In my fourth year at Island School I quickly grew a quick affinity to photography. We wound our own film, took our own photos, and developed our own pictures. I loved getting inspired by black and white photos by Herb Ritts, Ansel Adams, Steven Meisel.
I started spending a lot of time in the dark room at school. My new hobby started invading time with my squash lessons, swim training, and everything else I loved. Photography became my new love. I was at every school event with my Canon 50mm. I caught photos of couples making out; slam dunks on the basketball court; special guests at our school assemblies.
It was no wonder that when it came time for our school Athletics Day I was asked to help take photos for the school yearbook. I was eager to step up to the plate to provide the year’s best photos.
Athletics day was a time when all six Houses at Island School competed in track and field events. Each year, Island School would rent an entire sports arena for Atheltics Day to host each House to compete with each other. The entire school had the day off so each year could cheer for their respective House.
There was a lot of House pride at Island School. Each house wanted bragging rights to be the best house at the end of each school year. If you watched Harry Potter, you’d get an idea of the Inter-House competitiveness. Every student wanted an opportunity to throw the discus the furthest; arch their back the highest in the high-jump; or speed through another record on a track event.
That year, Athletics Day couldn’t be brighter, nor sunnier. The stadium was filled with orange, purple, red, blue, green, and yellow jerseys that represented the Houses: Da Vinci, Einstein, Fleming, Nansen, Rutherford, and Wilberforce, respectively.
Our team of photographers had our own game plan. We separated into small groups to make sure we hit all our own targets: the cheering crowds and teetering teenage girls rooting for the jocks; all field events, judges and medal handlers; the commentators and announcers up in the press box; and of course, the most coveted track events that were always the most exciting events to watch. Miss Higgins, my House Mistress for Fleming, as well as school PE teacher gave me a wink and I was responsible for the track event photos.
The day was going well. I started at one side of the track where I got some great shots of racers in their crouched start positions for the shorter track races, and then switched sides to get some amazing shots of tight finishes. Eventually it was time to prepare for the longer track events where the racers had to loop several laps of the 400m track.
I met with the other two photographers so we could figure out who was taking what. We decided that because runners would lap the track several times we could make it a free for all and go wherever we pleased.
The announcers in the press box started gathering the runners for the 1600m to the starting line.
“It’s been an exciting Athletics Day today, but there are still a few races left for each House to win more points to be number one. Mr Adams here, asking all runners for the 1600m to get ready…” No one could see Mr Adams on the track, but his distinctively squeaky voice filled the air from the stadium speakers.
“Harry, I’ll make sure I get the shot of you coming in first place,” I yelled to my classmate who was running for our House, Fleming.
Harry looked back at me, gave me the thumbs up and then posed for the camera like the race was in the bag. Harry was easily one of the top contenders for this race as he’d been running cross-country breaking records each year.
“On your marks,” Mr Adams continued, “get set…”
Bang! A judge by the starting line pulled the pistol trigger and the runners were off on their way. The electronic timer began counting the seconds and the crowd went wild as they cheered for the runner representing their respective House.
Being on the field during the race is quite surreal as you see people cheering at you even though they weren’t cheering for you. I felt obligated to snap away. I took photos of everything: the crowd, the runners, the other photographers taking photographs; I felt like I was running my own race!
Harry was far in the lead. The runners had already completed several races and I knew I had to get to the finish line so I could get that winning photo of Harry. The timer on the leader board continued counting.
“It looks like Harry from Fleming could be setting a new record this year,” Mr Adams announced from the press box.
I finally got to the finish line and turned around so I could catch Harry face-on as he crossed the finish line.
“And, yes! Harry has done it again and has a new record!” squeeked Mr Adams.
I was looking through my camera and madly snapping pictures and waited for Harry to enter my photos frames. A few seconds passed and he never came. I turned to look back at the huge leader board timer and the clock had in fact stopped. So where was Harry? I turned again and saw Harry running breathless toward me and the finish line.
DTJRFH?!?!?!
I quickly realised I had run through the finish line sensor and stopped the clock on the leader board! My heart plopped into my liver. I looked beyond Harry and saw Miss Higgins screaming at me.
“Ch’ien! What have you done you ignorant boy?!” Miss Higgins was turning blue in the face.
I quickly rushed off the track and entirely missed Harry running through the finish line. Thankfully Third Year students were asked to be manual timers in the event there was a timer malfunction, which came in handy for when an idiot might run through the finish line even though he wasn’t in the race…
Miss Higgins let me off with a slap on the wrist while my classmates just thought my error was utterly hilarious. There wasn’t really any lesson I learned from this situation, except that I almost made it down in the books for the best 1600m time with my 50mm in hand…
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