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The latest Guest Shooter is very special indeed. At the 2014 WSBK round at Laguna Seca, 5-year-old Melody Ortiz accompanied her family to the ninth WSBK round at Laguna Seca. Her father, Daniel, was kind enough to compose the following introduction to his daughter’s images. I have added the comments on the individual images, and I’ve also cropped added some processing to her images. Our thanks to the Ortiz family for contributing the photographs below.

“Melody is a true fan of the sport. Since the time that she has crawling, she has sat and admired racing action shown on the television. Her first race weekend experience took place at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca during the 2013 World Superbike event. By that time, she had become an avid fan of motorcycle road racing, familiar the multiple classes that include AMA, SBK, and MotoGP, knowing many of the riders by their names and numbers.

“Melody made many friends in the paddock that included grid regulars, team members and crews within the series. To acknowledge her awareness of characters that make up this great sport, she stopped her dad while in her push-car at Laguna and said “Look dad! There’s the man from TV!” pointing to AMA Champ, Josh Hayes. The impressive thing was, Josh went unnoticed by Melody’s parents and brother.

“During the family trip to the 2014 World Superbike event, Melody asked to be the photographer for the weekend just like her grandfather who’s made a living as a professional photographer. Being a child ahead of her time, she was allowed to carry the camera.

“When we met up with Scott, she was delighted to know that he took pictures too. We were happy to have caught up with Scott during his local coverage of the WSBK action and had a good time talking about Melody’s interest in the sport. Below you will find some of the images from the lens of a then 5 year old aspiring photographer.

“Some of the images were her attempt at capturing the action from various areas of the track while others were simply a child being a child; capturing random moments in pit-lane. Out thanks to Vicki Smith who took snapped the portrait image of Melody in the paddock.

“We hope you enjoy Melody’s work and we look forward in seeing you at the races. Many thanks to Scott for including Melody’s photographs on here at PHOTO.GP. Ride safe!”-Daniel Ortiz

Melody already has an eye for the technical side of motorbike racing.

And she can find every Ducati in a paddock.

She and her brother even bring their own.

Though not a Ducati rider, Tom Sykes is worth a photo in the Laguna Seca paddock.

And at five years old, a young photographer receives looks we older types never see from riders.

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