Racing & Rockets
by Scott Schilke
A three-minute blog on this amateur’s journey into the world of professional high speed racing, air shows and rocket launches across the United States as a credentialed non paid media photographer.
Back in 2011 a one time only chance for a media pass at the 12 hours of Sebring has led to an incredible journey ultimately leading to documenting the United States space industries rapid growth to explore our universe, return flying Astronauts to the ISS and future crewed missions to the moon.
By selling vintage racing photos from film cameras back in the mid 1970’s that I took as a teenager on eBay led to a risky one-time chance into the rules, regulations and safety restrictions at race tracks with media access to any point on the track except for high speed impact zones or the highly dangerous pit road during the race called “Hot Pits”. What’s it like overing the race for three days and nights? Walking a total of 30 miles around the track eating dust & dirt, working in the press center fighting for a seat & for internet band width till 4 AM, every two hours deadline uploading photos to an editor I never met was a brand-new world. The pushing and shoving shoulder to shoulder in victory lane with 50 to 100 other professionals all trying to get the money shot for their editors while being sprayed with champagne became intoxicating. It’s hard, it’s far from glamorous and it’s challenging. Lucky for me my editor liked the uploads, and I didn’t get fired. The golden rule is Keep Your Editor Happy. Thankfully twelve years later I still have the same editor for both racing (automobilsport.com) & rocket launches (spacenews.lu).
Media rules photography wise do not freeze the car, prop airplane, or helicopter with super high speed shutter shots you will be fired after the event is over. Quickly learn to use 1/15th, 1/30th or 1/60th shutter speeds in a steady hand held panning motion no tripod to blur the background and enhance the speed of the race car while out on the track. Middle of the day lighting conditions will cause higher settings. See example of the Ford GT-40 return to racing shot in the hairpin turn. With race media credentials tripods are not allowed out at the safety barriers or in the pits only monopods. Tripods are allowed past the public spectator fences. Another personal decision is I never shoot past iso 400 at night on racing, lightning or rockets. There isn’t enough time to work on taking out the noise from hundreds of photos that you need to quickly upload to your editor if you used high iso settings. Rarely do you need depth of field at night so shoot wide open lowest F stop your lens allows and adjust the shutter speed accordingly.
Racing is cool, exciting, and fast paced but it doesn’t change lives or this world. What women and men are doing together as a team moving in one direction one mission at a time at Cape Kennedy, Boca Chica or Wallops Island is stunning to me. When I asked my editor can I try to break into NASA, SpaceX, and the United States 45th Space Force to learn how to photograph rockets since we are already a large media outlet (automobilsport.com 150 million views yearly) she said yes along with a very hesitant wife. For almost two years we applied and were denied up to forty times by all three organizations because we were not dedicated to spaceflight. I thought it would be easy to break in, but it was demoralizing. Eventually one door opened up with the 45th Space Wing and I had only a few times to try and not fail during my first attempt at media launches. Hundreds to thousands of talented people want to fill the very few media spots that are allocated per launch. Once the first door opened my editor bought a defunct space site spacenews.lu (.lu stands for Luxembourg and is just like a .com) which we have grown to four million views in four years. The pressure is high and its real, but I do not want to disappoint all the hard work that everyone has put into building, designing and launching these missions including flying humans back to the ISS from American soil on American rockets and soon the moon with Artemis.
In racing if you blow the shot the car comes back around in a few minutes but not with rockets. It’s one chance in a four minute long liftoff event to get a few proper images an editor can use to help get the story out on what these amazing teams are trying to accomplish. Passing all the security levels to set cameras out on these active launch pads 50 yards away from 1.7 million pounds of thrust for a SpaceX Falcon 9 or 8.8 million pounds of thrust for NASA’s mega moon rocket Artemis 1 is dangerous and expensive on loosing camera gear. It’s totally out of my pocket to replace the camera’s soaked by four or five days of thunderstorms during scrubbed launch attempts and lenses totally covered over by the rocket plume or exhaust (see attached photo) which eats the coating off the lens and destroys the front elements. But when you return to the camera days to weeks later and it has images that you programed, framed, orchestrated, and dreamed about that moment becomes Christmas morning as image after image of liftoff scroll through the LCD screen. The need to constantly keep redesigning the ammo boxes I use to protect as much of the camera from the rain, dew, spiders, 100 degree all day heat, rocket plume and sand blasting at liftoff is always evolving.
My foundation has been limited to only racing, rockets, lightning and recently storm chasing out west. Joining and belonging to Naples Camera Club has helped to strengthen the foundation I was lacking by being so laser focused on only these few genres. The competitions, listening to the judge’s heart felt critiques to offer improvements, photo scavenger hunts along with NCC social outings & workshops will improve your photography skills and knowledge. It has been invaluable to me, especially being an introvert who is only comfortable behind a camera and not in front of it. Stay with NCC it’s a terrific group and happy shooting.
By Scott Schilke Marco Island Florida