For me, the choice was simple. I had a couple rolls of Provia needed to be
finished up to be sent to the lab before the end of the month and the
partially finished one happened to be in the OM-3Ti.
Not wanting to travel very heavily, I restricted myself to the 35-80 F2.8
lens and placed all my ancillary doodads (cell phones, keys, spare roll,
lens tissue, pocket binocs, TP...) into a fanny pack. The GPS went into an
outer pocket of my parka, but unfortunately the batteries died about halfway
through the walk. The temperature was just barely above freezing and the
wind was honking pretty good, so I knew I'd get pretty cold if it wasn't for
the long-johns. My hooded sweatshirt kept my head warm, ears thawed and
long-hair under control. The hiking boots kept my feet warm despite the fact
I was wearing only one layer of cotton socks. A pair of thin gloves finished
off the outerwear.
As my hike across uneven ground was about five miles, I really didn't want
to carry any tripods with me, so I placed my poor-man's Nortonized "shoulder
stock" on the camera. This is actually just a hacksawed center-column with a
studio-light ball-head screwed onto the top. When this is attached to the
camera and swung 90 degrees to the rear, it functions as a shoulder-stock
support. Mine is a very specific length to work for me. (pictured on the
following webpage link)
http://www.image66media.com/page10.html
So, off to the state forest for my long hike. After a few minutes I flushed
out a herd of deer which were not happy to be displaced from their nice warm
spots. Fortunately, they went a particular direction where I wouldn't run
into them again--otherwise I'd feel guilty about continously chasing them.
I'm slowly learning which way to go when I hike the perimeter loop. If I go
counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise), I end up walking uphill for over a mile.
If I go clockwise, the hill is steep and short and then you get to go
downhill for a long long time. Besides, clockwise was good on Saturday
because it meant that I'd walk into the wind for a shorter distance.
The day seemed bright and sunny, but that was not true. Sunny-16 was
actually more like Arctic-8. F8 at 1/125 (Provia 100F) was a good starting
point and most exposures ended up being a variation of it. Even with the sun
"shining" I decided that my sunglasses weren't really necessary.
The "shoulder-stock" worked extremely well and the camera stayed on the
outside of the parka the entire time. Battery issues? HAH! This is the
OM-3Ti we're talking about--not a digital camera or the OM-2S. I shot about
20 pictures, but that number is a little misleading because all except two
weren't duped. Unlike a digital camera, I try to shoot only one shot on film
of any given composition and spend the effort before pressing the shutter to
get things right. Kinda like "pre-chimping". So, inotherwords, a good 1GB
worth of normal RAW images....
Sunset comes early this time of year, and it was setting as I got back to
the Jeep. As I sat in the vehicle before leaving, I thought about the
experience and thought about the blessed life I do have. On this nice
Saturday, I was able to escape the demands of the "Honey-Do List" for a
while, get out for some fresh air (more or less, as the state forest
happened to be downwind from a hog confinement), walk in fine health, and
take a few pictures along the way with one extremely-fine piece of camera
gear of which both the camera and lens were given to me for the purpose of
being used. Used it is. The quiet "kerr-snick" of the shutter and the
near-silent winding mechanism conspire with the magical view through the
big, bright viewfinder to make you shoot more than you can afford, but less
than you really want.
Next time I'm putting fresh batteries in the GPS. It makes trecking off
trail a whole lot easier.
Snow storm are marching through and the tips of my cross-country skis have
been spotted somewhere inide the garage. In a couple of days I'll be back
out there finishing my last roll of slide film for 2009 on the OM-3Ti.
AG
--
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