[Leica] off my bottom

[Alastair Firkin <firkin@netconnect.com.au>]

Well, I told you all that I was off to the Melbourne Cup. I've lived 
in Victoria for 30 years, and I've never attended the "Race which 
stops a nation", but Family of Man demands that I get out there and 
shoot the 2000's, and what better place than Flemington on a warm 
sunny day.

Firstly, I knew that I would be at a disadvantage in not knowing the 
lay of the land, so Helen and I planned to go fairly simple in terms 
of aims and gear. Helen decided to tout the R7 with the 70-180 apo 
vario elmarit and I had b/w in the high mag, and good old Kodachrome 
in the classic M6. Well one of the human fascinations of the 
Flemington spring carnival is fashion, and fashion spells youth and 
colour, so I found the b/w film sadly neglected for most of the day, 
until the light began to fade. Even then, the joy of the day was 
beginning to wash into a sea of excess, and I felt more saddened than 
inspired, so I only burnt into the first roll of TMax.

The day was perfect, and the crowd were upbeat. We are after all in a 
upward economic time, even if our dollar is in a death spiral of 
unprecidented dimentions. Optimism was the atmosphere, and I was here 
to catch it. Helen immediately found that the 70-180 is less useful 
in record crowds of over 120,000. There simply wasn't room to raise 
it. It was her first time with a long lens, and she felt the weigh of 
the learning curve more than the weight of the lens. I too was trying 
something a bit new (for me) in using the 90mm lens on the hi mag. In 
the last few years, I've been working very hard to improve my Leica 
technique with 35 and 50mm lenses, and I wanted to begin to use a 
moderate telephoto effect in amongst the "wides" and "normals". I too 
felt uncomfortable with the 90 and so found myself not only seduced 
by the colour and surrounding human flesh, but also by my more 
practiced technique of getting in close, guessing exposure, 
pre-focusing and smiling.

We did attract some attention, especially from those less photogenic 
who wished to be part of the photographic record of the day, but all 
in all, the crowd were there to please, and I was hoping to please 
them. I can also say that it was a good learning experience, though I 
will have to work on short telephotos some more before I'm happy that 
I'm using them to good effect. Results? Well I was not expecting too 
much. This was my first race day, and first FOM outing of any note, 
so I am happy to write this first (and perhaps only) installment well 
before Kodak have returned my "chrome". If I did well, you can expect 
some "colour" to appear on FOM in a week or so.

Happy hunting and cheers
- -- 
Alastair Firkin

http://www.afirkin.com