Eastern Utah MX Photographer...I'm a Noob!
bbentley392t
Registered Users Posts: 5 Beginner grinner
How goes it,
My name is Brad Bentley. I'm a 23 year old kid from Price, Utah...A small town of 8,500 people located just 125 miles south of Salt Lake City. For 48 hours a week my day job consists of working for "Arch Coal Inc.", at CFC-Skyline Coal Mine. However when I'm not working to pay the bills, I'm working for pleasure as an amatuer MX & Off-Road Racing Photographer for "Kawasaki Motor Corp.", "Cycle News Magazine", "ProMoto.TV" and "Garth Frandsen Photography". When I'm not riding my dirt-bike or photographing a race...you'll probably find me somewhere on top of the Utah mountains with my bow hunting Mule Deer. I'm also an avid outdoorsman who loves to camp & hike throughout the panoramic paradise & land of contrast known as UTAH!
I'm an official "newbie" to the Digital Grin family, I'm way excited to be here and hope to be able to share some photos, make some friends, and learn as much as I possibly can about photography in the process. My story is kind of basic, but here goes: I've always been a dirt-bike guy...I've been riding and racing since I was a kid. I'm actually a really good rider with decent speed & skill...however, not good enough to pursue a career in racing. So instead of abandoning my love & hobby, I just started to pursue another hobby of mine and try to connect it with my love for dirt-bikes. I started like everyone does...all on their lonesome and lacking essential knowledge. I started to chase local racing series' and posted my work on some local blogs. Then I started working as an assistant for a local race photographer, taveling across Utah photographing Motocross races and selling our shots to the racers. After a few years of small time shooting, I started to make friends higher up in the racing scene. Because of these friendships and my natural nac for race photography, I've started to make a name for myself in the industry...but it's still pretty small! The past 2 years I've been extremely fortunate enough to have the oportunity to photograph for one of my greatest friends and the best Desert Racer of all time...5x AMA National Hare & Hound Champion, Destry Abbott. My relationship with Destry has opened many doors for me...two of which I mentioned earlier, with "Kawasaki" and "Cycle News". Because I'm still a young amateur, I haven't quite hit the big time yet...which obviously means I'm extremely limited to what I can photograph. Until I make it to the top...which may never happen due to the over abundance of professional photog's in this business...I mainly cover professional off-road events only here in Utah, and a few in Nevada....such as the WORCS Series, AMA Hare & Hound Series and AMA Endurocross. My dream is to become a professional Photo-Journalist for a major MX publication, I feel as though I'm well on my way...but if it never happens, at least I've got an amazing hobby to keep me busy on the weekends!
I sincerely hope to attain priceless knowledge and friendships here! I'll try my best to be a productive member and contribute as much as I can. Below I'm posting a few of my race images spanning the last 2 years. They include images form Motocross, FMX, SuperMoto and Off-Road racing. I welcome all comments and/or crtiscisms...any input I recieve will benefit me and do nothing other than to make me a better photographer. Thanks for looking and reading, I look forward to talking with you and submitting my work for your critique for years to come!
Later,
Brad Bentley
My name is Brad Bentley. I'm a 23 year old kid from Price, Utah...A small town of 8,500 people located just 125 miles south of Salt Lake City. For 48 hours a week my day job consists of working for "Arch Coal Inc.", at CFC-Skyline Coal Mine. However when I'm not working to pay the bills, I'm working for pleasure as an amatuer MX & Off-Road Racing Photographer for "Kawasaki Motor Corp.", "Cycle News Magazine", "ProMoto.TV" and "Garth Frandsen Photography". When I'm not riding my dirt-bike or photographing a race...you'll probably find me somewhere on top of the Utah mountains with my bow hunting Mule Deer. I'm also an avid outdoorsman who loves to camp & hike throughout the panoramic paradise & land of contrast known as UTAH!
I'm an official "newbie" to the Digital Grin family, I'm way excited to be here and hope to be able to share some photos, make some friends, and learn as much as I possibly can about photography in the process. My story is kind of basic, but here goes: I've always been a dirt-bike guy...I've been riding and racing since I was a kid. I'm actually a really good rider with decent speed & skill...however, not good enough to pursue a career in racing. So instead of abandoning my love & hobby, I just started to pursue another hobby of mine and try to connect it with my love for dirt-bikes. I started like everyone does...all on their lonesome and lacking essential knowledge. I started to chase local racing series' and posted my work on some local blogs. Then I started working as an assistant for a local race photographer, taveling across Utah photographing Motocross races and selling our shots to the racers. After a few years of small time shooting, I started to make friends higher up in the racing scene. Because of these friendships and my natural nac for race photography, I've started to make a name for myself in the industry...but it's still pretty small! The past 2 years I've been extremely fortunate enough to have the oportunity to photograph for one of my greatest friends and the best Desert Racer of all time...5x AMA National Hare & Hound Champion, Destry Abbott. My relationship with Destry has opened many doors for me...two of which I mentioned earlier, with "Kawasaki" and "Cycle News". Because I'm still a young amateur, I haven't quite hit the big time yet...which obviously means I'm extremely limited to what I can photograph. Until I make it to the top...which may never happen due to the over abundance of professional photog's in this business...I mainly cover professional off-road events only here in Utah, and a few in Nevada....such as the WORCS Series, AMA Hare & Hound Series and AMA Endurocross. My dream is to become a professional Photo-Journalist for a major MX publication, I feel as though I'm well on my way...but if it never happens, at least I've got an amazing hobby to keep me busy on the weekends!
I sincerely hope to attain priceless knowledge and friendships here! I'll try my best to be a productive member and contribute as much as I can. Below I'm posting a few of my race images spanning the last 2 years. They include images form Motocross, FMX, SuperMoto and Off-Road racing. I welcome all comments and/or crtiscisms...any input I recieve will benefit me and do nothing other than to make me a better photographer. Thanks for looking and reading, I look forward to talking with you and submitting my work for your critique for years to come!
Later,
Brad Bentley
0
Comments
How goes it,
I sincerely apologize for the misleading lable of "Newbie". It was not meant to be implied the way that you've percieved it...What I meant was, I'm a Newbie to this forum. However I still conside myself a relatively new photographer in the Motorcycle industry...I've still got an exteremly long way to go in order be up to par with the best in the game.
Later,
Brad Bentley
Nikon D3 & D3s
2xSB-900 Speedlights
Tokina 12-24 f4, Nikon 50 f1.8, 28-70 f2.8,70-200 f2.8 VR, 1.7x TC , 200-400 f4 vrII
...more to come!
How goes it,
It's good to meet you...glad to hear that you do a little FMX photography. FMX is a blast to shoot, but it's one of the major aspects of the dirt-bike world that is absolutley inundated with photographers & videoographers. It's way popular & entertaining...so it makes sense. That's exactly why I try to dedicate most of my time & efforts to the Off-Road & Desert scene...not as much competition, and it's kind of my roots!
Later,
Brad Bentley
Here are a few of my images form the last race I photographed on August 31st 2008. These are shots from the "Pro & Semi-Pro" event of the Monticello, Utah WORCS (World Off-Road Chapionship Series). For those of you who don't know exactly what the WORCS series is...here's a little education. The WORCS series is one of the premier off-road professional championship series in the Western United States. It is essentially an "Off-Road" event, however it contains enough elemnts of Motocross to add another levle of flare & competiton...which is exactly what makes the series so immensly popular. Each event is based around a Motocross track, from which all of the races start at the gate. They then proceed to alternate between doing laps on the MX track, as well as a 5-10 mile off-road course. It's an amazing series...from both a racers standpoint & media. Before becoming a photographer, I used to race in this series at the 2 annual stops on the tour here in Utah. The races are not run in an "amount of laps" layout...rather they are timed events, usually lasting just over 2 hours.
ENJOY! Please let me know what you think.
Later,
Brad Bentley
How goes it,
As you probably can tell I'm still a forum "NOOB"...so I haven't figured out little time saving alternatives like that yet.
Later,
Brad Bentley