During my last few weeks at university, I set out to document local motorsport, my aim was to cover everything I could and narrow it down after a few months. however, with the COVID-19 outbreak I could only shoot twice; with Team Brit and a local motor cross / side car race. In this post I will take you through my process of research and development though this short project, and reflect on my work to help me prepare myself for the next time I am allowed to shoot a motor sport event.
My first shoot was with Team Brit at Silverstone race circuit. I remember going there when I was 14 to watch the Formula One Race, I was blown away with how fast the cars actually went, when watching on Tv you really don’t get a scale of this. I also remember walking the entire perimeter of the circuit, and complaining it was too far, compares to now where I was being paid to walk around it and document the cars speeding past. On the day, Bobby (my contacts at Team Brit) and I set off at 6am to the race track where we met the team of racers, engineers, marshals and the boss. Everyone was really accommodating to me, allowing me to take their portraits and offering me cups of tea all day. I shot for the whole day, which was about 12 hours in the pits, and took over 150GB of photos, so I knew I had a big few days of editing ahead.
I did some research in to Team Brit before I went, and learnt that all their racers have some sort of physical or mental disability, from ADHD to amputated limbs. Some of the stories they shared with me were very moving, however I feel a blog layout is not the space to share these, so perhaps in the future if I make a publication of this work, I will included their works there.
For the second half of this project I explored more local sources of motor sport, I found myself in contact with motor cross / side car racers from Swindon, they invited my to their track day in early March to shoot the teams, however, I quickly found myself documenting the families, marshals and engineers too. It was a very wet day, I used a Sainsbury’s bag to cover my camera and even shot form my car for some of the day.
I shot with my Sony A7III, Nikon D810, Sigma 20mm 1.4, Zeiss 55mm 1.8 and Nikor 300mm 2.8 (which is the heaviest lens I have ever used). Carrying all this equipment around a muddy field made me realise why professionals hire assistants to help. Overall I shot for 6 hours, ending with over 1,500 images I knew I had a lot of content to go over. I made a point of giving out as many business cards as possible, I went with 50 and came back with none. Since then, I have had multiple people come forward and contact me regarding future races / track days they would like to hire me for. I am really looking forward to getting back out and shooting with them after Quarantine ends.
