[Leica] Leicas with Swastikas now.... NOW A SUGGESTION -- CANADA DAY!

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Henning offered:

>>> With respect to curling:  etc!!!! :-)<<<<<,

Not long after I became a newspaper photographer, it being winter, I had to
cover curling and having never seen it before in real life. Initial
re-action? "What a bunch of looney birds throwing rocks at each other????"
However? Not as looney as hitting a little white ball chasing after it and
giving it a good whack again and again. :-)

Relax golfer folks don't get annoyed, I'm just teasing! :-) At least you
folks are out in the sunshine and not inside a frozen ice box throwing, well
OK sliding rocks on a sheet of frozen water! :-)

 

Game is over, as always we must have a picture of the winning team of the
weekend match. Once that is determined, I take my 2 4X5 sheets of film in a
Speed Graphic make exposures along with names left to right.

 

Done and about to leave I made some comment about it must be very hard
throwing those rocks back and forth? Head guy of team says, "No it's quite
easy would you like to try one?" WOW neato!  "Yes please that would be
great." says I. Put Speed Graphic, 12 septum film mags and flash bulb bag on
the ice. He slides me a rock with a funny handle on top. So I pick it up and
drop it at the same time crushing the flash bulb bag and bulbs inside! OOPS!
Bad start. :-(

 

We begin all over, you don't really pick the rock up very far, just a wee
bit and swing it backwards at the same time, sort of.  "Then gently" read
below carefully if you've never done this.

 

"SLIDE THE ROCK FORWARD ON THE ICE SURFACE GENTLY, CERTAINLY THE FIRST
TIME!!!!!!!!!!!" 

 

Obviously with that warning you'll realize I didn't do that! It was a big
heavy rock, so I fire it real hard to make sure it got to the other end of
the rink! OOPS!!!!!!!! 

I let it go and it's traveling what appears a 100 miles an hour, in the back
ground I hear yelling. Didn't know what they were saying as the rock hit and
sounded like it was going right on through the end of the building!! :-( End
of story! End of curling and have never thrown a rock since! :-) Dangerous
game! :-) 

 

Photographed it many times, damn near fell asleep on a couple. :-) But
discovered the best location to shoot the game? Henning mentioned, "every
rink has a lounge with a big window over looking the 8 sheets of ice and
players." So obviously, :-)  the best place to shoot the game from is the,
"where else?"  From the lounge through the window with the obligatory
Canadian beer right at hand! So there you go eh? ;-) Canadians in action!
:-) 

 

So endth the lesson for today on Canada Day! :-) 

 

Dr. ted  :-)