More proof that sometimes the nicest photographs are waiting to be discovered in your own backyard…
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For the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to teach several nature photography workshops to young photographers (age 8-13 or so). I work with the Water Wise Workshops, created by the Organization for the Assabet River – which teaches youngsters about the water cycle, plants and animals, and other topics related to living in a watershed such as ours — and I’ve been working with the local National Wildlife Refuges (Great Meadows NWR and Assabet River NWR) as part of their summer camp programs.
The workshops aren’t very technical in nature — my two main objectives are to instill a sense of respect for the environment that they are photographing (learn about your subjects, don’t stress animals, leave no trace) along with the basics of composition and stabilization. In my experience the two biggest disappointments people have with using small cameras are blurry photos and boring results.
Most of the participants have a genuine interest in exploring their environment and using the camera and it is rewarding to me, as a photographer, to help them a bit in coming back from wherever they go with, I hope, better photographs. The other main lesson I try to teach is that the best camera is the one you have with you (credit to Chase Jarvis for coining the perfect mantra on that topic) — and how, with a few things they probably have lying around the house, they can make their cameras even better (e.g., using a hacky-sack as a camera stabilizer for low-angle shots).
Here are a few more scenes from my 2010 workshops along with some portraits of a few of the participants. Normally I’d have more pictures, but most of my time was spent answering questions and creating challenges for them as we walked down the trails.
Thanks to the OAR and Eastern Mass. NWR Refuge Complex staff for making the workshop sessions a great experience for both me and the next Art Wolfe’s of the world.
Life has a way of throwing curve balls at you and last week our family was pitched hard and fast. If you’ve been wondering if I’ve been on vacation the past week, the answer is “anything but” — and compared to others I’ve had it easy.
Last Saturday we headed up to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH to photograph some friends who race there in the LRRS series. We spent several weekends up there last year and had a great time learning how to photograph high-speed bikes winding their way through the course while becoming good friends with a number of the riders there – particularly Larry and Chris, the core of “Slowpoke Racing” – LRRS #387 and #446.
Chris and my sister Kate are a bit of a item (not sure how else to say this) and our families share holidays together, etc. Larry is a great guy and they are both considered to be some of the nicest guys racing at Loudon.
This year my schedule on the weekends has been pretty full and there was only one opening to head up to get some images. Larry had changed the paint scheme on the bikes and wanted some new photographs. They are kind enough to pick up the cost of the infield pass and feed us well, so this works out well for both of us. My son Jay often tags along and has been doing some excellent shooting – which gives me more coverage on the track (and significantly more images to process afterwards).
So we headed up to the NHMS and found “Slowpoke City” – Larry had upgraded from a trailer and a tent to about 5 tents, an air-conditioned RV trailer, and the bike trailers. The Slowpoke team included a few other members, Justin, Shaul, and Wes and everybody was enjoying a day of racing in the 95+ degree heat. It was a very long day — there were numerous accidents and incidents on the track that affected a number of races.
I still haven’t scored an “on-track pass”, but we were able to get access to some pretty decent locations for doing photography and came away with almost 1800 images for the day of the team racing along with various shots of other riders. I even tried shooting some video with the 5D Mark II through the 500mm f/4 lens. This was an experiment that didn’t go very well, but it was fun to try anyways. I’m always looking to push into new territory.
Normally we’d go up for both days but I had a DSLR workshop in Boston with Philip Bloom (sponsored by BOSFCPUG) on Sunday, but we had a good set of photographs from Saturday’s races that I’m sure would keep everybody happy.
On Sunday, near the end of the workshop, I receive a text from Betsy informing me that Chris had a serious accident on the track and was being airlifted to the hospital. Details are sketchy but the news was not good: many broken bones, severely damaged shoulder, many broken ribs, at least one lung collapsed, and he’s unconscious.
And so begins a week of trying to meet all of the various commitments one has that keep the lights on while trying to be a resource for my sister and Chris’ family. We quickly become as well-versed as we can in trauma care, traumatic brain injury assessment, insurance, and a dozen other things. Meanwhile I’m giving lectures on Social Media, teaching kids about nature photography, photographing musicians, all the time wondering if there’s something more I could or should be doing to help. I know that compared to Haiti or Afghanistan we’ve got it easy — but that doesn’t really seem to matter much when it’s your family that’s suffering.
Chris had a number of things going for him. He’s built like a bulldog and healthy as a horse. The NHMS racing officials are very serious about their job and safety on the track. On Saturday I spent most of my day 20 feet from one of the ambulance crews and saw first hand how they dealt with various accidents on the track. I’m sure someone was there within seconds of the incident and an EMT crew was probably 90 seconds away. He was airlifted to Darmouth-Hitchcock Hospital, which has a Level 1 Trauma Center. No better place to bring someone with those types of injuries.
This was a week of excruciatingly slow progress as Chris fought to stay alive and we, friends and family, doing what we can to cope and understand the situation and give comfort and support to those closest to him. It really was touch and go there for a few days. He was alive almost entirely due to his excellent physical condition, and initially we were all focused on his breathing and physical injuries. The best you could say was that they had not gone in to perform surgery on anything.
As the days crawled by it became apparent that he was likely to survive the trauma to his lungs and arms, but then the attention turned to his brain — which had sustained some “shearing” type of injuries. When someone is on a ventilator they sedate them pretty heavily, but he would be brought out of sedation occasionally for neurological assessments. Only minor improvements were seen. All the while his body continued to heal with his lung capacity increasing, swelling dropping, and no hard signs of infection.
Last night, 1 week after almost leaving us, Chris began to give positive cognitive signs to his medical team and family. We don’t know the details of his condition and they aren’t really of concern to anyone beyond his immediate family right now anyways — but for the first time in a week Chris is breathing on his own and responding to questions, and those of us around him are starting to breathe a bit ourselves.
There will be a long road to recovery for Chris, but knowing and seeing the support he has received from his family, Kate, our family, his medical team, and the unbelievable caring racing community that he is a part of – we’re very optimistic. Every once in a while the universe decides to teach us a lesson. For a few of us, this week, it has been one word: hope.
===== Postscript: July 29, 2010 ====
Thanks for all the comments in Facebook and elsewhere regarding this article. It really helps to hear from folks. Yesterday Chris had surgery on his shoulder and arm and is scheduled to leave the hospital as early as tomorrow (30th) for a rehab facility. His progress continues to be steady and inspiring — and I hope to have more to say on his progress in the coming weeks.
As I alluded to in the article above, the racing community’s support of Chris has been astounding. Racers and crew who have never met Chris have been sending money, donating stuff for auctions, organizing fundraisers, and the list goes on and on. Christopher Ormonde (LRRS #617) kindly sent me a set of links to threads in the New England Street Riders forum that may be of interest — particularly if you want to become involved in any way.
