From Journalist to Photographer: Behind the Lens with Laurence Edmondson

In a rare opportunity, MoneyGram Haas F1 Team invited ESPN Journalist (and avid photographer) Laurence Edmondson into the garage to go behind the scenes with the team and capture some lesser known moments during a race weekend. 



You’re known in the paddock, first and foremost, for being a Journalist for ESPN. How did you first get into photography?  

“It's always been a hobby of mine. My dad always had cameras so I'd often pick those up and play around with them, but they were film cameras so of course you're quite limited to what you can do because film is expensive. Then when I got to University, I got my own film camera and took some awful, pretentious photos that I look back at and think they’re really bad. However, that got me started and because it was a film camera – you’re so limited by the 24 or 36 shots you have on film – you think about the process so much more. It was all manual, so it got me to understand exactly what every setting will do and how it can change. Then, inevitably you get the photos back a week later and either be delighted or disappointed with the results!

“I’m completely self-taught and I find it relaxing, it’s a hobby of mine. Wherever I travel in the world, I take a camera with me and when I have a camera with me, I’m entertained. The only way you learn is by taking more and more photos and I would guess the majority of photographers will tell you there’s a huge amount that they don't use. The photos you get right, or at least for me, are such a small amount on top of the wider pyramid of stuff that never gets used. However, that's how you learn.”

What has been your favorite Formula 1 location to shoot at?

“Monaco is a place where you've always got so many cool things going on, and I don't usually get time to go trackside with my camera and focus on taking photos. It's usually part of a wider feature, but Monaco is a place where I allow myself to look around. You’ve got so much going on, so many different buildings, and what I like to do is see where the professionals go, but then go to slightly different places. I quite like to take in a little bit of what's going on around the shot. Professional photographers want a crisp, clean photo of the car, and I'm trying to show the whole wider scene. But again, it's purely a hobby.”



What camera were you shooting with, which settings, and how did you edit for shooting with Haas?

“The camera is a Leica M10, which is a very expensive piece of kit. It was a treat to myself, but I buy all my kit second-hand. For anyone interested in investing, you don’t need to buy first-hand and the best place to put your money is in the lenses because they never get old, whereas the technology in the camera will always improve, especially now they’re digital cameras. The lenses will always be good as they can be mounted to newer models.

“As it’s a Leica, it’s all manual; you can have a setting for shutter speed, but I set it up manually, including the ISO. I had to set the ISO quite high in the garage because the light is quite low generally and also you've got super bright light outside, especially when it's sunny, so you have the real contrast of trying to get that to play out, and that's challenging itself. The other thing is because it’s low light, I have the aperture quite wide open, and I love shooting with a wide-open aperture because you get the lovely blurred backgrounds, but it also has the benefit of letting in more light. I have two lenses that are good for that; I have a 35-millimeter 1.4 Summilux and a 75-millimeter 1.4 Summilux which they don’t make any more as it’s from the early ‘90s and it's heavy, but a great piece of kit. Having done the weekend now, I wish I had another option, a longer option, but that's very expensive.

“I edit on my phone rather than a laptop because I'm not a professional and I find it easier. If I was a professional or did this again, I’d have to use a laptop and have to fully understand how to use Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. I have a basic understanding, but I use VSCO which is an app that has all these beautiful preset filters and gives the feel of film. It's super easy and quick to edit and very easy to export, so I've got into the habit of using it. It's probably out of laziness to be honest but maybe one day I'll go back and I'll put it all through Photoshop.”

Your feature covers going behind the scenes with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, but before you got started what were you expecting and how did that change throughout the weekend?

“The team was pretty clear about what was possible, so I had an idea in my mind of what I might be able to get, but I think working in that environment is very different from being told you’re in a garage and taking some photos. It sounds great but then you realize that there's less space than you might hope, and you realize that at any moment that 30-odd people might move in a direction to get one single job done. You’ve got to keep your wits about you, so that was one of the things I was concerned about and I knew it was going be an issue, in terms of not getting in the way but still being able to get the shot.

“Another thing was as a journalist you don't get that kind of access. I've been in garages before during practice sessions, but it's always been in the guest viewing areas. To be able to walk around and do that, and be able able to do that during a race blew my mind. During the race, as journalists you usually have a screen showing the race, a timing screen, and a laptop, and it’s such a different way to look at it. To be in the garage and see how calm it was, was so interesting. When pit stops happen, it's not and everyone's got their jobs to do and they go and do it, but you had two slick pit stops and that was it. The rest of the time the team is super chilled and it's very different from what you’d imagine, but in a pleasant way. The reality of what’s going on in the garage is very different from what you expect, but it’s not as chaotic as you might think it would be.”

Can you please share some of your favorite photos and explain why?

“Firstly, I found it quite hard to snap the drivers throughout the weekend because their time is so limited. They come into the garage, they’ll have a bit of a chat with their Engineer and Trainer and get their kit on, but if you miss that moment it’s gone. In FP2, I messed up as they arrived before I did; I was basing their arrival time on what happened in FP1, but it turned out that for FP2 they were there much earlier because it was a dry session and they wanted to get out on track.



“On Sunday, I managed to get this image of Nico looking straight out of the halo. As soon as you know they’re turning your way, your trigger finger goes. With Nico, I was conscious to leave once I got the shot I needed. With modern F1 cars and the halo, if they have the TV screens down and the cooling kit, with all of that it's really hard to get a clean shot, so I was pleased to get that.



“This sequence – any number of these shots – I quite like because this is a little bit of the style of photography I do; they have a bit of foreground, they have layers. I take a lot of shots in portrait where you have a bit of foreground, you have usually your focal point and then you have the background. I’m quite pleased with how those turned out.



“This one on the grid I particularly like because you’ve got all the mechanics faces stood in perfect focus. Then the car, and even though the sky was blown out because it’s all white, I think it works for the photo because it looks staged.”

What was the hardest part of jumping into the role of team photographer?

“I would say knowing what to do; there was some imposter syndrome there for sure because it's not what I usually do. Most photographers in the paddock would’ve gone up through the ladder of Formula 3 and Formula 2, or they would’ve done club racing back in the UK when they were really young. Apart from that, it was about making sure I didn’t get in the way or frustrate people, essentially. I didn't want to be in a place where I wasn't meant to be.”

Is there anything you didn’t capture that you’d like to do next time?

“I think I would go with a longer lens. 75-millimeters is quite long, it's actually really nice for portraits, but I realized there's a lot of occasions where you can get close, but you can't get that close, or at least I couldn't get that close. The other thing is if you were doing it time and time again over a season, you’d build a lot of relationships which would help in those tricky moments. The entire team was really good, and the drivers were really tolerating me being around, but I feel like if you could build those relationships, then naturally, you'd get a lot more stuff.

“It's one thing to be there and observe, which is what I was doing, but to build a relationship and then get photos off the back of it, that would be great. I think that's where you really get those cool shots from Formula 1. When everyone isn’t tolerating you being there, they want you to be there, that’s where you get the cool stuff.”



Was there anything you learned about Haas or the workings of an F1 team you didn’t know before?

“Lots, it’s all the small things. I guess the way to describe it without getting into too much detail is that everybody has a very specific job and they're always doing it, all the time. There's no redundancy, there's no one sitting around waiting for something to happen. Clearly, there are times when it's less hectic, but it feels like there's always stuff going on.

“Even at the end of the race, there were about three or four laps out when it became clear that there wasn’t going to be another competitive pit stop and the end result would stick, the team was starting to fold up their chairs, taking them around the back. They were getting on with the jobs they needed to start pack up, they’re always looking ahead of time to the next thing.

“Another fascinating thing and I’ve seen it before, is pit stop practice. It was quite cool to be on the other side of the ropes and a little bit closer than normal. Also, the analysis that went into it is impressive. I walked into the garage midway through a practice session and the amount of detail going through it to understand how to make small improvements, and then the nice pay-off to it was seeing the good pit stops in the race, and the mechanics coming back and being genuinely happy with a job well done and the pride they have.

“I would say that across the board actually, the pride everyone has in their job, whether you're the Chief Mechanic or one of the Engineers and you have a huge amount of pressure and decisions to make, to the guys who are rubbing off the tire marks when the car leaves in free practice. Everybody has done their job, and everyone has absolute respect for everyone else's job as well. I think that’s stuff which maybe you would expect in Formula 1, but when you see it, it hits home how important it is for the whole operation to work.”



Does it make you have a greater appreciation for the existing photographers and agencies within Formula 1?

“Yeah, I've always had an appreciation of that. For a long time in my job, I would edit photos to go on the website and we don't have to do so much anymore but even then, I'd always kind of enjoy it. It's a very boring job in theory, you're just cropping photos to go into different spots on the website when you see what some of the team can get and knowing a little bit of how they do it or how it’s possible, but not being able to do it yourself, I've always had that appreciation.

“Being in there and realizing how short amount of time you have to get some of those killer shots, and you'll see a lot of portrait shots and drivers and you might just think it’s another photo of a driver. The thing is, because F1 the background is so often the same and the front of the garage and the motor homes and the TV pen, you can get so used to a really good photo. When you're there and you have that millisecond to focus, capture the smile – because they're not always smiling, just like any other human being – and get a really good shot with good lighting as well, it's tough. I have a massive appreciation, not that I didn’t before, but even more so now.”