Snetterton – the best circuit in England to practice your motorsport photography?

Report by David Harbey



8 May 2023

Reviewing my photos from the Bemsee meeting at Snetterton on Sunday (or Sun-dry as it turned out) I wondered whether Snetterton is the best circuit in England for the aspiring photographer to practice their craft.

There’s no fences, there’s easy access to a range of locations, including the paddock and, on a smaller club meeting like this one, it’s easy to drive round to different locations.

The PistonClick guide is available here – I will refer to the areas on the map below.

With the circuit running pretty much east-west, the position of the sun is a factor in deciding where to go when. With racing starting at 09.20 and a packed programme to get through, one of the benefits of these meetings is that there is very little down-time with action on circuit almost all the time. My starting point for the day then was the Senna Straight for some panning practice – how slow can you go, how blurry can the pit wall be?

To get there, having passed the ticket booth, take the road (well, former concrete taxi-way from WW2 I think) to the left towards the Bombhole grandstand (B). Follow the road round to Coram (C) and keep going towards the start/ finish line (E to F). This area is rarely busy at club meetings and allows plenty of room to move around for different shots.

There’s also scope for “on the starting grid” images.

Sidecars also featured. All the shots here are with the 70-200mm zoom.

I then moved to one of my favourite spots at Snetterton and one which few others – spectator or snapper – seem to visit. Changing to the 500mm prime and moving along the fence line, Coram offers a range of shots – head on –

panning

or rear

Care is required to avoid cars or emergency vehicles in the background. Sometimes, a touch of Dutch Tilt is required to minimise the impact … although I could probably have photoshopped it out …

By the afternoon, the overcast skies had gone and we had blue skies and sunshine. Time to move to Murrays (H). Always a good spot for some action, whether it’s over-optimistic overtaking moves, competitors out-braking themselves, or just plain getting the corner wrong. The sidecars delivered good action shots as expected.

Like-wise the bikes; I was still using the 500mm prime.

As the bikes accelerate out of Murrays, there’s a nice panning shot; wheelies can be popped here although for that I would have swapped to something like the 70-200mm zoom for a profile shot.

For some variety, I drove across the infield to the inside of the Bombhole (G). I only took a few shots here, but as you will see there is considerable scope for panning shots as the bikes head towards the Bombhole, or as they dive through it. I was using the 300mm prime here.

I finished my day on the outside of the Bombhole (B) and had changed back to the 500mm prime. There’s a nice angle standing by the grandstand as the bikes come towards you.

As you will see from the Circuit Guide there is much more to explore around Brundle / Nelson, Palmer and Agostini and that’s before we think about the paddock. For now, here’s  a rear shot at the Bombhole as our footer image for this report.

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