Dragway... Round 2

 

Through a few connections (that I am completely grateful for) I was able to get closer to the "Line" than before.  The images speak for themselves, but I could never have gotten such shots without being granted the access.

These images are a quick run of edits with some post production.  The sheer volume of images will keep the more subtle gems at bay till I can look over the group numerous times.

I will admit that the first couple of hours I felt like I was taking the same shot over and over again.  I walked away ultimately with about 1500 frames.  Once the sun got low and began to back light the track, I got visually more interested.  My intentions have always been to capture the more human aspects to intermingle with pure "Hot Rod" shots, but I was carried away by what was in front of me.

Ultimately I hope these images grant me the validation that I'm seeking.  There are a lot of "photographers" at these events and it makes complete sense.  The subjects can be very striking especially in context.  But I hope to stand out a bit due to approach and expertise.   While the rattling of my eardrums, the smell of smoked slicks, and the eye candy of cars flying down the track on two wheels carried me away, my intention is still to photograph people.  I prefer shooting with a wide angle to standard lens which means I need to be close.  Not to say telephotos are bad, but they immediately (to me anyway) can communicate a strange sense of insincere voyeurism.  If, I suppose, voyeurism can be sincere. 

My last trip did not prepare me at all for this.  Last time I wandered around and timidly shot when and where I felt comfortable.  I didn't leave my comfort zone at all.  Mostly because when I'm doing my own thing I don't want a stranger taking pictures of me and I feel most of the world responds this way (true or not).  I pushed a little bit, but hid behind the fact that I was shooting cars not people. 

I now feel that my first run was more of a trial of my interest and this trip turned into hopeful leverage for a more lengthy project.

Albuquerque Dragway

A couple of weeks ago I decided to explore the Albuquerque Dragway.  I'm looking for photo stories to keep the skills sharp and maybe shoot stuff outside my comfort zone.  The dragway has been on my radar for awhile but its hours of operation (weekends) always seems to conflict with other missions.  I have always enjoyed watching and looking at pictures of funny cars and dragsters as far back as I can remember.  It was like they were piloting a missile.  There was also something even more inherently dangerous about a vehicle that required a chute to slow itself down than Formula One (Nascar has never had a huge draw over me).

For someone like me who does not have a vested interest in any one team or individual, I was afraid I'd find myself bored.  I mean, how many times can you watch two cars speed down a straight away at the speed of light...  Well, for me, a lot.  I could not believe how freaking fast these guys were going. 

The smell of burned rubber and gasoline was constant.  And so was the deep bass rumble of idling engines.  A couple of times I checked to see what the hell was dancing around in my camera bag (worried my camera was off on some auto-focus adventure in the dark) only to realize it was just the machines' engines.

I enjoyed myself and the venture yielded a handful of good imagery, but I'm still looking for my story.  I need a human aspect to balance out the beastly machines.  Something that helps bond this idea of human speed through mechanical assistance.

City of Rocks - Part 2

The pinhole.  Amazingly this primitive camera has yet to be named by Bridget.  There is nothing special about a pinhole camera in the sense of components and structure.  It is a box with a pin-size hole on one end and film on the other.  No glass no shutter and just a fixed F-Stop.  You can buy manufactured pinhole cameras or even just pieces of metal with machine drilled holes, but in a world of digital cameras with exacting matrix-meters and camera raw files that can retrieve information from the depths of 14 bit wells, there is something chaotic and haphazard about a camera that uses a #10 needle hole in a Nestle Quick lid.

I built my camera while I was still in school for photography.  I shot with it quite a bit for a short while.  Once I realized that it was not going to be an aspect of my commercial portfolio the camera was shelved.  Over the last six years it has seen very little use. 

Early Polaroid Tests behind Bridget's apartment

 

 

 

Choosing to shoot film right now is daunting.  Professional labs are disappearing daily.  New Mexico has one professional lab - Visions Photo Lab - in Santa Fe.  So the concept of patience is taking a whole new meaning for me.  I used to hate the anxiety of developing film myself.  Between getting the chemicals the right temperature and then watching the clock for each step then drying an cutting and sleeving and blah blah blah.  I just could not move fast enough.  Then I had a local lab do it for me and that was at least bearable.  Now I send my film to Santa Fe and it takes basically a week to see the results...  Developing my own film is starting to look real appealing again.  

Observation Point #1

Hoover Rock

 

The Outcropping

Observation Point # 2

We shot these on our last day at the park.  While they are excellent executions of pinhole photography there is some room to improve.  Cloudless skies leave much to be desired.  Just the few wisps in the lower photograph up its excitement value dramatically and its by far the least interesting of the four.  As you can see from my previous post we had clouds all the time.  Just not when we decided to shoot the pinhole.  Also next time I will shoot using a red filter.  It ups the exposure time by 2 to 2.5 stops but it should bring the sky down in value.

The image quality is soft and dreamy at best.  There is a sweet spot in my depth of field but its much closer to the pinhole and even then its not super sharp.

 Detail Example - Click to Enlarge

I'm glad I dusted it off and took it for another run in the wild.  It will definitely be a staple when traveling by car!

City of Rocks - Part 1

I'm doing this entry in two parts because while we were there, Bridget and I shot some 4x5 pinhole and it has taken some time to get it developed, scanned and worked up.  But I'll save all those shenanigans for next round.

City of Rocks sets just south of Silver City in he lower west side of New Mexico.  There is not that much to do besides walk around the rocks and then around the entire park, but that being said, we spent three days there and stayed busy the whole time.  Lots of hiking and grilling and sleeping.  It was V's first camping trip so we were apprehensive about her willingness to get in the tent at night and sleep.  Both Bridget and I were prepared to pack up and go to Deming for the night if need be.  But V was a trooper.  I do not think she got much sleep the first night (neither did I).  The park was visited by a group of coyotes early in the evening and then around 2 a.m. two Great Horned Owls began hooting back and forth in the park.  One was definitely close to our camp site.  While V acted as though she wanted out she never made a sound. 

Our days basically consisted of getting up super early to get to the restroom for us and the dog.  We then proceeded to walk around and through the park as the sun rose.  Then we would head back to camp and make breakfast and coffee then suit up and head out for a longer hike.  Back to camp for lunch then relax (we ran into Silver city for supplies one day and the other we tried going to a winery up the road but they were closed) then another small hike and dinner.  Batten down the hatches and call it a night.

V was hell bent to find every rabbit and jack rabbit in the park and therefore was always on point.  On top of that she loved navigating the rock labyrinth.   She would scramble up the rocks and into tunnels fearlessly.  We renamed her to Rock Dog for the duration.   She ran herself into the ground while we were there.  She was so happy and content that we now know there will be more camping in V's future.

City of Rocks has been on my radar for awhile and I really wanted to shoot some landscape photography there.  Images on Google searches are pretty abysmal.  Granted the park is very difficult to capture in a single photograph.  Landscape photography has never been something I sought out to capture.  Usually it was more of a documentation of where I was at that point in time and never premeditated.

 The Standoff

Near our campsite was a group of rocks that we passed by every morning and evening (They were near the restrooms) that I affectionately dubbed "The Outcropping."   I took pictures here every day.  Had we camped else where I probably would have gravitated to another set of rocks (And called them "The Outcropping" as well).  These were shot with a Nikon D700 in color and converted to Black and white in Lightroom and Photoshop.  Because I went drastic with my skies and highlights I could not accomplish this feet in Lightroom alone.  If you pull the blue and aqua slider to far you get pronounced white lines around certain transition areas.  I did have to use the clone tool a bit to keep that under control around the rocks.  To keep from "re-sculpting" the rock with the clone tool, it's best to use the different blending modes (In this case lighten and darken) to remove the unwanted white and black lines that form.  The blending mode keeps the rock edge true.

 The Outcroppings

As for shooting the park as a whole, this trip I found a vantage point on the trail that circumnavigates the park on the North East side looking South West.  Not sure it speaks volumes but it shows a certain idea of the park's "situation."

Next time I'll post some Pinhole examples as well as pictures of the camera and how I built it.

Observation Point

"I'm done with this city of rocks..."