John Francis wrote:
Oh, I don't think it's that unusual.
At least for me, it's not unusual to relax trackside with my camera at my side. What's unusual is doing that when a car is coming. That's when the good shots present themselves.
When you're photographing an event like this you don't photograph every car that comes past unless you have a reason to do so.
True, but you never know which car will decide to attempt to fly, or batter its way through a Jersey Barrier, or see if it really does hurt to catch fire, or mate with the car beside/behind/in front of it. If you're not panning with the car when it happens, you're likely to miss the best shot(s).
I think that's probably a good thing, in this case. No matter how alert you are you don't get as good a feel for the situation if you're looking through the viewfinder of a camera with a long lens attached (even if you keep the other eye open to look around).
No doubt about that. But he wasn't paying attention, or he had poor judgment, or he use much more relaxed safety criteria than I do when positioning myself in the hot zone. It's usually possible to position yourself to get good shots without putting yourself right in the middle of the primary impact zone for the corner. He didn't manage to find any of those positions.
I think you know it, John, but as background for the others, I've been "working corners" at amateur and professional road races, mostly at Road Atlanta, since about 2002 or 2003. We are the guys in the white jump suits that wave colored flags at the cars as they go by and respond first to any incidents on the track.
As such, I've been on the "hot side" of the fences a lot. But smart people are never completely at ease in the "hot zone". Even as first responders and emergency workers, we try to avoid getting into the hot zone unless the pack is under the control of a safety/pace car, unless a driver or worker is down or /in extremis/.
And when I'm out there as a first responder or flagger, I have earplugs in, but my vision is unhindered. And the cars are loud enough that the plugs don't really detract from your ability to hear danger coming. You rely a lot on your ears out there, since your eyes are usually busy helping you assist a driver or worker. Blindering myself with a camera makes me /really/ uneasy in the hot zone. So I tend to pick safe spots and only bring the camera to my eye when necessary.
I can't even imagine picking the spot he picked. The other side of that wall and 10' (3m) up track would've gotten him just about the same shots, and he'd have been about a gazillion times safer. He didn't give himself any viable routes of retreat. In a lot of cases, it's safest to run straight toward the mess coming at you, counterintuitively. And it's usually safest to move up track, since the mess is almost certainly moving down track. But at least leave yourself something to hide behind, to put between yourself and that ambulatory fire. He had no viable up track retreat route and not much in the way of hiding spots.
He's a lucky, lucky man. -- Thanks, DougF (KG4LMZ) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
