Marco Guidetti: Speed king

Since his early childhood, Marco Guidetti has had burning passions for two things in his life - photography and motorbikes. He has managed to combine both of these passions and has established himself as one of the top photographers for what is recognised as the world’s premier motorcycling championship; MotoGP. Doug Harman lifts the lid on Marco Guidetti’s career and his plans for shooting the 2009 MotoGP season.

Bologna, capital of the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy nestles at the foot of the central flanks of the Apennine Mountains, in the Po River valley and at the crossroads of the most important highways and railways in the country. Since his birth the city has been the lifelong base for Marco Guidetti and is home to his photography studio and business - Gemini S.n.c.

Marco’s has managed to combine photography and motorcycle racing in a story that goes back to his childhood. Born in 1962 the son of Vinicio Guidetti, himself a keen photographer and motorcycle enthusiast, Marco Guidetti’s interest in photography grew as the young Marco followed his father on his photographic travels.

© Marco Guidetti

Casey Stoner from the Ducati team during final testing for the 2009 MotoGP season at Jerez, Spain, March 2009.

“I started to take pictures really early and became a photographer because of my father,” explains Marco. “My father was always interested in cameras – he started with Rolleis, then moved on to a Leicaflex SL, then a Leica R3 – and, although not a professional photographer, he was passionate about photography.

“I followed him to bike races because I desperately wanted to get just a little bike - a scooter. Since my father’s passion was to take pictures of bikes, and I didn’t want to do anything else, he would give me a camera and instructions to ‘go in that corner and try to take some pictures’. That’s how I started, around the age of 14,” explains Marco.

This early start in motorcycle racing photography along with his love of motorbikes meant he could combine photography with bikes and Marco ended up as a bike tester for various magazines. “I tested the Aprilia 250 World Champion with Max Biaggi and later, the Honda 125 World Champion with Loris Capirossi, but my personal favourite bike was the Honda 650 C Custom.”

Given the speed and dynamism of fast moving MotoGP racing, and the that way digital technology has changed photography over the last five or six years, how has that instinct developed? “Although I always try to do something better, something different, it’s more difficult today,” says Marco. “Tracks are much the same - you know the type of light, the type of corner and, given that I started in bike photography such a long time ago, I even know the type and individual riding style of the riders. Now I know before it happens what will become my picture. Remember, MotoGP racing is so exciting, at each race you can easily take something different from it, overtaking is frequent and the crashes... well, they are more possible.”

So how does it compare against other shooting disciplines? Marco says: “While I don’t want to say anything against Formula 1, and I have photographed F1 before, the cars are, well… let’s just say, they’re always on four wheels!”

A sequence of images shot by Marco for MotoGP during the 2008 series illustrates the point nicely, and is a good indicator of Marco’s practised technique. He shot a sequence of images taken as a crash involving Jorge Lorenzo unfolded before his lens, the sequence involved panning and zooming, keeping everything in the frame and keeping it sharp; from the corner where the accident began to coming to a stop on the far side of the track.

© Marco Guidetti

Part of the Jorge Lorenzo crash sequence saw Marco capturing the rider upside down mid-air.

He recalls: “Lorenzo’s crash provided a sequence of images that are remarkable and really strange too. You don’t often see the bike completely off the track and the rider flying through the air above the bike, head down.”

To get shots like this – it’s now one of the most viewed motorsport clips on YouTube - Marco’s years of experience and knowing all the corners of the 18 circuits used in a MotoGP season becomes a vital ingredient in his work and is his major asset.

He says: “To get the shot, such as the Lorenzo crash, I have to imagine what might happen. Then, knowing all the corners, I position myself using that experience. Experience becomes critical to the success; it helps a lot, as does knowing all of the riders, their riding styles and what they are capable of. Then it’s a case of panning for some shots, or, if I need to freeze a shot to fix the bikes in the image, use a fast shutter. Of course, it also depends on what type of shot I might want or need and if there’s something particular required.”

But Marco believes the speed and convenience of digital far outweighs that extra work: “When I used to shoot film, I’d have to send film with images of races and practices from all over the world - the result was shots of a practice on a Saturday wouldn’t get published until a week after the event. Shots taken at a race would not appear until the following race event in another country.”

“This is not so today,” says Marco. The fast turnaround from shooting to editing now means Marco’s practice images appear in the official publication for the same race - images from a Saturday practice day are now ready to be published for race day on the Sunday.

While Marco has an almost instinctive command of his discipline and he has favourite equipment that he’ll always use and rely on no matter what - such as his trusty EF35-350mm f/3.5-5.6L USM zoom - a new trend started last year at Qatar that beckons Marco in the future.

“Last year, in Qatar, MotoGP became the first motorsport championship to hold a race during the night, with a completely floodlit track. While I’d usually shoot with my 500mm f/4 lens, for this race, I switched to my 400mm f/2.8 and, although obviously a little bit shorter, it’s a brighter lens. It turned out to be really, really, perfect because at ISO 800 and even at ISO 1600, high sensitivity shooting has improved from previous cameras, so much so, that I was able to shoot without needing to do any further noise correction on the computer after the race.”

© Marco Guidetti

Casey Stoner leaving the pits during the night race in Qatar.

So impressed was Marco with that high ISO performance that he is keen to replicate the technique: “I want to repeat the (low light) technique for this year’s night races. I see this as the way forward for me to try out and shoot new things for the 2009 season.”

Other kit Marco habitually uses and finds particularly useful includes few surprises: “I have an old 200mm lens and an 85mm that I use, but one lens I must mention, because it’s so useful and a fantastic lens for me, is the EF28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM. It’s really amazing. With that lens, I can shoot almost everything, although, yes, it’s a little short for shooting on the track.”