[LargeFormat] Temperature and a lot of digression

[Hornford, Dave]

Uncle Dick,

Week Knees indeed...
While I enjoy a good tale of the old days... and have even seen the
covered carriage with the wood stove my Dad drove to school through the
blizzards of the Saskatchewan prairie when he was 6... and deeply
respect brave souls, like yourself, who suffered heavily when men were
men (keeping all thoughts of nervous sheep & Australians to myself)...
I'll take my Gortex shell, windstopper fleece jacket & pants, wind
resistant outer pants, microfibre primary layer, Alpaca wool headband &
gloves, OR over mittens on 'idiot strings', poly baclava, thermal boots,
modern snowshoes and Resolute Bay vented cap when I pack-up my LF gear
and head out in the winter. An outfit made complete by my Sport CD
player nestled in the voluminous inside pocket playing a selection of
Mozart concertos, Blues, a 'talking book,  or what my children refer to
as "Dad's Rock 'n Roll" in my good ear (My wife's theories about my
taste in modern music causing the so-called bad ear being merely ill
informed speculation of a non-participant).

I'm extremely happy that this year I have made it 'on location' Jan 2nd,
Jan 6th, Jan 13th, Jan 19th & Feb 2nd. Missing only the brutally cold
weekend of Jan 28th. The temperature has ranged from a balmy +2 C to a
cool -24 C. The weekend of the 28th was not totally wasted - I now know
how my LF gear will fit in my bike panniers and backpack. With 6 short
weeks to convince my children they bike with panniers, my plan has a
chance of success...

Returning to the 28th... This past weekend I managed to get the shot of
the Opal range. Alas, it will not turn out the way I see it... The light
will be too blue and the vertical face of the Opal range - awash in
sunlight - will be to bright for the shadowed forest of the canyon I
shot through.  Nothing that can't be solved by an 81C & ND Grad
filter...=20

-----Original Message-----
From: rstein [mailto:rstein@bigpond.net.au]
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 3:24 AM
To: largeformat@f32.net
Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] Temperature and a lot of digression


Dear Hornford,

     Or should I say Cousin Week Knees Hornford....

    I can safely say that the younger generation are all soft. Why, when
I
was Growing Up in Calgary we thought nothing of playing out in the snow
at -
40 degrees Celsius. And we didn't have these modern snow suits either. A
couple of animal skins and one mitten ( Did I mention that we were
desperately poor and could only afford one mitten? We took turns having
our
fingers amputated from frostbite. I used to go bare handed but kept the
more
important parts covered in the mitten. THAT'S why I have offspring....)

     Where was I? The Canadian whether. Whether to go outside and get
your
nostrils frozen shut or stay inside and roast over the hot air duct.I
have
passed from that vale of tears and lost mittens. Now it is the
Australian
whether. Whether to go outside and grow another centimetre on the
melanoma
or stay inside in the darkroom and print.