Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I spent the last few days as a chaperone for 120 7th- and 8th-graders on a field trip to the Santa Cruz (California) area. Biology, particularly marine biology was the focus of the week, with trips to the Santa Cruz wharf for squid dissections, observation and discussion of Sea Otters and California Sea Lions, to Ano Nuevo State Reserve in San Mateo County to see the Elephant Seals' pupping beaches, and hikes in the redwood forests of nearby Scotts Valley. As is my custom, I was recording the kids' activities with my (on-topic) Leicaflex, this time a "new" SL2, loaded with 400-speed color negative film. I brought several lenses on this trip: 21mm Super-Angulon-R, 35/50/90mm Summicron-R, 135mm Elmarit-R and 400mm f/6.8 Telyt (duh!). Redwood forests are incredibly dark!! The trees are hundreds of feet high, and whatever light reaches the forest floor is absorbed by redwood bark and the duff on the forest floor. At mid-day I was typically using the Summicrons at 1/60 sec, f/2.0 with the ISO 400 film. Where sunlight reaches the ground the contrast levels are impossible because there's only the direct light, no reflected light. The best light was in the clearings when a high fog diffused the sunlight. By far the most-used lens was the 90mm Summicron-R. In clearings there was enough light to switch to the 135, but it made my working distances uncomfortably long without disguising my intentions. The 90 is a wonderful portrait lens. For portraits of the most camera-shy kids I used the 400 in sunlit areas; they never suspected. Given many kids' reluctance to be photographed and the light levels, the 21 stayed in the bag the entire trip :( The SL2 is one I purchased recently for low-light work. This one's definitely a "user" camera, with lots of zincing, paint missing and leatherette peeling on the back door, chrome worn off the strap lugs, and smelling of the sweat of 1,000 hands. Funny thing is, it has only one tiny ding. The 1/2000 sec shutter speed and self-timer are busted, and the shutter speed dial keeps working loose. It will need a CLA, some day. Most of what I like about the SL2 are the same things I like about the SL: the unbelievably bright viewfinder, the limited area meter (in the SL2, much more sensetive), the limited battery dependance, the continuously-variable shutter speeds, and the solid, no-nonsense reliability. I've found what I like most about the SL2 is its shutter speed dial. It's a little bigger than the SL's and ribbed much like the focus rings of the lenses and it's really easy to adjust, quickly and accurately, with just one finger, and it stays exactly where it's put. I had visited Ano Nuevo before, but I hadn't learned as much about the elephant seals as I had on this trip with the kids. Prior to the mid 1970's, elephant seals never pupped on the mainland, preferring offshore islands. Before the extinction of Grizzly Bears in California, the bears ruled the west coast from the Sierra to the surf of the pacific ocean and a seal pup was no match for a hungry griz. Coincident with the bears' extinction was market hunting of Elephant Seals, which were also nearly exterminated. One small breeding population of the seals survived on an obscure island off the coast of Mexico, and from this small group of seals the present population grew. BTW the seal population's recovery from the small mexican population means there is very little genetic diversity within the species. Once the seal populations recovered and offshore pupping islands became full, they found the bears were no longer a threat and they started using the mainland at Ano Nuevo. We also learned the the Elephant Seal is primarily a deep-water animal. It only comes to land to breed and to molt its fur, spending the bulk of its life in the Gulf of Alaska well below the surface, out of reach of its marine predators, Great White Sharks and Orcas (killer whales). While at sea the seal spends at most 5 minutes of every hour on the surface, day and night. Typically the seal dives 1,500 to 2,000 feet deep, surfacing to breathe every 20 minutes. The longest recorded dive was over 2 hours. At Ano Nuevo the 400mm Telyt was ideal. State park rules prohibit approaching the seals closer than 25', not only to prevent people from disturbing the seals, but to give people a chance of escape if one of those 5,000-lb bull seals takes offense at the 2-leggeds. Mobility is important here, so a tripod is a liability. Besides, the sand is too loose to plant a tripod, so the hand-held Telyt demonstrated its value again. The best views of the pupping beach was on a dune overlooking the seals. The kids saw nearly every aspect of the seals' life on land: matings, birth, orphan pups, adopted pups, weaned pups, territorial squabbles between females, and titanic battles between bulls over females. Photos to be posted next week. Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/telyt