I went to the Finke having done as much web-based preparation as I could. As a somewhat obscure annual race through rural Australia, it didn't enjoy the most exhaustive internet coverage and discussion. Thus, I was not surprised to find reality different from my expectations.

I went there to shoot the race as both motorsport and cultural event. I didn't come back with the National-Geographic-covers-the-Dakar-Rally portfolio I might have daydreamed of, but I did come back with enough experience that next year I will have a better chance of a well-shot photo story of the Finke Desert Race.

To that end I've been trying to document all the lessons I learned this year. They fall in roughly two categories, 'The Logistics of the Finke' and 'Motorsport Photography.'

In planning the trip to Finke, you've got to understand that your goals and needs are a lot different than the spectators'.

Basically there are three sets of spectators:

(1) The guys who watch the start and finish in Alice Springs
(2) The guys that camp somewhere along the dusty 230km track and watch the cars pass southbound past their point on Day 1, and northbound on Day 2
(3) The folks who hang out at Finke, watching the Sunday night finish of stage 1 and the Monday morning start of stage 2.

That to get from Alice Springs to Finke takes four+ hours of driving along the Stuart Highway, far to the west, doesn't matter. No one bothers.

That being stuck at your selected point along the race course pins you there all day, or at least till the track is temporarily reopened between 6pm and 6am Sunday night also doesn't matter.

But to the photographer, who wants to see the start, the race action along the course, the overnight frantic repair activity in Finke, the morning start, and the race finish back in Alice Spring, it's a nightmare, and impossible.

The only way to get saturated coverage of the entire race is to adapt the 'Siege Photography' style of Moving Pictures|Alice Springs. But these photographers don't have the same goal I do. They want to get a 'hero shot' of every each racer. They want to sell these photos after the race. I want a photo story.

They position cameramen at strategic points along the race course (at jumps, near chicanes, etc), with a digital camera and a 600mm lens. That guy sets his exposure and framing for that turn, and then proceeds to shoot every driver and biker that blasts through. He's not shooting fans, he's not trying different vantage points, he's not trying anything unusual. It's just rote photography of some critical point of the race. I have no problem with their clever niche business. But I'm never going to get a compelling photo story from doing it their way.

So how can the lone photographer see at least some of all the elements? There are a few cheats.

Past is Prologue

The Prologue is a 10-15km circuit, independent of the Finke trail, that is held on Saturday. All the entrants have to complete this course. Their finish time is used to decide their starting rank for the real race. It's important to the drivers. The faster you are, the sooner you start, and the better the trail and dust conditions will be.

The great thing about the Prologue circuit is that it's near Alice Springs, easily accessible all along the track, and none of the drivers have dropped out yet. (They attrite like flies once the real race starts.)

The Prologue is a great place to shoot rolls of guys blasting through turns and leaping jumps. Since it is a loop, not a straight North-South track, you'll have better chance to find vantage points nicely oriented with the sun and wind (to avoid the blowing dust). Also, since it is a relatively short loop, everything is close together. You can shoot the jumps and then drive 500m to where riders emerge from around a stand of trees, doing a high speed turn against a thick dirt bank. You can get a variety of action and a variety of vantage at the Prologue.

As a bonus, the ten fastest racers re-run the course late Saturday afternoon in a 'shoot-out.' The fastest car wins $2500. This gives you a sure chance to catch the biggest, baddest buggies at an impressive turn or jump.

Old Southern Road
The Finke track, for the first twenty miles, is paralleled by the Old Southern Road. At the point they merge, the road is blocked off by the authorities between 6pm and 6am. So on race day you can drive to any point along this first twenty miles, and with a short walk, get access to the track. Many groups set up weekend-long party-camps along the track, and you'll see signs announcing these debauched sites. You can try to shoot from these areas or go to any of the many unoccupied spaces along the track.

This road is not a real pleasure to take -- there is a lot of traffic and the dust generated is staggering -- but at least it gets you 20 miles of reasonably easy access to the Finke track. Until I run the Finke route myself I do not know if there are any particularly good vantages along that sector.

Secret Escape Routes West (?)
On maps I see vaguely defined roads that shoot west from the Old Southern Road to the Stuart Highway. They might save time, eliminating the need to back-track to Alice Springs on your way to Finke. I've been warned, though, that it is very easy to get lost. Until I run the route myself, and plot a course, I can't comment on its advisability or efficiency.

Schedule
Frankly, I need some help here. The official race program doesn't state the starting times.  The program isn't very useful, really. It has very few logistical details, a pretty sparse map, and only some sponsor ads and an out-of-date roster of racers. Nice as a souvenir, but that's all.

From my experience:

Prologue:  Starts very early 730AM (?)  Begins with the outfits (sidecars), then quads, then motorcycles.  I presume the cars come afterwards, but I wasn't around to see. 

Day 1:  Not sure when it starts, but I assume early. We were already on our way to Finke.  Final racers are dripping in by late afternoon 3-5pm.

Day 2:  Cars take off first thing in the morning 7-730 AM?  Bikes don't leave till around noon.

Air Coverage
In the lead up to the 2003 Finke, race organizers issued a serious press release on behalf of the  Civil Aviation Safety Authority Australia (CASAA). It specified traffic lanes, radio frequencies, and surprise inspections of all the aircraft following the race.  It made me expect a busy airspace, with scores of bush pilots in planes and cow herders in mosquito helicopters following the race action along the more remote parts of track.

In practice, I saw only three helicopters. One was the police, one was the media, and a tiny little glass-bubble herder that looked straight from the set of M*A*S*H.  I saw no planes loitering over the track. The only plane I am aware of (and offered a ride in) was basically doing a quick commute after the race start in Alice down to Finke. Its mission was not airborne race coverage.

If you had access to an aircraft, you could get some interesting photos along the race while still having time to photograph both start and finish of the day's stage. CASAA rules state that southbound aircraft stay to the east of the route, and northbound craft, to the west.  To avoid shooting into the sun, you'd need to fly south in the morning, and north in the late afternoon. 

If you found yourself in Finke without an automobile it wouldn't be that big a problem. You could walk anywhere you needed to go (the finish line, the racers' camp, and the final stretches of the track). There is nothing in the town of Finke itself.

Stuff to shoot besides the race

Scrutineering
The scrutineering is held the night before the Prologue. All the drivers and riders bring their vehicles to a fairgrounds just outside Alice Springs to have their equipment safety-checked by race officials. 

Afterwards they're parked on display in two buildings normally used for cattle shows. A huge social scene erupts.  Inside, people stroll amongst the cars, talking to drivers,  peering through windows, and looking underneath bonnets. Outside, in the cold winter night, people carouse, line up for beer and sandwiches, and warm themselves by two fires waiting for the firework display.  

Finke camp
Finke camp is a loosely-defined chunk of land set aside from the Aboriginal community of Finke.  It's an informal segregation designed to keep beer, noise, and trouble away from the decent Finke community. 

Over a compound of perhaps five square miles you find the start and finish points, as well as the elaborate camps many teams set up.  The camps are big creations -- large tents, field garages, and a lots of festivity. The final stretch of the track, after crossing the very wide, very dry Finke river, slices through the camp. 

At night campers set off their own, informal, fireworks displays.  We managed to find a quiet corner away from the noise and had a nice, but cold, night's camp. 

Diesel is available in Finke.  Not sure if other supplies are.

The following are things to think about when photographing the Finke Race, and probably many other sorts of desert enduros.

Lighting and Metering
I would have guessed that sharpness was the hardest and most critical element of shooting enduro races, but as I study my photos from 2003 Finke, I realize that getting well-lit photographs is as or more important.

The statement of the obvious is that you should strive to get your shots in the early morning (before 9:30am) or during the late afternoon window. The sun has most warmth and least harshness then.

Shadows are always a terrible problem. The shadows cast around and in the car can look very awkward and make a photo look very poorly selected and exposed. This occurs even during the morning and late afternoon hours.

I am not sure how to adjust for shadows. I shot exclusively with slide film, which has a wider contrast range. That should help. Other ideas include trying to spot meter inside the car, or even trying to supplement with a flash to try to light up the inside of the vehicle a little bit. My guess is that the flash idea is totally worthless. The day is bright and I doubt the flash would make the tiniest difference. I should check out some of the good Dakar photography and see how they manage the shadows.

I noticed that many of my shots felt slightly underexposed.  I used the full-screen matrix metering and spot metering on my Canon EOS3 and EOS1v bodies with Provia 100 film.  I am not sure where the underexposure is coming from -- is the terrain color/reflectiveness tricky? Should I be treating the film as 75ASA?  or something else?  This is something I'll have to study further.  I point it out now as a caveat.

Sharpness
You take nearly any picture and if you make it small enough, it looks ok on the web.  But I want to be able to make large prints of my photos.  This requires very sharp images.  Enduros aren't the easiest conditions to get sharp photos.  I'm using slow film, I'm shooting fast cars, and I'm moving on foot, constantly composing new shots at different locations.  There is no time to hone the picture over many shots.

To compensate, I carried a Manfrotto ball-head monopod and an expensive Canon 100-400mm lens with image stabilization.  Those two items can give me something like one or two extra stops, maybe more if I am deliberate and careful.

A good camera body, like the Canon EOS series, also has 'AI Servo' focusing, which is smart enough to recognize an object is moving towards or away from you and constantly update the focus appropriately.

Say you are intent on getting a perfect shot somewhere, and are willing to dedicate the time and setup to do so.  What would I do?   For stability, use a tripod, or a beanbag. Apparently people roll down their windows, flop a beanbag on the frame, and lay their lens onto this accommodating, stable base.  If you've got a decent camera body, you can use mirror lockup (this really does make a difference) and use a remote-control shutter trigger.  Just pressing the shutter trigger gently makes a difference.

Of course the most important variable to a sharp picture is choosing the shutter speed. What do I want in a car photo?  I want to convey motion but stay sharp. 

If I set the shutter speed to 1/1000, yes, it's going to be a really sharp photo.  I can zoom it arbitrarily and that tiny 'Fox Shocks' logo is going to be crisp and clear.  But when you look at the car itself, it's absolutely frozen in time.  For all the reader knows, you parked that buggy in the middle of track and shot the photo.  There is no sense of speed. 

Alternatively, I could set the speed to 1/50, and when 'King of the Desert' Mark Burrows whips by at 70mph, the shot is going to convey a lot of motion. Stylistic motion only --  it's going to be a long nasty blur across the film. 

So what's the happy medium?  To me, the aesthetically pleasing shot is one where the car is frozen so that the numbers, logos, and details are sharp, yet the wheels are a bit blurred.  A really great shot is one where you've panned along with the vehicle, so that you've got a sharp car body, blurred rotating wheels, and a slightly blurred background.  

What settings get you that?

I spent an agonizingly boring afternoon photographing my wife driving endless laps at constant speeds while I photographed her with different aperture-shutter settings. Here are my qualitative remarks: