Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/08/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Far Flung? leo On Aug 26, 2006, at 10:08 PM, R. Clayton McKee wrote: > On 26 Aug 2006 at 22:04, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote: >> Yeah Ted, but did you ever do an Eskimo roll in a kayak while holding >> your Leica? >> > > Well, I'm not Ted, it wasn't an Eskimo Roll, it wasn't a kayak, and I > wasn't holding the Leica, but I HAVE done a swiftwater capsize in a > 20' Old Town canoe with an M4P around my neck.... > > That was Memorial Day 1997. I was a trainee guide for a river- > runner, we were taking a trip down the Rio Grande in Big Bend, and I > was paired with a front-seater who said he had a fair bit of canoeing > background (apparently all of it flatwater, though; he didn't know > JACK about rivers.) > > We came into one of the cliff turns in Boquillas, got close to the > rock wall, and just as I'm swinging the bow over to ride the pillow > around the curve, the passenger in the front seat leans WAY out AWAY > from the wall as far as he can and goes for a high upstream draw > stroke. (He told me later that he was afraid we'd hit the wall.) > > Well, we were already loaded heavy (the 20 footers carried the heavy > stuff; we had the kitchen gear with lots of cast iron dutch ovens and > about 40 gallons of water) and the unexpected shift from him dropped > the upstream gunwale into the river before I could react.... and the > next thing I know I'm looking UP at both the surface of the water and > the open side of the canoe about six feet above me...... Needless to > say the camera was totally under water for at least a couple of > minutes. (Hard to say closer than that; my waterproof watch wasn't.) > > The film was, obviously, a write off; I rinsed the camera in about a > quart of my allocation of clean water and it spent the next three > hours sitting on a shaded rock in the 100 degree warmth, at 6% > humidity. All the other gear was in the sun (110-115), but I wanted > to keep the camera a little cooler. The stuff lashed to the canoe in > the river bags and dryboxes was fine, of course, but I was shooting, > so I had the camera out. When the clothes and gear dried, we > reloaded the canoe, I reloaded the camera, and we went on our way. > > The rest of the pix from the trip were fine; I just lost the one > roll. > > I keep thinking I should probably send it in for a CLA, but so far > everything works normally -- I was using it just this morning. > > Just from curiosity, how do you manage an Eskimo roll with a Leica in > one hand? Unless you've got some unconventional anatomy that'd leave > you with only one hand on the paddle and I don't see how you could > get the leverage.... > > > -- > > > R. Clayton McKee http://www.rcmckee.com > Photojournalist rcmckee@rcmckee.com > P O Box 571900 voice/fax 713/783-3502 > Houston, TX 77257-1900 cell phone # on request > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information