Stock Car Racing Cameraman Retiring

(From The USA Today -- By Michael Hiestand)

For 20 years, CHUCK MILLS watched NASCAR races with a singular focus -- follow the leader.

NBC will deploy 65 cameras on NASCAR's season finale -- up from the typical 50 -- including cameras focused on the three drivers still contending for the season points title.

But Mills, retiring after Sunday's race, will be the main man. CAMERA 1. The one with the race leader always in focus.

"I've never lost one," he says. "I guess I've just been lucky."

Mills, 70, grew up across the South as his family followed his dad's crop-dusting business. In the Navy, he handled hydraulics in dive-bombers on the aircraft carrier USS INTREPID. In 1960 at Purdue, he made educational videos. Later, he began moonlighting shooting sports.

By 1985, ESPN hired him as a full-time freelancer. He took over CAMERA 1, which he's held with the various networks that covered NASCAR. He says it's fun.

But his advice for aspiring camera operators is practical -- "Go into production and become a director. CAMERAMAN is just a title. That's what you do 20% of the time. There's lots of grunt work."

In retirement, Mills doesn't even plan to shoot home movies.

"I only do still photography."