Just past dawn on Sunday, I found myself out at Camp Hilbert in Goochland County, VA. It was the first day of the 2008 Camp Hilbert Race Series. The series, organized by Mark Junkermann through his RunRideRace venture consists of 3 separate dates of trail runs and mountain bike races. The dates are spread across 4 months from early Spring to early Summer.I made the mistake of staying out past midnight on Saturday - a mistake made all the more painful due to the Daylight Savings Time change at 2 AM. I discovered that 3 and a half hours of sleep is not enough. 4 and a half is usually ok, though, as I've pulled that off several times.
Mark's races are so far the only "race photography" events I've done. I generally shy away from the "shoot-and-sell-prints" jobs. While there is a good living to be made in that arena, a photographer is limited to (usually) boring angles and telephoto stills of action. This is because you are dealing in volume. The more people you can shoot, the more likely you are to sell photos. However, from my experience as a runner/cyclist, I find that I almost never buy these photos. So what I bring to the table is a photograph that I would buy of myself. The only drawback to this approach is that sometimes you are unable (as a photographer) to get everyone. A long exposure of a cyclist can be worthless if you don't time the speed of the rider to match the shutter speed. While I might only get 60%-70% of the shots to look like I wanted, the folks who buy the photos have something worth framing.
The Camp Hilbert Races are great for this kind of shooting because of the multi-lap format of the races. I can wander the course finding more interesting spots while being confident that if I miss a few riders/runners at one spot, I will more than likely catch them somewhere else. And I also like to pick a different spot or two every time I go out there to keep people interested in looking at the photos. You aren't going to sell anything if you always set up in the same spot. I can get a lot of repeat customers by changing the setting of their photos.
