ok, by now, if you know anything at all about me, you know i'm a prolific shooter. i NEVER give up an opportunity to shoot, or to shoot a lot. last fall, when NASCAR came to richmond, i shot close to 6,000 images over the course of three days. from those, i've had a number of them published, and i put together a slideshow.
in my ongoing effort to let one thing lead to another, i showed the slideshow to the head photographer at Richmond International Raceway. he told me he was going to be needing some help, and asked if i would be interested in shooting for him. oh, like i had to think about that. that was last fall. i saw him last month, and he asked if i was still interested, and i told him yes.
the day after i told him yes, i got a call from the head photographer at the richmond AP bureau; he wanted to know if i was available to shoot the race. even though i was floored, i managed to respond that i had just commited to shooting for the track. he spit back at me, "you CAN'T do that!!! you can't shoot for him. that's not gonna work. he doesn't even want you to shoot the race. i'll deal with this." and he hung up on me.
five minutes later, he called back and said, "ok, it's all worked out. you're shooting for both of us." being a bit too tongue-tied to argue with him, i simply agreed to do it.
so, when the races came to town this weekend, i was out there friday and saturday, all day and all night, shooting away. it was an unbelievable experience, completely different from anything i've ever done before. the track needed specific shots taken for marketing purposes, and there was stuff going on all day that had to be shot. for them, the race is just a small part of what they shoot.
on the other hand, the AP was pretty much only interested 4 things: wrecks, crossing the finish line, the burn out, and the victory lane celebration. unlike previous races where i was free to roam about, shooting at will, here i was assigned to cover all the action in turn 4. that meant i had to watch every car come through on every lap, just to make sure i didn't miss a wreck. (as far as the track was concerned, yes, they wanted me not to miss a wreck, but they were more concerned with me framing up racing shots that they could use in various pieces of marketing materials.)
i shot and shot and shot and shot and shot. it was a blast. it was work, but it was what i wanted to be doing.
one thing about the track requirements, though. they wanted a large collection of vertical racing shots. these are hard as hell to frame up. it's tough enough shooting racing cars horizontally. anyways, there i am, shooting away in portrait orientation, when i turn my attention to a car screaming into turn 4 trailing smoke. i focus in on him, firing away as i'm panning him going by me.
then
BAH-ROOOOOSHAH the car erupted into a HUGE fireball!!!!
and i was still firing away.
less than a minute later, the AP's disk runner showed up to take my disk.
and about two minutes later, he returned with a hand-written note from the AP desk: "watch your horizons! Don't do verticals!!!"
it seems that, since i was transitioning from a vertical orientation to a horizontal orientation while trying to shoot a car sliding at 100 miles per hour, my images had to be rotated quite a bit...
and today, my mom called me from florida, to tell me that when she opened the Jacksonville Times-Union, she saw, on the front page of the sports section, this image
with the credit "Skip Rowland / Associated Press"
i think i freaked her out when i asked her to go buy me a bunch of copies.
fellow dpc'er (and googler extraordinare) rich also found this link on the web: Detroit Free Press. (thanks, rich!)
if anyone else out there runs across the image, please let me know. i will gladly pay postage for any clippings you see that have my credit--just pm me.
now, all i have to do is just wonder, hmmmm, how would this shot have done in the PJ challenge ;-)
your posts cause me to have heart failure every time I read them. the good thing is that it helps me to know that i really don't have the stomach for this kind of thign.
Wow Skip, this is awesome. I shot a race this weekend too, but just for fun and nothing as exciting as a fireball car. I uploaded one picture of it into my portfolio. Anyway, way to go and we look forward to seeing more of your work in newspapers and magazines in the near future!
WTG Skip!!! Congrats! I'll check the papers around here - there are a bunch of NASCAR nuts in SW VA, so it's likely that there was coverage in the Roanoke Times.
I just love your stories! They are interesting and always have a great photo or two or three as well. Thanks for sharing them with us and I'm so glad to see you succeeding in what you love to do!
You know you should have someone follow you around with a video. With your photography and writing skills all you need is some video for a kick ass documentary.
skip,
i love the colors and hues in your shots. would be curious to know what post processing (if any) was done on them? is there a standard action you run on all your shots? any details would be great
thanks :)
linda hall just found this link for me (Thanks, Linda!):
yahoo sports
Originally posted by notesinstones:
Heh. I'm name dropping!
That is such an incredible opportunity and WOW Skip, that is just incredible shot. I'll let you know if I see it in the Boston area papers....
thanks, jen!
Originally posted by k4ffy:
skip,
i love the colors and hues in your shots. would be curious to know what post processing (if any) was done on them? is there a standard action you run on all your shots? any details would be great
thanks :)
thank you. believe me, i'm no joey/lesley/pawdrix/aznym/jpr/bear photo editor...i just don't have the time. i shoot in sRGB with contrast/saturization/sharpening all pushed as far to the right as possible. in post, i might make minor adjustments to curves and levels, and that's about it. on the other hand, i do use actions for sizing, creating webshots and thumbs.
This DOES bring back memories... No, not memories of NASCAR shoots: memories of serving two masters on the same shoot, LOL. It can be an utter bitch can't it? I learned to avoid it as much as possible.
As always, great to read another in your ongoing saga. Go get 'em, Skip! Do I sniff a camera upgrade around the corner?
all weekend long, whenever i was in the media center, i saw this guy i was working withs screensaver/slideshow. EVERY image was absolute perfection! sports illustrated quality shots, like a receiver completely horizontal in the endzone, you can see his eyes and count every blade of grass under him, inches off the ground, with his teammates barely oof 15 yards away...
when everything was pretty much over, i had packed up and was getting ready to leave. the race winner was in the media center giving an 'extended' interview. the shooter with the slideshow comes in and asked me if i had shot any of the interview. when i said no, he said, "go shoot it!" i started to unpack and he said, "no time--take this!" so i went and fired off about 50 images from various angles with tight and loose framing. since i didn't no how to work the autofocus, i had to manually focus everything. i took him the card, and just about shit when i pulled them up in the previewer. all this time, i thought it was just me and a lack of experience. yeah, you can get some great shots with the 300, the 350, the 20, the 30; they'll be more than adequate for the web or basic newsprint. but, alas, they do not begin to compare with the marks...
thank God I have a wife who understands the problem; i just hope the bank is as appreciative of this dire situation.
Originally posted by Keiran:
The International French Racing Snails Association
it's on my radar...i'll be covering the championships next fall!
your posts cause me to have heart failure every time I read them. the good thing is that it helps me to know that i really don't have the stomach for this kind of thign.
THat's awesome Skip! congrats on all the publications! I'd keep an eye out, but Rich already grabbed the paper from this area, so... Keep up the good work!
