John Edwin Mason: Racing Photography

The Holga Panoramic Camera at the ADRL's Dragstock: A Review

When you shoot with a Holga, you surrender yourself to the gods of photography.

--JEM

I just made that up.  It's not exactly profound, but I'll stand by it.  Shooting with any Holga camera is a hit or miss proposition.  If you're lucky, you'll get something good, and, if you do, it's because the gods smiled on you.

That's not a criticism of Holgas, by the way.  In fact, it's why we love them.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7-8 September 2013. [Click on any image to see a much larger version.]

This is a review, of sorts, of Holga's new-ish 120 Panoramic camera.  (It's been around for a couple years.)  The verdict is simple:  If you like Holgas, you'll like the Panoramic.  If you don't, stay away.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7-8 September 2013.

I'm not sure precisely who inspired me to try out the Panoramic.  I do know that I saw some photos on a website that were made with the camera on and liked them a lot.  They were everything that I admired about Holga images -- I've made some of my favorite photos with a Holga, here and here -- and there were twice as big.

The standard Holga uses 120 film and produces negatives that are roughly 6 centimeters square (or 2 and 1/4 inches), hence the term 6x6 (or 2 1/4 x 2 1/4).  The Panoramic's negatives are notionally twice as big -- 6x12 -- producing a wide, sweeping view of whatever happens to be in front of the camera.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7-8 September 2013.

I like wide and sweeping as much as I like Holgas.  So, having discovered the camera, I thought I'd buy one and take it to the next race on my schedule, the American Drag Racing League's [ADRL] Dragstock X, at Rockingham Dragway, in North Carolina.

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7-8 September 2013.

I ran eight rolls of film through the camera at the race, which is enough to allow me to develop some fairly reliable first impressions.

The good news is that the camera is poorly assembled out of flimsy materials, with a horrible plastic lens, crude and unreliable controls, and a wildly inaccurate viewfinder.  In other words, it's just like every other Holga, and so are the pictures it produces.

As you can see, the images are reasonably sharp in the center of the frame and quickly degenerate toward the edges.  (Click on any photo to see a much larger version.)  There is also massive light fall-off from the center outward.  These factors create the Holga look, which I like a lot.  I think it's especially effective in the first three images here.

Holgas, by the way, are also known for their light leaks, which cause unpredictable dark patches on the negatives (and bright patches on prints and scans).  I covered my camera's seams with black masking tape, after I loaded the film.  At the same time, I covered the red plastic window on the back with tape and only removed the tape in order to see the frame numbers when I advanced the film.  I didn't experience any light leaks, which is just fine by me.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7-8 September 2013.

There's some bad news, as well.  The viewfinder and the lens see the world differently.  Most importantly, a well-centered image in the viewfinder will result in a negative that's aimed too high.  (See the second photo from the top.)  The viewfinder also chops off the left and right edges of the frame.  When you see your negatives the first time, you'll be delighted by the extra width.

You get width, but not as much height as you'd expect.  Holga claims that the Panoramic produces 6x12 negatives.  Mine doesn't.  They're actually closer 5x12.  But it's better off the top and bottom than the sides, as far as I'm concerned.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7-8 September 2013.

A couple of other considerations...  The single shutter speed is slow.  I'd guess it's about 100th of a second.  The car above is blurred, for instance, despite the fact that it's generating a lot more smoke than speed.  The Panoramic's aperture has two settings -- sunny and cloudy.  Using ISO 400 film, the sunny setting produced perfectly adequate exposures on a bright day.  The cloudy setting, however, underexposed the film in open shade.

I didn't shoot enough film to be sure about this next point, but it seems to me that the lens produces color negative negatives that skew blue.  At least, that's what it felt like when I scanned the negatives and worked with them in Lightroom.  (I was shooting Kodak Portra 400.)  In some, the color was pretty wonky, and I'm not entirely happy with my corrections.

That's enough complaining.  You use a Holga precisely because its faults and quirks occasionally produce magical results.  And because they're a lot of fun (especially when every other photographer on the starting line is using professional Nikon and Canon DSLRs).

The Panoramic will never be the camera that I use the most.  But I'm willing to bet that I'll have one with me when I head back out to the track.

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This post is obviously not a race report.  Click here to read my impressions of the race.  Both Drag Racing Online and CompetionPlus have excellent accounts of the racing,

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The ADRL's Dragstock X at Night: A Rollei TLR & Delta 3200

You know the old saw about hindsight being 20/20?  I'm feeling it right now.  In fact, I felt it the moment I saw the proof prints from the one and only roll of Ilford Delta 3200 that I shot, last weekend, at the American Drag Racing League's Dragstock X.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.  [Click on any image to see a larger version.]

When I drove down to Rockingham Dragway, in North Carolina, for the race, I knew that I was going to have fun.  I love the entire motorsports scene and the people who inhabit it.  The revitalized ADRL puts on terrific events.  The owner and staff at "The Rock" make it a great place to watch a race.  And there's almost nothing I'd rather do with my free time than make pictures at a race track.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

I took three cameras with me:  my iPhone (yes, you can shoot motorsports with an iPhone); a panoramic camera (if all goes according to plan, I'll spend part of the afternoon scanning the negatives, and I hope to post the pics on Sunday or Monday); and a Rollei TLR (which is my favorite camera, by far).  It's the Rollei photos that you're looking at here.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

On Saturdays, the racing at ADRL races extends well into the night.  In the past, I've only used a digital SLR for nighttime action, usually with a flash.

But from the first time I photographed a drag race, I knew that you get better shots at night with film and without a flash, especially if it's the human element at the track that interests you most.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

So, along with the Rollei, I packed a few rolls of Ilford Delta 3200, an ultra high-speed film.  I'd need a film this fast, if I wanted to shoot with it at night, because the Rollei has a relatively slow lens.

I had no idea what kind of results I'd get.  In the past, when I've shot film at a race track at night, I've been using a 35mm camera with a fast lens, which allowed me to use slower, more conventional, and more predictable film.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

As it turns out, I got some shots that I like a lot on that solitary roll of film.  They make me happy.  So I've spent the last few days wondering, Why the heck didn't I shoot more?

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An iPhone at the Races: The ADRL's Dragstock X, 6-8 September 2013

Woodstock for rednecks.

That's the way that I used to describe Dragstock to anyone who wanted to know.  As long as you understand "redneck" isn't about skin color -- there are plenty of black rednecks at drag strips all over the South and Midwest -- and that "drag" refers to racing, the description fits pretty well.  Dragstock, in its glory days, was a carnival of speed and of the kind of wild and woolly behavior that's generally associated with rock festivals and juke joints.

But Dragstock fell on hard times.  Although the racing was still strong, the feel of the event was one that's generally associated with funeral parlors.  New management had taken over, and it didn't have a clue.

One of the reasons I was so eager to drive down to North Carolina's Rockingham Dragway, last weekend, is that I knew that Kenny Nowling was back the helm of the American Drag Racing League [ADRL].  He had worked a kind of magic once before -- making the ADRL a real presence on the racing scene and creating the Dragstock of yore.  Could he do it again?

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

The short answer is "almost."

Kenny, his wife, Jessica, and the ADRL's crew, with a big helping hand from Steve Earwood and the other fine folks at "the Rock," have definitely brought Dragstock back to life.  Especially on Saturday, the event was within shouting distance of its old self.  The crowd was good.  The racing was great.  But the buzz, craziness, and sheer spectacle hadn't quite returned.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.  [Click directly on any photo to see a larger version.]

Now before I go any further, let me say that it was a terrific race -- you can read all about it over on Drag Racing Online and CompetitionPlus -- and I had a lot of fun.  As you know if you've read this blog even once, there are few things that I enjoy more than wandering around a race track with cameras in my hand.  I like the people, the cars, the smells, the smoke, and the noise.  American car culture and people who love it make me happy.  They're also wonderful subjects for photography.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

Last weekend, I was working with three different cameras -- a Rollei TLR, my life-long favorite, a Holga Panoramic, and my iPhone.  (It was my first outing with the Holga.  God willing, I'll post some of the photos that I made with it within a few days.)  The Rollei and the Holga are film cameras, of course, so I'll have to wait until I get my negatives back from the lab in order to know what I got.  (No, I'm not going to develop 14 rolls of medium format color film at home.)

The iPhone, on the other hand, is all about immediate gratification, and iPhoneography is what you're looking at here.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

Back to the race.

So, I had a good time, and I can affirm that, on Saturday, the fans did, too.  (I missed Friday's action.)  Saturday was devoted to qualifying, which meant that all the cars at the track were running.  The racing was almost continuous, and it was hugely entertaining.  The cars -- Pro Mods -- are absurdly fast, capable of accelerating over 200 miles per hour in less than four seconds.  That's the same amount of time it takes a Ferrari to reach 60 miles per hour.  It's nuts.  And, when you see it in person, it seems to defy the laws of physics.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

The cars are grouped in classes according to the size and type of their engines.  Within classes, the competition is stiff.  To top it off, they look like cartoon versions of street cars.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

With all this going for it, why was I saying that Dragstock hadn't quite reclaimed its former glory?

Because a good drag race is as much a circus as it is a motor sport, and Dragstock's ringmaster didn't have quite enough to work with.  (What I'm going to say from here on out is like complaining that you didn't get an A+ when you got an A-.  So take it with a grain of salt.)

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

Drag racing's big problem is that the action isn't continuous, especially after qualifying.  There's a lot of unavoidable downtime -- between classes and between rounds, during the scheduled track preparation and inevitable oil-downs, which stop the racing dead until the spills can be cleaned up.  Race promoters and track owners try to fill the holes in the action with things that sustain (or generate) excitement -- beauty queens, give-aways, contests, rock bands, jet cars, wheelstanders... Whatever it takes.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 8 September 2013.

Fans expect it.  In fact, most of them have come out to the track as much for the spectacle as for the racing.

Frankly, nobody cares who wins a drag race.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

Ok, that's probably not 100% accurate.  The drivers care, and so do their families and crews.

But fans don't care.  If they did, they'd show up on Sundays, when the winners are determined, instead of Fridays and Saturdays, when racers merely qualify for the event.  Fans aren't stupid, however.  They know that there's much more action during qualifying than eliminations.

Besides, it's hard to care about winners and losers if you don't know the first thing about the men and women driving the cars.  Brandon Snider was the Pro Extreme (fastest class) winner at Dragstock.  I bet that there weren't a dozen people in the stands who would have recognized him if he sat down next to them.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.  [Remember, you can click on any photo to see a larger version.]

So, Dragstock, like all drag races, depends on more than good on-track action to keep the adrenaline flowing.  It also needs spectacle, the sense that there's always something exciting going on.

In the good old days it had precisely that.  It was a three-ring circus of continuous action that made Dragstock the only place that you wanted to be.  (The sheer size of the crowd and cheap beer also played a role.)

Without pretty girls, jet cars, tee-shirt bazookas, rock bands, product give-aways, and the like, last weekend's Dragstock X was a fine and enjoyable drag race.  But wasn't Woodstock for rednecks.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

I'm not saying anything that Kenny and Co. don't already know.  They understand that a drag racing promoter's role model is P.T. Barnum.

Trouble is, circuses cost money.  And money is tight everywhere.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

The recession has prompted sponsors to pull back.  It's affected every motor sport, even Nascar.  Drag racing, which has been a niche sport since the 1970s, has been especially hard hit.

It's probably too much to expect Dragstock to return to its glory days.  After all, how many rock festivals have matched Woodstock?

So, yes, I'm disappointed that things weren't as wild and woolly as I'd hoped they'd be.  (Circuses are fun to photograph.)  But I also know that there's nothing wrong with three days of hard, fast, competitive drag racing.  The crowded grandstands at the Rock on Saturday tell me that thousands of fans see things that way, too.

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An iPhone at the Races: The ADRL at Virginia Motorsports Park, 8-9 June 2013

It doesn't take much to make me happy.  Give me some loud, fast cars and a camera to shoot them with, and I won't complain about anything for the rest of the day.

Lately, my favorite cameras have been my Rollei TLR and my iPhone -- the old and the new.  Neither one is the first piece of equipment that most people would choose for shooting motorsports.  And that's exactly why using them is so much fun.

I had both cameras with me when I drove down to Virginia Motorsports Park to spend a day at the ADRL's [American Drag Racing League] U.S. Drags VI.

 

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

You're looking at my iPhone photos, here.  In a few days, I'll be posting some of the photos that I made with the Rollei.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

This isn't a race report, by the way.  It's simply my impressions of a day at the races.  If you want to know who won and who lost, check out one of these excellent websites:  Drag Racing Online or CompetitionPlus.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

I've been photographing ADRL races off and on for the last several years.  It's always a good time.  The cars -- Pro Mods -- are cool and astonishingly fast.  The racers are friendly.  And the ADRL's crew -- headed by Kenny and Jessica Nowling -- always make you feel at home.  That's Kenny on the left in the photo above.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

Yep.  It takes a big crew to race one of these cars.  Old joke...  Q: How do you make a small fortune in auto racing?  A: Start with a large fortune.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

That's racer Isaias Rojas proudly flying the Puerto Rican flag.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013. 

By the way, you can click directly on any of these photos to see larger versions.  This one definitely works better big.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

The ADRL's next race -- the Summer Drags IX, at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, in Martin. Michigan -- is coming up in a couple of weeks.  You can find the schedule, here.

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ADRL Pro Mods at Maple Grove, 6-7 May 2011

I may be the only person who left Pennsylvania's Maple Grove Raceway happy, last Saturday night.  You can be pretty sure that most of the racers, crews, officials, and fans who were on hand for the American Drag Racing League's [ADRL] Penske Inaugural Northeast Drags were singing the blues.  Rain had delayed the race for about four hours, late in the afternoon, and the track's 11:00 PM curfew stopped it.  No champions were crowned.  Nobody earned first-place points and, just as importantly, nobody picked up the winner's paycheck.

On the other hand, I was as happy as a clam, because I'd manage to prove that you can shoot motor sports with an iPhone -- at least, that is, with an iPhone that has the amazing little QuickPix app installed.  Sure, it was something of a stunt.  But what I was able to do with the iPhone absolutely stunned me.  (You can read a full account of using the iPhone at the track and see lots of "iPhotos," here.)

On the other hand, the iPhone has its limitations.  For instance, the photos below are some of my favorites from the Maple Grove race.  I shot them with my Nikon DSLRs, and only one of them could have been (and was) made with the iPhone.

 

 

Extreme Pro Stock driver Cary Goforth performs a burnout, Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011.  [All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2011.  Click on any image to see a larger version.]

The QuickPix app gives you much more control over the iPhone's camera than the factory-installed software.  But it can't do everything, so here's the first example of what you can't do with an iPhone.  You can't drag the shutter.  That is, you can't use a slow shutter speed to radically blur the background and foreground, as you pan the camera to follow a speeding car.  As you'll see, it's one of my favorite effects.

 

 

Another burnout.  This one by Extreme 10.5 driver Todd Moyer.  Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

If you had asked me, the day before the event, what I thought about black race cars, I would have told you that I hate them.  They make for bad photos.  Give me something orange or red or blue or all three, I would have said.

So, here are four black cars in a row, and, you know what?, I really love the look.

 

 

A burnout by Pro Extreme driver Jay Diedrich, Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

Yes, another burnout.  Can you blame me?  Smoke is cool, especially at slow shutter speeds.  You can almost see it swirl.

 

 

Pro Nitrous driver John Hall, Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

Catch it right, and the blur creates a powerful sense of motion.

 

 

Pro Extreme driver Frankie Taylor proves that these cars can also go from left to right.  Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

Pro Extreme driver Frankie Taylor had a terrific qualifying session, setting a new world record elapsed time for his class.  He and his supercharged '05 Corvette covered the 1/8th mile course in 3.581 seconds, at a top speed of 210.11 miles per hour.

You should be amazed by that time and speed.  Let me try to put them in context.  Suppose you won the lottery and decided to buy yourself a quarter million dollar Ferrari, one of the fastest road cars on the planet.  It would take the Ferrari more than twice as long to cover the 1/8th mile and, at the end, it would be going less than half as fast.

 

 

Pro Extreme drivers J.R. Todd, left, and Alex Hossler, right, Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

There are two things to say about this photo.  First, it's not a burnout.  Second, I shot it with my iPhone.  If you click on the photo to see a larger version, you'll notice that it doesn't have the detail or tonal range of the other photos.  On the other hand, it ain't bad.  Considering what I was asking a cell phone camera to do, the result really is wonderful.

 

 

Exteme Pro Stock driver Richie Steven, Jr., launches.  Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

Back to my Nikons, now with a telephoto zoom lens attached.

This is a standard drag racing shot -- the wheels-up launch.  But there's nothing wrong with the classics, especially when they capture something of the human drama of motor sports.  (By the way, the young woman in the sunglasses is Erica Enders, one of the most popular drivers on the National Hot Rod Association [NHRA] drag racing circuit.  She was on hand to support and crew for Richie Stevens, Jr.)

 

 

Extreme Pro Stock driver Richie Stevens heads down the track.  Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

I like this kind of shot as much as the slow shutter burnouts.  You make it with a telephoto zoom lens, zooming out and panning as the car approaches.  The result is a blurred background and an elongated car.  Very cool.  (And you can't do it with an iPhone.)

 

 

Back to burnouts with Extreme Pro Stock driver Steven Boone.  Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

The night time is the right time.  Darkness, track lights, smoke, and a flash make for great theater.  By the way, you also can't do this with an iPhone.  (Sounds like I'm knocking the iPhone, but I'm not.  I'm just reminding myself why I'm not selling my Nikons on Craigslist.)

 

 

Top Sportsman driver Marco Abruzzi burnsout.  Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

Maple Grove was the first ADRL race to feature the Top Sportsman class.  Fine with me.  Top Sportsmen are entertaining, and Marco Abruzzi's car is gorgeous at night.

 

 

ADRL Pro Extreme Motorcycle World Champion Kim Morrell performs a burnout.  Maple Grove Raceway, 7 May 2011. 

I'll end with what might be my favorite photo from the weekend.  It was late, cold, and the air was still damp.  (Although the track was dry, of course.)  Most of the crowd had long since fled.  But there we were, racing and shooting.  In a strange way, it was fun.

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For full coverage of the race, surf over to Drag Racing Online.