NEW here Need help!!!

[LensCrazy]

I have always loved photography, now I am addicted. About 2 months ago I dumped my point&shoot and my 35mm SLR for a Canon D350 Rebel xt. I LOVE IT. But now I am looking to take my new found passion to the next level. I own my own business and would phase myself out of it to start making money in photography. I love cars and race my own vehicle once a month and have started to practice at events like this. But how do i transition into a full time photo money maker? I have already invested in many lenses, from the 1-5x macro to 300mm lenses. I also purchased a backpack, tripod, extra memory cards, and batteries. SO being that this is my first post and that I am new to all of this I hope to get a great response. PRO’s please tell me what I truly need in my collection and where do I start.

THANKS

[ken1953]

Hello LC...welcome to PR...I am not a pro, but am considering doing what you are trying to do. From my experience here and having seen a few recent posts on this subject, here is one How to become a freelance. , I recommend reviewing the posts on here (VF) and on the help forum. Another thing I've read on here is that you need "LOTS" of pictures. Find a site that you can post your stock photos on and see if they sell...this will be a good indicator as to whether you are marketable...you can also look at others photos on this and other sites and compare your pictures to other photographers. We have a some really good race photographers on this site. One that comes to mind is SmartWombat. Check out posts by him, here's one... The most Beautiful Circuit ... . Anyway...good luck and hope this helps a little.
Ken

[LensCrazy]

Ken,
You are correct he does take great photos of the track. Thanks for the help. It seem that many people are in my boat...... lets start rowing!

[JSPhoto]

You may want to check out this post too LensCrazy For those wanting to go freelance.....Part 1

I have not done part 2 yet, who knows, I may do that tomorrow now. Anyway, shooting motorsports can be very rewarding, it can also be very dangerous, I know from experience on the dangerous part . It's also very competetive and cut throat, and even harder to get into.
Making things harder now is the influx of people who say " I have a camera and I can take race pictures", so many in fact some tracks now limit the number of photographers, even charging them. Things need to be set up in advance at 90% of the tracks, just showing up expecting them to let you in will not work. Some may let you in but charge you pit fees to get in.
Getting published and paid is even more difficult, most magazines and race publications have their own shooters or hire well known shooters.
And one really big no no.... don't sell photos at the tracks without first talking to the tracks owner! This is espcially true if they have a track photographer.
Have your gear insured, anything can happen at a race track and normally does! Take that from someone who has been a track photographer. One track I was at runs 90+ race/practice dates a year, from March through October, thats a lot of time, averaing 6 hours or more per day, a lot of stress. Most photographers burn out on half that number of dates.

Any questions feel free to ask, I normally hide out in the sports forum, or you can email me.

JS

[LensCrazy]

Thanks for the input guys!
I don't even care if I work for someone, newspaper ect. I just would like to do this full time. IF i could make enough money. Thats the other problem I have no idea what these people make. Are people able to make a living or is it just a hobby for some extra dough? I know the big guys make some serious cash.

[JSPhoto]

Thanks for the input guys!
I don't even care if I work for someone, newspaper ect. I just would like to do this full time. IF i could make enough money. Thats the other problem I have no idea what these people make. Are people able to make a living or is it just a hobby for some extra dough? I know the big guys make some serious cash.

I know a lot of motorsports photographers, and 98% do it as a side job because they love racing. The other 2% are paid by magazines and are staff photographers. Considering travel costs, making money is really tough. To start you will likely not make any money for a year or two unless you find a track that needs a photographer... few and far between there too. If they do, they either want someone experianced or known, or the deal isn't good enough to make money. Some tracks the photographer just gets a cut of the sales, others you just can't come out ahead even if you get everything you sell. You need a large inventory of photos etc.
Even photographers that follow a series, such as the IRL are just part timers, same with NASCAR, NHRA etc. Newspapers do not pay much, the AP pays well, IF you get something THEY want to use. Normally crashes and such, and then there are 10 other AP shooters who may have something they like better so your out with nothing. Try sitting through 16 days at Indy through rain, cold, hot burning days and not get one shot run! All your expenses are yours, and not make a penny the entire month. Can't eat doing that. Add in gear insurance (better have it!) and travel, lodging and it adds up.

Not trying to burst your bubble here, just giving you the truth, been doing this 5 years, making money some months, starving others. It's the toughest, most crowed type of photography there is, and most cut throat too.

JS

[LensCrazy]

WOW, I had no idea it was like that. But yes i do enjoy the motorsports but i would not want to limit it to that.

Thanks you have given me lots of info. I wish we could all get paid well for doing something we love. The world we be a much happier place, but who would pick up my trash?

[LensCrazy]

JSPhoto

I looked at your website. You take some nice shots and now i have some questions. First please look at the autocross photo in my gallery, I want to make these type of shots look like the car is going fast. Like with the car in perfect focus and the road and background blured, how? Also here is a list of what i have, What else do you think i need.

Canon D350 rebel xt
Canon EFS 18-55 (standard)
Canon EF US 100-300mm
Canon EF US IS 28-135mm
Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo (should arrive tomorrow)
Three Batteries
Three CF card two 1gig and one 128
Tripod
Backpack

Thank you again, you have been very helpful.

[JSPhoto]

WOW, I had no idea it was like that. But yes i do enjoy the motorsports but i would not want to limit it to that.

Thanks you have given me lots of info. I wish we could all get paid well for doing something we love. The world we be a much happier place, but who would pick up my trash?

lol, but I know of a couple people who love collecting trash.... you should see the stuff these people get for FREE! And the pay aint bad either.... nasty job to you and me, but these people love it, and they have nicer homes than I do...

Yeah, it's tough, and getting tougher. The advent of digital cameras didn't help matters. I know one track where the photographer went from taking in $1000+ a weekend and then tried to figure out what happened when he discovered people were taking their own pictures. He retired after 27 years at that track, and now, only authorized (by track owner) people can get in with cameras.

Just to show you how bad it is at races I'll dig up a couple shots I have of photgraphers. One shot there are 30 or so, and thats just one of 4 turns..... elbow to elbow

BTW, newspapers rarely pay well, but if you work a lot, all kinds of sports you can make a few thousand a year, not enough to live on but hey, it helps with the bills.

Gear is important too, look professional, have good gear and it goes a long way... have pro gear and it will get you farther.... if you know how to use it track owners do not like it when you say you missed the winners shot or the big wreck and it happens to the best but at least I haven't heard of someone loosing an entire nights shots becausee the lab messed up their film

JS

[LensCrazy]

JS,

Here is a link to the photos i took. I really want to add some aspect of motion to the next ones i take. How do i set up the camera? Also i dont know if you cought my last post on equiptment. THANKS!!
Subaru Photos

[JSPhoto]

These are pretty hard to really tell anything do to the distance from the subject and angle etc. The idea though to get really good speed shots is to pan or follow the subject, use a slow shutter speed, the slowr the subject the slower the shutter speed. You can get similar results and I'll add a couple shots here to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

In the first shot: taken at 1/60 shutter speed, ISO 1250 Sigma 70-200mm with only available light. I'll post the others seperately as I have to dig them up, I know where this one is hiding

JS

[JSPhoto]

This one was pure bad timing in some respects, in others it's a really cool series of shots... 12 of Bobby Labonte hitting the turn 3 wall in this years Brickyard 400. I was just getting bored and decided to slow shutter speed down and the Bobby smacks the wall. Some shots you see paint flying over the car like it's in a wind tunnel These were shot at 1/125 shutter 800 ISO f22 aperature. I was having focus issues with my camera at the time, since sent to Canon and repaired.

JS

[JSPhoto]

And finally, from this years Indy 500, this was shot at higher speed than I like, but lighting was sporadic that day with clouds coming and going, sometimes changing while they were in the corner as you shot. This is from turn 4.

Shutter 1/1000 ISO 800 f11 and, as you can see from all three shots the background is more visible in each shot the quicker the shutter is, slower the shutter the faster the scene looks.
Panning takes a lot of practice to get it right, get framing correct, get angle (ie level) and to get panning speed correct. It may sound odd but I suggest standing near a road (safely please) and practice as cars drive past just following the cars as they go by. It really helps.

JS

[LensCrazy]

Man THANKS, In my business i help out all the other guys in the area with ideas and business plans even though they are my compitition. I am glad that you are willing to spend some time chatting with me and giving me pointers.

I already thought about going out on the road and takeing photos of cars passing, I need to do it stealth like, next thing ya know someone will pull up ready to smash my camera thinking i was the poparatzi.

What else do you think i need in my camera bag? I just added a 2GB card to the list above.

Thanks Again

[SmartWombat]

Very good panning there.
It's my one weakness, I have a high number of rejects at slow shutter sped.

I'm surprised the suspension is so high, are you on the inside of the bend, with the car rolled over away from you on soft suspenion?