On Sunday, I traveled to Daisy, Georgia to capture some fast-moving action shots of motorbikes as they raced at the Live Oak Motorpark. Armed with my Canon 7d and my 70-200L lens, this gave me a perfect opportunity to figure out how to properly use the “AI Servo” method of focusing. This is a method of focusing in which you can lock focus on a moving subject and the camera will automatically track the subject and adjust focus as needed. Think of it as being similar to a fighter pilot locking a missile on an enemy plane. If you’re not familiar with what AI Servo is, and are somewhat into photography, I highly recommend you study up on it and begin using it.
When I first began getting shots this day, I had a hard time getting the subject to be in focus. As great as AI Servo is, you still need to fine-tune the camera settings. Several hundreds of shots later, I finally had everything figured out, so I decided to walk over to an adjoining track, where there were some riders practicing jumps. The name of the person in this post’s photo is Oliver Braun and I could immediately tell that he was a seasoned rider/jumper.
Of course, watching these daredevils made me very nervous. For those of you who don’t know, I worked as a Paramedic from 1991-2000. As a Paramedic, I was very familiar with just how dangerous the force of gravity was and I kept having visions of these riders getting hurt. (Paramedics came up with a medical condition for people who fall and get hurt, called “Cement Poisoning”.)
It seems as though accidents always happen when I’m around. In fact, about an hour after I took this shot, I was standing on the sidelines telling a friend how nervous all of this activity was making me. I was talking about how whenever I fly on an airplane, someone usually gets sick and I have to render care. Literally 5 seconds after I finished getting those words out of my mouth, my daughter, Sydney, gasped and said she just saw a person take a jump and fly off of their bike.
As I turned to the direction she was looking, I could see a crowd of onlookers running across the track. Knowing how high the riders on this track were jumping, I knew that whoever had fallen was definitely going to be hurt. I paced over to the direction where everyone was rushing out to and saw someone laying on their back on the ground. It turns out that it was Oliver. (The person in this photo.)
As I reached Oliver, I could see that he was conscious, so I breathed a small sigh of relief. Because of how high up he had fallen from, I immediately held “C-Spine” to stabilize his neck. Oliver didn’t complain of any pain to his neck though. His primary complaint was pain to his left foot and right ankle. What had me concerned was that Oliver kept asking the same questions over and over, which is a sign of a brain injury.
About 30 minutes later an ambulance arrived, fully immobilized Oliver, and transported him to the closest emergency room. I would later learn that Oliver had 2 fractures of his cervical vertebrae and a “messed up” ankle, but that he was going to make a full recovery.
So, Oliver, this post’s for you! I hope you enjoy this photo I captured of you on a day you’ll likely never forget.
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Scott,
Thank you so much for your help when I needed it! I have no recollection of wat happened after I jumped off my bike mid air. I remember answering a few questions but have no visual memory until my wife rolled me out of the Claxton ER at 8:10pm that night. What happend was this: My rear shock blew up right when I hit the fastest and longest jump on the track, because of the loss of suspension the shock spring extended unslowed like a "Pogo Stick" and gave my bike an uncontrollable forward rotation, that's when I jumped. Like I said I don't remember anything and I am very gratefull for all the help I received from all the good people like you. I have been riding since 1988 in Europe and here and had played with the idea of quitting this summer. I am a father of two now and my wife and I are running a company together. This crash is different from all the other broken bones ans scuffs over the years because I rung my bell harder than ever before. Today is the first day since the crash that I can keep my eyes open for more than a couple of hours. I have been sleeping basically the whole week away. When I move my head up and down I still get dizzy and I have to utilize an office chair without backrest to roll through our house. I had to watch my wife doing double duty all week and felt like an idiot. So after this one, which was somewhat of a close call, I decided that it is not the age of 42 that should have caused me stop even earlier than now, but the increased responsibilities that I amassed during the course of my "grown up life". Somehow that memo did not find it's way to the recreational department in my head and that's why you where able to capture me "Soaring" one last time. Thanks again for all you have done and I am sorry that I fullfilled your "desasterous prophecy", it is one of the most fune things to do, EVER. Greetings, Oliver P.S. I wore all the safety gadgets you could wear, and that's why I'm still walking (limping) today. If you ever ride, get a NECK BRACE and everything around it!!!
Now that's a great pic!