[LargeFormat] Autumn (Fall) Colours

[Clive Warren]

>Greetings,
>
>I haven=92t been very active on the list, but I have been reading most 
>of the posts.  This year has been =93interesting=94 and my time to read 
>e-mail limited.  Fall color on this side of the pond varies from 
>locale to locale - at least that=92s what I=92ve been hearing.  Here in 
>the Rockies it was good though my attempts to capture it failed 
>miserably, but I=92ll get back to that later.
>
>On July 3rd while descending from 12,000 feet in the Rockies of 
>Wyoming, I slid down a 60 degree snow covered slope.  Not having my 
>ice axe, the slide was uncontrolled and covered about 350 feet. 
>After hitting some boulders at the bottom, I needed about 60 
>stitched in my head, a few in my arm and a broken rib.  Luckily no 
>camera equipment was injured and I=92m still healing more than 3 
>months later.  Actually, I=92m very lucky to be here!
>
>Back to the Fall color.  A few weeks ago, I spent a week traveling 
>through NM, AZ, UT and CO and managed to shoot about 90 sheets of 
>film; many were of some spectacular color in the Colorado high 
>country.  Over the years I=92ve gotten into the habit of using Post-it 
>notes on my dark slides to identify the film.  After the shot, I 
>record exposure info, processing, etc.  The note stays with the film 
>from the time it=92s loaded in the holder =91till it=92s entered in my 
>database.  This system has worked excellently for well over 1,000 
>shots =96 until a few weeks ago!
>
>While shooting under some quickly changing light, I forgot to remove 
>the Post-it and yanked the dark slide.  The slide came out, but 
>ripped the Post-it.  Not wanting to miss the shot, I looked inside 
>the back (without removing it =96 big mistake) and didn=92t see the rest 
>of the Post-it.  I assumed it was stuck inside the holder=92s light 
>trap and continued shooting.  This happened on the first day of my 
>trip.
>
>On the last day, I was checking the cut corners of the ground glass 
>for coverage and noticed a small bug on my lens.  I looked at the 
>front element, but the bug wasn=92t there, so I pulled the lens and 
>the bug wasn=92t on the inside either.  I next looked inside the 
>bellows and nestled inside one of the pleats was a tiny piece of 
>Post-it paper!  So far 62 sheets have ended up in the garbage 
>because of a huge flare mark right through the center of each shot! 
>I have about 20 more sheets to process and figure most of those are 
>also ruined.  So far this year has not been very good for me.
>
>So Clive to answer your question about Fall color, yes here in the 
>Colorado Rockies it=92s was very good, just don=92t ask me to prove it. 
>Next month I=92m going back to Utah, but this time you can bet I=92ll be 
>checking the bellows regularly.  I hope everyone else has been 
>having better luck than me this year!
>
>Regards,  Pete

Hello Pete,

Was wondering why you had been so quiet - you must have had one hell 
of a headache! Hope you soon recover completely.

What bad luck with the post-it - touch wood, nothing similar has 
happened to me - have lost a few shots but usually under time 
pressure when trying to capture a scene in the fading light.

One of the shots in the f32 temporary gallery of the semi carrying 
the Coast Guard boat was subject to the imminent sunset. No clouds 
around for a sunset shot and the light would have been cut off by a 
distant mountain so quickly set up. The location was in the middle of 
nowhere and after taking the second shot -1/2 stop I was joined by 
two guys who sprang up and asked me how much the camera was worth.....

As I threw the camera tripod and all in the back seat of the car 
saying it was old and not worth a lot, I didn't realise at the time 
that the Graflok back had moved and exposed half the sheet in the 
Grafmatic which I had not time to advance.

Kept my fingers crossed for the shots and drove off quickly glancing 
in the rear view mirror to see the guys standing there watching me 
drive off.  Sometimes you get a feeling about a situation and this 
was one of those times.

Anyway, good to hear from you - enjoy Utah. We are having heavy rain 
and flooding here in the UK so again the planned trip to the 
arboretum is postponed. The rain will probably have taken out the 
best of the leaves now......

Such is life.

Cheers,
        Clive