Motocross Photography

I know you didn’t ask, but,.lol..From a rider perspective- I like when photographers take pics at races and practice and post them online…cool to go thru the pictures and find yourself.

What I don’t often see if how to purchase the digital picture(s) so not sure how these folks are making money. I’d purchase pictures just to support the photographer (not that I need them per say). 
 

Several years ago a local photographer made it possible to order prints off his website in a variety of sizes and he’d ship,them out..- I get you can do that with a digital photo and send to Walgreens, but again I am more inclined to support a local photographer..

If it’s something you enjoy go for it! Just expect everyone to ask for free pics…put a watermark in a place not easily cropped out for anything you put on social media if your goal is to try and sell the photos 

Go to some of the offroad races around you as well, there is always a few guys around at ours and people have no problem paying $5 or so for pictures, lots more freedom of where you can walk and shoot compared to a MX track. 

At best, you may get your gas and entry paid for. No idea how much work goes into that on a hourly scale. If you go into it with the hobby mindset and zero expectation of profit, I think it can be very rewarding.

I greatly appreciate the moto photographers out there. I make sure to compensate whenever I use a photo. I started a folder on my laptop last year and compiled the whole season of my kid and made a shutterfly photobook. I went a little overboard on the book with pages so it was like almost $200 even with a discount, but its a reference piece. Next fall Ill widdle it down a bit and probably get the Grandparents copies for Christmas as well

I was pretty into it for a while and Paul Buckley offered me a job taking photos for him at one point. He showed me a lot when I started out, I did not want to turn it into a job at the time. But both he and my mother who was a former professional sports photographer (We lived 15 mins from the NE pats stadium at the time and she did all those games) encouraged offered great advice. I was doing it because I got hurt and was unable to ride and was working as a heavy equipment operator and painting helmets, just dipping my toes into digital printing at the time as a hobby as well.  I enjoyed getting the types of photos that I would want of myself.  

I sold some here and there to people who wanted a print. But I did it mostly to drive traffic to my website that at the time had a gallery with photos from the local and National races I went to with captions. And I posted at a high enough res that people could print them if they didn't mind my logo on them. 

 I was at High Point in 05, the first race I went to with a DSLR. Up to that point I was playing around for 6 months or so with a point and shoot camera. I had it for a few local races in the fall but only had the crappy kit lens. I got a slightly better lens, a 75-300 and went to High Point with it. I took a ton of photos. A lot of crappie ones while I learned my camera and lens. But I also got a really nice one of James Stewart in a corner. It's one of my favorite photos that I have taken since it ignited a passion for photography that led me to getting a photo in Racer-X. A small one on the cover and large 2 page spread (November 05 with Doug Henry on a supermoto bike as the main image) . I got paid the rate for it, which at the time was not enough to cover much more than fuel for the drive there. (8 hours one way in a full-sized Diesel pickup). The publicly that I got locally helped me launch my graphics company as a full-time thing.  

  I would say go for it, if You are looking for something that can be fun. Remember that anything You post online, people will take it if its decent and repost it. Use that to your advantage and only post a handful of the best images with a smaller logo of yours directing people to Your website to purchase photos, if You are looking to sell prints or digital files.  And post the samples of photos for sale at a lower res covered with watermarks. People will still grab them and use them.

 If You have a guy that has been doing it locally for a while.  Talk with them and let them know what You want to do. Try and be friendly, perhaps You could work with them if You want to sell photos. Or if You are just doing it for fun, perhaps it could ease any friction of them worrying about lost sales, etc. And they may be able to help You out with access to the track, or if You are both selling them, avoid being in the same place, taking the same photos. 

If You plan on doing it just for fun. Go for it, I have a ton of fun doing it still almost 20 years later. I don't get to do it as often now. But go for it. Getting an amazing photo can feel pretty good. Sometimes as good as railing a berm perfectly. Most of the time it's not going to fulfill You in the same ways riding will, but it can still be a very fun and rewarding hobby. Showing people the photos, you get and having them be excited is a good feeling. I even find just getting the angle and the rider, background, etc. all how I pictured it in my mind, a very fun part of the process, even if I never show anybody the photo. These days it is much easier with the way cameras do so much for You. But You still need the ability to visualize the shot so You can be there to get it at the right time. And that part can be extremely rewarding. Getting the roost nice and in focus with a nice, blurred background. Time suspended forever in that moment.

 Thinking about it and writing about it is making me miss it even more. The main reason I haven't been shooting as much recently is I am the primary caretaker for my mother at the moment. I'm hoping that I can bring her out to some local races in our RV this year if Shes able to. She used to be one of the local photographers for the NE Patriots games. When I was a baby, she would strap me into a thing called a snugly that was like a backpack on the front. And I would be right there on the field with her, snapping away. She had a darkroom at our house. I can smell the chemicals as I think back. I watched her develop many rolls of film in that second bathroom that was her darkroom. Now we may come full circle, but with her being trackside at a National or local race. While I might be big enough to pull off carrying her around like she did with me as a baby, I will most likely have her roll around in a wheelchair.          

We used to shoot as much as possible at local races & sell images for $1ea. At the end of the day only a fraction of the racers even looked at the site. 

Now we offer “Track Passes” where we shoot ALL of a rider’s motos on the day for $50-$75. It lets us focus on the riders who actually WANT images & really try to get some great shots of that rider. 

While it does help pay for some gas, I much prefer shooting a guy who’s ripping & end up with a single sweet shot for my own portfolio. 

At the end of the day, its about shooting for what puts a smile on your face. 

I've been shooting photos at Englishtown's Raceway Park for the last twenty years. Wow, I'm old. 

I don't sell nearly as many prints as I used to, but I have a good group of riders who support my efforts and make it worthwhile to be out there. Plus, it's the best place to check out the racing action and something I really enjoy.

One thing I did early on was sign up for a SmugMug account and rename all of my files by the rider's last name. Although extremely time-consuming, that step has made my 20 years of images completely searchable and easy to navigate. 

If you want to check out the photography site you can see it at www.lukaitisphoto.com - if you want to check out SmugMug, let me know and I can share a discount link. 

I usually will do photos during the first couple hours at the practice track then ride once it's calmed down a bit i go ride. I shoot a canon 5dmiv with a canon 70-200.

I want to see how to get credentials to shoot a pro race.

https://adamparks.smugmug.com/Sports/Motocross

linky no worky

this one does tho. have seen your work for many years, good stuff.

https://lukaitisphoto.smugmug.com/

Thank you for posting the link. I appreciate the support. 😀

Ask yourself if your primary goal is to enjoy and grow in skill capturing motocross images - it's a wonderful way to expand your moto involvement - or whether the goal is to generate revenue.  I think the first, a love of photography, needs to be paramount, and any gig activity worth pursuing comes from that.  

If you want to make money at the local level you'll need to hustle your ass off, have a game plan, and build relationships with people who value your work.

If you imagine making money shooting at the pro race level it's the same thing but X100.  And there is a core cohort of pro shooters with a fair bit of competition already between them who are locked into paying accounts with clients who want a streamlined source of images turned around very, very quickly on race day without a lot of shopping around  Those men and women work their asses off.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get access to shoot a national (SX is much more constrained generally), but plan on doing it for the love of the experience, and maybe catch a money shot now and then.  

I really miss shooting races, such a terrific experience and I met some great and generous people once I earned respect.

Paul is a legend and works his ass off in local photo coverage.  He also has dropped off full time at the pro level.  Film and processing cost was a real barrier to entry until 2004 or so, and the economics of client commissions and number of competing shooters changed when digital cameras came into their own.

Yah Paul has his hands in a lot of stuff. Hes made a bunch of money designing t shirts and stuff like that. He lives about 15- 20 minutes from my old shop. My long post was only intended to help people reading it k ow my history and experiamces. I hope it did not come across as anything but that. 

My friend and I interviewed him about 8 or so years ago. It was a facebook live show at the time. We had a cheesy background of a darkroom for that episode. We talked for over an hour and got him to talk aboit how he got into it, tell us the photo thaz he sold for the most money and how much he sold it for. Ive known him for 20 years and I learned a lot about him on that show.  I reuploaded it onto my youtube channel. Tje video quality is bad, but sound is good. If anybody wants to watch it i can post a link. Or search "paul buckley the stickershop show" on youtube and it should come up. It disnt get great views on youtube. But its also the only podcast style content on there. We had a good amount of views on facebook live when it aired origonally. Most of the other episodes will not age well so i disnt bother putting  them up. It was a lot of race talk. We had some other geusts that i should post up that did well and might still be intresting. 

For what it’s worth, local mx photographer, who is also awesome at anything is doing our wedding. Try to keep it in the moto community the most we can.  

Go for it. You never know where it might lead. Some of the best pure photographers started out shooting dirt bikes. 

You don't need the the most expensive gear to capture great racing images. 
Save money by buying clean, used camera bodies but spend money on high quality lens. 
High end Canon "L" series lens fit most older Canon DSLR EOS bodies like 50D, 7D, 6D or 5D - All of which will work great for MX photography.
Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS L is standard telephoto that's a workhorse for most situations - $800-1,250
Canon EF 70-300mm f4 IS USM is a solid telephoto lens that's less than $125 but get's the job done while keeping your wallet happy.
I carry a Canon 6D w/ 70-200mm 2.8 L and a Canon 7D w/ EF28-135 IS plus my trusty Canon 50D as a back-up body.

I have had great luck finding clean, hardly used camera gear on Ebay. There's a lot of people upgrading to mirrorless systems so older DSLR gear is available and getting cheaper.

I have had a great experience shooting out at Glen Helen Raceway during the specialty races like Scott Burnworth's SoCal Vintage Classic series, or Two-stroke Nationals and Vet World Championship where racers appreciate someone taking their photo at the big event. The return rate is small if you are selling photos & downloads, but as an old racer, it's great fun being at the races and meeting new people. Hand out flyers, or business cards to advertise / network so they know how to contact you after the race weekend.

I use Instagram as a primary source of connecting with a larger audience by #tagging race names, event name or direct DM's. I start posting previous race shots a week before the next race to get everyone worked up and tagging each other so they know I'll be out there. 

I have used Smugmug, ShootProof and now I use Pixieset.com (https://timmarksphotography.pixieset.com) for online galleries so people can review the race images and buy prints or downloads. There's ways to create an online presence without much up-front money. There's more time evolved editing, set-up online galleries and reaching out to people to view your work than the monetary value. More importantly, it's your own micro-photo business that you created out of the passion for the sport that keeps you going.

Be sure to respect the rules of the track in regards to spectators / photographers track access. 

Go for it and have fun shooting.

Grant Langston has this print hanging in his dealership office!

My "why" is i have always been interested in photography. Looking back i realized, it's always been there as from 14 years old till early 20's i always had a disposable camera with me and used it for random moments with my friends. 

I used a low end Canon set up for years taking photos of my son and wanted better.  So I upgraded cameras and made a website to cover the cost of the upgraded body and lens.

It's not very complicated.  If you love photography and love motocross how could you stop yourself from photographing motocross?

It's immense fun and anticipation of the "next shot" with racing is like panning for gold

I apologize for my incorrect reply earlier…

When I was a teen & injured, my mom let me bring our first digital camera to the racetrack while my buddies were practicing. Having photographic “proof” of how BIG we could go was an incredible feeling. 

 I love racing moto with all my heart, but capturing those memories put a HUGE smile on my face. Thirty years from now when we’re done racing, those pictures are all we’ll have to go with the stories of 100 foot tables & triples out of turns. 

I’m a full time photographer outside of the sport now, but man it still feels good to be on the infield snapping shots that might make someone’s garage wall….

I started to take photos while still riding. We would bring a camera out while riding and take turns taking photos or video of each other. I often was frustrated by the pour effort my buddies put in and the blurred images or missed shots. While I was getting shots of them that were much better. I started out going to the races and practice , that I would normally have been riding. But took photos of riding buddies instead. And that made me want to go and get photos of Nationals and SX. So I could get some images of the best riders. 

I think You would find some of the interview with Paul interesting. We asked Paul how he got into it, and we were surprised by his answer. It wasn't what we thought. It has more of a 3 people hanging out vibe than a serious interview. Paul answers a lot of questions that we thought he may not want to answer. The image quality is crap, because it was a Facebook live that I downloaded and never had saved locally.   

It starts off with  me explaining that this is a prerecorded video. During the video we may say we are live so I wanted to explain and then  some quick clips of questions that we ask, that have longer answers . So if You watch it, keep in mind the first parts of it are more of a preview. Skip ahead to 2:16 for the start of the interview  that is complete and unedited.

I do it just for fun.  Not sure how folks make it work as a business since most people just download your images watermark and all. I've even had pro riders repost my images on their IG and crop my water mark.  I used to post more often but now it's a bit like sport fishing.  Snap and delete.  

https://www.instagram.com/oaracing62/

I pace my water mark center if the image... still get tons of them if see screen shot.

Any one know how to get a pass for a pro moto race?

I think you have to be associated with a publication and apply through FELD etc.  Almost impossible to get unless you're established.

For outdoors you contact mxsports. They require a letter from the media outlet you are working for. They do not allow freelancers that do not have an assignment.  

If you go to the nationals page of mx sports website . The page for the applications are in the drop downs at the top of the page . Its easy to find after you look at the differnt drop downs. Very straight forward site.

Sx has changed since i had media credentials for it. Both sx and mx will have press, then press photo and press video passes. Back a few years ago there were not as many people doing youtube shows and asking for credentcials .and they changed the process up some. But the info is on the same website that a rider would go to to sign up for sx, get an sx lic. Etc . But its a feld site.  Back when we had the credentials for media but not a photo/video  one. They would allow us to use some of the race gootage as long as we stuck to the agreed way they  said it was ok. 

So there are some benifits to having a press credentcial and not the photo vest. It still gets you into the races,into the pits. You just can not take photos ot video of on track stuff.  Mx and sx both have similar types of press passes they offer

Mx sports has a press tent and i think that phktos and video may be ok in the pits with that type of pass. It also lets you make rider interview requests, and other stuff. 

If your not intrested in doing the other stuff and only want to take photos. Your best bet is to find another photographer that could use help with an assignment and could get you in under their assignment. Thats how some of the people i know have been able to get a vest to go out and take pics for fun. 

Ive found that most national tracks are setul so you can get decent pics without being out on the track. Ive prefered shooting this way. I dont have to worry as much about getting hit by a bike when im behind the fence. It can make it take longer to get from one spot to another without being able to cross the track. But it lets me focus on geting the shot and not worrying about getting hit. Ive been out on the track a few times at local races and the 2007 MXON. 

Sounds like behind the fence is the option lol. I don't know any one or a publication. 

I’ve never had a media pass, but I try to get creative about it. I get a ton of cool shots during free practice & qualifying at Supercross races when I’m able to move freely through the stands. At SMX races I’ve gone to the “outdoor” sections where I can get right up on the fence. 

If you can get creative with your shooting locations & lens selection, no one would even guess that you weren’t on the infield!

https://promotocross.com/page/media-access

Yup, Carnegie Trans AMA 1971.  Took four photos that day with my dad's camera.  The first was a blurred pic of Doug Grant on an AJS; I hadn't heard of panning.  😂. But I was hooked.