Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/08/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Tue, 06 August 2002, Edward Caliguri wrote: > -- Hey! > Nice to see and hear about Poolsville MD ! I worked at the NIH Animal > Center there for a few years in the late 80's!! Beautiful little town! There > was a great little lunch place across from what I think was 'High's' > mini-mart?? We also had a monkey that used to escape now and then, and go > down to the river at Lee's Ferry and beg french fries from folks eating at > the fast food grill down there! What a picture that would have made! Alas, I > was just out of Vet school, and only could pine for a Leica! > EC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ed... Glad to know someone has actually been here! ;-) The sunflower shots [http://members.aol.com/noctizeiss/private/index.htm] were taken 2 miles away from the NIH facility, on one of the sod farms close to White's Ferry. Sunflowers on a sod farm? Glad you asked. Turns out the local farmers are looking for something, anything, to make up for all the crops lost to the drought this year. While sod is still a money making crop, not all their fields are suitable for raising sod; usually they plant wheat, corn or soybeans on plots that are too rocky or otherwise unsuitable for sod. Seed, spraying and other costs make profits razor thin for non-sod crops. In this case, a hunting club approached the farmers and offered to pay for a field of sunflower seed to be planted and raised so they could hunt *doves* during the fall hunting season. The sum they offered to the farmers was *many* times over what they would have made with one of the other traditional crops. As I was exploring shooting locations for the LUG project, I just happened to stumble across the sunflowers as they entered peak blooming, and the farmer, spying my Leica, gave me permission to have access to them. Serendipity, eh? And, yes, I'm taking prints of the blooms to the farmer this evening as a way of thanking him. High's is no more; long ago replaced by 7-11 and since gone out of business. Bassett's is still going strong and has gone upscale, with really good food and atmosphere now. I remember the stories in the local paper about the monkey you describe. I thought about taking some shots of the NIH facility and including them in the project, but the Animal Center is *real* sensitive to stuff like that now, what with all the animal rights activists stirring up things and trying to break in all the time. I will say they have had some real cool Frankencows out there for the past 6 years or so; Frankencows being altered cattle that dwarf the horses around them. I have no idea what they weigh, but they are easily the biggest cows I have ever seen; Babe the Blue Ox comes to mind. Regards, /Mitch _____________________________________ Mitch Zeissler E-mail: zeissler@directvinternet.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html