Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/11/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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