The Incredible Photograpy of Garrett Hamilton

By John Pellan

At only 22, Garrett Hamilton has already built quite a name for himself. It helps that his images speak for themselves, as you’ll see in this feature. The young Jasper, NY resident has used his favorite sport, ATV racing, as the foundation to his quickly expanding photo-business called Garrett Hamilton Photography. While many his age are still trying to find themselves, Garrett has been busy learning, testing and shooting weddings, models, food and of course sports events.

Below is my conversation with Garrett along with a few of his fantastic images, which offer proof that he’s definately not your average photographer.

How did you find the sport of ATV racing?
I discovered ATV racing throughout my childhood as I grew up with a few friends that raced. I had the opportunity to race for a season when I was 15 and absolutely loved it, but my true love has always been shooting the sport.

Most race then develope a desire to shoot their sport. It sounds like you sort of went the opposite direction.
Yes, I started shooting ATV racing when I was just 10 years old with a Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot camera that my parents bought for the family. I would just go to the local track with my older brother Anthony and shoot whichever rider looked cool to me. That was pretty much the foundation to my photography.

Your portfolio is outstanding. I know today’s cameras can shoot great photos, but it takes a lot of knowledge and experience to get pro-level results like yours. How are you making such incredible images?
I started out by doing the opposite of everyone else, not following someone else’s work. I’ve never been much of a follower with other parts of my life and my visual motivation was no different. I never religiously looked at someone else’s work and said, “Wow! I wanna create pictures just like that!”. I just explored my own talents and took a ton of pictures to see what turned out to my liking. I think much of my commercial look came from my sense of eagerness to make something look its best. The hard lines and edges, and clean soft light and color come from looking over every detail of the image.

What are you currently shooting with?
I’ve switched brands once along the way and then switched back to my Nikon system. Currently I’m using a Nikon D300 digital SLR body along with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens for a lot of my portrait work coupled with my Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 telephoto. Of course, my favorite lens, which I feel everyone should own, is my little Nikon 50mm f/1.8. It’s a great fixed lens with sharp focus and beautiful bokeh. I also use the various Nikon speedlights and for my big flash I use an Alienbees AB800 head with their Vagabond battery pack for on-location work.

Besides your favorite subject of ATV racing, you shoot a wide variety of things including, weddings, family portraits, corporate headshots, high school senior portraits and more. Of all you’ve shot which has offered the biggest challenge?
I do shoot a lot of different pictures. Right now I’m concinatating mostly on Senior Portraits/Families and Weddings, along with ATV/MX during the seasons. The biggest challenge I would say comes from the weddings simply because you have to coordinate with everyone, including my assistants who are present with me. My wedding days are also very long, typically 10-14 hours depending on the needs of the bride and groom. This in-turn is also the most profitable portion of my photography business, but that also comes with the most stressful segment of my business. You can’t pose or re-do a wedding!

 

Is there a certain rider that you really enjoy or enjoyed watching and shooting?
I really liked shooting with Mike Pilotte of the New England ATV MX series when he races for DRT Motorsports and KTM. Mike is a really fluid rider, but aggressive at the same time. My other favorite rider to shoot was Josh Creamer. Josh’s style was and is like none-other. I love the way he attacks the track. He’s amazing to photograph.

I would guess 80% or more of our readers have a digital camera of their own, but don’t get the kind of images they thought they would when the bought it. How can you help these people take better pictures?
The biggest thing I cant stress enough about taking better pictures is to just KNOW your camera inside and out. How the shutter works, whether it’s a digital shutter or a physical mirror style. Know your shutter speeds and aperture/F-stop and know how they affect each other and the outcome of the image. You should also know about lag time. This is the time between pressing the button and when the camera actually takes the photograph. It could be thousandths of a second or maybe even a quarter-second. Older point and shoot cameras especially had slow lag times, try to get a camera with little to no shutter lag. Try not to shoot into the sun, put it behind you or off to the sides of your subjects in order to get some good highlights and crisp details. Don’t be afraid to fill the entire frame with your subject by using the zoom feature on your camera. Also it never hurts to take a step back and pause for a moment as you check everything before calling it a day. Make sure you shoot right in the camera and don’t rely on expensive software to fix your mistakes. Most importantly, have fun. Go out and shoot what you love and take what you learn from that and apply it to other things in your life.

 

Today’s camera phones and point and shoot pocket cameras are pretty impressive. Have you played around with either?
Yes I have. I have had the Apple iPhone ever since I worked for them back in 2008 and it has come a very long way. I actually have an album on my portfolio website dedicated to just iPhone photos!

You worked for Apple?
I did work for Apple. I started in Boston when I was studying Photojournalism at Boston University. I worked at the Burlington Apple Store as a Mac Specialist and then transferred closer to home to the Victor – Eastview Apple Store. I then left the company in 2010 to really concentrate on my photo business.

Do you have any words of wisdom for an upcoming motorsports photog?
Photography is a learned trait as is Math and Physics, neither of the latter of which I’m very good at. You have to practice and develop your own style. There’s nothing wrong with looking at other people’s work and deciding what looks best to you, but in the end, it’s your own eye and mind that’s going to allow you to finally fall onto something you really like. If you fail at something, don’t give up. Failure means progression and limit, and once you have failed, you know what NOT to do the next time.

Any last words?
Happy shooting.

www.garretthamilton.com
www.facebook.com/garretthamiltonphoto
www.facebook.com/ghams617

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