TMP Photographer TIM

[om nom]

I'm a professional photographer if anybody wants to hire me to go out :P

[R1Guy]

I'll see what I can do about attending the next track day I can and taking some shots to upload for people to have a look at.

Reciprocity makes it seem as though my services would not be worth anything, as others offer it for free. So, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree by thinking this might be worthwhile for riders or myself. C'est la vie.

Okay so here's a quick lesson in track side photography... yes there are people standing along the wall at TMP for example that will snap some pretty good shots of one corner and offer them up for free on FaceBook etc... the images although a good memory will be worthless if you wanted to blow them up and make a poster or print larger than a 5x7. If you are using pro quality lenses / camera and know how to use them your images will be much sharper/brighter and hopefully more artistic (different)... taken from the infield where all the other photographers cannot go you have a major advantage to get different angles and corners.
Newer riders will always want tons of images of themselves getting their knee's down in the corners they are your main customers... veteran riders will be more demanding and seek out quality and original shots that they have not seen before.
If you decided to post your images on the web people will steal them...it's just too easy not to! Low resolution images with watermarks across the entire image are necessary if you plan on anyone actually buying your stuff. You have to be well advertised at the track so that people know how to contact you as the official photographer and any images must be quick and easy for the potential customer to buy and view. CD will hold full sized RAW images converted to JPEG downloading anything that large on the internet would take way too long... so you'll need to post up small internet watermarked thumbnails and then ship full sized for printing. Or if you really want a nice set up and are a confident photographer... have a trackside laptop set up so that people can view their images and buy on the spot.
All of this takes money and time to do properly... Good luck with your venture.

Oh and one last thing... there are sooo many photographers out there that say they are professional, 90% of them are crap! The photographers that are in demand have their **** together and have websites set-up to advertise their work, usually once word spreads about certain photographers the phone will ring off the hook through word of mouth.
Because you have a big *** camera with a big *** lens does not make you a professional photographer if you have no eye for photography... yes you may look impressive but the final images are what will separate the posers from the real "professional" photographers... end of story.

[CrazyKell]

Okay so here's a quick lesson in track side photography... yes there are people standing along the wall at TMP for example that will snap some pretty good shots of one corner and offer them up for free on FaceBook etc... the images although a good memory will be worthless if you wanted to blow them up and make a poster or print larger than a 5x7. If you are using pro quality lenses / camera and know how to use them your images will be much sharper/brighter and hopefully more artistic (different)... taken from the infield where all the other photographers cannot go you have a major advantage to get different angles and corners.
Newer riders will always want tons of images of themselves getting their knee's down in the corners they are your main customers... veteran riders will be more demanding and seek out quality and original shots that they have not seen before.
If you decided to post your images on the web people will steal them...it's just too easy not to! Low resolution images with watermarks across the entire image are necessary if you plan on anyone actually buying your stuff. You have to be well advertised at the track so that people know how to contact you as the official photographer and any images must be quick and easy for the potential customer to buy and view. CD will hold full sized RAW images converted to JPEG downloading anything that large on the internet would take way too long... so you'll need to post up small internet watermarked thumbnails and then ship full sized for printing. Or if you really want a nice set up and are a confident photographer... have a trackside laptop set up so that people can view their images and buy on the spot.
All of this takes money and time to do properly... Good luck with your venture.

Oh and one last thing... there are sooo many photographers out there that say they are professional, 90% of them are crap! The photographers that are in demand have their **** together and have websites set-up to advertise their work, usually once word spreads about certain photographers the phone will ring off the hook through word of mouth.
Because you have a big *** camera with a big *** lens does not make you a professional photographer if you have no eye for photography... yes you may look impressive but the final images are what will separate the posers from the real "professional" photographers... end of story.

Well said and well written.

I'd rather get photos for free than pay for a "professional" that looks like my 6 year old niece could have shot it. Sorry, but if you're laying out in the infield and charging me for photos.....they better look damn good!

[Mr.Azim]

The only photographer I would every buy from is John Reed. His touch-ups, originality AND varying shots are all top-notch.

Every sample set I saw from Tim looked the same.... same angle, same placement, same corner. I never bought from him.

[caboose483]

The only photographer I would every buy from is John Reed. His touch-ups, originality AND varying shots are all top-notch.

There are others... Don Empey and Rob McLennan. They're rarely at trackdays though, mostly just races.

[Rob MacLennan]

There are others... Don Empey and Rob McLennan. They're rarely at trackdays though, mostly just races.

And if you can get the very rare shot by Neil Cameron, who is now shooting with CSBK, you've got a real gem.

[caboose483]

I spelled your name wrong.. i am the suck!

Neil does great stuff too.. Jeff Kovac is quite talented as well but rarely shoots up here.