree with you there, it might be a technic that someone can pick up, but its difficult to master and get a decent success rate, slightly easier for cars, but more of a challenge on motorbikes or F1, thats the reason why the press don't use it, is because it won't guarantee them the money shot
Sorry for the thread hijack but i have a few questions that may be relevant

I go to Le mans and find panning very tricky unless im further away from the track or the cars are on a parade lap so practicing on slower moving targets may be of use.

I posted in the equipment section that Im looking at getting a new zoom lens the more "affordable" ones I were looking at did not have stabilisation.
Would it be to get a slower lens that has stabilisation or a faster one without for panning shots?
 
I've never used a "stabilised" lens for Motorsport, I think it just gets in the way :)
 
I've found that I get better results for motorsport with IS switched off, than on, even on its panning setting. However, IS is useful for other genres of photography where you are keeping the camera still and not swinging it about like a demented loon.
 
Sorry for the thread hijack but i have a few questions that may be relevant

I go to Le mans and find panning very tricky unless im further away from the track or the cars are on a parade lap so practicing on slower moving targets may be of use.

I posted in the equipment section that Im looking at getting a new zoom lens the more "affordable" ones I were looking at did not have stabilisation.
Would it be to get a slower lens that has stabilisation or a faster one without for panning shots?

Check out the thread, might give you some ideas whether its worth taking the camera.
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/hiring-a-lens-for-le-mans-2014.540038/#post-6241752

As for the lens, depends what you can afford, so when you say affordable are we taking £0-500, £500-1000 or £1000+
 
I posted in the other thread about shake reduction, the advice I had was that the camera might be trying to correct the blurred background and make things worse. Apparently some Sigma lenses allow you to enable vertical stabilisation but disable horizontal. Other advice I had (but haven't tried yet) was to use manual focus instead of AF.
 
This will be my 6th year and 4th lugging round the SLR. I lost my S95 one year but that was alcohol induced.
Some valid points about the risks though.
I guess my second hand budget tops out at about £800 but that would have to be for something special as my initial budget was supposed to be around £400.
Some of my better fading light shots have been up closer with the 50mm as it was able to work better in the fading light
 
I posted in the other thread about shake reduction, the advice I had was that the camera might be trying to correct the blurred background and make things worse. Apparently some Sigma lenses allow you to enable vertical stabilisation but disable horizontal. Other advice I had (but haven't tried yet) was to use manual focus instead of AF.

A lot of the time at Le Mans I had to use MF otherwise the camera is too keen on focusing on the fence!
 
The spectator banking on the inside of the Porsche Curves provides a good spot for panning, with a nice view of the track above the fencing...
 
Yeah thats true dont think we went there last year, we are going to bring bikes along this year so that will make getting to all the different vantage points a bit easier
 
I took my gear down for the first time last year, I really enjoyed shooting from the inside of the Esses and Tertre Rouge, especially with the early evening sun . There is a good spot on the outside of the Esses too (exit of the corner), but it does become busy once the race is under way . The Audi viewing platform was good I thought, certainly worth a visit, I went up there on Sunday at around midday as it was quiet then.
I'm going to try the Porsche curves this year, inside and outside, the new tarmac run offs may spoil the photos a little though unless they paint them as they have at Tertre Rouge.
The Mulsanne corner is ok with something around 400mm + , it is a long way to travel with all the traffic during the race though.
 
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