[Leica] SLUG shoots naked cyclist

[Tom Finnegan <TomF@piengr.com>]

A couple members of the SLUG ventured off the relative safe heights of the
Phinney/Greenwood ridge down into the wild lowlands of Fremont to document
the annual Solstice Parade. The parade had created a minor furor the last
couple years. It seems a number of people from the suburbs had ventured into
the city to watch the parade. It would appear that they were expecting to
see marching bands and drill teams, and were a bit shocked to see people in
drag and naked cyclists. While large hairy men in drag and naked cyclists
may not be very commonplace in the 'burbs, people in the city realize it is
pretty much expected in Fremont. A number of highly offended people had been
pressuring the Seattle police to crack down.

I half expected to find long rows of police in riot gear ready to arrest any
one doing anything that might be deemed offensive. In actuality, for such a
large Seattle gathering, there was a distinct lack of tear gas and rubber
bullets. Nice sunny weather brought out a very large and enthusiastic crowd,
most all of whom were there specifically to see these notorius naked
cyclists. The police in turn realized they were greatly outnumbered and
chose to hide in the background.

I've put a sampling of the pictures I took on Photo.net, those easily
offended may wish to pass.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=128635

For those interested in technical details, I shot 4 rolls with the M6 and
35/1.4 and 2 rolls with the M3 and 50/1.4. The film was in all cases FP4+.
In addition to myself and RP, there were two other Leica photographers in
the one block area I was working. So, if you are out there lurking, don't
think that we didn't see you! There were also three or more other 'serious'
photographers working in the same area. They all had a large motordriven
autofocus slr with monster zoom on each shoulder. Their typical MO appeared
to be to either take pictures of the parade a block away, or fiddle with the
camera to try and figure out what custom function they were suppose to use
for shots of public nudity.

Tom Finnegan
Seattle