wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Stories out of the bag
Kathy Wheeler 2004-Sep-23 05:38:00
I had wanted to shoot a number of bridges this time, but other things
interfered and we could only spare time for one. So I chose the closest
and most interesting bridge - the Bethanga Bridge. It is a 750m long
steel truss bridge built in 1930 to carry the Riverina Highway across
the then newly constructed Hume Weir, replacing 2 other bridges that
were about to be submerged by the rising waters of the dam.
I have had this bridge in the background of a number of Weir panos over
the years, but this time the bridge had to take center stage. That
meant getting up close and personal! Fortunately access is relatively
easy, across the rocky foreshore at the base of the bridge. The rocks
form an artificial reef which, according to local divers and fisherman,
attracts a lot of freshwater fish, especially red fin.
The shoot itself was fairly uneventful, although we did get some
curious looks from some of the kids fishing on the foreshore. The
bridge carries one lane of traffic each way and is fairly busy on fine
and sunny weekends. I wished I had bought some sound recording
equipment with us to record the rattle of the cars on the bridge
overhead.
This was the first serious outing for my new (well, ex-demo) D70 and
Peleng 8mm lens. They had arrived only days before. The Peleng is a
story in it's own right ...
It was my least expensive option for a 8mm fisheye (would **love** the
Nikon 8mm but just can't justify the $$). But while researching the
Peleng 8mm I'd come across concerns about the mirror on the D70 hitting
the back of the lens. Some stories said it did, others were
inconclusive.
So when the Peleng arrived in it's little Russian lunch-box we set
about with the vernier calipers (and my husband who knows how to use
them) and carefully measured the depth of the lens back in relation to
the mount, and the position of the mirror as it swings up. After
careful double-checking we concluded that although the back would
protrude 1mm further into the camera body than my 16mm Nikkor, it
should still have a minimum of 1mm clearance from the mirror at it's
closest point of travel.
We mounted the lens, turned the camera on and into manual mode, and
pressed the shutter release, listening carefully for any tell-tale
sounds of trouble. Despite the measurements being quite correct it was
still a relief to hear only normal shutter noise and see a complete,
beautiful, if underexposed fisheye image on the rear screen!
The next step was to work out how the manual mode works on the D70. Out
with the D70 handbook and my trusty old Lunasix light meter ... only
the light meters batteries were flat!!! So, off we go to get
replacement batteries - but Varta 625s are not readily available
anymore - only carried by specialist shops. Oh well, now we know for
next time. Got the batteries and headed back home to run some quick
tests before the afternoon bridge shoot.
Nothing like being organised, no, nothing like it at all ;-)
Cheers,
KathyW.