The Incredible Photograpy of Garrett Hamilton

From ATV events to Weddings, Garrett was born to shoot

January 12, 2012

By John Pellan

At only 22, Garrett Hamilton has already built quite a name for himself. It helps that his images speak for themselves, as you'll see in this feature. The young Jasper, NY resident has used his favorite sport, ATV racing, as the foundation to his quickly expanding photo-business called Garrett Hamilton Photography. While many his age are still trying to find themselves, Garrett has been busy learning, testing and shooting weddings, models, food and of course sports events.

Below is my conversation with Garrett along with a few of his fantastic images, which offer proof that he's definately not your average photographer.

How did you find the sport of ATV racing?
I discovered ATV racing throughout my childhood as I grew up with a few friends that raced. I had the opportunity to race for a season when I was 15 and absolutely loved it, but my true love has always been shooting the sport.

Most race then develope a desire to shoot their sport. It sounds like you sort of went the opposite direction.
Yes, I started shooting ATV racing when I was just 10 years old with a Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot camera that my parents bought for the family. I would just go to the local track with my older brother Anthony and shoot whichever rider looked cool to me. That was pretty much the foundation to my photography.

Your portfolio is outstanding. I know today's cameras can shoot great photos, but it takes a lot of knowledge and experience to get pro-level results like yours. How are you making such incredible images?
I started out by doing the opposite of everyone else, not following someone else's work. I've never been much of a follower with other parts of my life and my visual motivation was no different. I never religiously looked at someone else's work and said, "Wow! I wanna create pictures just like that!". I just explored my own talents and took a ton of pictures to see what turned out to my liking. I think much of my commercial look came from my sense of eagerness to make something look its best. The hard lines and edges, and clean soft light and color come from looking over every detail of the image.