Steep. Stone underfoot worn smooth, sharp upwards angles, the whole surface curving and writhing across the autumnal hillsides like one of China’s revered dancing dragons while the cold made noses red and run.

Sunday after the 2015 Beijing Formula E race was not exactly a day of rest for the Current E team. We’d been flat out for the past three days: editor Ross Ringham gathering stories, lunchboxes and strange sideways glances at his choice of shorts; photographic head Shiv Gohil shooting for five different race teams as well as covering an evening event; and new team member Marta Rovatti Studihrad adjusting to Current E life (generally translated as “working at a thousand miles an hour for 30 hours a day”), shooting two very swanky evening soirees for teams and hobnobbing in the VIP eMotion club on Saturday under a new partnership with Formula E.

Sunday, then, was the day of rest. Downtime. A chance to relax, make silly faces and actually see something of the city we’d flown halfway across the world to be in. With that in mind, we left: we hopped in a cab and took the 90 minute ride out to the Great Wall. That gave us plenty of time to talk about the race and the unique challenges of shooting Formula E in Beijing.

“This round can always be summed up in three words,” Shiv says. “Adapt and overcome.”

The first race of the second season was a monumental leap forwards from last year. The environment felt much more serious, more competitive, more focused. A lot of new faces populated the paddock. Even the temporary buildings were different: wider, more robust, more imposing. “The whole weekend felt bigger and better than last year and much better organised,” Shiv agrees. “There was a much bigger local media presence and the eVillage was also much more expansive.”

“The eVillage space was much bigger than at many of the previous events, which meant it sometimes looked less busy in photographs than it actually was,” Marta concurs. “I liked the revised podium ceremony, where the winning drivers came through the crowd on the way to the podium. It was cool to see fans interacting with the drivers this way: it was very intimate in a way. You could really feel the emotion.”

There was an additional test session on the Friday afternoon which helped the photographers, especially given that qualifying time has been stripped back in the second season. “The extra 30 minute test on Friday was very helpful, as it meant I could get three more vantage points than at a normal Formula E weekend,” says Shiv. “There is so little track time on race day, and the marshals in Beijing tend to restrict your movement, so you have to be very careful how you plan your day in order to get the range of shots that we need – cars on track, in the pitlane, mechanics at work, drivers getting and out of the cars and so on.”

For Marta, who worked for Trulli’s sponsor in the first season and covered five races, getting used to new clients and the Current E team was a challenge in itself. “It was a completely different idea of a race weekend,” she says. “When I was shooting for Trulli’s sponsor, I would spend the whole race in the garage or on track. I would have time to study the environment and select each shot. This time I was in the eVillage, at the autograph session, in the eMotion club, on the grid, in the pitlane….There was so much to do! It was a very different perspective of a race weekend.”

Running between inside and outside locations also proved tricky. “It wasn’t straightforward to shoot in the eMotion club because of the mixed light conditions,” Marta explains. “It’s not just the quantity of light, it’s also the quality. Because of that, it’s difficult to use a zoom lens inside. However, I also don’t like to get too close to people when I’m shooting, because it can make them uncomfortable and they can lose their natural way of behaving. I like shooting people as if I wasn’t there.”

Shooting in Beijing brings its own specific set of challenges. “The language barrier remains,” Shiv says. “You just have to get used to that. But outside T1 was marked as a red zone, which means no access for photographers. That’s where I’d wanted to shoot the first lap so I had to find somewhere else – only to discover there were actually six photographers there at the race start. That was frustrating! There were a lot more advertising boards up on the fencing this year, too, which meant I couldn’t take some of the key shots I captured last year. The photo holes were generally useless in both position and size, which severely limited panning and motion shots.”

The greyness caused by Beijing’s smog can also prove difficult, but it wasn’t as much of an issue this year as it was last year. “The light was much better this year because it was sunny up to the beginning of the race,” Shiv says. “Last year, the light made the shots relatively flat.”

Because of the layout of the Beijing circuit, getting from point to point can be tricky. Because Formula E races are held in city centres, there often aren’t clear perimeter routes or dedicated bridges for photographers as there are at permanent racetracks. There’s always a solution if you look hard enough, however: “I borrowed Bruno Senna’s electric bike to get around the circuit,” says Shiv. “The distances and routes are too far to cover multiple locations within the limited track time.”

“You just have to adjust to the running around,” agrees Marta. “You need a quick eye so that you can shoot the activity while it’s happening, instead of waiting for the perfect shot. Having experienced one event, I know better what clients are expecting which will help with shot selection for the next event.”

Taking the shots is one thing: getting them to clients is just as important. “I try and do editing throughout the day so that we can get material to our clients faster,” Shiv reveals. “Because our teams are quite often on the podium, they want the shots as soon after the race as possible to use in press releases, social media and online galleries.”

Current E snappers use Adobe Lightroom to combine editing and selection, something Marta had to learn on the job. “The speed of production is challenging,” she admits. “Turning them around so fast is a new thing.”

With Saturday’s action complete, the work was not yet done. We were shooting a posh evening at a luxury hotel, so the team decamped there directly from the trackside media centre. Having been on the go almost constantly since 7am, the team finally finished at 10pm and headed for well deserved beers and dinner.

“Trying to eat and hydrate properly is a key concern for the team,” says Ross. “We’re very grateful to Formula E for providing food at breakfast and lunchtime in the media centre, but these usually go very fast: if you’re not in the media centre at exactly the right time, it’s easy to miss out. When you do get a lunchbox, it’s often just a sandwich and a snack bar. In Beijing, the sandwich was meat in a roll. Not great for Shiv, who doesn’t eat meat! Some sort of buffet would be better; we don’t mind paying, we just don’t have time to leave the circuit on race days. Because the schedule is so hectic, we often find ourselves eating breakfast in the hotel at 6.30am and then not eating until around 10pm when we’ve left the circuit. And, yes, I do get grumpy if I haven’t eaten!”

After all that hard work, a trip to China’s Great Wall on Sunday offered some welcome downtime – until we actually got onto it! “It was a lot steeper in places than I’d thought,” Shiv laughs. “You can’t appreciate the scale of the wall until you walk it. The undulations are incredible where the wall follows the steep hillsides.”

“And it was so cold!” chimes Marta. “It was good to have a day off and to go and see something so iconic. The size surprised me – it isn’t very high, but you can’t see the end. It really follows the contours of the mountains. If the mountain is steep or curved, the wall becomes as steep, or curves with it. It’s amazing that something built so long ago and used by so many people is still so functional today. It feels a bit like going back in time. And it was great to spend time with the Current E guys out of the working environment.”

Top tips for shooting in Beijing

Plan your day: red and yellow flags are likely on street circuits and can severely curtain running time. To counter this, time yourself at each corner and be disciplined enough to move on Use panning shots: this will eliminate any issues with shooting through the fences Be creative: look for unusual or overlooked vantage points that might yield signature shots. Don’t forget to capture the context and background too Think light: it’s often quite grey so external lighting, such as off-camera flashes, can be useful. It helped that the podium was very well lit and low enough to shoot from the ground this year Get familiar, fast: Current E always begins shooting on Thursday, which helps the team get their bearings in time for Friday afternoon and Saturday. You don’t want to find on Saturday that your perfectly planned route around the track isn’t passable!

Equipment: Shiv

Cameras: Canon 5D MkIII, 7D MKII

Lenses: Canon 300mm 2.8 MKII; Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art (nicknamed Sam); Canon 16-35mm 2.8 MKII; Canon 70-200 2.8 MKII; Canon 1.4X and Canon 2.0X multipliers

Hard drive: Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB

Laptop: Apple MacBook Air

Software: Adobe Lightroom

Equipment: Marta

Cameras: Nikon D800, Nikon D600

Lenses: Nikon 28-300mm f 3.8-5.6; Nikon 24-70mm f 2.8; Nikon 20mm f 2.8; Nikon SB-700 Speedlight flash with light box; wi-fi remote control for flash

Hard drive: WD Passport 2TB

Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro Retina

Next time: Shiv, Marta and Dan explain how to cope with the heat and humidity of Putrajaya.