semillerimages.com Image of the Week/Months 8.07.06 Laguna Seca
Steve
It's been a long three months or so since I have sent a photographic
missive to you all, my apologies. For reasons that would become quite
tedious to you, I shall remain silent with the exception of the fact
that my reticence was rooted in laziness and a lack of inspiration. I
have looked long and hard at other photographers in the last ninety
days and felt quite inadequate. I have read a lot since my last image
of the week. Steinbeck, Hemingway, and various post classic authors.
Incredible writing which contributed also to my lack of contributions
to cyberspace. I read last, Steinbeck's 'Travels with Charley' and it
lit a fire to my own catharsis of writing. What a masterpiece that one
day I wish to re-enact. It's funny with work, I go to work, I work, I
come home, I blah... with the exception of the visitors I talk with, I
experience nothing... I wish to travel, even if it's to a nothing town
in Kentucky, Massachusetts or Norway. Daily regimes are comfortable,
but lend nothing to living life to a more full degree.
A random phonecall from old friends the McConnell's offering a ticket
to the Laguna Seca annual motorcycle races lent a grand experience to
an otherwise boring life. An extra ticket was to had for the cost of
traveling to Monterey, CA - essentially the cost of gasoline and food.
Cheap fun, cheap experience that I might never have the chance to have
again. I thought about it overight, and decided in the morning I would
go. Why not? I hate my keyboard byt the way, a Saitek - pure typing
crap. Gotta get rid of it.
I packed a couple of shirts, deoderant, cameras, towel, pillow and
sleeping bag. I met my hosts at their home in Paso Robles at 4:30am on
a Frinday morning. They had just awoke. We were supposed to leave at
4:45. I grinned with satisfaction that others would lag as I do most of
the time. I helped pack their truck, drove to another's home and picked
up two additional travelers along with their firepit and wood. We then
stopped at a gas station where I purchased the smartest thing of the
weekend, a straw hat. I did not know California was in for the most
severe heat wave to hit in decades, but i had my hat... absolutely
invaluable. I never wear a hat either. I love my straw hat now, I love
it. We zipped up to Monterey, two vehicles, amped on energy drinks as
Uptown Espresso was not open when I left SLO at 4am. A beautiful drive
up the 101, led to a series of U-turns trying to find the way to the
campground at which we would stay for the weekend. The McConnell's had
been to the races a few times before, but they apparently forgot the
way to get there. It was amusing. We finally got the campground, backed
in the trailer in which we would sleep and opened the cooler full of
beers. Nothing like a beer at 9am in the heat, while being amped on
energy drinks.
I had this dream, this dream of dramatic photographs of the races taken
with my 4x5 camera. We left the campground to get the shuttle to the
races without the 4x5, as I thought I would bring it on the following
days. The heat was oppressive. The beer was the guiding light. We rode,
eight or nine of us, to the track. All of them had chairs, I had a
towel. We arrived, hiked to a seating area on the hill overlooking the
racetrack, and sat. The heat was pounding on us like a whack-a-mole
hammer. I wished I had a chair. We watched the motorcycle warmups, I
wandered the showcase of vendors. We bought expensive food and marveled
at the $4.00 waters. I discovered motorcycle photography is a distinct
specialization. The highlight of the day was getting back to camp. We
sat around for awhile, drank some beers, and I became hungry enough to
take over cooking duties of the night,. We had arranged in advance to
pay into the pot for food, and the first night was burgers and hotdogs.
I prepped the grill, cooked the burgers to PERFECTION and everyone was
happy and sated. A fire was set in the portable firepit and I dragged
out my pillow and sleeping bag pad promptly falling asleep by the fire
after the splendid meal. The drunken camp mates messed with me for
awhile, but eventually they too sucumbed to the sleep bug and passed
along to the sandman. I crawled into the camp trailer to the strains of
a band playing at 11am, waking 8 hours later at 7am as our camp stirred
to life. Bacon, eggs, and french press coffee greeted the day. From the
experience of the previous day, the aspirations of 4x5 images was left
in the dust of the camp. I unloaded the lenses and other equipment
unnecessary to image making from the camera bag to lighten my load for
the day and we were off. The heat again was pressing upon us like a
slab of wood upon olives making oil. Early in the morning we melted. I
thought of Theodore Dodge's history of the Roman Legions and their
camps, and felt like a warrior with my pack in the heat, slogging
across the field of tents onwards into battle. My bottle of water gave
me the advantage the legions did not have, but I felt for a short
amount of time, their agony. I wished I had a chair. Zoom, zoom, zip,
rangow, went the motorcycles for hours. Water was now $1.00 a bottle.
We surmised it was because of a directive from the fire department.
Capitalism toppled by human safety. We drank beer, and some water.
I shot a lot of images on the second day, soldifying my discovery of
the previous day that taking images of motorcycles traveling at 150mph
is not an easy task. My straw hat is off to the photographers who
create images that can be published. I had to learn a technique to
capture the riders as they zoomed past, and I kinda succeeded. The
biggest problem, as exemplified by the montage that is the image of the
week this week, was to capture the riders as they passed by in the
perpendicular fashion. They are speeding by so fast, the shutter button
would lag enough to not capture the riders in full. I refined my
technique to allow of the shutter button lag, and began to capture
viable images bit by bit. World class, no. I needed a longer lens for
world class. Interesting montage, sure. The middle row, far left first
image is the winner of the Moto-GP on Sunday. I was lucky in it's
capture.
I was lucky also for the experience. Definitely not for everyone, but
something never to forget. If you ever go, the most important advice to
give is to bring a hat, a chair, and water. When I think back about the
event, it was amazing that these guys on their motorcycles did what
they did. The speed, the agility, the handling, the shifting of gears
was amazing. The wildest thing though, was between practices and races
was the rides given to civilians on the GP bikes. Two person rides
around the track at speeds just slightly lower than the champion
speeds. I don't think I would have the guts to do it. I had a
motorcycle long ago, and now I long for another.
http://semillerimages.com/iow-link/iow-8-06-06-lagunaseca.html
Take care, and enjoy the summer.
*steve