Where The Action Is

[Ron Hill]

In 1962, the 91 Freeway bought my parent's home. I had lived there for 18 years. We moved to Garden Grove, June 1962, where I knew no one.

I soon realized there were more girls in my neighborhood than boys and most of these girls were my age. Bill Boyes used to love coming down to see me.

One girl I dated and really liked, also dated Steve Martin. At the time, I didn't know who Steve Martin was and nobody else did either. This girl, "LINDA" would tell me I was the second funniest guy she knew, which pissed me off in those days.

Steve had dog named "**** HEAD" which I thought was a "DUMB NAME".

Anyway, by summer's end, I knew a ton of people in Garden Grove.

I enrolled at Orange Coast College and Jimbo moved in with us. The first year was not that fun, as there were many "War Babies" and over crowded classes. Jimbo's mom's restaurant was doing poorly, so he moved home to Needles.

By mid year, my second year, I realized I could graduate (two year college) but needed some elective credits.

My friends said, "Take photography, it is a fun class".

So I signed up for photography. The teacher said, "Are you Russ Thrill's brother?" Then he said, "I mean, Russ Hill's brother?" He said he and Russ had been friends at Long Beach State. This sounded good!

I checked out a camera. After the first day, I decided to figure out what "Depth Perception was".

So, I'm walking across campus...and I see this girl that lived on my street that everyone called "The Garden Grove Statue Symbol" because just dating her gave you status. (SHE WAS AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL, TOO, her name was Lynn but she would give Natalie Wood a run for her money.) I had seen here many times when I was driving home but had no reason to talk to her.

So, now I have a camera. I see her walking along. I go, "Hey listen, I need to take some pictures for 'depth perception'". She says, "Don't you live down the street from me?" I say, "Yes, and I know who you are, you are the Garden Grove 'Statue Symbol'"

She says, I never heard I was the "Garden Grove Status Symbol". I say, "Well, you are and everyone knows it...."

So, I take a few pictures and tell he I'll bring them by so she can see them.

Well, in 1963, having a 8 X 10 of your head is pretty cool. The Status symbols and I date til January 1967.

So, I go off to college in Arizona, they give me credit for Photography as art for teachers.

Oh, on the side bar, there were a few other girls that I took pictures of, they all loved the 8 X 10 head shots.

I fell in love easy and often in those days!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I took a semester of photography when I was a junior in high school, then again in college in my last semester I took a photography class again. Both were elective classes as there were no other interesting classes to get the hours I needed. Here is the girl I picked as lead of my depth perception assignment. And you are correct about the 8 X 10 head shots. Here is one of my first true love. This may have been an assignment for head shots. Can't remember.

[racingfan1]

Is that somebody's box camera laying on the ground in the first picture Wayne?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Yes Dale. It belongs to the guy in the middle. To the right of the girl on the end is another one. They were all in my photography class and we were outside shooting an assignment. The first girl also has one, probably on the ground too. These were all the same cameras provided by the class. They were double lens reflex cameras and you look down the top to focus. The top lens is the one you focus through and the film is exposed through the bottom lens. You had to take this into account when taking closeups because what you saw through the lens is about two inches higher than what the actual photo will be. The image is also backwards on the focusing lens and utilized a rangefinder system. That is you see a double image and when you turn the knob to bring the two images together, then the focus is correct. No light meter. That's where you learn to bracket shots to make sure you got an image with the correct density. All Texas colleges and high schools used the same camera. Think it was a Rolliflex and I guess they had the contract.

[smittythewelder]

My dad had an old Ikoflex like that; different film format, "two-and-a-quarter-square" rather than 35mm. Shot lots of what ultimately became color slides with it. I felt a little, what, dorky using that camera, and had a little trouble getting the full attention of a subject because you hold the camera at chest-level and look down into a ground glass to focus. Seemed more natural to bring an SLR in front of your face, and the subject knew your were just about to take the shot, and not to blink or rub her nose or whatever.

"I fell in love easy and often in those days," oh Ron, cracks me up!! But in my case, I might put that as, "The gals sure had me jumping through a lot of hoops in those days!" IF ONLY I could have been one of the cool guys that can make THEM jump through hoops, LOL.

. . . and did photography for PLAYBOY, oh, man!!!


Whoa, here's a fresh example of getting THE SHOT:
http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forum...288#post155288

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I just remembered that the cameras we were assigned were not Rolliflexes, which were top of the line cameras from the 20's on, but Yashica D's. But they were twin lenses like the Rolliflexes and yes, same a you, you had to look down into the ground glass viewfinder. And they were that same 2 1/4 square format also. It took a little getting used to taking pictures of race boats because the bow of the boat faced left as I panned to the right while focusing. Through the viewfinder, the boat was aiming the opposite direction from where it really was going. The film had a paper backing which had to be removed prior to loading on the reel for processing. Peeling the tape from the film which held the paper in place would cause a fluorescent static discharge if you pulled too fast. The roll of film held 12 frames. That picture you linked to is a great one. What I would do to make it even better is crop out everything else except the boats. It would really be a crowded looking shot in a race.

[racingfan1]

My dad had an old Ikoflex like that; different film format, "two-and-a-quarter-square" rather than 35mm. Shot lots of what ultimately became color slides with it. I felt a little, what, dorky using that camera, and had a little trouble getting the full attention of a subject because you hold the camera at chest-level and look down into a ground glass to focus. Seemed more natural to bring an SLR in front of your face, and the subject knew your were just about to take the shot, and not to blink or rub her nose or whatever.

"I fell in love easy and often in those days," oh Ron, cracks me up!! But in my case, I might put that as, "The gals sure had me jumping through a lot of hoops in those days!" IF ONLY I could have been one of the cool guys that can make THEM jump through hoops, LOL.

. . . and did photography for PLAYBOY, oh, man!!!


Whoa, here's a fresh example of getting THE SHOT:
http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forum...288#post155288

While I was lucky to get that shot it certainly isn't the most in focus shot.

I have been working on using back button focus which is assigning the auto focus to a different button other than the shutter button which is used only to take the picture. When at a race I usually carry two cameras a Canon 7D with a 17-55 and Canon 7D mkII with a 100-400. The mkii I has been using this spring at baseball games and track meets and have programmed the auto focus to the back button , but the other body I had not done that yet. So at the start of that race I was to close for the 100-400 and quickly switched to the other camera , hit the back button to focus, which I did not program , and hit the shutter button which where the auto focus still was. It didn't have time to gain clear focus so it isn't the best shot. A valuable lesson learned and it has been corrected.

I am using Lightroom as my photo processing software and it is really good , it can fix most things except focus. I can even scan old pictures and negatives and run it through Lightroom to correct scratches and orther problems. I love that software.

I took this at Pleasent Prairie in the fall of 2015 , a much better shot.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That is excellent Dale. There is nothing wrong with that focus. And I like the cropping. It's got all the action..all the colors...and all the drivers are focused on speed. Rich's lead is a big advantage, but with everyone hammer down doesn't mean he will come out of the corner in the lead. Probably will, but the photo shows some fierce competition and Brinkman might tuck in behind if the others push hard right to the turn. A very good shot Dale.