Motorsport Photography Without A Media Pass – One Year Shooting Behind The Fence

WTAC 2018

The first motorsport event I photographed was World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC) in 2018.

I had a single day admission ticket and arrived early for the event, before the crowds rolled in. WTAC is great in the sense that the pits are open for the public – all the time. This means you can stand just outside any pit you wish and, if you’re polite and respectful, even enter the pits themselves and watch the teams from closer. For anyone wishing to photograph that type of setting, this event provides a unique opportunity, especially if you arrive before the majority of spectators.

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The event was shot on a Canon 7D Mark ii with a 28-105 f/4. All in all not a bad set-up for this type of environment as the 7D allows up to 10 fps and the 1.6 crop does help with the extra reach. This lens, albeit not the fastest, is rather sharp and versatile.

I’ve had an interest in photography since my teenage years, but I didn’t explore it until 2017 or 2018. Even then I didn’t have much of an idea about photography and was only shooting occasionally. Everything was shot on instinct, with little technical understanding. But it was after attending this particular WTAC that my appreciation for automotive photography grew larger, more specifically for motorsports photography. For this reason I owe a lot to WTAC, and if it wasn’t for this event it’s likely I wouldn’t have shot much car content since.

A Different Approach

In 2019 I photographed a few other motorsport events, all of them (with the exception of one) as a spectator. Of course, having a media pass grants you access to restricted vantage spots, somewhat increasing your chances of taking nicer shots. Because I did not have media passes, I needed to come up with a different strategy if I wanted to take good photos. In my case, I choose to take more creative shots. The guys with media passes are generally on an assignment and consequently have certain requirements they need to meet. This means they may not have as much time as someone like myself to think of a shot or to stand around and wait for something interesting to happen. Not being on assignment also means you have no professional requirements, thus allowing you a bit more freedom to act and think outside the box – being more creative in general.

One Year Worth of Motorsports Photography

I thought it would be interesting to share a few selected shots of events I attended in 2019, and hopefully get some feedback on the photos I took – and perhaps even motivate some to do similar. Again, the lack of media pass means I focused a bit more on what happens at the pits and on parked cars, and less on the track itself.

GT-R Festival was a great event and all GT-R fans have to extend a big thank you to Andrew Hawkins. I reached out and tried to get track side access, but unfortunately wasn’t granted one. Standing next to the drag strip would have provided great angles, and I had some pretty creative shots I was planning on taking , but the spectators view sufficed this day.

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I also shot a few images on 35 mm film this day, and will save them for a separate post that will be uploaded soon.

Another event I attended was MotorEx in Melbourne, where Speedhunters were holding a booth. It wasn’t motorsports per se, but there was a drifting event on and some special drag and time attack cars parked around that seem appropriate for this post.

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I attempted a photojournalistic approach to motorsports at Aus Time Attack, and quickly realised how complex this endeavour actually is. The event was held at Wakefield Park in Goulburn, a couple hours drive from Sydney. Telling the story of an event is no simple task. You need wide location shots, to include the setting and the people in it, provide a sense of time passing by throughout the day, shoot a variety of cars in different situations, predict who the likely winners will be and focus on photographing them since the start of the event, and much more. It takes a great deal of skill to transport someone to the event with just photos and words.

Some of the cars here would be seen at WTAC later in the year, Xtreme GT-R being one of them. This year the event held a supercar class and some nice examples were present, like a few R35s and 911s. I attended the event on Saturday only, and did not have a chance to photograph the cars on practice day. I’ve got a great deal of good photos on my hard drive, so this perhaps deserves its own post too. I’ll attend to it in due time, for now enjoy a selection of images from the day.

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I also briefly attended a Porsche GT3 Cup event at Eastern Creek in Sydney. From memory, the races last approximately 60 minutes, and they’re nice to watch. This was held on the same day as TCR, but I wanted to focus on the GT3s.

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Finally, WTAC 2019 to cap the year. By far my favourite car related event. I attended on Friday and Saturday, and literally have thousands of photos from it all. A few were selected below.

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Sydney Motorsports Park can be a challenging place to photograph, especially in the middle of the day. There’s not much interesting background to complement your pictures, and virtually no light/shadow spots to allow for more creative shots. Time attack can make things difficult too, given the cars will usually run about 3 laps each time, and they may go out 2 or 3 times per day only.

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All in all not a bad year of motorsports photography. I managed to upgrade some of my photo gear, but more importantly had a chance to improve my skills. It goes to show that you can still produce some okay photos without having to be at the track every weekend or, as everyone says, needing professional camera equipment.