Photo Shoot: The perils and pain of photographing the Falmouth Road Race
The Falmouth Road Race starting gun sent runners over the line in Woods Hole Sunday for its 50th annual running. The first race was a bar run from Woods Hole to Falmouth. Cape Cod’s biggest sporting event is an all hands on deck event at the Cape Cod Times.
The first time I covered it was back in the early 1980s, a young cub photographer. My assigned shooting position was a spot at Nobska Light, tasked with getting the steady stream of runners passing the iconic lighthouse.
Keep in mind; this was back in the days of film. Our photo crew, which numbered three that year, all made their way back to Hyannis. Lining up outside the darkroom, we waited our turn, running color slide film through the Wing Lynch processing machine, only 8 rolls each run and 55 minutes a session.
I had pulled out all the stops making images from atop the lighthouse and even running several rolls through a panoramic Widelux camera. I had high hopes. But, turns out my film run got eaten by the machine, yes it happened every so often, and I had nothing to show for the day save a few wet rolls of crumpled film. Not a great start to a career in road race photography.
I graduated to a position at the finish line and finally after several years a spot on the chase truck. The truck was a big flatbed with a barrier in the back. Reporters would stand atop risers looking over the photographers jammed cheek to jowl at the tailgate, trying to be human tripods as we follow focused, no autofocus those days, making shots of the leaders.
A chase motorcycle with a videographer was always in front of us so a clean shot was a challenge. When the truck approached the finish line, the driver would yell to everyone “hold on” and gun it down the hill past the Casino at Falmouth Heights; we all spilled out and tumbled to a spot at the finish line to capture the winners. You can’t put a price on that kind of fun.
My favorite coverage was always the aerial years, sometimes by plane and once by helicopter which produced one of my favorite photos of all time. The pilot removed the doors and off we went from Hyannis.
I had a clear shooting position a couple hundred feet above the action, a dream come true. The image above was made along Surf Drive from directly overhead. The shadows became the runners, as the front pack raced to the finish line.
It was the beginning of the digital era and I knew I had something as we flew back to Hyannis, when, as the adrenaline wore off, I finally realized I had never buckled my seat belt for the entire ride, those were the days.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Falmouth Road Race: A photographer's experience
