[Leica] Re: Wildlife photography and other dangers

[drodgers@nextlink.com]

Anders

>>I know some animals are tougher than You would think but are You sure
that it
is correct to say that a rattlesnake is alive when there is a car parked on
its head?

I was thinking along those lines when I touched the snake. He was certainly
dead, but he still wrapped around my arm. Some type of reflex, which caught
me totally off guard. Luckily, I didn't have a camera in my hand, it would
have gone flying. Point being, surprises occur when you're dealing with
living (or just deceased) things.

Animals aren't the only risk. I specialized in agricultural photography. I
was poisoned while photographing at dawn in a cotton field in El Centro,
California. I saw a crop duster coming in my direction. The sun was just
coming up in the distance. I snapped a couple of frames. At the last minute
I realized the field I was standing in was the target. I dropped my camera
and ran, as did the two guys I was with. They were both entomologists. They
were doing what was called "sweeping" where you sweep the cotton with a net
to catch and count insects. It's a way of determining infestation levels.
One guy was hospitalized briefly from organophosphate poisoning, but he was
OK in the end. The other guy, like me, had a headache for several days. We
both just caught some light drift. A week later I noticed that my camera, a
Nikon F, was speckled with pitting. I don't know if that was from the
spray, but that was my hunch. I abused that Nikon F in ways I'd never do
with a Lieca, even though I'm certain the Lieca could take it. At least I
got a nice shot of the plane backlit by the morning sun. Made the cover of
"American Cotton Grower". All in a day's work.

David.