Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/03/04
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Donal,
You struck a nerve with your war story of shooting the boots in the frozen
north. From the "I can top that" department, thought you'd get a kick out
of the following...
In the winter of 1985 I was an associate editor with Flying magazine in New
York. We decided to do a feature on the Canadair Challenger, a large
twin-engine business jet made in Canada. I was the author of the story
while our editor did the pilot's report. Lucky me -- I also got to take the
pictures.
We flew up to Connecticut to meet up with the plane in, as I remember it,
January, with a ground temperature hovering about 30 degrees with snow on
the ground. Took the double door off the back of a Beech Baron, a twin
engine piston airplane, into which I climbed with a motorized F3, a 180 2.8
ED and a 105 2.5, and a few others. I sat in the back of the Baron by the
large hole in the fuselage where the door used to be with the heaviest
parka I had, no seat belt, and much dread. The two smart pilots sat up
front, one to watch me and take direction by hand signals, the other to
drive the plane.
We met up with the Challenger at about 6,000 feet over Long Island Sound,
at full throttle, with the wind in my hair whipping by at 160 knots, a
speed necessary to keep up with the jet. Of course, temperature drops with
altitude, and with wind chill, well I probably was attempting to
orchestrate formation flying between a jet and a piston airplane using hand
signals while taking pictures at -200 degrees Fahrenheit (or at least it
seemed that cold).
These were pre-autofocus days (I think the F3AF was just out) so the drill
involved focusing and firing like mad (while the airplanes flew in a, for
them, lazy circle) for 20 seconds and then ditching the camera and holding
my ungloved (to run the controls) hands directly in front of a blessedly
volcanic heating vent. This freeze/thaw cycle was repeated until I began to
completely run out of light, and my bodily fluids began to solidify. I have
never been so cold in my life, before or since.
The pictures (Kodachrome) were good (not great) but I was rewarded in July
with a cover shot taken head-on of the jet with the pilots grinning in late
day winter sun at 6,000 feet over the Atlantic. It was a treat to see the
magazine up in the clothes pins of the news stands of Grand Central Station
in New York. But all I really remember is the cold.
What would I shoot with today? An F5 or N90s, as autofocus is such a help
in such circumstances, and the 80-200 2.8 ED-IF. I could use, and would
buy, an R8 for other missions, but not this one.
And yes, I love my M6.
David W. Almy
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