Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/08/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Today turned into a fine photo adventure for me, too, so a brief report: Received a call just before noon from Coast Guard Commander Bob Durphy up at the Humboldt Bay flight station in McKinleyville. Fog had finally cleared for rescue exercises with the Dolphin helicopters. I hastily cleared my afternoon schedule and headed with Bob up to Trinidad Head, about 20 miles north of Eureka. We drove up the private Coast Guard road to the seaward side of the head, then hiked the trail to the lighthouse above steep cliffs. Two ground crewman were tossing a dummy over the cliff, then the air crew lowered a rescueman on the cable winch out the side door. With the helicopter hovering just 50 feet away at eye level, I had some great photo ops with the lighthouse in the foreground. Since it was a sunny day, I had loaded the SL and M6 with Astia (100 ASA) slide film and the M2 with Delta 100. On the SL, I used the 90 Elmarit and the 280/4.8 Telyt. In so much commotion of a few thousand horsepower almost on top of you, wind blowing and tremendous noise (even with ear plugs), the 50 Summicron stayed on the M6 and the 35 Summicron never left the M3 either. The Telyt really filled the frame nicely with the two crewman in the open door. The 50mm filled the M6 frame with the whole helicopter, along with a second Dolphin in the distance over a backdrop of ocean and the large rocks off of Trinidad Head. Intuition kicks in when senses get somewhat overwhelmed - that's when all the years with Leica really pay off. One shot with the ground crewmen in the foreground called for lots of depth of field, and I wasn't dependent on automatic settings to get it right. I was so involved with the photos, that only now in retrospect do I feel an incredible respect for the young men involved today in the training and all too often in real life rescues here on the North Coast. Now if I could just hitch a ride in one of those amazing machines! Gary Todoroff Tree Lugger