Motorsports Photography with Jamey Price | Fanamp Fast Lane

‍

Getting his start in Motorsports

#1. What was the first moment that you can remember discovering motorsports?

 It was two things. I grew up playing video games on the Nintendo 64, and I used to go to Walmart to buy a video game every time I had good grades or was really good in school. One year, I chose what looked like a race car on the cover of the box and thought "oh, that looks cool, a lot of color."

I think it was an IndyCar game, so I played that. At the same time, I vividly remember, on the old satellite TV that my parents had- you know the one with a huge dish in the backyard and you had to turn the dial to twist the dish to find the satellite.

So, I was sitting on the floor and I was turning the channels. I remember hearing one - because you couldn't even necessarily see what you're looking at- and I hear this "nyoom". It was the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. So, I stopped turning the dial and I sat back and watched it. I remember thinking "this is SO cool, these cars are SO cool". I loved how insanely loud and fast and colorful it was - I knew nothing about the drivers, but I was instantly interested in it.

‍

#2. When did you decide that this is where you wanted to build your career? 

 Probably pretty early on. I became a photographer and picked up my first camera when I was 21.

I got a DSLR. It wasn't anything special. I was obviously always a racing fan prior to that - for 10 years prior to that.  I didn't know how to make my way into the space. When I got my first camera, I started really being interested in how to make pictures as a photographer, and how these people that took pictures of the cars did it.

That was when I really started to shift my mentalities to, "I want to do this with a camera".  It was really when I was 21/22 that I started to REALLY like it. I would study what other photographers were doing and how they did it. Even without knowing what settings they were using, I could see how to break it down and figure out what settings they're using a little bit based on the image and practice.

It was pretty quickly after I figured out that photography is awesome, and I loved it that I could build something into the space. Just going to races with a camera was accessible. Anybody can do it generally. It's not like the NBA or NFL, where you are not allowed to walk in the gate with a camera.

Most races are pretty accessible, so you can just walk in and take pictures.

‍

Jamey's Current Role

#3. What was your first role and the first step you took towards becoming such a well known motorsports photographer?

Yeah, it was a happen by chance thing.

I was at a wedding and I got seated next to the marketing manager for Ducati Motorcycles.

My friend who was getting married didn't give me a plus one for my ex girlfriend at the time. So he was like, I'm going to give you a 'plus one', but not a plus one.

You're going to sit next to this guy, and I think you guys are going to hit it off. I said, "all right, fine, whatever".

Then we sat next to each other, and we DID hit it off. He asked me, "Do you want to come and do you want to come shoot Pikes Peak Hill Climb for me? I think your work is really cool."

So, I got a really amazing opportunity out of something that was not at all related to motorsport, just being at a wedding. From that, his boss at the time then went to Lamborghini. Lamborghini, when they started their single make series, which is Super Trofeo, I put in a bid to be the series photographer for Super Trofeo, and it was from there on that it just happened for me.

‍

#4. What does a standard day look like for you?

 A standard day depends on what series I'm covering. The Rolex 24 Hours is obviously not your standard day. It's basically a 2-day, non-stop. You just don't sleep. I might eat once or twice, but it's definitely not three meals a day with a nice 12 hour nap in the middle of it.

Author's Note: We conducted this interview in the media center at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona!

It's really intense. You wake up on Saturday morning, you come to the track, you get your stuff together, and then essentially I'm walking around Pit Lane and the paddock area. Drivers are doing driver change practice one last time. Mechanics working on cars before they go racing. Then, once the green flag flies, essentially I'm on for 24 hours.

After it's over, depending on where my clients finish, I'll cover the podium no matter what, whether my clients are on it or not. I have a couple editorial clients that just want generic coverage of the race. However if, let's just say, Wayne Taylor Racing or Lamborghini wins the race overall, then we will have a whole bunch of post race, pictures, and celebration stuff.

You pull the car out onto pit lane and do pictures of the car and the drivers, and it goes on for hours. By the end of it, you're just so over race cars. You're so over people. You haven't slept. You haven't eaten. It's really challenging. It's basically a 36 hour day from when I wake up to when I eventually go to bed on Sunday night.

I think my record was 42 without sleep. It's really hard.

On the other hand, Formula 1, as contrast, is much easier. It's a much shorter day. It's still challenging, but better for my body.

‍

‍#5. What are the most rewarding and the most challenging parts of photography in motorsports?

Rewarding 

 The rewarding side are the relationships you build with people.

I really enjoyed that side of it, where you're meeting the drivers and you're not just meeting them, but you get to know them as people and they appreciate you.

Yesterday, I was doing pictures of one of the Wayne Taylor drivers and as a thank you for all the stuff that I've done for him and for the team (even though I'm getting paid to do it), he gave me a box of Swiss chocolates because he's Swiss.

So there are those relationships that you build with people where you see them, you give a big hug and when they win, you're excited... like you're genuinely excited for your friends. It's like watching one of your friends accomplish something that they've dreamed of their whole lives.

You get to be a part of that.

‍

Challenging

 The challenging part is the total flip side of that, where they have a bad day, and you still have to cover it.

You're still pointing a lens in a good friend's face, and it's all gone. Exploded in their face. It's really hard.  

No one has ever smashed a camera or something like that, but you can tell... Anybody that has any kind of people skills knows when to back out and stop and just be there as a friend. There is need to document the experience in some way, but you don't I don't have to like...  You know, they're going through one of the hardest points in their career or even in the last 24 Hours. It doesn't matter a bad moment is a bad moment.

So you just have to be aware.

‍

#6. What are the top 3 qualities that have helped you succeed in the motorsports photography space?

People skills

 People skills definitely is a big one. I think that a lot of photographers forget that it's about people skills more than anything. It's not about taking pretty pictures. You do have to be able to do that, of course, but I know a lot of people that make pretty pictures that will never make it as motorsport photographers.

They just won't ever succeed. So that's a really important one.

Understand photography at a 'deep level'

Obviously having the talent with the camera - you have to understand photography at a very deep level. I don't know every button and thing that my camera can do, but I understand light. I understand how to use light - what works, what doesn't.

Then there's understanding the race. Understanding the subject. Understanding the people on the team. Understanding what roles they have. Understanding the car and how each car is different to another one. Understanding the actual sport and how the sports' rules are - how the race flows and the race day goes.

It's all really important. It also helps telling a story, right? If you're shooting, let's say, a person and you're like, "I don't know who the f*ck this is. It's very different than being like, "I know who that is and what their role is".

Racing politics

One of the other things is especially relevant in Formula 1 in how we cover a race. It's important here [referring to Daytona] too. It's racing politics - something that you HAVE to understand more than most in Formula 1.

When you see somebody talking to somebody else and those two people are significant editorially - shoot it.

For example: Why is the Ferrari, motorsport director talking to, Wayne Taylor racing? Why is he in the Wayne Taylor pit box? Why is that person there.

When you see those two people talking, or those kind of moments,  it's significant, not even for the team, but if you're working for an editorial outlet, or a newspaper, or a magazine, or a website, or a SportsCar365, those are the kind of moments you have to understand that are important.

You can't just walk past it when you see, John Elkin, with Ferrari, talking to, Lewis Hamilton in the paddock before he signed for that kind of stuff.

‍

Jamey's Advice

#7. If you could go back and change anything about your path to where you are today, what would that be? 

 I really wouldn't change a lot. I think the biggest thing I would do is probably take more pictures because that's how I've learned. I haven't gone to school for this.

I haven't trained in it classically or with any kind of education. I think if I look back on a lot of my pictures over the years, I didn't do enough. I didn't shoot enough. I came away from a race with not enough to really tell a story. Because of that, I didn't understand the art and the subject. I didn't come away with enough, and now, that's what I would really change, is just not doing enough.

‍

#8. If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to follow in your footsteps what would that be?

The advice I would give would be to go to any and all races. Just because you don't have credentials doesn't mean you can't make pictures - doesn't mean you can't make beautiful, portfolio worthy pictures from fan areas. I spend so much time at this event specifically [Daytona] in fan areas - like we're up in the grandstands, track-side with the fans, on the fan side of the fence, and panning through the fans.

There are so many ways to cover a race, and you don't need credentials.

Just assuming that you can't make stuff because you don't have credentials, or assuming that just because you have credentials you're going to make better pictures is totally incorrect. Having knowledge and going to races as much as you can is key.

Even at Daytona, you can come and shoot for a ticket cost of $150 for 4 days. It's basically $35 - $36 a day. You can't get that in Formula 1. You can't get that in any race... any sport really. You're gonna go to an NFL game for more than that and sit in the nosebleeds and you're not going to be allowed to bring a camera in.  Going to races, bringing your camera, making pictures, and meeting people is extremely important.

I get 20 - 30 people a day asking me: "How do you do what you do? How do I become a motorsport photographer?"

Nobody's going to give you that opportunity because there's 50 people in front of you on that ONE day that are trying to do the same thing. So, you have to figure out how to be different, and that's really hard. The way you are different is be an interesting person.

‍

Jamey's Favorites

#9. What is your favorite race/ event/ moment that you’ve had in your career thus-far?

 Lamborghini won this race a couple years ago for the first time in the GTD class, and it was really special to be there. My friends were driving. The team management and team owners are friends of mine for many years.

The motorsport director for Lamborghini at the time.... He's in the pit box. Everybody's crying. Literally everybody's in tears. You're so tired... I don't think people understand how important this event is. Also, just racing - we put so much time into it. We're away from our families.

I've been away from home... By the end of this, I'll have been away from home for almost 2 weeks, and it snowed this morning in Charlotte. My kids are playing in the snow, and you miss so much... and that's JUST ME.

Everybody has some version of that. So when you get to the end of the race, and you've won - all that emotion, you're so tired, you're so just drained - all of that emotion just comes out.

You would not expect a bunch of grown men in fire suits to really express feelings like that. I've literally seen the biggest, baddest, burliest guys crying their eyes out and it's awesome.

Being there for my friends, and a brand that I've worked with for a long time win the race for the first time and the drivers are like jumping on each other's shoulders and crying was just really special.

Maybe it'll happen again. I would love it to happen again.

‍

#10. You have a large presence on social media. How do you think that has helped your career? Or has it not really impacted your career, but been a result of it?

I just want people to understand - they see a picture on the internet, they see it on Instagram or Twitter and the line that I always say is,

"Behind every swipe and there's a photo, and then behind every photo, there's a story."

There's a person that walked to a spot on the track, chose the settings, pointed the camera in the direction you wanted it to be, and made a picture. It's not just accidental. I wanted to show that side of racing, because there's so many different jobs in racing and photography is an important one. The manufacturers, the sponsors, the series, the tracks - there's so many different people that rely on photography to tell the story of the event, and I wanted to share that.

As my social media following has grown over the years, it has definitely helped with business. I had drivers coming up to me this week that I don't know, but they're still big names. A driver that I really respect, and I'm not going to name names, but he's somebody that I've followed for a long time was my most recent experience.

He's won a lot of racing, and he came up to me. We follow each other on Instagram, but we've never met. He shook my hand and said "Hey man, how's it going? Love your pictures." This is so cool. He was like, "I want to talk later about using you this weekend."

So it's definitely helped with business just to have it's marketing, as all social media is. I think a lot of people forget that it's free marketing. You don't have to pay for it. You don't have to pay Mark Zuckerberg to put your stuff on Instagram. You can get it out there for free. You can put everything you want up for free.

It also serves as a portfolio, so there's value in it from the team side, too. When I work for them, I'm bringing 150,000 eyes that are following me to their product, too. That matters to them.

They don't hire me specifically for that, but it is an added bonus that I come with extra eyes. I think people forget that social media is a tool, and a marketing tool to be used. Not just for bad political takes, pictures of your cats, and your cousin's second birthday. It's a marketing tool.

‍