International photographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

a hundred feet of film and then signaled to go down and level out over the track. As we reached the five hundred foot level we heard a gun crack, looking down we saw the race start. A wonderful view! Twelve cars, four abreast in three lines. What a roaring bunch as they broke away from the line, and what a jockeying sight! I swung in a six inch lense and went after it. Johnson held the ship beautifully while I ground out several hundred feet of film • — just what we wanted! I was using small magazines to cut down wind pressure and now had to reload. While I did this Lieut. Johnson climbed up to altitude again and flew around till I was ready. All set, I looked at the track and saw that the cars were now pretty well strung out, then all of a sudden one of the cars, pretty well back, shot out and commenced to pass cars like they were standing still till it reached the three leaders, and then a battle commenced that kept him in a pocket; what a moment! I reached over and touched Johnson on the helmet and pointed out what I wanted to get. He nodded — and — we dropped — and — my stomach bounced up in my throat — I thought. At four hundred feet he leveled out with my game right below me! Was I excited? I was so excited I forgot where I was. I was so cramped for room that I unstrapped my belt and proceeded to crawl out on the fuselage so I could get the lens aimed at the proper angle; in doing so, my left foot touched Johnson's right shoulder, and as arranged, he thought I wanted him to bank around to the right — and he went into a steep bank — and there was I — ready to slip off the fuselage to drop on the track below. As I started, I made a wild grab for the camera and reached it with both hands and welded them to it in a grasp that couldn't break while I hung on the outside of the fuselage fluttering like a piece of cloth in the wind ! Luckv that camera had been fastened solid! By the time Lieut. Johnson wondered why I didn't signal to straighten out, he looked around. Through his goggles I could see his eyes grow wide, like small saucers, and then we bounced into an airpocket that almost jerked my arms out as the plane hit it. I just hoped I wouldn't fall on the track and get run over by one of the cars. Silly, what thoughts we get in the midst of a dangerous situation. Johnson banked sharp to the left, throwing me against the fuselage, giving me a chance to crawl closer to the rim of the cockpit, but I hesitated to dive in for fear I'd get tangled in the controls, so I just laid there on top of the fuselage and hung on while he leveled out for the field and landed and came to a stop with the motor shut off. I wish he had kept the motor running so I couldn't have heard his vocabulary— it was certainly choice and original, but I couldn't answer; now that it was all over I was as limp as a rag as my I missed the crack-up on the track, but grasp melted off the camera. prevented another by hanging on. NORTHWEST NEWSREELER ON THE JOB By Charles R. Ferryman feeding time, stretched across the valley After covering the dog races at Ashton, as far as one could see, was a vast sea of Idaho, the New York office sent me on to heads, ears and antlers. The feeding strip Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to get some pic is several miles long. tures of the elk herds which are fed each The hay is pitched off a moving horsewinter by the United States Government. drawn sleigh. The elk are perfectly quiet Over 12,000 of these animals were fed and contented as long as the sleigh keeps last winter by the Department of the In moving, but as soon as it stops and a perterior. When the winters are severe the son gets off and starts to walk the elk scatelk come down to these feeding grounds ter in panic. They seem to think that a in great numbers and a good many thou walking man is their enemy, but that a sands of tons of alfalfa is required. At horse and sleigh can be trusted. FAXOX DEAN INC CAMERAS, BLIMPS-DOLLYS FOR RENT No. 22184 4516 Sunset Boulevard Night SUnset 2-1271 International Photographer for May, 1941 17