Scott Jones, Ducati Corse

We at MotoMatters.com are very privileged to be working with a man of such prolific talent as Scott Jones. His blog posts and photo stories are always some of the most popular items on the website, and his sharp eye and uncanny knack of capturing the perfect motorcycle racing image have seen his star rise rapidly among the ranks of professional motorcycle racing photographers.

Now, Scott has finally got round to organizing a website showcasing his own portfolio of work, to be found at PHOTO.GP. On that site, you can browse through a selection of Scott's work, organized by race series, year, rider and photo type. The site gives an outstanding overview of Scott's work over the years.

If you'd like to learn more about Scott personally, you should also check out the blog on his own website at www.scottjones.net. You can also sign up for his newsletter there.

I'm going to be appearing at the San Francisco Dainese store again in February and I anticipate still more questions about photography in addition to those about what it's like to work in the MotoGP paddock, so I thought I'd post something photography-related here for those of you who enjoy taking pictures at the races. 

The above image of Marco Simoncelli at Indy is one of my personal favorites from 2011, and I thought it would be useful when talking about what a photographer can do in the darkroom, whether that's one that smells of chemicals or the digital version. While some photographers still lament the loss of film as a medium for various and often quite legitimate reasons, I am grateful for the opportunities to start with one image and end up with another via digital tools more powerful than those in the wet darkroom. This image is a good example of how digital tools turned one image into something much different, and ultimately a photograph that I place among my best of the season. 

Colin Edwards, owner of arguably the best looking helmet on the grid

Yamaha's red-and-white livery was a massive hit with the fans

Nobody could say Randy de Puniet wasn't trying in 2011

Intensity, by Valentino Rossi

Alvaro Bautista had a very strong year on the Suzuki. But they still left

Marco Simoncelli proved to be both fast and error-prone at Silverstone, starting from the front row but crashing out of the race

Eyes on the future. But it wouldn't be with HRC.

This is Barcelona: Flashes of color, everywhere

Why so serious, kid?

2011 started here

Shift, Ben, shift

Hanging off the bike like this would prove to be devastatingly fast for Casey Stoner

It would be a very, very long year for Valentino Rossi at Ducati

I spent more time on the grid in 2011 than ever before and one of the interesting benefits of this was the level of details I started noticing in some of the helmets. On TV, or even at trackside, it's difficult to see exactly what the helmet designers have done to make each rider's crash hat unique.

So I started grabbing a few close up shots of helmets as they popped out of the hustle and bustle that makes up a G.P. grid. This collection is arbitrary in that I made no effort to look at each helmet to find the best ones. There simply isn't time to do that, nor is it possible to look in a systematic way since the bikes arrive in an unpredictable order, and the grid itself is a fairly hectic space until right before the start when they kick us off. 

In August of last year I posted a desktop wallpaper on my website of the above image with a bit of information about the championship trophy's creator, GARCIAROJALS Studio in Barcelona. I'd seen the trophy up close for the first time while it was on display in the lobby of the mobile Dorna HQ building that travels to the European rounds. I was very impressed by the workmanship and design. It's quite a beaufitul bit of art, and I was pleased to share the above photo with others who shared that opinion.

Ciao Marco

Hail to the champ

Ducati sold a lot of 848s in Nicky Hayden's Laguna color scheme

Why is CEII so popular? Free T-shirts!

Mugello - one of the fastest tracks on the calendar

Home, yet not at home

Hector Martin and Jorge Lorenzo: two different approaches to ear protection

Third wheel on the Repsol wagon, Andrea Dovizioso

Reduced grip has never discouraged Scott Redding from attacking corners

Yonny Hernandez is notorious for getting the bike sideways. Even in the dry.

Subject: scuff marks on a leathers, and how to avoid them

Jorge "Aspar" Martinez has an uncanny ability to persuade people to give him money to go racing