Ten tips from a pro: Jamey Price tells you how to get great motorsports photos, even without a press pass
posted Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 5:59 AM EDT
To the uninitiated, shooting a motor race can be an intimidating and sometimes frustrating experience. Although the potential for a great shot is high -- race tracks are colorful and interesting places, and race fans themselves can be quite an entertaining bunch -- it can take quite a bit of work to come to grips with panning, one of the key tools in the race photographer's arsenal.
And the widespread use of tall, unattractive debris fences around the track, although great for keeping you safe from harm in the event of a crash, wouldn't necessarily seem to lend itself to great photos. Nor do typical race fans have quite the same degree of access which the pros get.
But once you get the hang of it, shooting a race even from the cheap seats can be a heck of a lot of fun, and with a little practice can yield some great results too. I know, because I've shot a fair few races myself over the years, sometimes being fortunate to have passes that would let me into areas that are usually off limits, but more often with no better access than any other fan.
And one of the ways in which I've improved my own motorsports photography, beyond just simple trial-and-error, has been to watch what the pros were doing, look at their photos, and learn from them. A great article from motorsports photographer Jamey Price over at F1Fanatic gives you the opportunity to do the same.
In the piece, Price -- whose photos have graced the pages of major racing publications and newspapers around the globe -- gives you ten tips on how to get great photos at the racetrack. Although the article focuses on Formula One racing since that's the main topic of interest at F1 Fanatic, the advice within could be applied to racing at pretty much any level, from your local dirt or kart track all the way up to races like the Monaco Grand Prix or Indy 500. It's also just as applicable to two-wheeled racing as to four-wheeled, and to closed-wheel racers as to the open-wheeled ones in F1.
If you want some advice from a motorsports pro on how to improve your photos, I'd highly recommend reading the article over at F1 Fanatic. And as Price suggests in his summation, don't just read it: Take a look at photos from himself and his fellow pros, both for inspiration and to see what makes for a really great race photo. You'll find the Twitter accounts of quite a few race photographers listed in F1 Fanatic's Twitter directory, and you can see Price's own photos on his website and Instagram page.
• Ten tips for taking great F1 photographs •
(via F1 Fanatic. Index image by Michael Tomkins.)