I’ve written a couple times about mountain bike jobs (here and here) and somehow I keep finding other jobs I’ve overlooked. The latest gig I found is mountain bike photographer and if you’re looking for a role model, Seb Rogers seems like a pretty good guy to look up to. His portfolio is pretty amazing and according to his website he has no “formal photographic qualifications.” Sweet gig, huh?
Seb had a recent blog post about shooting the cover for Mountain Biking UK and he gives some pretty detailed behind the scenes info that might be helpful for aspiring MTB photogs. Of course there’s also a market for MTB event photography – you know, the photos they take of you at the race and then email you a proof to buy? I’ve had mixed experiences with these services, though one in particular was especially bad.
I don’t remember if the photo was from Sea Otter or 24 Hours of Adrendaline but Leah ordered a photo of herself from one of the races (an 8×10) and when it arrived in the mail, it was badly wrinkled. Not only that, there was a huge race logo in one corner of the image that made the photo seem a little chintzy (not really suitable for framing). The worst part was the print looked like it came off someone’s $100 ink jet printer. I contacted the photographer and he was unapologetic (man, I wish I could remember who it was so I could flame him in the post 😉 I’ll let you know if I recall his name later.) No offer of a replacement or even a digital copy of the pic so I could print it myself at Wal-mart on real photo paper for $2.
Anyway, if you do decide to go into the MTB photo biz, don’t cut corners and offer good customer service – then maybe you’ll actually get repeat business 😉
