[Leica] Leica and rockets

[John Bohner <johnbohner@earthlink.net>]

Following the challenge implicit in the PAW project I offer this weeks
fruit.  My Leica got out of its bag.. and the city... and the county.
We challenged the desert heat and blowing dust to capture this weeks image.

Imagine a flat desert dry lakebed. Four miles of sun baked earth flat as 
a pancake. 102 (39C for my metric readers) in the shade but there is no
shade. 
No bugs, no plants, nothing but dust. 
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.asp?S=14&T=1&X=157&Y=1193&Z=11&
W=2
for you who want to see the place from the air. 

Then they descend.  Born again rocketeers.
Two thousand of them. Grown up kids with grown up rockets.  
These things go up miles! Sometimes they go up sideways 
and sometimes they just blow up.  This week's image is of an aspiring
rocketeer 
and his friend with their entry in the "bowling ball loft".  
Yes Virginia, they are holding a contest to see who can launch an 8 pound
bowling ball 
the highest. We had a nice dicussion as to what is more extreme, buying a
Leica 
to do photography or lauching bowling balls.  
The thrill is not just seeing a bowling ball get shot into space, 
it gets much more interesting coming down! Our photo subject's rocket did
not win 
but it did return the ball slowly and without creating a panic.  The
unofficial 
winner did make it to 9,400 feet. And yes one did come down with out a
parachute
and punched a hole in the lake bed. 

As an aside, rockets are hard to photograph.  For safety reasons, they are 
far away and they move fast.  The alternate image does not convey the
noise, motion or
thrill of seeing a big rocket (12 feet tall) climb into the air. 

It was a kick butt weekend and no one got hurt, all laws were obeyed and I
never even
got sunburned.

John Bohner
PAW posted at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~johnbohner/analog/paw/index.htm