I have a fancy digital camera... it does sport a "continuous" mode that allows the photographer to press the shutter button down and shoot a continuous burst of photos. But it is not one of those fancy digital Nikon SLRs... it can only shoot about 2 frames a second and then after 11 frames it has to rest for about 20 seconds before it can take another shot. So, I usually don't bother with the "C" (continuous) mode. Every shot I take corresponds with it's own press of the shutter button.
So, when I take "action sequences" during a derby bout... it's of some sort of stationary "action" like of a coach's pep talk,
or of some sort of strategery discussion between jams.
So... imagine my astonishment when I came home from the Golden Bowl to find an action sequence!
I know what you're thinking. "Dude! How can that be? You shoot with manual focus lenses on a camera that maxes out at 2 frames a second!"
Well... if the skaters skate slooooooow enough, then I can get an action sequence.
This particular "action" sequence features some "jammer on jammer" action... Astronaughty of Bay Area vs Polly Fester of Detroit.
Now, you know the cliche. Every picture tells a story.... but really? A still photograph is not a novel, or even a novella. At best, it's a poem. You can't really tell from these photos what the full story is... who is toying with who?... who is the cat, and who is the mouse?... and maybe this sequence is really more of what I usually capture.. an expression or gesture.... in this case Astronaughty's intensity and Polly Fester's annoyed amusement.
Maybe the best way to see the sequence is in flickr's "lightbox" (press next to see the five photo sequence)
My name is Mark “nocklebeast” Nockleby and I’m a roller derby fan and photographer.
My interest in photography has waxed and waned and waxed again since junior high/high school when I shot with a Minolta XG-M. I took a black and white photography course in college.
hydrant by nocklebeast (1989)
After a dry spell, I was seduced my “lomography” and plastic cameras.
Walkin' the dog by nocklebeast (2007)
My experience with digital photography started with a couple of crappy point and shoots, which I mostly used to take photos of potholes. So I could more effectively complain about them.
For my choice of my first fancy digital camera, the seed was planted by a friend in Seattle, and in February 2008, I succumbed to Leica’s marketing and the notion of shooting with a digital camera with the least amount of computer in it. One of the design goals of Leica’s first digital rangefinder was to use the same lenses as their film rangefinders, which meant lenses with manual aperture and manual focus.
Does this lens work? by nocklebeast (2008)
In March 2008, I found a Santa Cruz Sentinel article about Santa Cruz Roller Girls’ first bout at the Civic. I kicked myself for missing it, and I immediately went online to buy tickets for the next bout. The Civic’s website said that photography is forbidden for some of their events. “Oh, I just got this fancy new camera! That would be a blast!” (Never mind that rangefinders are supposedly not suited to sports photography). I haven’t missed a Santa Cruz bout since (and I still occasionally shoot film at the bouts).
Get the jammer by nocklebeast (2008)
skating through trouble and green slime by nocklebeast (2010)
reaching by nocklebeast (2010)
I’ve also attended some Silicon Valley and Bay Area bouts, and some WFTDA tournaments, and I made it back to Seattle for one Rat City bout since my first bout there.
The lens pictured below is attached to my old 35mm film SLR. The lens is a 80mm f2.8 medium format lens attached to a tilt adapter. Even with the lens tilted, the width of the lens ensures that the full 35mm frame of the film is fully illuminated. The tilt adapter allows the lens to be tilted in different directions by maximum amount of 8 degrees.
It is a ridiculous lens.
this lens isn't straight by nocklebeast
In most cameras people are familiar with, the axis of the lens is perpendicular to and centered on the center of the film frame or digital sensor.
However, in a view camera, the sort of camera you see in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly just before Tuco is about to take a train ride (1:36), the lens is connected to the film plane with a flexible bellows. This way the lens may be either tilted away from perpendicular to the film, or the lens may be shifted away from center of the picture frame. Special lenses made to tilt or shift are available for SLRs as well. Shifting the lens alters the point of perspective independently from where the camera is situated. According to Sean Read in his review of the Canon 24/3.5 L TS-E II Tilt/Shift lens this comes in handy for architectural photography in tight places. When the lens is perpendicular to the film, the plane of maximum focus is also perpendicular to the film. But when lens is tilted, the plane of maximum focus is tilted as well, which comes in handy in architectural or product photography.
A odd tilt effect can even be achieved by "tilting the film" inside the camera as I do in a modified swing lens camera (the lens exposes the film as it travels in a circle, but the film isn't loaded into the camera in a circle).
stretch bicycle by nocklebeast
Tilting the lens allows the photographer to isolate the focus in a way that's a little different than opening the lens to it's largest aperture. This photo of Precious N. Metal of the Pink Pistols was taken with a normal lens with the aperture wide open. She is in focus, while her teammates in the background are increasingly out of focus the further they are away from the plane of maximum focus (about 6 feet away from me).
Precious N Metal and the rest of the Pink Pistols do warm up drills before the big bout by nocklebeast
With a tilt lens, the point of maximum focus can be placed both near and far.
here and there by nocklebeast
It seems to me that a tilt lens lends itself to a careful and deliberate way of working. Open the aperture wide open to allow you to see where the focus is on the ground glass of the SLR viewfinder. Then focus and shift or tilt the lens to place the focus where you want it to be. Frame the photo. Double check the focus. Stop down the lens as necessary to get the correct exposure. If you're taking a photo of a building or a bridge and the the building hasn't gone anywhere in the time you've been mucking about with the lens, take the photo already.
danger no trespassing by nocklebeast
If however your subject matter requires a bit more nimbleness such as sports photography or "street photography" (taking photos of people you don't know in public places) a tilt lens is probably one of the craziest tools you could use for these subjects. Occasionally, I get interesting photographs, sometimes even a gem, but most of the time it's just crazy.
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.
Posts
