holy smokes! on fire and nationwide!!!

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

05/07/2006 11:27:16 PM · #1

...the continuing chronicles of my freelancing...

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 ;-)

cheers,
skip

karmat

Apple iPhone 7

05/07/2006 11:31:58 PM · #2

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.

BUT, way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And we can say, "we knew him when."

deapee

Kodak V803

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

05/07/2006 11:32:39 PM · #3

awesome skip, you got a ton of photos there....and they're all really good. great work man.

jdannels

Nikon D300s

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM for Nikon

05/07/2006 11:35:32 PM · #4

Thats a great accomplishment and well done with those action shots. Shooting cars at a 100 mph+ sounds near impossible to me. Congratulations!

DelRioPhoto

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

05/07/2006 11:36:43 PM · #5

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!

Cheers,
-jeremy

edit: adding link to image

Message edited by author 2006-05-07 23:37:51.

sfalice

Canon PowerShot SX60 HS

05/07/2006 11:42:24 PM · #6

You, my friend, are just wonderful. You have the drive, the talent and the ability to persevere.

You WILL go far.

(Have you got the roar of the cars out of your brain yet?)

Cam

Sony DSC-F717

05/07/2006 11:45:03 PM · #7

No one from the AP desk ever comes to see me. :)

That is awesome ! Congrats Skip.

SJCarter

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

05/07/2006 11:46:57 PM · #8

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.

jpochard

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

05/07/2006 11:49:48 PM · #9

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!

yanko

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Carl Zeiss 50mm ZE f/1.4 Planar T for Canon

05/07/2006 11:52:16 PM · #10

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.

JPR

Sony Alpha a55

Sony DT 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Super Wide Angle Zoom

05/07/2006 11:54:06 PM · #11

dude post the original image with the strong diagonal line. i liked that one much better! :)

oh, guess what. the cam i borrowed was set to the wrong date and time so there goes my great entry for the nightshot challenge. :(

Elmakias

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

05/08/2006 12:41:05 AM · #12

wow
ill kiss your toes

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

05/08/2006 12:59:45 AM · #13

Originally posted by JPR:

dude post the original image with the strong diagonal line. i liked that one much better! :)

yeah, i guess it was a little beyond what the papers normally run...

Originally posted by JPR:

oh, guess what. the cam i borrowed was set to the wrong date and time so there goes my great entry for the nightshot challenge. :(

that SUCKS!

@adam: not necessary
@yanko: oh, i got followed alright ;-)
@alice: lucky me, my ears just don't buzz

and THANKS to all the rest of you for your kind words--they are muchly appreciated!!!

notesinstones

Nikon D200

05/08/2006 09:39:42 AM · #14

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....

k4ffy

05/08/2006 09:57:14 AM · #15

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 :)

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

05/08/2006 09:58:36 AM · #16

this just in...

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:

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.

Message edited by author 2006-05-08 10:17:30.

leaf

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

05/08/2006 10:51:45 AM · #17

congrats. it is great to hear that things are progressing.
it is super you got stuff published.

Apple iPhone 5

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

05/08/2006 11:15:52 AM · #18

Originally posted by skiprow:

yeah, i guess it was a little beyond what the papers normally run...

That shot is *excellent* ! - Have AP no imagination? :)

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

05/08/2006 11:51:39 AM · #19

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?

Robt.

eschelar

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

05/08/2006 12:21:20 PM · #20

Funny you should say that bear, reading his descriptions, by the end of his post, I had to go back and check out what he was using to shoot with.

Isn't the 20D itself a fairly new addition?

Skip, I've got to say, I don't give two wet rat's ...'s for nascar or any commercialized racing, but your work is fascinating.

I think I'd be on the edge of my seat reading your description of shooting The International French Racing Snails Association warm up rounds...

If there were such a thing.

Nice pacing!

You put the KICK ASS in NASCAR!