1/2 day's fun (long)

[newport_m@utpb.edu (Mark Newport)]

Luggers,

I just had to share yesterdays events.

I took several hours off and went to watch a circus coming into town. I
always thought that a circus would be very visually rewarding but never had
the chance to go shoot one. It so happens that the Carson and Barnes 5 Ring
came into Odessa yesterday morning and I went with M Leicas. It was about
45 degrees w/ a wind chill down in the 20's. C&B advertise they are one of
the last of the traveling "tent" circuses in the US and the only one who
still uses their elephants to erect the Big Top. Earlier in the day, I had
sort of befriended the press guy, Jason Thomas, who invited me inside to
walk in with the elephants as they pulled the massive 30 or 40 tent poles
into place. Only myself and one TV guy were allowed inside (the TV guy shot
2 min of footage and left - the local press photogs were late,late and
missed it). There I was with two M's hung in tandum, one roll of 400 ASA
TMax and 7 or 8 assorted 100 TMax and Plus X in fairly dark conditions
which worked out to about 1/4-1/15 @ f/1.4 or /2  most of the time. I spent
45 min under the football field sized tent to the side the guys who handled
the elephants. It was a truly amazing site.  The amount of dust was
incredible.  I kept thinking don't shoot the 35 @ 1.4 or the pix will be
soft only to look down and see a fine coating of West Texas dust covering
everything anyway. It was dusty semi-darkness pierced by thin shafts of
brilliant sunlight coming down through the roof onto the elephants and men.
Amid the clanking of massive chains and loud commands of the handlers came
the unexpected trumpets from the elephants which left you shaking with
excitment. It was sensory a experience that I will not soon forget.  Even
if some shots are little soft or blurred, who cares?  To have been there,
to record those scenes unobtrusively and quickly without the equipment
getting in the way of "feeling" the event, hey it was worth every bit of
the dust I ate. I used a 35/1.4 Summilux mostly inside and a 28/2.8 Elmarit
to shoot almost everything outside. The M's are super for this sort of
stuff. Later that day, when I saw my friends from the newspaper, I asked if
they had gotten any shots after the tent was up and they said yes but it
was "really dark in there" and I replied "I know 1/4 sec at 1.4"... they
just shook their heads and laughed. They are Nikon guys to the core and
both very good photographers.

Thanks,

Mark