This past weekend I got the chance to spend some time with Rich Chenet, one of the most creative motorsports photographers in the business. Rich was a regular at AMA National Road Races back in the 1970s and ‘80s and he also did tons of work for Cycle World back in the day. He mostly moved on to auto racing by the 1990s, but would occasional show up to shoot motorcycle events.
As older guys tend to do, we sat around and talked about the advancement of photography. We both came up in the film days when a photographer really had to study the craft to get great results. Digital started making shooting motorsports accessible to more people over the years.
Rich showed me a bunch of photos of his picturesque hillside farm taken with his cellphone (a recent model Samsung) that blew me away. He said the in-camera correction in phones is getting so sophisticated that you can now truly get top-notch pro photos with today’s cellphones.
Rich said he thinks it won’t be too long before you can actually capture long-zoom action shots with your phone.
I asked him to come and shoot the grid Sunday during the MotoAmerica Superbike event at PittRace with his phone and here are a few of the images he captured. Just goes to show, it’s not the camera but the photographer that makes all the difference.
Rider Files 
Incredibly good resolution on these “phone” cameras
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