15052517a

The "Vest" gives the professionsal racing photographer the access they need to do their jobs. With a little work and a lot of practice even fans without the "Vest" can come home from their local track with some great shots.

  

By: Mike Sullivan/RaceCanada.ca
May 25 2015
 
 

Photography is a huge part of auto racing, from the glossy F1 magazines, to web sites like ours, to all the fans that show up at the track with camera's looking for that great on-track shot, or a special picture with their favourite driver. I can't remember ever going to a race track in more than 30 years without a camera of some sort around my neck.

Once at a race track, any race track, you don't have too look far to see someone with a camera, from the host of pro's who descend on the track to provide coverage, to the serious amateurs that show up with equipment bags that rival the pro's, to the fans with small point and shoots or their phones. Everyone wants to bring back memories from the race.

It's really a bit surprising that nobody has done this before. On occasion, we might see an article about photography, or advice from one of the publications photographers, but I can't recall any seeing any regular discussions about racing photography, or the professional's that are out shooting it every weekend, or and tips and advice from those pro's for those of us who aren't.

In the new Photography Category, we're going to profile racing photographers, look at new equipment and techniques, discuss shooting at different tracks and share some of the tips and techniques of the pro's.

Along with camera's and photo equipment, we'll also take a look at different software packages and editing techniques for processing your photos when the weekend is over.

And while it's a bit outside of our comfort zone, we'll also take a look at taking pictures with smart phones, and what accessories are out there that can help capture some great track side pictures for those that don't have, or don't want, a large camera outfit.

We'll also talk about different aspects of being a motorsport journalist, some of the work and effort that goes into preparing for a race weekend, as well as the work that follows it. As fun as it can be, it can also be a lot of work.

The Photography Category will also be the new home of our photo galleries, giving us more flexibility than than the previous photo gallery section.

Be sure to check out our first 2 Photographer profiles of John R Walker and Ivan Novotny, as well as the great frame-by-frame gallery of Andrei Kissel's roll-over captured by John Larsen at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park during the Castrol Speedfest.  

We hope you enjoy the new section and we welcome questions if you have any for us, or the photographers we profile, please don't hesitate to leave us a comment on the article or send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.