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| © Bob Crisp |
| Jimmy Johnson's crew performs a "Gas and Go" pit stop at Talladega Superspeedway. Click photo for more images. |
NASCAR has become big business over the past decade, with sponsors now investing millions of dollars in each team. Because of this investment, NASCAR is more apt to protect the persona of the sport and in some cases, such as television contracts, give special privileges that other media organizations aren't privy to. Even at Talladega, security guards shooed-away working photographers from specific areas while allowing national and local TV crews special access in certain pit areas. When questioned about this policy, the guard simply shrugged and said, "Still photographers get in the way."
"With the big TV contracts, the still photographers are losing more and more access," Griffin argues. "Digital [photography] has made a huge impact. Before, when we shot film and chromes, we shot and dropped off the film. That was it. Now, we are the photographer and processing lab. We had to buy software, laptops, new camera bodies, and learn this along with the responsibility of transmitting the images to publishers, papers, and so forth."
Griffin also thinks that the switch to digital has made photographers lazy. "[In the past] I could shoot eight to 10 rolls of film in a weekend," he says. "Now I shoot up to 1,800 images in a single race weekend. That is 50 rolls of film! And there are shooters that shoot up to 3,000 images in a weekend. It is easier, and cheaper, to ‘spray and pray' with digital."
Crisp, on the other had, sees digital as a way of enhancing his workflow. "There isn't any difference in the way I shoot," he says. "I just get to see how my images look a good bit sooner. Some call it instant gratification, some call it instant disappointment. The bigger difference is getting back to the paper and getting to edit all the images while sitting in a comfortable chair instead of processing 15 to 20 rolls of film in the old WingLynch film processor. I don't miss mixing chemicals and ruining half of my shirts with fixer stains."
Creativity Leads to Better Shots
The ultimate goal for NASCAR photographers is to shoot the scene that everyone else shot, but differently. What separates professionals such as Griffin and Crisp from the pack is their ability to illustrate speed in new and creative ways. Photographers choose to illustrate speed in many different ways, and each situation is different, but one of the most common is panning the image with a slower than normal shutter speed. When cars are moving at 200 miles per hour, these shutter speeds can be as high as 1/125th of a second to blur the wheels only, or as low as 1/8th of a second to blur everything but the body of the vehicle. Perfecting this technique takes practice, and even professionals will tell you that only one in 10 images shot like this will be publication quality. Panning can also have unanticipated consequences. For example, if one car is moving at a different rate of speed than other vehicles in the area, you'll see varying amounts of blur, depending on how closely the vehicles are staying in sync with the panning motion.
Crisp likes the panning method, but he warns that there are risks involved. "I'm always afraid there is going to be a wreck happening when I'm doing a nice pan shot at 1/125th of a second. I like to shoot still objects in the foreground with a slow shutter speed so that the colorful cars are blurring by as well," he says. "Shots of the pit crew guys jumping off the wall into the path of the car coming screeching to a halt are a good way as well."
The newspaper and magazine markets are tough, and Griffin is typical of the effort it takes to break into shooting sports photojournalism. A serious photographer in college and high school, he lost interest in photography around the time of the autofocus revolution and didn't feel like upgrading to new equipment. A fortuitous move to Charlotte, NC, in 1993 got him interested in NASCAR, which in turn rekindled his love for photography.
"I picked up my manual focus film cameras and started ‘sneaking' into the infields and garages of the NASCAR tracks around the Southeast," Griffin says. "Eventually my work was seen by some of the regulars on the circuit and I was able to get a legitimate freelance job. I eventually joined the digital age by borrowing money from my 401k. I did this only after I was sure that I would be able to have a guaranteed freelance gig. I paid my 401k loan back in 4 months! Eventually the freelance work took up too much time and my ‘regular' job was getting in the way of my hobby. As luck had it, and I mean that 100 percent, I was offered a full-time photography job with NASCAR Scene. Now I am 'living the dream.'"
Prior to working the NASCAR circuit full time, Griffin worked for a Ford dealership. When questioned if this helped his shooting career, he explained that "it was more of a coincidence. Working at a dealership provided me with a ‘more understanding' boss and co-workers. I used every day off, sick days, vacation days, and so forth to go to races at my own expense to make this happen. After about three years of that, I actually was able to do better than break-even and put money into the bank, or more truthfully, back into equipment upgrades."
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