derby action sequences with a digital rangefinder

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.





but even then, I don't post the entire sequence, I just post the one photo with the most intense expression or gesture. So, I don't typically get the "action sequences" that some other photographers get like the back blocking major that decides the game or the ejection worthy tripping (and subsequent crash and burn) or of Quadzilla jumping a quadzillion people on roller skates.

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)

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/6052156476/in/set-72157627328431609/lightbox/

or see them here (Polly Fester's expression in the third frame cracks me up every time).

my shameless confession

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.

Front Street pothole by nocklebeast (2007)

In the summer of 2007, I saw my first roller derby bout, the first round of the Rat City playoffs. It was epic.  I wrote a gushing fan boy account of the bout here: http://nocklebeast.blogspot.com/2010/03/it-only-takes-one-bout-to-get-hooked-on.html. 

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.

Pia with the star off by nocklebeast (2009)


Burlybot skates fast by nocklebeast (2010)


blowin' kisses to the crowd by nocklebeast (2008)

 
 Hambone, watching, waiting by nocklebeast (2009)


Dumptruck calls it by nocklebeast (2010)


jammin' by nocklebeast (2010)


Psycho Babble by nocklebeast (2010)


put me in Coach by nocklebeast (2009)

a ridiculous lens

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.


reaching by nocklebeast


Pippi Hardsocking by nocklebeast


Pigeon by nocklebeast


Pigeon got a penalty by nocklebeast

For some more tilt-shift derby photos, Axle Adams shot a bunch of nice photos last March.  He's got lots of light. He's shooting at f4 which gives a little more depth of field (than f2.8), and it looks like he's tilting the lens in a different direction than most of my shots.

To my knowledge, no one has used a view camera for roller derby photography.  Not yet anyway.