Reed Hoffmann: Down Under
So what have we got here, synchronized rappelling, a new Olympic event? Nope, these intrepid adventurers were taking part in the Eco-Challenge in Australia seven years ago, and the task was to rappel the side of a waterfall. The task for photographer Reed Hoffmann, covering the Challenge events, was to provide compelling images of the competitors' efforts.
"As they get lower," Reed says, "they end up having to pull themselves across the lip of the waterfall, then unclip from the ropes and go across slick black rock and jump into a pool formed by the waterfall. Then they swim across the pool and climb back up on other ropes, so they end up back on top but on the other side of the falls. It's a complicated maneuver, and what you're seeing in this picture is the easy part."
Reed was positioned about a quarter mile away and got the photo with an N90 and a 400mm f/3.5 Nikkor. "I knew that section of the course," he says, "and I drove in the night before, camped and got up early to scout. Then I waited for the team to arrive." His camera was steadied by a monopod. "I never take a tripod on an Eco-Challenge, it's just too much to carry, but I've got to have a monopod because I'm going to be working with long lenses, and I'm often going to be in bad light."
Reed has photographed six Eco-Challenge endurance races, and counts the Australian event as one of the relatively easy ones. "Actually, the toughest thing about Australia," he says, "was being in the passenger seat of a vehicle, falling asleep and waking up and screaming at the driver that we're on the wrong side of the road. I really scared the driver the first time I did that."
And then there were the snakes. "I think they told us that Australia has eight of the ten deadliest snakes in the world-maybe it wasn't eight, but who's counting? So we got a safety briefing for which they brought in Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter guy, who's also an expert on snakes. He brought all the poisonous snakes with him so we could see what they looked like. He said that if we were anywhere we thought snakes might be, we should stamp our feet as we walked because the snakes would feel the vibrations and that would scare them off. So as I made my way to the spot to take this picture, I was stomping through the woods like a madman. I kept wondering if Irwin didn't just tell us that so the Australians would get a good laugh seeing the foolish Americans stomping along everywhere."
