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Re: [OM] Iowa Oly-fest

Subject: Re: [OM] Iowa Oly-fest
From: Joel Wilcox <jowilcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 14:49:17 -0500
At 02:44 PM 5/21/99 -0500, Ken you wrote:
>Well, yesterday Joel Wilcox and I got together with the purpose of keeping
>the film manufactures in business.  
>

Yes, folks, I have seen Vert and Toky in their innertube-wrapped glory. For
the amount of hiking we did in relation to exposures taken, I'd say the
hiking boot manufacturers won the day.  But it's quality not quantity, right?

>I think Joel had
>another bag hidden away in the 30 gallon tuppewear box, but he didn't seem
>too inclined to carry that into the woods on our hikes.
>

You're right. It's my "macro" bag.  But if I hadn't just gotten the 85-250,
which I was eager to use, I'd have probably carried that bag instead of the
other one.  The 85-250 doesn't pack in my existing bags very well.  I'm not
sure how others tote this lens with other more "normal-sized" gear, but I'm
still working on my ergonomics.  Still, it's a good problem, I think :)

By contrast, Ken had his kit pared down to a familiar and useful nub. I was
impressed with his Tokina ATX 35-70 zoomer.  I couldn't believe what it can
do with Vert.  Incidentally, the saga of Vert and Toky came to a swift
denouement as a result of the sudden, unexpected appearance of my Vivitar
extension tubes ...  More to come (I'm sure)...

>We drove a little ways from his house to a spot where we had to get
>permission to trespass from this guy that spoke with his body language.

Never met a snarly guy in house slippers I didn't like.

>Joel, being the local, went and talked with him, but I was wondering for a
>minute whether or not we needed to make a quick getaway.  Fortunately, the
>guy actually was friendly (just liked to scare people, I guess) and told us
>where to park and hike.  Unfortunately there wasn't any trail and
>everything was a little soggy and overgrown.  I suppose there was a trail a
>generation or two ago.  We got a few pictures before heading off to other
>spots.
>
snipping the part about Joel's feats of tripod-wielding strength and
swiftness, from which he is still recovering...
>
>Throughout the day we did our obligitory "show and tell" routines as we
>opened up our camera bags and pulled out yet another piece of Olympus
>collectible.  I guess my camera bag is getting pretty thin as I offered to
>sell him something and he felt sorry that my bag was already down to
>sub-minimums.  I couldn't even con him into buying a varimagnifinder.

Maybe if he hadn't kept calling it his "Varimaggotfinder."  I was pretty
impressed with the diopter for his IS-3 (which he didn't bring; next time,
eh, Ken?).  Amazing what that thing will do on a lowly 75-150, with no
light loss.

>The
>ingrate that I am--I ridiculed his Sigma 21-35 zoom AFTER he gave me a roll
>of film AND bought my lunch.  
>

I quoted my favorite little adaptable poem as I handed him the much-derided
lens:

        A little barrel now and then
        Is relished by the best of men.

He actually *apologized* to his OM-2S before putting the Sigmoid on his
apparently hitherto unbesmerched OM-2S. Geesh.

>I did show him Vert and Toky.  I guess he never saw a lens with a hunk of
>bicycle innertube around it before.
>

And I forgot to ask what size innertube, because I'm gonna put some on my
2X-A.

>It had been a long time since I went hiking with another photographer and I
>really enjoyed it.  For the past couple of years my cameras have been aimed
>at subjects that "pay" and I've neglected nature subjects.  If I could
>recenter my photography back in nature (and it payed enough to warrent
>blowing off eddings/corporate dodads/etc), I'd get an OM-4T and a couple
>macro lenses and forget ever going autofocus.  It was interesting seeing
>how our shooting styles were vastly different.  I never bracketed a single
>shot, nor did I take the OM-2S out of Auto mode.  I did goof and not take
>the wobbly winder off the camera so my shots taken with the heavy lenses
>probably had some motion in them, but I eventually migrated to my 100/2.8
>lens anyway.
>

Ken said he thinks the 100/2.8 is the greatest 100mm lens in the world. I
hadn't realized that it is so deft and light.  It's barely a mm longer than
my 85/2.  Later I saw a couple wedding shots from Ken's portfolio, one
taken with the 100/2.8 and another with his MF camera.  I couldn't tell the
difference.  But mostly I was just dazzled by his artistry.

Out in the field, he looked through my 85-250/f5 at one point and noted my
1-13 screen.  He allowed me to put the lens on his OM-2S with 2-4 screen.
Holy smokes!  It was like the lens had gone from f5 to f2.8.  Very
impressive.  It's no wonder you rarely see people selling off their series
2 screens.

>The Columbine were out in force and just demanded to have their pictures
>taken.  We did find Jack-in-the-Pulpit, but only one plant was suitable for
>photographing.  We each took our turns while the skeeters made great
>inroads on making dinner out of us.
>
>Ken
>

Unfortunately, we were about 2 weeks beyond primetime in the woods and oak
savannahs. Sometimes May is the cruelest month, with conferences, school
picnics, weddings, etc.  We'd been trying to find a date to get together
since the middle of March! It was a lot of fun to hike around with a great
photographer like Ken. 

Joel 




Joel Wilcox
Iowa City, Iowa USA

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