Bill Crabb began in 1985 as a athleticist in Gloucester Park and stayed in this role for 30 years before the health problems forced his early retirement from the job in which he loved and performed excellent performance.
Bill worked through Europe and Asia in 1973 as an assistant to a Brickies when he was bitten by the photography error. While his first camera was the ubiquitous Kodak instamtics, he was quickly upgraded to a Yashica remover for an overland trip in India.
His next camera came shortly afterwards and the Nikon 35mm, together with several Nikon lenses, became his piece of equipment.
While the Nikon was his work animal, Bill's pleasure was a mega high-priced Hasselblad, and I vividly remember the day on which he showed me his pride and joy, and explained that Hasselblad was the camera that NASA used on the Apollo 11 order module.
Bill was born in Bunbury and when he returned from his trip, he worked as a photographer at the Western Herald newspaper, who had since died.
Soon he realized how little he knew about the sophisticated topic of photography and wrote down in a full-time thirty year diploma course at Mount Lawley Technical College in Perth.
After Bill completed his degree as a freelance photographer and a few years later he reminded how “I starved for a while and drove a truck on one day a week to make ends meet”.
He began working as a photographer in Gloucester Park in 1985 and soon became the semi-official photographer of the West Coast Eagles, who was launched in 1987 as the first AFL team in Perth.
Bill was responsible for many of the shots, which was published in 1991/92 Eagles Year, which celebrated the team's first AFL Prime Minister.
During the Euphoric Days of the America's Cup defense in 1987 by Fremantle in 1987, he sold copies of his work to the eminent agency “Focus on Sport” in Up-to-date York and was also commissioned by Time Magazine.
Bill also reported on Davis Cup and World Swimming Championships in Perth, which probably killed a conservative 1500 roles of 36 filmed film in the pre -igital camera era every year.
On a normal day at the world swimming championships, he used between 20 and 30 roles a day, while on one day the football game used ten rolls in an Australian rules and only hits two or three film rolls in Gloucester Park.
The Gloucester Park was a frustration for a perfectionist like Bill because the flash was excluded to shoot the finish because it would bounce off the photofinian mirror and annoy the sensitive electronic timer.
“A flash would stop the action and lead to a sharper picture,” he said a few years ago.
“I have to utilize a faster film and the result is processed because the artificial lightweight in the Gloucester Park is not powerful enough for a quick shutter speed and you have to avoid when the horses exist.”
In 1992 he had a photo in a book in which finalists were published in the Nikon World Photo Competition details. Only 200 photos were published from more than 48,000 entries worldwide.
In the pre -igital era, Bill preferred to work with color crystal clear, and the photos that accompany this piece are only a handful of his work with transposing.
In 1991, the WA Trotting Association started a highlight of my 48 -year work in this industry in this industry under its editorial and the following eight years.
Westrot provided a vehicle for the publication of Bill's Havess racing works for publication and between 1991 and 1999 Bill won eight Australian cable harvest races Joseph Coulter Awards in Photography Department.
Overall, it is a total of a total of ACE between 1979 and 1990 only from the Victorian photographer Geoff.
A gentle man who was in addition to a gentleman, and I also made a trip before dawn for the special recordings required for the cover of the magazine.
We had to arrive there before the sun came to catch the supple yellow dawn lightweight that was so valued by photographers.
Bill and I only had a minor disagreement in these years, and then I insisted that Bill put in an infield drain in the Gloucester Park in order to get a different perspective for a picture of the Star Pacer Valley Champs, which was quickly worked by his trainer of the Parres.
Bill gave in, climbed into the drain and the resulting shot was a Coulter-priced photo
In 1992, Bill was in the media in the Gloucester Park and in the second win of Westburn Grant Grant from Wa Tapeing Cup, less than fourteen days after the horse's coach, Vic Frost and his wife Margaret, had lost their son Gary in a tragic accident while they were on the way of Sydney.
Bill's photo captured the pain of losing a son just a few days before winning the one Cup group.
My then boss in the Gloucester Park was critical of the decision I made to put the photo on the westrot cover – he thought it was too sorrowful.
The photo should become another of the Bill national award winners.
While the trackside to take photos of horses that Bill was always the photo journalist, and while the races were underway, he used a second camera and followed the field in the event that there was a newsworthy incident.
Bill won a Coulter Award for the best action sequence for a number of six shots of a fall at a start of the WA depth from 1993.
Main notes:
When my wife and I decided to marry in the Gloucester Park during a race in 2006, we asked Bill if he was our wedding photographer.
To our surprise, Bill agreed and it made some laughter because the formalities in the race plan had to be reworked so that Bill had to shoot the goal of every race before returning up to the wedding.
A few of the winners that evening were adequately referred to with the back and the last word.
from Alan Parker For Hartnesslink
