Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]As some of you may know...Ecuador has two volcanos that are erupting a fair amount of ash at the moment... I'd like to share with you what I did Wednesday night... Tungurahua (16, 302 ft) is a volcano located in the middle of the country of Ecuador.... because it is located up the valley from the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle... it is frequently covered with clouds... I've been on 4 trips so far to try and get photos of the volcano in action and haven't had a much luck.... but those trips weren't a total loss since we were able to scout out some really great locations to shoot from... So a friend and I took a four hour trip to get up to our location... My friend kept asking if I was sure this was the road..... it was really washed out with lots of ruts and eroded sections.... 4x4 was absolutely necessary due to the steepness of the road and well "road" is a bit of a linguistic stretch.... he kept asking how did you ever find this spot.... We arrived around 5pm..... it was cloudy... Even though we were only about 5 miles away from the summit at an altitude of around 13,500ft, we couldn't even see the outline of the volcano..... actually we couldn't see 50 ft away from us.... so we sat waiting hoping it would clear.... around 6pm we could see a bit of the outline so I started to set up cameras.... I had hoped to shoot some star trails along with the volcano....but that was not going to happen... I brought 5 tripods to mount 7 cameras with lenses from 20mm to 200mm loaded with 100 and 400 Provia and Superia films... Unfortunately... it clouded over again before I got everything framed the way I wanted to and it began to drizzle.... I set up and covered 5 of the cameras and put the Leicas back in the car...... Wait some more .. eat some more.. it is starting to get cold... It is 8pm now and the sun set nearly two hours ago.... it starts to clear... it is cold... I get out and can faintly frame the volcano with my eye but have a real tough time doing that while looking through the cameras...... I get one camera set, open the shutter and the first eruption happens... Wow is it impressive... rocks shoot up into the air and when they land on the slope they explode into pieces.... well I obviously pick up the pace a bit and get the rest of the cameras open.... The Leicas were the easiest to set up of the group and the only ones you could look through during an actual erruption.... Ideally what you want in situations like this in no clouds and no moon so you can leave the shutter open for long periods of time..... We had clouds... a near full moon and a lightning storm that kept lighting up the sky..... unfortunately we didn't really see the bolts as much as the clouds diffused that..... So the exposures times that I had preplanned were thrown out the window... One good lightning flash and you advanced every camera to the next frame.... every good explosion from the volcano and you advanced to the next frame... you never leave the camera open longer than 5 to 10 minutes... and pray alot : ) I shot 18 rolls of film and I have no idea how the film is going to look....there were too many variables. We had a fair amount of eruptions; lots of flying red glowing rocks every 10 minutes to an hour or so until 11 or so when it calmed down.... it was very cold... we ate some more, wished we had brought some warmer clothes and decided we would stay up to 1:30.... we had one period where the volcano roared like an airplane taking off and shot out ash for over 15 minutes.... it sounded great but very little lava came out..... we started walking back and forth a lot to keep warm.... we ate everything we had... it was really cold... From 12 to 1:00 there was no visual activity.... I stopped taking pictures with about 1/2 of the cameras since the clouds were moving around the volcano.... the ash was heading east making a u-turn and heading directly over head..... not a bit fell on us the whole night.. It cleared again... we could see nearby snow covered volcanoes... wow was it ever incredible.... we were hoping for a couple more explosions.... we got one or two more small ones..... about 1:30 I started putting cameras away one tripod at a time... still shooting with the others.... turned out to be a smart move since the volcano erupted again.... I got everything put away...we climbed into our sleepings bags and 2 minutes later... one of the best eruptions of the night took place...... I was mad that I had put my cameras away..... but I was glad to have seen it... I woke up at 5:30.... went to get out of the car and discovered that the anti-theft car alarm on our Trooper actually does work.... (we got the car two weeks ago and there was some doubt...) I was able to get pictures of the volcano at sunrise and some pretty shots looking at the nearby mountains.... it was an incredibly clear morning.... I saw views of mountains from places I didn't think were possible...Had it been any other day than Thanksgiving.... I would have stayed and shot until every frame was exposed...Unfortunately we had a house full of guests coming and well I promised my wife and Tim's wife we'd be back in time.... we barely made it.... The turkey was really good... Miami... well they played like jr high league...... This morning we woke up to find Quito covered with over an 1/8" of ash from the other Volcano Pichincha.... so maybe I won't take the C-41 film to the lab today... I'll probably wait to do the E-6 myself next week.... I will post some pictures on my web site eventually... It was an absolutely breathtaking experience.... and one I'll never forget... Duane http://Duane_Birkey.tripod.com