2653 replies to this topic

[elansprint72]

After a positive response to my suggestion for a photography thread- here it is!

This is the place to discuss Motor Sports Photography, all contributions welcome from professionals through to happy snappers. Ask your questions, state your opinions, give advice, tell bad jokes, post your photos (if they don't easily fit into one of the other threads).

[uffen]

I think this is a great idea. For me photography and racing go hand in hand.
I shoot both film and digital but even in my short experience with digital I've run into the issue of retrieval. I recently found some 3.5 inch floppy discs with photos on them. I'm out of luck. Luckily I have the originals on film, although I know I don't know which ones they are!

I've long admired photographers such as the Cahiers, Goddard, Schlegelmilch, etc. Many more I can't recall at the moment.

[elansprint72]

I think this is a great idea. For me photography and racing go hand in hand.
I shoot both film and digital but even in my short experience with digital I've run into the issue of retrieval. I recently found some 3.5 inch floppy discs with photos on them. I'm out of luck. Luckily I have the originals on film, although I know I don't know which ones they are!

I've long admired photographers such as the Cahiers, Goddard, Schlegelmilch, etc. Many more I can't recall at the moment.

All is not lost- you can buy a floppy disk drive with USB from Amazon (UK) from 7.50GBP.

Those are three good names to start with, I'll not embarrass any forum members by naming them but the late Michael Cooper is on my list too.

[Tony Matthews]

Bernard Asset was responsible, I think, for a change of approach, he produced some great images, on track and in the pit lane.

[cyrilmac]

Bernard Asset was responsible, I think, for a change of approach, he produced some great images, on track and in the pit lane.

It was really him , Cahier and the Motor magazine photographers that got me interested in motorsport in the first place.

[Richard Styles]

I remember admiring Bernard Asset's work in the early eighties when Grand Prix International magazine used to do a Le Mans issue each year. His photos just stood out. Brilliant. I still have the magazine.
I don't think he does any racing pictures any more, but went on to concentrate on fashion !! ... Boring !

[arttidesco]

I don't think he does any racing pictures any more, but went on to concentrate on fashion !! ... Boring !

But with considerably more female company and possibly a lot more lucrative :-)

[Richard Styles]

Good point well made

[Phil Rainford]

http://www.bernardasset.com/


Looks like he is still trackside


PAR

[Tony Matthews]

...possibly a lot more lucrative :-)

I'm sure top fashion photographers make make a lot of dosh, but so can top motorsport photographers - or they certainly could. Some time ago a list of top earners was published in one of the comics. I think Darren Heath came out top at circa £300,000...

[elansprint72]

Lartigue is one of my favourite photographers, his early motor-racing photos were outstanding but his other stuff was out of this world. He was still creating masterpieces right up to his premature demise at the age of 92.

[elansprint72]

I'm sure top fashion photographers make make a lot of dosh, but so can top motorsport photographers - or they certainly could. Some time ago a list of top earners was published in one of the comics. I think Darren Heath came out top at circa £300,000...

Small potatoes....... wouldn't get out of bed for tha..... how much?

Never heard of him.

[Marc Sproule]

Jesse Alexander was my inspiration.

Great snaps and a very nice person too. I've spoken to him several times at the Monterey Historics and he's always been very gracious.

http://www.jessealexander.com/

[IanMH]

I'm a happy-snapper and with motor racing in mind I much prefer photos which contain enough clues to be able to guess the location and event. Pics in which the car fills the frame, often from the same corner and the same angle leave me cold. I think the cars may be the least important aspect of a good motor racing photo. Anyway I think we are very lucky to have so many brilliant pics posted on here, notably the Mallory,Snetterton,Goodwood and Australian threads. My own local circuit Ingliston was well covered by great photographers like Graham Gauld, Bill Henderson and Jim Moir. It would be great if some of their pics could be posted on here as I'm sure it could almost rival the Aussie thread. Cheers Ian

[arttidesco]

Man Ray is where I got started when I studied photography, he drove a chique Graham Hollywood Supercharged.

[elansprint72]

Jesse Alexander was my inspiration.

Great snaps and a very nice person too. I've spoken to him several times at the Monterey Historics and he's always been very gracious.

http://www.jessealexander.com/

I could not remember his name! Fabulous stuff on his website. He had the knack of composing a tight shot, yet including background info, so important, as Ian said.

[Ray Bell]

Nobody's mentioned the Pommy ex-pat who became Australian and then went back to the Old Dart to take some of the best motor racing photos ever...

In Australia we have had some good ones too. Byron Gunther (fabulous story behind him), Peter D'Abbs, Brier Thomas and others have really been able to convey the trackside feel to magazines and books.

[Bill Wagenblatt]

If always admired and been inspired by the work of Julius Weitman in my opinion the best of all motor racing photographers

Bill

[kayemod]

Nigel Snowdon.

[elansprint72]

This thread has already cost me over 100 quid in book purchases; my wife is threatening to leave....... please keep it up guys.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by kayemod
Nigel Snowdon.

Yeah, that's the bloke!

His brother, Chris, also took some good stuff. They were in together with Bill Forsyth and a couple of other North Shore photographers who seemed to have good darkroom techniques as well as an excellent eye for settings and detail.

No wonder they used to visit our marshal's post every race meeting!

[jj2728]

I suppose that I should be the first to post a photo:

Monaco '76, I am ashamed to say that I was terribly drunk for most of the week-end. Nothing changes.

As was I. The Tip Top Bar springs to mind.
Great photo too...

[jj2728]

Our friends at Motorgraphs and the wonderful photos of George Monkhouse. The Auto Union and Merc photos from Donington of which I've received one and another I gifted to my dad for Christmas are fantastic and very economically priced.
Geoffrey Goddard, Yves Debraine, and Louis Klemantaski and, though not motorsport related, Henri Cartier Bresson.
My father's no slouch either, cataloguing his archives has been great fun.
Here's one:

[fbarrett]

Great photographers are exactly that, but let's also hear it for all the thousands of unknown "happy snappers" who spent time and money to record all manner of minor motorsport over the decades. Think how many great old racing photographs have appeared on these forums that otherwise would have stayed in the shoebox. Here's to Verichrome Pan and ancient, cheap box cameras!

Frank

[Terry Walker]

Absolutely. For a few years I was, as far as I can tell, the only person photographing car rallies in Western Australia, and some were on box brownie. Not classy, but definitely historic. I worked my way up from point and shoot box brownie when I was about 10 through 35 mm and medium format to 4 inch x 5 inch field and studio cameras, and then all the way back down to point and shoot digital. Now I'm fiddling about with a full HD (1920 x 1080) camcorder for my pit and paddock candids, and it has a 3.1 megapixel still format too. Early days - I've only taken about 10 min of video so far. No stills yet, although I have extracted quite a few frames from video.

Once the racing season gets going here (high summer is too hot, so there's a layoff over Christmas-New Year) I hope to be in the pits and paddock, and maybe at my favourite corners, for some HD vid.

In the meantime, this is a single frame from my first test try, reduced to 800 pixels.

[Graham Gauld]

If always admired and been inspired by the work of Julius Weitman in my opinion the best of all motor racing photographers

Bill

I agree "Papa" Julius was a great character. I recall walking into the cafe at the top of the Col de Turini with Henry Manney during one of the Monte Carlo Rallies to find Julius sitting on his own waiting, like us, for about three hours before the cars arrived. Julius was in fine form telling stories about his days as a U-boat commander in WW II and how he was retired early as he was too old. He then was apparently given the post of PR to Admiral Doenitz but I have never been able to find any reference to this in biographies of Doenitz. He used Leica and Contax cameras and was particularly good on portraits. A happy and cheerful man who took some great photos. But for me the best portraitist of the 1050s and 60's was Dr Benno Muller. We kept in touch for some time and when I helped to raise the money to refurbish the Jim Clark Room in Duns Benno sent me two of his brilliant photos of Jim CLark for the Room.

[arttidesco]

Great photographers are exactly that, but let's also hear it for all the thousands of unknown "happy snappers" who spent time and money to record all manner of minor motorsport over the decades. Think how many great old racing photographs have appeared on these forums that otherwise would have stayed in the shoebox. Here's to Verichrome Pan and ancient, cheap box cameras!

Frank

Couldn't agree with you more here to all 'happy snappers' who have contributed to TNF Forum over the years

[elansprint72]

As was I. The Tip Top Bar springs to mind.
Great photo too...

TT prices seemed to rise spectacularly for the event!

Should have mentioned this shot was taken in a practice session, the Alfa had moved over to let the six-wheeler thro' Expert witnesses will have already spotted that from the attitude of the cars in the bend.

[chdphd]

I went to the TipTop bar on 2009 and it was €20 for a Niçoise salad and a beer


Top Top bar, Monaco by chdphd, on Flickr

[barrykm]

David Phipps was good...!

[Tony Matthews]

David Phipps was good...!

Didn't Sutton Photographic buy his archive? One shot of his that sticks in my mind was of Monza in the late '60s, early '70s, B&W, dunno which bend or cars, but there were two, seen from the rear, quite a bit of roll, and the tyres all distorted with the cornering force. It really gave the impression of speed and g!

[kayemod]

Has anyone mentioned Pete Coltrin yet ? If not they should have done.

Pleased to see that we aren't limiting this discussion to motor sport photographers though, and the names of two of my favourites Man Ray and the man I regard as the greatest ever Henri Cartier-Bresson, have both featured. My personal favourite though, mainly because I learned so much from his writings and work, back in the days when I spent quite a lot of time in a darkroom, is Ansell Adams. Since he hardly ever photographed anything but The Great Outdoors, the name probably won't mean much to many on TNF, but he was the best ever in his particular field.

[cyrilmac]

Lartigue is one of my favourite photographers, his early motor-racing photos were outstanding but his other stuff was out of this world. He was still creating masterpieces right up to his premature demise at the age of 92.

I was lucky enough to be given a copy of Lartigue et Les Autos. As an impetuous youth who was going to show the world what they had been missing I didn't really "get" Lartigue until VERY much later ! Hence we look at his photo's for inspiration and not mine. HeyHo .....
On the subject of alternative views of motorsport: Rheinhart Klien and his buddies at McKlein are well worth a look.
On the equipment front (and the start of this thread I suppose) of things passing into history can I offer : Sakuracolour 400.
Despite various "recreational substances" over the years never seen colours like that since

[Tony Matthews]

Ansell Adams. Since he hardly ever photographed anything but The Great Outdoors, the name probably won't mean much to many on TNF...

Do you think so? You may well be right, but if so it is a shame.

[cyrilmac]

Do you think so? You may well be right, but if so it is a shame.

Probably if someone posted 'The Moon' a lot of people would know it without knowing the photographer.

Edited by cyrilmac, 14 January 2011 - 18:33.

[Marc Sproule]

Re: Ansel Adams:

I work part-time at a large photo lab here in Santa Cruz, quality control. A few months ago my young supervisor showed me something her dad had found in the attic.

A metal coffee can with an Adams print on it. One of his ones from Yosemite.

She was wondering what it was and if it were worth anything. She said there were a number of them in the attic.

I'd never seen anything like it so I figured it just might be worth something. It was also freshly scratched.

I told her it was and Adams print, could be worth something and she should carefully wrap it up and put it in her locker.

She looked at me and asked, "Who's Ansel Adams?"

I explained, her eyes widened and she immediately wrapped it up and put it in her locker.

A local studio photog buddy informed me they're probably worth $40-50 US each as they were a fairly common item.

I met Adams in '69 and his work influenced how I looked at black and white. As I said above Jesse Alexander was the one who inspired me to start taking racing pics.

This is my contribution to the world of racing photos, There will be many more additons as I've had time so far to upload only about 1% of what's in my archives. There is a black and white set.

http://www.flickr.co...81980@N03/sets/

[PCC]

Has anyone mentioned Pete Coltrin yet ? If not they should have done.
My personal favourite though, mainly because I learned so much from his writings and work, back in the days when I spent quite a lot of time in a darkroom, is Ansell Adams. Since he hardly ever photographed anything but The Great Outdoors, the name probably won't mean much to many on TNF, but he was the best ever in his particular field.

Adams is terribly unfashionable these days, but on the few occasions when I've had a chance to see some of his original prints (as opposed to reproductions in books), they have filled me with wonder at just how beautiful a thing a photograph can be. His vision was amazing, and his control of craft peerless.

[Phil Rainford]

Has anyone mentioned Pete Coltrin yet ? If not they should have done.

My personal favourite though, mainly because I learned so much from his writings and work, back in the days when I spent quite a lot of time in a darkroom, is Ansell Adams. Since he hardly ever photographed anything but The Great Outdoors, the name probably won't mean much to many on TNF, but he was the best ever in his particular field.

A framed picture of his taken from Glacier Point has pride of place in my house

PAR

Edited by Phil Rainford, 14 January 2011 - 20:44.

[B Squared]

I've heard Clyde Butcher being described as the Ansel Adams of the Everglades. His Big Cypress Gallery on the Tamiami Trail is worth the diversion from the Alligator Alley when crossing south Florida.

http://www.clydebutcher.com/

[Rob Lees]

Count me in as another Adams fan.

As I've expanded my knowledge of photography in general I've become drawn to Street Photography, so Don McCullin is someone I really admire. Martin Parr is absolutely brilliant too.

Coming from the muddier side of the motorsport fence, I think Reinhard Klein is a God, but Massimo Bettiol is something special too. Grew up with the work of Maurice Selden, Hugh Bishop, Tony North, Les Kolcszak et al. Every now and again I get lucky and take a pic that could stand alongside their routine stuff without looking too shabby, and that's enough to keep me happy!

[Tony Matthews]

Maurice Selden,

Maurice! He was at LAT with me, started after I did, stayed on after I left.

[kayemod]

All this enthusiastic championing of Ansell Adams is very heartening. It's not quite what I was expecting, as PCC said, Adams isn't very fashionable these days, but it's very pleasing. Truly TNF is a haven of culture, I apologise for my earlier doubts. If you were to ask people in a UK street though, I think you'd be fortunate to find anyone who knew the name, but then you could probably say the same about Henri C-B as well. Wife and I used to frequent a local bistro that had prints of Henri's work on the walls. When it changed hands, as well as the cuisine going downhill, they actually threw out every one of them, to be replaced by some incongruous modern stuff, but I doubt if those responsible knew what the pictures were. Philistines.

[B Squared]

My great uncle, Ernest Brooks Sr. and his son, Ernie Jr., were the two whom I looked to for my earliest photographic influences. Uncle Ernest was the founder and driving force of The Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California.

http://en.wikipedia....rooks_Institute

http://www.scubahall...nestbrooks.html

[WDH74]

If you were to ask people in a UK street though, I think you'd be fortunate to find anyone who knew the name, but then you could probably say the same about Henri C-B as well.

I think that would be the case most places, although Adams is a bit more well known here in the States-you see Adams calendars for sale in bookstores, and usually more Adams books, than C-B. Photographers aren't in the same celebrity class as...well...other kinds of famous people!

At the risk of derailing this further from motorsports photogs, I've always liked the work of O. Winston Link. His night time rail photography in particular is very striking, beautiful work.

-WDH

[Odseybod]

At the risk of derailing this further from motorsports photogs, I've always liked the work of O. Winston Link. His night time rail photography in particular is very striking, beautiful work.

-WDH

Seconded! Even though I don't usually like flash photography

[elansprint72]

No motor-racing content:

O. Winston Link is probably my very favourite photographer, if I had to choose one.
I have a couple of his photo-books on my increasingly groaning shelves.

A couple of years ago we were in Edinboro' and there was an Ansell Adams exhibition; about 120 prints, all of which were hand-made by the man himself. The quality was startling, even to one who has been a fan of his work since I discovered it about 1970. We have four photos hanging in our private gallery at home (i.e. the downstairs toilet), Moon and Mount McKinley, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and another snow/mountain shot. I picked up a book of his lesser-known works called America's Wilderness so cheaply recently that I practically stole it.

Bill Brandt, John Gay, Alfred Gregory, McCullin, Don McPhee, Denis Thorpe, HCB............. some of the other weighty tomes lying about this place.

Thanks for your contributions, chaps, this is turning out to be an educational thread.

Edited by elansprint72, 15 January 2011 - 10:12.

[SJ Lambert]

................ My personal favourite though, is Ansell Adams............. he was the best ever in his particular field...............

Here, here - absolutely.

A fellow who lived and breathed photography in a similar vein and who was a later day member of the "F16" Club and who's shots I'll similarly never tire of is Peter Dombrovskis - he died on the job, so to speak photographing the Arthurs Range in Tasmania's South West Wilderness - Dombrovskis is the reason I don't feel the need to take a camera when doing big trips down there.

[dwh43scale]

Geoff Goddard - Le Mans Ferrari workshops

Jesse Alexander - black and white can be so powerful.

Nature - check out Peter Lik - some amazing images ...

[SJ Lambert]

No motor-racing content:

.............. Alfred Gregory.......................

Alf Gregory emmigrated to Australia - settled in the Dandenongs and displayed and spoke to his Everest shots in a gallery in Collingwood prior to his relatively recent death.......

[Tony Matthews]

Bill Brandt, John Gay, Alfred Gregory, McCullin, Don McPhee, Denis Thorpe, HCB............. some of the other weighty tomes lying about this place.

The only 'weighty tome' by/about a photographer in my bookcase is on Sebastiao Salgado. If you want a 'lightweight tome' filled with great images I can recommend 'Magnum Landscape'. ISBN 0 7148 3642 7 - as the title suggests, landscapes taken by members of the Magnum agency.

When my daughter was studying photography at Uni she brought home a wonderful book about David Hockney's photos - not up everone's street, but a refreshing view by an artist that I admire. I keep meaning to find a copy...