Introduction
Joe Dick's photography career took off after a chance-introduction to an established superbike photographer. Already having a keen interest in motorcycle photography, Joe's journey to become a full-time motorcycle photographer had begun.
Now Joe is celebrating 10 years as a professional photographer having worked his way up to where many would argue is the pinnicle of motorcycle photography, the staff photographer for one of the biggest bike publications in the UK,
Motorcycle News. In our interview Joe tells us about his career and work with MCN.
How did you get in to photography?
It all started when I was studying for my Media GNVQ at secondary school. A week of lessons (which was around 4 hours) consisted of the basic elements of photography.
Realistically, we didn’t learn all that much about taking pictures but it did give me an opportunity to borrow the Canon Eos 300D with it’s 18-55mm kit lens and take it to a British Superbike round to take some pictures.
Bikes have been in my life since I could speak, and I always went to the races with my parents. The interest in photography came on a race weekend at Donington Park Race Circuit where we were camping in the caravan and
I found out that my Dad’s old 80-200mm film camera lens fitted onto the digital camera, and worked! My dad showed me the ropes with his amateur skills and a new love for picture taken spawned.
Did you have a formal photography education?
I’ve never had a lesson in photography in my life. I like to think I’m a quick learner and after a few weeks of reading magazines and website articles I started to understand about composition and the very basics in
the technical aspect of using a camera. Since then it’s been a case of learning on the job and progressing skills by doing stuff, not reading theory.
Why did you decide to begin freelancing?
It’s something I fell into whilst still studying in 6th Form. I’d started going to a few rounds of Superbikes in ‘06 and taking pictures from the spectator areas when my sister, who at the time was working for a race team,
introduced me to a Professional Superbike photographer. He was kind enough to let me use some of his kit and get me behind the barrier and we formed a friendship which soon turned into a working partnership where
I went to the British Superbike rounds supplying him images and progressing my skills, all whilst still studying at school. That was the start of my photography and freelancing career. I pushed myself to improve my
skills and I had a good mentor who demanded nothing but the best and pushed me every time i thought I had a good shot.
I was asked at the end of 2007 to cover the 2008 World Superbike Championship and BSB races that didn’t clash with the world calendar. That’s where I really started to learn my craft. 18 years old, I found myself
trackside in Qatar with 2 cameras, a suitcase and a ton of fast learning to do.
Who were your early clients?
I was contracted to an agency early on and that meant that there were many clients to provide for. There were multiple international magazines to provide for, Motorrad, MCN, Motociclismo, Motorcycle Racer magazine etc,
but the big clients were people like HRC (Honda Racing Corporation), Kawasaki Europe, as well as some personal gigs through networking for Red Bull and Stobart. In more recent years, Honda Europe with their motocross team,
KTM Austria and some more personal projects with singers in the UK and America shooting stills and video.
Why did you decide to specialise in motorcycles?
Whilst it may seem like i fell into the motorcycle photography career a little bit, there’s been a few events along the way that have put my heart well and truly into the biking world. Bikes have been a passion since
I was a child, following the racing on the TV and going to as many race events as i could, riding a trike around age 4 and moving to a motorbike not long after that all I could think about were bikes. My Dad always
had bikes in the garage and was always changing them for different models what seemed like every other week.
Fast forward to 2006 where i got my first taste at shooting bikes trackside and I was instantly hooked. Capturing speeding bikes in beautiful light, what’s not to love? I’ll never forget texting home stood at Hairpin
corner saying ‘This is awesome, I can see me doing this as a job’. Little did I know, just 6 months later that would become a reality.
If I’m being honest though, the major decider for a career in motorcycle photography was when I broke my leg in November 2009. I ended up hip to toe in a cast unable to walk and I was unable to fulfil my contract in the
super bike championship. I found myself with minimal jobs and a small bank balance. I’d sworn since i was at school that I wouldn’t ever stack a shelf in my life, and yet there I was with a supermarket application form
for night shifts to earn money. But it all clicked when I was filling it out. I wasn’t filling it out to simply earn money, I was looking for work to finance my passion, photographing motorcycles.
MCN is a huge gig for a specialist motorcycle photographer. How did you land this job?
After recovering from my leg injury i started photographing for multiple uk magazine publications before landing a job at Mortons Media Group as their staff photographer, working almost exclusively on their motorcycle
publications. For the next 6 years I stayed there working as their staffer as well as doing some freelance gigs in the music and car industry during that time. The job at MCN came up for grabs and after some hard thinking
I applied, and here I am. It’s the most prestigious staffer job in biking as far as I’m concerned, and with the sheer scale and profile MCN has it really was a no brainer.
What are your responsibilities?
To provide the brand with high quality images, organising and planning shoots alongside test riders and writers, as well as providing support for online content and producing videos when physically possible. Being a weekly
publication, MCN eats content for breakfast lunch and dinner, so there literally is no let up in the production of images and videos.
What’s a typical day for you at MCN?
I don’t think there really is a typical day. Whilst the job is consistent in what I do (i.e take pictures and produce video content of motorcycles), the actual way in which shoots are conducted changes all the time.
One day i can be shooting very local to the office, the next i can be packing to head over seas to shoot something else. Not only that, but I work with a lot of freelance journalists as well as the staff writers,
so it’s not just the bikes that vary from day to day but the staff I work alongside. This makes for a very varied work dynamic, but it’s something I love as you never quite know how something will pan out until you’re
in the moment, on the shoot capturing the shot.
How do you approach a bike test shoot?
As often as possible, i try to sit down with whoever has commissioned the shoot before the day, or at least get an overall view of what we’re trying to show in the feature through email, text, phone call, telepathy,
any way really. Whether it’s simply the first ride of a new bike, or a complex head-to-head feature showing which bike is best and why. I like to get a plan together with locations, potential shots and, if we’re doing video,
an idea of how we’re going to start it, what the main content will be, narration, piece to camera, onboard shots etc and how the video will end. Obviously with head-to-head/vs shoots we don’t know what is going to win,
but shot ideas, locations and all that stuff helps get prepped.
Another thing we like to do is nail locations with the shot list so we don’t have to spend too long looking for somewhere to shoot. Most of the time we have an idea of where we’re going and we have our favourite locations.
Every time I plan a shoot far away or in another country though, I thank the technical gods for google maps with ground view.
Does it help that you are a biker?
100% yes! I’m not one for stats, all the model versions, performance figures or spec, but being behind the camera and knowing what it takes for a rider to put a bike where I want it and with them in the correct position
on the bike, it helps massively. I have a much better understanding of how the bike works, reacts and what it can and can’t do. Not only that but it also helps to understand how good a bike really is or isn’t if
I can get to ride it before the shoot.
What are the highs and lows of being a staffer on a major publication?
It’s mainly highs to be honest. There’s a never ending stream of work which has a huge variety. One day I can be shooting a historic piece of motorcycle memorabilia, the next day I can be shooting the latest MotoGP bikes.
I’m not one for holidays and time off as I get frustrated with empty hands very quickly. I love shooting and lets be honest, can you really call it a job? I guess the only lows are when you’re traveling a lot
and start to miss the family or when you have to sacrifice doing one shoot because I’m already booked on another.
Do you have any favourite images?
Tons. I end up with a new favourite after most shoots. I don’t think that I could choose my top 5, 10, 20, or maybe even 50. There’s just so many I like after 10 years on the job.
Do you also shoot film too?
No, and I haven’t really played with it either. Maybe a few times when I was younger but nothing in my professional career. It’s one thing I love the look and thought of, but I’ve always been working in an environment
where time is of the essence and I’ve never quite found the drive to go out and get all the kit to shoot film myself. However, in my early days i would shoot as If i was using film, teaching myself the fundamentals of
photography and learning what everything is (aperture, shutter speeds, Iso etc) rather than just relying on the camera screen and ‘chimping’ after every shot. Everyone is different though and have their own ways of working.
I have massive respect for those who started their career using film and made the change to digital through the years but digital is what works for me.
"It’s the most prestigious staffer job in biking as far as I’m concerned."
What’s the split between photography and video and how do you approach a video shoot differently to photography?
When we decide we’re going to shoot video on a shoot there’s usually one common problem which is a shortage of time. Nearly every shoot takes up all the time we have with just stills so getting enough video content to
make a short film can be tricky. Primarily, I’m a stills guy. It’s how I got started and it’s what I do day-to-day but I’ve been pushing my video recently and over the last few years I’ve gone from nothing but stills
to shooting music videos in places like New York and Los Angeles and even further afield.
They’re more high key though and the day to day video content I shoot for MCN is nearly always for YouTube and social media with a more run and gun style. With stills there’s usually a set amount of shots we get and
then we’re done but with video it’s a heck of a lot more complicated. Firstly, the video can’t be too long, and in that short time I have to know that I can get all the information needed across to the viewer.
To do this I use detail shots, action shots as well as a piece to camera and I can annotate off them all if needed. It can definitely be a tricky balance. Planning ahead and making sure that everyone is aware of
what we need to get as a team helps massively.
Video is becoming ever more popular, what do you see for the future of video and photography?
I think there’s always going to be a divide and a need for both. Stills have their own unique way of delivering impact, that moment in time frozen forever. The way that people consume media is changing though and
video is definitely a mainstream way of consuming content, to the point there’s now thousands of people making a living from YouTube alone. It’s no secret that print is being consumed by less readers across the
board, but I don’t think that it’ll ever become obsolete. So many people I speak to say that they have tried, as have I, to consume print media through the use of a tablet but it just does not have the magic
that print media can offer.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to make a career of photographing bikes?
First and foremost, I’d say it’s not easy to get in to, but don’t be turned off or disheartened by it. You have to take thousands of bad photos before you start taking good ones. Be driven, be creative and be determined.
Shoot any bike you can get your hands on, practice static, action and detail shots. Practice your panning too. Go stand by a road side and just shoot cars, bikes, cyclists, anything coming past over and over until
you get them tack sharp. Once you’re nailing the shot start dropping your shutter speed until you can get down to somewhere in the region of 1/50th - 1/100th of a second. I rarely shoot panning at anything lower than
1/80th, but knowing you can do it even slower makes faster panning shots easier. After you’ve got the basics down, start building a portfolio and try to get your work seen by magazine editors, journalists and bike fans.
Social media is constantly growing and you could definitely start trying to build a fan base for your shots on there which would only help in getting your work seen by those that matter.
Joe on Twitter: twitter.com/iamjoeyphoto
Joe on Instagram: instagram.com/iamjoephoto
Motorcycle News website: www.motorcyclenews.com
All images © Joe Dick - Motorcycle News and used with permission.