trevorhawkphotography.com

About me  (boring stuff)

photo by Rupert Pellett

Humble Beginnings

My name:  Trevor Hawk. Motocross has been a life-long passion that started in the second grade when a fellow classmate let me ride his mini bike he got for  his birthday. From that day forward I drove my parents nuts constantly asking for a dirt bike. Not until I was 14 years old did I finally get my wish when we went to Hale's Sport Center and brought home a shiny new 78' DT125E. Later that year my step-dad took me to my first pro race-a Trans-AMA race at Mid-Ohio. The hook was set.

    Twenty eight years later I'm still addicted to the sport of motocross, especially the pro races. With my personal riding abilities being somewhere between limited to non-existent, I figured out early on the I would never become a pro-caliber rider, still my fascination/obsession to pro level mx grows stronger every year. I started taking pictures at the races clear back in 1980, in fact, somewhere in that mountain of photos in the hall closet are pictures of  Johnny O' riding his Mugen covered head to toe with mud. Someday I will dig out some of my old film stuff and scan them here, so stay tuned.

Going Digital

   Late summer of 2004, my friend Rupert Pellett talked me into making the trip to Glen Helen with him. Before we left on that trip I finally broke down and went digital, buying a Nikon D1X on eBay. The camera arrived 2 days before our trip, which left me reading the manual on the flight to California!  Most of those images sucked really bad but I was in love with my new "toy".  By the time High Point rolled around in 2005 I had a little better handle on things and came home with a couple of pretty decent shots which I posted on Mototalk that produced some interest from some fellow mototalkers, my family and friends. At this point I couldn't stop thinking about going to the races and taking pics, so I loaded up the car and headed to Southwick, which produced a few more decent shots.  By now my friends were pumping me up with comments like: "Yeah, that one's pretty good, it's even in focus!"... or something like that. The week following Southwick, while working my boring ass factory job and feeling like I'm wasting my life away, I had an epiphany, or maybe a dumb ass attack (I'm not sure which) and decided to deplete my backhoe fund that I've been working on for 5 years and buy more camera equipment!  I can remember calling my wife that night from work with "my plan", which was really no plan at all, asking her what she thought. "Is this something that you really want to do?" she asked, "Yeah, it is, but it is probably the dumbest idea that I've ever had, I'm probably going to lose my ass on this..." Julie interrupts me and says:  "If you really want to do it, go for it!" 

Did I mention that I love my wife?

 A Dream Come True

  By the time Red Bud rolled around I was armed with a new D2X and 300mm to add to my equipment list, although I was still shooting from the fence I knew I would be coming home with some great shots just because Red Bud is such an awesome track. By dumb luck I ran into Davey Coombs of Racer X and he offered to hook me up with an infield pass for Unadilla. Turns out Simon Cudby was on vacation that week, so DC was looking for some extra shooters to try to fill the tremendous void created by Simon's absence. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not anywhere close to having Simon's shooting abilities and probably never will , but obviously Davey was desperate. I have always dreamed of shooting from the infield and now my dream was coming a reality!

Flashback City

I had mixed emotions about going to Unadilla, you see the last time I was there was in 86' (I think), I went with my high school sweetheart who was about 19 years old at the time. As soon as we arrived the "cat calls" started. Many people warned me on the way to the gate that I'd be sorry if I took her in there. I blew them off. We enjoyed the first moto down in Gravity Cavity as beer bottles and cans whizzed over our heads as spectators on either side screamed: "The Other Side Sucks!"... all in good fun. We decided to walk around the track and when we got to the far side all hell broke loose. Guys were screaming "Show us your tits" in a constant chorus, we were mobbed by about 15 to 20 guys (drunk) and two of them dumped their cooler water on her. That's when I took action, but as soon as I confronted them, one of the drunks punched me in the gut and knocked all the wind out of me, they then pawed at my girl ripping her shirt. We were both scared to death thinking that she was going to be raped right there in front of thousands of people and I couldn't get to my feet to stop them. Luckily a couple of muscle-headed guys came to our rescue chasing off the drunks and we left the track shortly thereafter. I don't know who those guys were that "saved" us. But  I owe them a huge thank you!

A Kinder Gentler Unadilla

Flash ahead to 2005 things were much different now from those days, in fact I don't think that Unadilla is much rowdier than any other national on the circuit...Thank God!  When I got to Unadilla this last year I went up to get my press pass and vest and got to meet the man in charge:  Pat Schutte. I told Pat that this was my first ever infield pass and asked if there was anything that I needed to know. "Don't turn your back to oncoming bikes and don't get run over!"  Sound advice for sure. I got my vest and headed out to the track to get a feel for some potential spots to shoot from. I remembered the "incident" happened somewhere "over there" and thought about all the rich history that Unadilla has. About that time Mr. Schutte came up and introduced me to the crew of ESPN magazine that he was giving a guided tour to. Pat then asked me if I had any pointers for the ESPN guys, I laughed out loud, "Who, me? Are you crazy?"

Can I See Your Pass?

 Being a die-hard moto fan I'm pretty darn good at sneaking into the pits, I usually sneak in on Saturday just because it's easier to do without getting caught. But now I had my own pit pass and let me tell you, it felt pretty darn weird walking around not having to look out for the guys who would otherwise throw me out! When practice rolled around I was pumped to be able to shoot from wherever I wanted to. Infield passes make shooting soooo much easier!  I shot a couple of  "gigs" worth  trying out some ideas that I had. Later that afternoon I headed back to the hotel anxious to check out my work. Boy was I disappointed! Of all those pics, I only had 2 that were what I considered really good. Now I was nervous. I felt poised to "drop the ball." Luckily I did much better Sunday and shot the cover photo of the October issue of Racer X very close to the spot that I had the wind knocked out of me 19 years earlier.

No Where To Go But Down

When I got home from Unadilla I sent DC my photos of the Stewart/RC collision as soon as I walked in the door which was about four in the morning. The next day I started sorting through all the photos and picked a few out hoping the gang at Racer X would put up some wallpapers for me. That's when Davey emailed me back telling me not to post or sell the DV12 shot to anyone. I was thinking I got lucky and had one that might make it into the magazine. It wasn't till much later that I found out that he wanted it for the cover!  At first I thought he was f-ing with me, but low and behold it was true. Cover photo on my first media pass. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

 So now I have no where to go but down, in fact, I'll be damn lucky to even make the magazine again, but you know what? It doesn't matter, because I'm doing something that I love to do and I'm having the time of my life! So look around our website and be sure to check out my "Best of..." galleries located here . Check back often as I will be adding stuff throughout the year. I'm in this for the long haul so hopefully, I'll get better as time goes on. Please feel free to email me with any comments or suggestions.

Let's Give Thanks

I want to thank all of you that encouraged me:  my family, my friends and even some mototalkers!  I also wanna thank Davey Coombs of Racer X magazine for using some of my shots in the magazine and for the opportunity that he has given me. Thanks to Jeff Surwall from No Fear, for being my first non-editorial customer when he bought images for their catalog and for just being patient with me. To the "other" companies that expressed interest, but didn't find anything that they liked (yet), but most of all I'd like to thank my beautiful wife Julie for believing in me and encouraging me to live out my dreams. I love you babe.

Thank you all...Trevor

I know how you feel Homer, I know how you feel...