an unconventional tool for the job

Every once in a while, when I'm at a roller derby bout, people will ask me,

"Hey! Is that a film camera?"

"No, this one's digital, but I got a film camera in the bag," I reply.  While tapping on the chrome top of my digital rangefinder, I added,

"I think people ask me if it's a film camera because it's so cute."

"No, it's because it looks like the camera my father used in the seventy's," he replied.


 The camera your father used in the seventy's by nocklebeast.

The sort of camera your father (or was it your mother?) likely used in the 1970's was something called a rangefinder camera.  The first rangefinders appeared early in the 20th century and were popular from the 1930's to the 1970's.

By the time the 1980's rolled around, your father was probably shooting with something called an SLR, a single lens reflex camera. Besides digital point-n-shoots and smart-phones, the (digital) SLR is the sort of camera you most often see at roller derby bouts. They're big. They have big lenses. And they're very professional looking. Lots of them have fancy features like auto-focus and image stabilization and what-not.

When a photographer looks through the viewfinder of an SLR, they see an image from the lens that is focused on a bit of ground glass. When the photo is taken, a mirror moves out of the way and the light is focused on the film or the digital sensor and an image is recorded. If the lens is a zoom lens or a telephoto lens, then the image the photographer sees in the viewfinder is magnified as well.

However, with a rangefinder, the lens doesn't magnify the image the photographer sees in the viewfinder at all.  The viewfinder simply consists of a little glass window with some rectangular lines showing where the frame of the photo will approximately be. When the focus ring of the lens is manually turned, a little prism moves, which moves a secondary image in the viewfinder, sometimes known as a "focus patch."  Let's consult the friendly manual from your father's seventy's rangefinder,

"While looking through the viewfinder, turn the focusing lever. The subject is in focus when the double image merges into one precise image in the center of the viewfinder." [emphasis added.]


 
the subject is in focus when the double image merges into one precise image in the center of the viewfinder by nocklebeast

Let's take a closer look at what the view in the viewfinder of a modern rangefinder looks like.

 
RF viewfinder by nocklebeast

Everything (subjects both near and far) in the viewfinder appears to be in perfect focus, just as if you were looking out of a window in your home.  In the center of the frame, we see a double image of George the yard gnome. Just a small clockwise turn of the lens will move George's ear in the secondary image of the focus patch to line up with the primary image of his ear in the viewfinder.  We also see two sets of rectangular frame lines, one for a 50mm lens and a smaller frame line for a 75mm lens.  Of course, a photo taken with the longer focal length lens (75mm in this case) records an image that appears closer to the subject than with a lens with a smaller focal length (50mm), but the photographer's view in the viewfinder doesn't change with the focal length of the lens used.  In addition to seeing what is inside the frame lines, the photographer also sees what lies outside of the frame lines. In this way, the photographer sees how a scene develops and can snap the photo when interesting subjects move into the frame from outside the frame. This is one of the primary differences between rangefinders and SLRs.  One of the best webular articles about the differences between rangefinders and SLRs can be found here:  http://photozone.de/slr-vs-rangefinder


Let's take a second look through the viewfinder of the rangefinder shall we?


 
RF viewfinder by nocklebeast


In aperture-priority mode, we see the shutter speed that will be be used for the correct exposure in the lower part of the view (1/180th of a second).  And we see the lens in the lower right hand corner in the viewfinder.  This is something you would never see when using an SLR.  The image seen in the viewfinder of an SLR originates from light entering the lens of the SLR.  With a rangefinder however, if the lens is particularly long or wide the lens will partially block the view in the viewfinder.  In the photo above we see the lens and lens hood of one of my favorite lenses, the fast Hexanon f1.2 60mm lens.  Because the lens is so wide, it can collect lots of light in low light conditions, but that means it blocks some of the view in the viewfinder.  In addition to that, it has a bit of an oddball focal length of 60mm.  This doesn't correspond to either the 50mm or the 75mm frame lines, and so the photographer will need to imagine where the 60mm frame lines might lie between the 50mm and the 75mm frame lines.


When a normal or telephoto lens is used with a rangefinder (as opposed to a wide-angle lens), it is sometimes helpful to increase the magnification of the viewfinder by screwing on a little magnifying glass to the viewfinder as shown below (lower left).


 
focus assist by nocklebeast


In this case, attaching a 1.4x magnifier to the viewfinder window gives a 0.95 magnification factor through the viewfinder.  With the magnification factor so close to one, this allows the photographer to open they're left eye and see a view with their left eye with nearly the same magnification as the right eye looking through the viewfinder of the camera.  In this way, the photographer can become even more aware of what subjects lie outside of the photo frame, but which may move into the photo frame at any given moment. (Maybe that's why all the photos of photographers in the friendly manual for the camera your father shot with in the 1970's have they're eyes open.)


I once remarked to Sharkey at the 2009 WFTDA Western Regional roller derby tournament that viewing a roller derby bout behind a viewfinder is a different way of seeing the bout.  He agreed, replying that he could see the expression on the roller girls' faces as they're skating towards him.  I thought to myself, "oh. I don't see that so much. I guess SLRs really are different than rangefinders."  Sharkey was referring to the fact that his view in the viewfinder is magnified, and so he can see expressions close up, that aren't as readily seen by someone merely close to the action.  I see the expressions everyone else sees (normal view, not telephoto).


 
Pixie yells by nocklebeast

I suppose what I really meant was that seeing the bout behind a viewfinder of a camera is a different way of paying attention to a bout.




Many digital SLRs have some sort of auto focus.  Dynamic 50-point, phase contrast, infrared laser assist, auto focus.  I'm not really sure what any of that means.  My idea of focus assist is to glue on a little plastic knobby ring onto the manual focus ring of the lens. The knobs allow me to find the focus ring on the lens quickly by feel.


 
focus assist by nocklebeast


Many SLRs since the 1980's have an auto-exposure program called shutter-speed priority.  The photographer sets the shutter speed to a fixed value, and the camera's light meter determines the aperture of the lens depending on the light of in the scene. This feature comes in handy for fast moving subjects such as sports. A fast shutter speed is selected to "freeze" the action. But some rangefinders have shutter-speed priority as well.  If, in the 1970's, your father used a Canonet QL17, shutter-speed priority was described as "automatic electric eye photography" in the friendly manual.


automatic electric eye photography by nocklebeast

My rangefinder has an aperture-priority auto-exposure program. (This feature is common to SLRs as well.) The aperture is set manually and the light meter in the camera chooses an appropriate shutter speed depending on how the scene is lit.  

I once compared notes with another photographer at a roller derby bout in San Francisco. I was trying to explain an exposure scheme I came up with which I thought was really clever.  I set the shutter speed to 1/125th of a second, which is maybe just barely fast enough to freeze the action. And I'll pretty much leave it at that shutter speed for the entire bout.  I'll manually adjust the aperture in the f1.2 to f2.8 range, and I'll set the ISO to auto-ISO. This way, depending on the aperture and shutter speed and how the scene is lit, the light meter of the camera will set the "film sensitivity" or ISO to get the correct exposure (in the range of 160 to 2500).  It's sort of a pseudo-shutter speed priority.  The other photographer looked at me, looked a the camera and said, "It has a lot of manual controls, then, huh?"  "Um... yeah," I replied.

rangefinders don't do sports


The conventional wisdom is SLRs are better suited to sports photography than rangefinders. Frank Van Riper in a recent "Talking photography" article (in which he compares Leica's latest rangefinder to, of all things, an iPad) says, "Leica rangefinders don't do sports, but they are great for most everything else."

But, I wonder. Is it the wrong camera? Or the wrong sport? Maybe, photographers should be taking their rangefinders to, yeah, you guessed it, roller derby!

 
vampires suck by nocklebeast

 
Sheila vs Tonka by nocklebeast


 
flashed by nocklebeast    


 
Slambi is wearing the lucky Dan Green star by nocklebeast


 
just a little practicin' before the big bout by nocklebeast


 
 a little crazy look by nocklebeast


 
 calling off the jam by nocklebeast


Sometimes, a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second isn't quite fast enough to freeze the action.

ohmagawd! Shammy! by nocklebeast



How do you catch the action with a manual focus lens?  One approach is to prefocus the lens to a certain distance, and wait until the roller girls skate into focus. Now the rules of roller derby require that helmet cover colors must meet a definition of high contrast beyond a reasonable doubt. Which may explain why sometimes I find the jammer's star to be in the place of most precise focus in the dead center of the frame (where the rangefinder's focus patch is).

sprinting by nocklebeast

Although if the skaters skate slow enough I can keep up with them with my manual focus ring.

What did photographer's do before SLRs were invented?  One of the most astonishing photographs (and it's much better as a 10x14 inch reproduction, instead of this 3x5 inch reproduction on the web) is Alexander Rodchenko's Horse Race.

Horse Race by Alexander Rodchenko

He took the photo with his Leica rangefinder with an Elmar 50mm lens on 35mm film in 1935. "To take this picture Rodchenko almost lay on the track, sure that the horses would not step on him. But he would not repeat this trick."

Kinda puts sitting in the suicide zone during a grom bout in perspective.


oh, this is a little close by nocklebeast

Sometimes, if you are not that close to the action, you just put on a really long lens on the camera and aim. In this case we get a nice "Mystery Science Theater 3000" effect, shooting from the stands shooting with a 135mm lens.   I think Crow T Robot is somewhere in the suicide zone cheering on Bloody Mary of the Texas Texacutioners.

blowin' kisses to the crowd by nocklebeast

Sometimes, when I have a telephoto lens on the camera I'll find it a bit too long for the intended subject.   With a fixed focal length lens you have to zoom with your feet.  But what if there isn't room enough to walk back and fit the subject in the frame?  That situation may require a bit of improvising.


sometimes the blood is so thick on the track by nocklebeast


Just turn the camera so the subject is within the framelines.  Problem solved.




Now roller derby is a sport, but it isn't merely a sport. There's lots of stuff besides girls on skates to make photos of.

go Oakland! by nocklebeast




lookin' Fierce! by nocklebeast


put your hands together Seattle by nocklebeast


  a penalty becomes a teachable moment for a young grom by nocklebeast 


Sexay Beeeast! by nocklebeast





Miss Whoop D. Doo! by nocklebeast



 
cha-cha-cha! by nocklebeast


shevil dead skeleton man by nocklebeast


with a little encouragement and training that severed limb might just make the team by nocklebeast


And of course there are other photographers getting shots at roller derby bouts (there's lots of shots to get at roller derby bouts)


ah! I hope he got that shot! by nocklebeast


Even during halftime.


taking photos by nocklebeast

 

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.

for a world less square

Most of my roller derby photos are shot with a digital rangefinder (a Leica M8).  If a rangefinder is an unconventional tool for sports photography (and it is, I just haven't written that blog post yet), then a panoramic film rangefinder is even more so. In panoramic mode, the Xpan exposes a 24 x 65mm rectangle on 35mm film (as opposed to the usual size of a 35mm slide, 24 x 36mm).


for a world less square by nocklebeast,

I know it was a photo on flickr that got me looking for a xpan on ebay, I seemed to have lost that photo, but it was probably of a street or cafe scene in Hong Kong.


red taxi by nocklebeast


back in the purse by nocklebeast

I'm seeing a bit more diversity of subjects in the Xpan flickr group than I used to. There seems to be more street scenes, but there's still  a lot of panoramic nature shots as well.


lawn and leaves by nocklebeast

But outside an occasional shot of the Boise State smurf turf, you don't see a lot sports shots taken with the xpan, unless you're looking for shots of roller derby!


the sport every town needs by nocklebeast


steady by nocklebeast

The viewfinder of the Xpan isn't quite as bright as the viewfinder in the Leica, nor is the focus patch as pronounced, but perhaps this doesn't really matter as I shoot at f4 which allows for a little more error in focus.  I never dial the aperture ring of the Leica above f2.8 at the Santa Cruz Civic unless I use flash. The maximum ISO with the Leica is 2500, while I shoot with 3200 speed black and white film or 1600 speed color film pushed one stop with the Xpan.

I approach the subject a little differently with the Xpan than the Leica.  I pay a little more attention to framing, trying to get as many roller girls in the frame as possible.  I've even given a little stink-eye towards a full penalty box. Get out of the box and skate into my frame!


wall of rollergirls by nocklebeast

green slime film

At last year's Pink Pistols bout, Millie told me she liked the green photos from the bout between Silicon Valley Dot.Kamikazes and Santa Cruz Boardwalk Bombshells. At first I was a bit confused.  The bout took place at San Jose Skate, a venue with slightly green linoleum-tile floor dimly lit by fluorescent lights.  Most of the photos have a green tinge to them, because it's a green place.  But then I realized she was talking about the cross processed film I shot, like this shot here


 Shamrock puts the hurt on Terribelle by nocklebeast

All film needs to be dunked in chemicals to realize the image on the film.  Different kinds of film require different kinds of chemicals.  When film of one type gets dunked in the wrong type of chemicals, that's called cross processing.  When cross processing, often people will shoot color slide film (E6) and develop it in color print film chemicals (C41), but you can do it the other way around or use even wronger chemicals like salt water or bleach.

Now, if you look at various flickr groups dedicated to cross processed film, you'll see lots of sunny happy outdoor scenes of dogs walking and bicycles cycling


Walkin' the dog by nocklebeast

or of fun rides


taking a ride by nocklebeast

or maybe of stray shopping carts


urban myth by nocklebeast

I particularly like Ursula Pfitzer's shots of alternatively processed abandoned buildings. But it's croctommy who's led the way with cross processed shots of, you guessed it, roller derby!


 Valtron Got A Penalty by croctommy

When shooting roller derby with the goal of cross processing the film, I'll typically shoot 400 speed fujichrome at f4 with flash, which tends to yield somewhat grainy, super contrasty, and of course oddly color shifted results

Zootown sneaks by by nocklebeast

it only takes one bout to get hooked on roller derby by nocklebeast

  Hellga Bent and a pink obstacle by nocklebeast

Someday, I'd love to shoot roller derby outdoors with out the need for flash.

seeing the subject

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

Reid's essay includes a photo taken from a 4x5 crown graphic press camera with such a wire frame finder.

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.

 
Zorki-4K

Where did you get your shoes?

 From the fairy tale generator via the the fairy tale factory.


 

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.

It only takes one bout to get hooked on roller derby

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. 

At this point, my only knowledge of roller derby consists of some photos from Daveed’s Noise to Signal blog and some fierce-looking photos of Rettig To Rumble in half-skull-face makeup from flickr or the Rat City website.  I only have the vaguest of notions about 70’s era Kansas City Bomber-style roller derby.  I don’t know that roller derby wasn’t (or that some say even now isn’t) a sport.

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.

Also in the “Where are they now?” special feature are two still photographs by Calamity Strange… one is a team photo of the fledgling Santa Cruz league and one is of Robin YoLife (retired from Rat City, helped found the Santa Cruz league, and retired again) and Kicken Red Vixen (retired last October).



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.