This post takes its name from an recent essay by Sean Reid from his photo review site (http://www.reidreviews.com/reidreviews/). Reid's review site features reviews of various photographic equipment and general essays on photography. His essay touches on something I've been thinking about awhile now... my somewhat unconventional approach to derby photography (for a future post).
Now, long time fans of my photostream on flickr may be wondering how often I actually use the viewfinder of my camera. And they would be right in being suspicious about this, as I sometimes shoot nearly an entire roll of film without actually looking through the viewfinder of the camera.
biking in the sun by nocklebeast taken with a Hexar RF rangefinder, shot from the hip.
Now, most people don't shoot from the hip. Different kinds of cameras offer different ways of seeing the subject. This is what Reid's essay is about. Reid lists five or six general types of camera with different kinds of finders.
One type of finder is of a camera that I don't have, the ground glass finder of the view camera. The view camera focuses the image on a plate of ground glass. The photograph focuses and composes the photo looking at the inverted image on the ground glass (often using a tripod) and then swaps out the ground glass for some film and then snaps the photo.
Another type of finder is the wire frame camera. The finder consists of two rectangular frames, the first is an eyepiece that you press your eye up against and the second is just a frame that shows the camera's view. Naturally, this sort of camera has a fixed focal length. Reid claims that cameras with this finder haven't been made for quite some time, but several years ago, lomography.com offered a quad cam with this simple direct view finder made entirely of plastic.
they don't make wire frame finder cameras by nocklebeast
The most newfangled type of finder is the electronic view finder, which consists of a little TV screen in the back of the camera or in an eyepiece. Most people are familiar with this sort of camera and call it a digital point-n-shoot. Some digital cameras include an EVF and another type of finder.
a little tv screen by nocklebeast
Another type of finder is the "twin lens reflex" or TLR camera. The camera has two lenses. The taking lens focuses an image on the exposed film, while the second lens coupled to the first focuses the image on a mirror which bounces the image onto a plate of ground glass. Most TLR finders are viewed from above while the camera is held at waist level. I don't think anyone makes a digital TLR, but there's no reason why a digital TLR shouldn't exist.
why doesn't anyone make digital TLRs? by nocklebeast
Another type of finder is the "single lens reflex" or SLR camera. The camera has a single lens. The lens focuses the image on a mirror which bounces the image onto a ground glass prism which the photographer sees in an eyepiece above the lens. When it's time to take the photo, the mirror collapses and the image is focused on the film or digital sensor while the view from the prism goes momentarily dark. Most often when people refer to "pro cameras" they're talking about digital SLRs.
Minolta X-GM
The last finder is the "window finder" which consists of a piece of glass or window. The entire window may show the view that will be recorded or the window will have a "framelines" which show what will be recorded on the film or digital sensor and the surrounding area of the recorded photograph. A subset of the window finder camera is the rangefinder. The rangefinder camera has a secondary window which is coupled to the mechanical focusing mechanism of the lens. When the image from the second window lines up with the image of the primary window, the lens is focused on what is in the center of the field of view.
A child playing in the dirt asked me, "Where did you get your shoes?"
When I turned around seeking an open pathway, I was surprised to find that the stream surrounded me on all sides. The serpent from across the way beckoned me with his tongue, unfurling it out over the water. The tongue almost touched my shoes "If you need to get across, walk over on this. But please walk gently, for if you don't you may slide and fall off, and no one will ever find you again."
As the cinnamon fell on my eyelids I felt a burden shift onto my shoulders. I could not open my eyes but could tell my knees were sunk halfway into the weak soil. I heard the old woman exhaust her laughter into my ears, filling them with tones of mockery and deceit.
The bearded man approached me in heavy garb of silk and flower embroidery. He told me that my tongue would be tested for truth by way of needle. "If upon the needle's prick your tongue does not bleed you will be telling the truth. If, however, it does bleed, you are a liar, and hence will swallow poison through your broken tongue."
The soil on my skin turned into sprinkles of gold dust. The people proclaimed me some kind of god.
Actually, my first bout was a double header. But I was sold in the first ten minutes.
After getting and watching a copy of Blood on the Flat Track, I find myself thinking back to my very first roller derby bout. It’s the summer of 2007, and I’m planning a visit to family and friends in the Seattle area, and I get an e-mail from my friend Rich. Rich says, “I got season tickets to Rat City roller derby. Wanna come? You can’t go wrong with girls on skates!” “Oh, okay,” I reply.
We arrive at the parking lot near a hanger; I guess it’s left over from some sort of cold war purpose. Rich gives me my plastic season ticket placard to hang around my neck. I feel a little giddy, like Garth with an Alice Cooper backstage pass. I have a season ticket placard around my neck! I am secretly an important man!
Our passes are inspected. We gain entrance into the hanger. I get a program. Girls are skating and fans are cheering on the other side of the hanger, as we’re about 10 minutes late to the semi-final round of the Rat City inter-league playoffs (season three). Derby Liberation Front vs. Sockit Wenches and Throttle Rockets vs. Grave Danger. Rich leads the way to the merchandise table. Behind the table is Skelatora with her wispy white hair sticking straight up and she’s wearing full skull-face makeup. I’m a little taken aback because she looks like a real zombie! Rich plays it cool, and asks for a pack of trading cards. Skelatora turns to me and says, “How about you? Do you want to buy a T-shirt?” Now, if you’ve ever had a close encounter with the undead, you know how your brain kind of turns to mush. I remember saying something like, “No that’s okay, zombie woman.” But, I recently found a black Rat City Bumpershoot T-shirt under a pile of T-shirts at home, so maybe what I really said was, “Yes, whatever you say, zombie woman.”
We head over to find our seats where the important people sit, in some bleachers a little back from turn two. The track in surrounded by people in the “suicide zone,” sitting on the track with a little rubber barrier separating the fans from the skaters. The teams sit in the middle of the track and the action starts on the other side of the track, where the blockers and jammers line up to start each jam. Rich explains the basics of the rules. The jammers, with the stars on their heads, chase after the rest of the pack. The first jammer to pass the pack is the lead jammer and can call off the jam. If there isn’t a lead jammer, or if the lead jammer doesn’t call the jam off, the jam lasts two minutes. Jammers score points for passing the other team’s skaters after passing the pack the first time.
The first bout is Throttle Rockets vs. Derby Liberation Front. All the skaters have crazy names. Ann R. Kissed! Miss Dismember! Sybil Unrest! Jowanna Ass Kickin! Andromeda Sprain! Astroglide! Ninjit Su! Pia Mess! Crash Gordon! Darth Skater! Skate Trooper! Drew Blood! Valtron 3000 is all celebratory jerky robot moves after one particularly good jam as the crowd shouts approval. Some of the skaters even have crazy numbers. I point out Meg MyDay, who’s wearing DLF’s army green skirt (and red underpants!) to Rich, “Is her number i, the imaginary number?” I ask. Rich says yes. I make a math joke, “Ah… that means she’s complex.” Meg MyDay gains lead jammer status and instead of calling off the jam, she presses her advantage hard and fast for the full two minutes, then crashes into the seats in the middle of the track, pulls out her mouth guard and pants at the end of the two minute jam. And that’s when I’m impressed with the athletics of roller derby, translating what I’ve seen to a sport I’m more familiar with. She’s just skated the equivalent of running a hard 600 meters on the track, all while trying not to get knocked down by the opposing blockers…. Damn!
In the documentary, Blood on the Flat Track, Rat City announcer Randy Pan the Goat Boy explains that 99% of guys see beyond the sexiness and spectacle, and see roller derby as a sport after about 3 or 4 minutes of watching for the first time. I was a little slower than average. It took me about 10 minutes. Actually, I guess I’m in the 1 percentile.
Randy Pan the Goat Boy in put your hands together Seattle! by nocklebeast
Rich points out three blonde sisters, D-Bomb, Femme Fetale, and Blonde An’ Bitchin’ (the Tamaccio sisters). If I remember right, it was Blonde An’ Bitchin’ who was injured, with a cast on one leg? She’s holding Femme Fetale’s two month old baby. Baby Fetale is watching his mom skate in a derby bout for the very first time.
At one point late in the evening (I don’t remember which teams or which skaters), a jammer skates the outside of the turn by herself and a opposing blocker comes from nowhere, makes a beeline for the jammer. The blocker launches herself at the jammer in a flying slide tackle (which is it nocklebeast? Sliding or flying? It was flying!). It was a flying, skates-first, shin-knee-thigh-hip-check that sends both skaters flying into the fans, lifeless limp bodies bouncing off the little rubber fence to the track floor. Miraculously the jammer isn’t dead. She gets right back up and starts to skate away and then smacks right back down on the floor. Now, I don’t know what happened. Did the jammer merely trip over the dead blocker’s skates? Or maybe the blocker isn’t dead after all, and purposely moved her legs so the jammer would trip over them. In any event, the jammer is pissed and she squats down near the blocker who took her out and starts wailing on her. And these weren’t little girly punches either. These were repeated fast fully-cocked punches to the blocker’s arm. Finally the head referee, who’s probably 6’ 4’’ without skates starts to skate over. The jammer stops punching. More referees skate over to help the blocker up (she’s not dead after all). There’s a second round of punches that don’t land as the refs struggle to keep the girls apart. The noise of the crowd overwhelms the music and the announcers. Finally the jammer is expelled and escorted off the track and out of the hanger as the announcers explain that the jammer wanted to send the blocker a message. Rich comments, “We know what the message is. We can read lips.” Later Rich comments, “I’d don’t like it when they get that angry.” I think to myself, “Do they fight a lot?”
Later Rich explains to me that roller derby is the only sport that doesn’t have big corporate sponsorships. I look around, and sure enough, there are no Budweiser or AIG logos anywhere in the hanger. I tell Rich, “I see these posters around town in Santa Cruz. I think someone’s trying to start a league there.” Rich lectures me, “You got to support your local roller girls.”
Everything I ever needed to know I learned at my first roller derby bout.
Let’s recap.
Girls on skates are awesome.
They keep score. They skate to win.
Roller girls are athletes.
They have crazy names.
Some roller girls have crazy numbers.
Sometimes roller girls get injured.
Sometimes roller girls have babies.
When roller girls fight, they get expelled.
You got to support your local roller girls.
That’s not quite totally true about learning everything at my first bout. I’ve learned a few things since then. Sometimes roller girls retire from skating. My head understands, but my heart is in denial. Why can’t they skate forever?
I’ve also learned that sometimes blockers and pivots are rock stars too. Shamrock N. Roller in take that! by nocklebeast
Everything in life is available to experience in roller derby
Back in 2005, Daveed said that Burnett Down was the sweetheart of the league if there was one. In the special features section of the Blood on the Flat Track DVD, there’s a section called “Where are they now?” Girls are interviewed at the start of the fifth season in 2009. They’re not playing in the hanger anymore. They’re playing at the Key Arena where the Seattle Supersonics used to play basketball.
They interview Burnett Down (she retired at the end of league play in 2009). She’s not so keen on the Key Arena and misses skating at the old hanger. She’s a little sad about the mainstreaming of roller derby. She misses the fighting and the cussing. She wishes the refs would just let the girls skate. She hopes roller derby remains entertaining. My Seattle friends still speak with wistful nostalgia for the days when Burnett Down skated.
Until now, the only time I’ve ever teared up watching roller derby is for concussions and knee injuries. But that leg whip at the end gets me every time.
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