Photographing the ELMS

Established by Jakob Ebrey in 1999, JEP work for media outlets manufacturers, teams, drivers, sponsors and suppliers with an impressive portfolio of clients.

Based in Silverstone, we spoke to Jakob Ebrey about his career and about JEP’s involvement in the ELMS and MLMC.

• When did you first start taking pictures of race cars?

“It was at Oulton Park, where I used to go with my parents to watch racing and I was hooked from a very early age. I was around 7 or 8 years old when I started taking pictures.

“Originally, I had a Canon AE1, which was a film SLR and it cost a lot of money to get the film developed and printed.So, I usually only had one or two rolls of film per meeting, so I had to make every shot count.This made me try and get the best shots possible and certainly helped in my later career.

“When I was a bit older, I started to get the photographs signed by the drivers as a collection of favourite photos. I still have most of them somewhere at home.”

• What was your first job as a professional motor sport photographer?

“While I was still taking pictures for fun, when I was 16 or 17, I started to get some of them used in the race day programme and local newspapers with the aim of one day making it into a job and get press accreditation.”

• When did you start work as a professional photographer?

“In 1996 I started to work for a UK agency, John Colley Photography, which is run by my good friend John Colley. I finished my A Levels on a Friday, had the weekend off and went to work full time for John on the Monday. And I’ve not stopped since.”

• Who did you work for at that time?

“We covered British Touring Cars (BTCC), the British Rally Championship, the British F3 and British GT. At that time we were working for teams, sponsors and various media outlets, including Autosport and Motorsport News, who we still work for to this day.”

• When did you form Jakob Ebrey Photography?

“At the same time as I was working for John Colley, I got a small loan of around £700 to buy some cameras and I did shoot for myself as well as for John Colley Photography.”

• Apart from ELMS / MLMC, which other major championships are JEP working on?

“Over the last 20 years we work primarily on the British Touring Car Championship, British F3 and British GT, all as the official photographic agency.We also still cover the British Rally Championship, also as the official photographers. Internationally we have contracts with various teams and drivers in different championships, including the FIA WEC

“We also do lots of other kinds of photography as well, it isn’t just motor sport. We cover general motoring, such as road car tests for magazines and manufacturers, we cover track days for organisers and manufacturers. And we were also contracted the England football team when they were sponsored by Vauxhall and we covered the home international matches for eight years.”

• Who are the JEP team?

We have a fairly large team,The team is -

Mike Hoyer:  Mike is the main photographer for JEP, loves a big group shot. Mike has been with JEP over ten years.

Amy Bowden-Rooke:  Runs the office side of JEP. The most important person at JEP as Amy organises everything we do.

Peter May:  Or known as Pedro to all in the paddock! Covers ELMS and MLMC as well as WEC for JEP & Dailysportcar.

James Roberts:  Brilliant team member of JEP’s event photo team and part time race driver.

Matt Sayle: Another brilliant JEP event team member and wants to race his motorbike on the Isle of Man TT!

Stephen Fisher:  The newest member of JEP and still incredibly keen despite getting soaked at Monza during the ELMS weekend last year.

• What are your favourite aspects of your job as the official photographic agency for the ELMS / MLMC?

“I love the planning of the events. This is to make sure that we, as the official photographers, can get to the correct places to cover everything in the clients brief.We have to work out where the sun rises and sets, checking out the parc fermé, the podium and making sure we can get the finish shots, not just of the overall winners but each class winner as well. I love it when the plan comes together for the client, especially for the group shots of the cars and the driver photos.

“We also have to make sure we can react quickly if something changes during the event.

“Planning is an aspect that some photographers tend to forget about or don’t spend as much on as we do because it’s not glamourous. For us, at JEP, the planning is as important as the taking of the photos. There is an old saying that John Colley used to drum into me, and it went (with a bit of editing for our ELMS audience) ‘Fail to Prepare – Prepare to Fail’ and it is a mantra that I still live by today.”

• Do you have an unusual or funny incident you can tell us about when working in motor sport?

“There have been several incidents over the years that at the time caused us some problems at the time but looking back on I can now laugh at.

“There was the incident in the ELMS a couple of years ago at Paul Ricard when I was doing the group shot of the cars and the high lift got stuck, I was trapped 10 metres up in the air for 30 minutes.

“There was also the time on the Monte Carlo Rally a few years ago and I lost my camera bag because it was camouflaged against the rocks and scrub where we were shooting.It was a brown canvas bag and I put it down to take some shots.I walked away from it and couldn’t see it when I started looking as it looked like the many boulders in the area.We eventually found the bag.”

• How are you dealing with the Covid19 lockdown?

“It has been incredibly strange to put the brakes on the season before we even got started. I’ve found a new respect for teachers, having to home school my two children while still managing work.We have some big archives that needed a sort out and that has kept me very busy and we have been photographing some esports for clients, which is different from normal race track photography.The main advantages are the travel time is a lot easier and if I miss a crash, I can rewind the action.”

• What are you looking forward to the most when the ELMS resumes?

“Being part of the ELMS family again!”