What is it like to be an Extreme E photographer?

What have been the main challenges in shooting the Extreme E championship?

Shooting Extreme E has been great fun, hard work and challenging all at the same time! I’ve shot all forms of circuit racing in my time with Motorsport Images, so to shoot cars that throw sand up, fly through the air and bounce around in spectacular environments, has been fantastic.

The main challenge has been the size of the circuits and the terrain – so far the first three rounds have been mainly sand-based. Walking around on the soft sand in Saudi Arabia and Senegal was hard work and trying to keep photo kit clean of it was tricky to say the least. In Greenland, it was courser sand, and wetter, but it still found its way into everything I own.

Do you use specialist equipment to keep your cameras working in the extreme conditions of the series?

The rain in Greenland was pretty relentless, especially on race day, but using the usual rain covers solved that. The specialist equipment I’ve used for Extreme E so far is actually more for me and not the photography kit. Hiking boots, UV trousers, face coverings (for sand not covid!) were all things I don’t usually need.

Motorsport Images is usually seamless in delivering race images rapidly during an event. Is this possible with Extreme E being in such remote locations?

We rely on good mobile data coverage to provide the service of sending images out as fast as possible. In Saudi and Senegal – amazingly given the remote locations – the data signal was strong and we didn’t really have any issues. Greenland was quite different; it’s so remote that on the event site there was no phone signal to speak of. However, Extreme E has always made sure there is good wifi in the media centre / tent.

How many photographers attend Extreme E events?

We have had four photographers at each event (with one extra at the first). We based that on looking at what we thought the workload would be, and how we would operate – how many do you need on course each session, how many in the paddock etc.

What has been your favourite round to shoot so far?

AlUla in Saudi Arabia was like being on another planet; Dakar in Senegal was eye-opening as I’d never been to West Africa before, and West Greenland, with the massive valleys and glaciers, was like nothing I’d seen before, so picking a favourite is hard! To shoot, I think AlUla was most impressive; seeing these cars jump and kick-up sand through the canyons was pretty special.

What are your thoughts of Extreme E's green initiative and what is Motorsport Images doing to aid that on the ground?

I think it’s great they are trying to raise awareness of the climate issues or challenges these areas face. We aid this in two ways. Firstly, by photographing not only the racing but also the Legacy Programmes that Extreme E activates in each location - telling those stories requires pictures to really convey the message. The second way is reducing our travelling staff to a minimum, as air travel to and from these locations is the biggest factor in the series’ own CO2 emissions. Having an extra photographer and a technician would be ideal, but if we can do it with just the four photographers, we’ll continue that way.

Sam and his team will be shooting at Extreme E’s next event – the Island X Prix – in Sardinia, Italy at the end of October.