A Night at the Races

I work as an EMT in a rural area. As such, I sometimes go out on standby to special events. One of the assignments that our crews go on weekly (in the warm months) is to stand by at the local NASCAR dirt racetrack. To be perfectly honest, I've never been a race fan. Growing up I'd see an occasional Sunday afternoon race on TV, but only paid full attention if there was a crash. Maybe that propensity suited me for this assignment.

To keep myself entertained during my race shifts I started bringing a camera along. This also gave me the chance to learn more and hone in my photography skills, especially working in low light and taking action photos. The best vantage point for shooting cars going up to 120 mph is the roof of the fire truck next to our ambulance. And I get to learn more about each specific driver from the firefighters, who carry an abundance of knowledge about the sport.

The track photographers shoot with DSLRs and high-powered flashes as the cars go by. My hot shoe flash isn't powerful enough to reach out very far so I've had to improvise without it. There is a delicate balance between a shutter speed quick enough to capture the cars in focus and slow enough to let in light, while still keeping ISO noise at bay. At first I was frustrated because I was getting a low percentage of good photos. The solution was a handy feature in my Canon G15: the HQ burst mode. I'd find a single car in the viewfinder and follow it while holding the shutter button down, and get up to 10 shots in the span of about a second. While not every photo turns out, this has improved my success rate enormously.

Since becoming part of the pit personnel I've gained a new appreciation for the sport, but also for the racers and race fans as people, not just a bunch of beer-drinking hillbillies as they are widely painted by more "sophisticated" people. Race fans come to see their driver win, for sure, but they also want to see a fair race and for every driver to get home safely after the dust clears. And that is where my partner and I turn on the lights and get to work.

On Blogging

If you have checked this blog page at regular intervals for updates in the last few months, I have one thing to say: I'm sorry.

I'm sorry because as time goes along I find myself with less and less to say online, and less and less time to say it. And the funny thing about having a blog is the pressure to keep it up. No one likes reading stuff more than a few days old (and with things like Twitter out there, a few days might as well be a few years).

The blogging territory being carved out these days seems to be between those who make money by doing it, those with recipes and DIY ideas, and those simply reposting stuff from the aforementioned. This is neither. This blog is pretty much just musings.

I have kept track of my recent musings on whatever little notepads are at hand; here are some of the best of those, in chronological order. Keep in mind this is a random sampling of mostly unrelated thoughts; some quotes, song lyric ideas, some deep notes, and a few general observations. So without further ado, step into my notebook.

"Not too many people get killed doing this; they just get hurt really bad." — a guy named Nick, in reference to mountain biking

"That's the thing about pressure; it can either refine, or destroy. You choose." — my friend Ben, on fatherhood

"In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In everything, charity." — Philip Melanchthon

"Never be afraid of failure. The same Spirit that's got our backside is the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead." — my uncle Gary

"Be ready to wade through a huge pile of crap today." — my friend Jeff, on counseling people

My love language is Holcomb.

Sleepers only dream of being awake.

"The universe is so vast and so ageless that the life of one man can only be justified by the measure of his sacrifice." — WWII RAF airman

" The place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." — Friedrich Buechner

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." —Gil Bailie

The most meaningful things in my life are the things that I've committed to. And those things aren't things; they're people.

And I'll kiss you like the war's over.

Christianity has a marketing problem. Christianity is marketed; that's the problem.

The question about marriage is really, "Who says?" It is a matter of who ultimately decides what marriage is.

I've got a song for every day.

Everybody's thinking it but no one stops to ask

Is the world moving too slow or are we moving too fast?