At 20:19 12/30/01, Brian Swale wrote:
Hello fellow photographers,
Now is the season for extreme photo opportunities.
According to the TV (which, despite my protestations to the contrary I
sometimes watch briefly - mainly "news"), there has been - maybe still are -
fluffy snowstorms in the NE USA; pictures of mobile scoops acting in lieu of
snowploughs, powder-snow falling on windscreens faster than wipers can
shift it. And who knows what else.
Buffalo, New York and the surrounding area of New York and Pennsylvania
have been inundated with snow. They are rapidly approaching the average
annual snowfall and haven't even gotten out of December yet! To think my
other half and I normally spend Christmas in the northern edge of
Pennsylvania about halfway between Erie PA and Buffalo NY. Not quite so
bad there, but the drive to and from Indiana goes across Ohio through
Cleveland skirting the lake and getting the "lake effect" heavy snow. Glad
we didn't do it this year!
Not quite as Xtreme as getting close to a wildfire (not recommended; I've
been near them in California; very, very dangerous!).
Went out this evening after dusk to photograph the lights at Monument
Circle in the center of Indianapolis. Temperatures were about +15 F (-10
C) with a good stiff 10-15 MPH breeze. Don't know what the wind chill was,
but it had to be below zero [F]. Spent about 2 hours photographing the
monument (an enormously tall War memorial), the state capitol and some of
the lights around the monument.
Used Ektachrome 160T (tungsten Kodachrome hasn't existed in some
time). It's the first time I've tried tungsten film for something like
this, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. By the time I was
done I could feel the cold sucking all the heat out through the bottom of
my heavy shoes and wool socks. Handling camera, lenses and tripod sucks
the heat out of the hand through heavy gloves. Amazingly, the OM-2S held
up very well. No battery failure (from the intense cold)! Had the 160T
loaded from doing some indoor shots just before Christmas and was thinking
it would have been better to use the mechanical OM-1n which won't die in
sub-freezing weather.
No, I didn't use my fingertip on the shutter release. I used a cable
release and kept my already chilled fingertips inside the heavily lined gloves!
Xtreme? Probably not. Xtremely cold though!
-- John
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