Pro photographer David Allio to answer reader questions
Professional photographer David Allio has been brought on as a regular contributor to Ask the Photographer and will answer reader questions with information from his upcoming book, “101 Things Every Photographer Should Know.”
In addition to working as the chief track photographer for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Allio is a regular guest speaker at photography events, leads photography seminars and is sought after as an industry consultant.
Allio was born in Virginia and graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Communications and Visual Arts. Over the course of his award-winning, 35-year career, Allio has served as the official track photographer for more than 10 race tracks and a comparable number of touring series. He has provided photographs from thousands of feature events at nearly 300 race tracks on three continents. He now boasts an archive of over 300,000 historic racing images, all organized by track and date.
Allio’s first professional auto racing photos - from a 1974 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman and Modified doubleheader at Martinsville (VA) Speedway - were published in Chris Economaki’s National Speed Sport News. Five years later, he was the chief track photographer at Bristol International Raceway in Tennessee when a rookie named Dale Earnhardt won his first NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National Series event.
In 1984, after a 10-year exclusive oval racing schedule, Allio was assigned to his first NHRA Winston Drag Racing event - the 24th Winternationals at Pomona, California. By the end of the decade, he was immersed in road racing as the official IMSA Camel GT Series photographer, and motorcycles through the AMA Camel Pro and Supercross Series. In the 1990s, Allio was also heavily involved in dirt oval super late model and sprint car racing. In 2001, Allio made the transition from traditional film to digital photography. Since then, he has continued to work a rich and dynamic assignment schedule covering all forms of motorsports.
“Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have the support and encouragement of people in the sport who respect my talents and have provided an environment for creative work,” said Allio. “The business is completely different now — much tougher today than it was when I began working as a teen.”
Visit www.askthephotographer.com/ask to submit your questions, and visit www.davidallio.com to learn more about Allio.
Below: David Allio
Leave a comment!