Photographs Are Gifts

Mennonite boys on bicycles watching dirt-track racing
from outside the fence, Outlaw Speedway, Dundee.

© 2023 Michael C. Johnston

First of all, this is the kind of picture I'm after when I go out photographing: unposed, unforeseen, "documentary" in style as well as in fact.

I hadn't been out photographing for a while before this week. I can tell you how I know I haven't been taking my camera with me enough: I'll take the camera on some particular drive, see a picture passing by, and the very first thought that flashes across my brain is, "too bad I don't have the camera along!" ...And it's sitting right there in the passenger-side footwell. D'oh. Anyway, I've been keeping the camera with me more often now. I'm not burning gas to get a picture every day, but I'm back at it again.

I put up a few new ones on my Flicker site, but it's frustrating: dark pictures look that look just right on my monitor at night look too dark in the daytime. My standard practice was to lighten every picture 10% before putting it on Flickr, but I forgot that. Now I have to go back in and replace all those new pictures with lighter versions. And I don't even know how to replace pictures on Flickr, so that's another time-sucking task ahead of me.

How pictures happen is weird. I had been wandering around one evening trying to capture the Canadian wildfire smoke somehow. I had been trying things like putting a tree silhouette in the foreground with layers of smog-shrouded hills in the gloom behind it, but I wasn't getting anything exciting. I was just playing my standard tricks. Then dusk turned to darkness and photography was over. But as I was heading back to Dundee from the east, I saw a deer running pretty hard across a field. It occurred to me that the last time I saw a deer running like it was fleeing, it was because of the dirt track races at the track south of town in Dundee. The cars circle slowly, then the signal is given and the engines open up. It makes an infernal roaring noise similar to a commercial jet taking off. I once saw a group of deer standing by the road, all looking alertly in the direction of the distant track, and as I approached they didn't even move—they just stood there staring, ears up.

Anyway, the fleeing deer is what alerted me to the fact that it was a race night.

So when I got to the corner—town and the way home to the right, track to the left—I thought, tiredly, should I go check the track? I'd been there before, several times. Never got a picture. There's not much to see from outside the fence. But for some reason I thought, I'm here, I've got the camera—what the hell, you never know. When I pulled up there were the usual pickup trucks lining the road. But when I saw these two guys on bikes I quickly made a shot from the window. Mennonites don't like people taking their pictures, but as I understand it, the objection is that they consider it vainglorious to put themselves forward. But I've asked many of them about it, and some of them don't mind. This situation offered two advantages—first, the two boys wouldn't know I was taking their picture, and second, they would be silhouettes, or close to it, and not recognizable. So I parked by the side of the road and got out.

An interesting thing happened. With my first shots, you could see the stands, and the lights were too bright. But once the cars got going, they kicked up a lot of dust, which added to the wildfire smoke to create a thick haze. The grandstands disappeared, and the lights diffused into larger blobs of light. I took a bunch of shots, pausing midway to recheck all the settings again.

I like the shot. This isn't the final, but it's close.

It just goes to show: when you're out photographing, you just never know when you're going to get lucky. You never know where the next good picture is coming from. Some days you get something, some days you get nothing. You can get something when you don't think you will, and get nothing when you think you're going to. It's not entirely chance: to catch a fish, you've got to have your line in the water. But the element of chance is always in play. At least in my style of photography.

I'm sure glad I turned left and drove by the track that night. This picture will never happen again. Here's the larger version. Do me a "fav"or and "fave" it!

Every time I photograph a lot, though, I quickly get behind on every other aspect of my life. Back to work now.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Comments

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Ah, a wonderful image, Mike. I can feel the heavy summer night air, hear crickets. It'd make a lovely print.

"... you just never know when you're going to get lucky."

But the more you shoot the more you know you will get lucky.

[Joseph Kashi]

This is a really nice shot, very evocative. Thank you. Was this photo made with the monochrome Sigma?

[Yes. --Mike]

[james leynse]

Can I make a suggestion? I like a number of these photos, especially the one of your dog with his tail half in shadow and half in sun. That one is really great. In fact, all these photos arel technically excellent. What is lacking in this collection is a focus. I'm not talking an optical one. I mean: a direction, purpose or story.

I have found myself to be my most creative when I am on an assignment, even if it's only a self-assignment (actually, especially if its only a self-assignment). Once I can find some avenue that is engaging to me, I don't have to drive around looking for it anymore and can just explore it as a photographer.

[Christer Almqvist]

I had the same problem as you. My pictures looked just fine on the monitor when I had adjusted them using Capture One. However, when I looked at them after I had put them on my web site or somewhere else on internet, they were either too dark (usually) or too bright.

My solution was to adjust the pictures on my monitor in a controlled environement. I set monitor brightness to a standard value and made sure the light in the room was also at a predetermined value. That meant that in the summer I could only do this work late in the evening or at night. Unless it was raining . . .

[Jim Arthur]

Nice shot! I can taste the dust and I love the jauntiness of the boy on the left. I’ve really enjoyed seeing your Sigma work. The resolution is impressive and I enjoy your perspective on the world. I had never seriously looked at Flickr until you started posting samples and I like it. I like that you can dip your toe in for free. I like the Albums feature and I really like that Flickr is not owned by one of the tech behemoths. I set up a free account at the end of last year as my first web presence and have been posting recent pictures that I feel will appeal to my small circle of friends and family. Its been fun and my small circle can finally see my pictures as I intended rather than through their crappy email program. I like Flickr enough that I will probably transition to a Pro account and post some of my favorite work from the last 40 years. It does seem that Flickr tweaks a bit on upload and since I process and post quickly, I want to change most photos a week later but almost never do. I’ll guess I’ll get around to it one day, maybe.

I found it interesting that my trusty 6D from 2012 is still in the top ten list of popular cameras on Flickr. I guess that speaks to your comment about Flicker being rather conservative. I imagine the 6D sales numbers are also a factor.

[Paul]

Final shot or not, I like it Mike. My kind of shooting as well when I actually have a camera on me.

[Ed Kirkpatrick]

Nice!, but I prefer the barn and cloud shot next in line... That one sings to me.

[louis mccullagh]

Snap sort of. see website in link below.

[Jeff Hohner]

Great photograph! So dynamic. Makes my eye positively zoom in in the direction of the gaze of the boys. Like them I strain to see the action. I love parallels like this. The composition is impeccable but what excites me most about a good photo is how it exercises my eye.

And to hearken back to recent posts about street photography, '...unposed, unforeseen, "documentary" in style as well as in fact' is pretty close to my definition of street photography --given the inclusion of people and some artifact of daily life, which you've got in this shot!

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Even the people who spend years calculating solar angles and planetary positions and searching out foregrounds are still at risk of the weather. Pretty much anything outside of studio still-life has a lot of luck involved. (Even studio work can have bad luck, neighborhood catches on fire, power failure; use to be the lab could ruin the film.)

I don't always get a photo when I go out and start turning over rocks looking for one. But I pretty much never get a photo when I'm not actively looking for one.

[Patrick Wahl]

Replacing a photo on Flickr - click on the photo, click on that pencil icon in the lower right, select replace photo, done.

[Bob Rosinsky]

There is something special about the black and white images you're taking with the Sigma.

[JOHN B GILLOOLY]

I love this shot Mike and am also glad you circled back to the track!

Your description of what you are after, "unposed, unforeseen, "documentary" in style as well as in fact" almost perfectly describes what I'm hoping for in an image when walking around.

And you added something at the very end that I often add to that mix when describing what I'm searching for - that I'm looking to capture an image that could not be captured again.

It is something that makes me gravitate to photographing people. While some type of fantastic and unusual atmospheric event or light may make a landscape photograph "unrepeatable," the overwhelming majority of landscape images are that photographer's version of pretty much the same scene. One could revisit the scene in similar conditions and make a very similar photograph.

But people add elements of uniqueness and unrepeatability; gesture, personality, expression as well as the literal realities of age and death.

[Richard G]

If you increase the exposure slider of a photograph published to Flickr from Lightroom, the adjustment is reflected in the Flickr image online after pressing Publish in the Lightroom Flickr pane.

[Lynn]

Congratulations Mike, your picture is in Flickr Explore - so far you've got 3,692 views, 168 faves and 17 comments.

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

With tongue firmly in cheek,
There are two types of photographers - hunters and fishers…

[Lisa O]

Hello Mike, I just wanted to say this is stunning. Might be my favorite of your images with your new setup so far. Best wishes.

[Mark O]

Nice one!

[Bear.]

I love the image but it is a type of image that I recognise that, if I had taken it, would drive me nuts since it look great on a screen (backlit) but will be REALLY hard to print (front-lit) so that it has the same impact. I’ve learned to recognise the issue by eye (mostly), especially with B&W images, but I have never reliably worked out how to make the prints- Ctein-time perhaps? Usually, for me, they just don’t get printed… beyond the first 50 attempts, that is.

Keep on shooting.

[David Zalaznik]

Outstanding photo on many levels. Great job, Mike! So often documentary and spontaneous subject matter depends entirely on whether you turned right or left at the last intersection you came to. You made the choice to investigate and you were richly rewarded for you effort.

[Robin Harrison]

And that one is a true gift. Really something. Thanks for posting the larger version - it's a great image to pore over.

[Bryan Hansel]

If you're a Lightroom user, there's a publish service for Flickr. You can automagically sync changes from Lightroom to Flickr with it.

[John McMillin]

If you hadn't labeled them Mennonites, I would have seen that short-brimmed hat as a clue and thought "1940s." Open-wheeled auto racing is a vintage sport that seems out of our own time, so it all fits together that way, too. A wise lesson and a fine photo!