Second day in Bangalore and it is the official start of the rally. The cars have to be checked out by the scrutineers before the start, so I head for the scrutineering bay. I am wearing my media pass and so walk past the two guards at the entrance.
A voice rings out, “Sir, please wait a moment”. I stop. “OK sir, you can go now”. In the fraction of the second between the two sentences, the guard who has stopped me has looked at the other guard who has given a nod of approval. So we have a clear hierarchy here. One guard to do all the stopping and the other to take the decisions. I will leave it you to decide which one is the boss (hint: facial hair is power):
Inside the tent, the scrutineers were checking that the cars were road legal and had all the necessary safety bits, so that if anything happened, the crew had a chance of survival. Like this, where the occupants walked away from the crash:
Key bolts were marked with paint so teams couldn’t start swapping out engines just for the fun of it.
Then it was off to the start, which took place outside a very fine palace. More traditional forms of transport had to be moved out of the way before the ceremony could begin.
The rally was flagged off by the Chief Minister, after which the cars did nothing, because the rally proper didn’t start until the next day.
As the event was ending, I was introduced to the media coordinator for the rally. He explained that he would need a selection of shots to send out to the newspapers. I told him that would be no problem. I would go back to Anna’s house, download the shots onto my laptop, have a look through, and then send him a selection. Maybe have a bit of dinner while I was at it. Anyway, should be able to send him something within the next four hours. “I need something in the next sixty minutes” was his response.
Shit. Fortunately I had my laptop in the car. So while we struggled through the Bangalore rush hour traffic, I download my photos, did some selecting and editing and, with the aid of a plug-in internet stick, mailed off some photos to the media man. 53 minutes, with the last shot being mailed as we rolled into Anna’s driveway. They were used by various newspapers the next day. This makes me a photojournalist and I will adopt a certain swagger in future.
Comments 🔗
2009-08-25| Wentworth saysHow do you keep your lens clean in between taking shots on a rally?
2009-08-25| Spike saysThis does the job: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Giottos-Rocket-Air-Blower-Review.aspx