[Leica] a day at the drag races

[Harvey.Arche at jp2hs.org (Arche, Harvey)]

B.D. wrote:
Hi, Arche - 49, 51, 53, 57, and 58 are your winners. So what were you
shooting with?


On 6/21/06 6:05 PM, "Arche, Harvey" <Harvey.Arche@jp2hs.org> wrote:

> Of all the various paid sporting events I?ve ever been to, the drag races 
> have
> absolutely the least separation between spectators and participants, at 
> this
> track anyway. There is a small parking lot for fans right next to the 
> stands,
> for convenience, but you can park wherever you want. At the drag strip 
> there
> is no ?pit? area, just big parking lots on either side of the track. This 
> is
> where the racers line up their trucks and trailers, and unload the cars. 
> Any
> mechanical work takes place here, as well as warm-up driving. Everyone is
> walking around visiting and checking out the competition. The only parking
> rules are custom and courtesy.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/parking_pits
> At this track there is a broad lane from the parking lots, along back of 
> the
> stands, leading to the bottom of the track. This is where the racers queue 
> up
> waiting their turns to run. The fences are present only to define lanes, 
> and
> there is no avoiding moving in and through the mass of cars and drivers.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/lane
> Even though the line moves fairly quickly (each race only lasts seconds),
> there is still a lot of standing around and waiting, trash talking, 
> haranguing
> the officials, and running to the concession stand for snacks (send the 
> spouse
> or kid). Interestingly, to me anyway, there is a much higher proportion of
> black participation in drag racing, by far, than any of the other motor 
> sports
> I?ve witnessed.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/car_driver1
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/car_driver2
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/car_driver3
> The concession stand sells sodas, junk food, and earplugs (but this evening
> the sign said: ?No Earplugs tonight - Don?t even ask?). The noise can be
> shattering. Small boys stick their fingers in their ears
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/noise
> and grown men shelter behind their spit cups.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/burnout
> This is the ?burnout? at the bottom end of the track, when drivers spin 
> their
> wheels on water-slicked pavement in order to get the wheels hot so that 
> they
> become soft and offer better traction. Immediately after this the cars 
> come up
> to the starting line, and usually there is no more than 10-20 seconds 
> between
> the burnout and the actual race.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/downthetrack
> All the watchable action is at the starting end of the track, and 
> spectators
> are separated from the cars only by a chain-link and a low wall. This is 
> where
> most of the crowd is all evening. This Toyota truck stomped that Camaro
> turning in a time of 6.99 seconds for the quarter mile.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/start1
> Then again, that Toyota truck is a Toyota  truck like I?m Arnold
> Schwarzenegger. Wait - I?ve got that backwards.
> Time trials take up most of the daylight, and actual races begin in the
> evening. One of my students, whose dad races a Chevelle here, tells me 
> they?ll
> run races, sometimes, until 3 in the morning. As the wind dies, the pall of
> tire-smoke hangs at the starting line.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/night1
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album404/night2
> Still smelling of burnt rubber,
> Arche

Thanks, B.D. I was shooting my usual M2/35 'cron bugeye rig, but for film 
used, progressively as the day wore on, APX 100, Tri-x, and then P3200. 
Trouble was, I ran out of daylight film before I ran out of daylight. 
Lesson: don't shoot P3200 in the daytime without being willing to process it 
differently from the stuff shot at night - I got lazy.
While you're OK with 49, I dislike it for technical reasons (see above). 
Which brings me to my real problem with editing this stuff. Sometimes to get 
one image or another I like out there, I feel the need to establish context, 
or often continuity, and end up pulling in weaker images to support the 
narrative. I'm waffling between ditching any narrative and axeing 
ruthlessly, or keeping the story to add dimension. Us Southerners love our 
stories, but us photographers want the 1000 words to stay in the picture.
55 may not be a series-keeper, but could have outside life as a document of 
a time and place. 58 almost didn't get in, but 57 works both in and out of 
the series context, when taken as a portrait. Fortunately I happen to know 
who the guy is, and came get prints to his family.

That last 'T-shot' was definitly not 'simply a photo of people on a train'. 
I'd tell you to GOYA & Shoot but you don't need to hear it.
Arche