gessman Loc: Colorado

...the stupidest thing I ever did to take pictures, since this seems like a goofy kind of afternoon. I think I must be suffering "let down" from yesterday. Anyway, when I heard the Hale Bopp Comet was going to be overhead in Denver, having been sorely disappointed when Haley's came through in the early 1980s and I wasn't ever able to see partly, I thought, because a.) I lived in St Pete, FL at sea level, and b.) I didn't have a telescope, I thought I'd just take advantage of being in Denver and ramp it up another notch and go up in the mountains to get a little closer to it and maybe see it better - maybe even get a few pictures.

So, on the night of March 26, 1996, I loaded up my camera gear, not knowing what to expect or what would be required in the way of equipment to get some good shots, if at all. I took off about an hour before dark with plans to go up to around 12,000, "the better to shoot you with, Hale Bopp," because the moon was supposed to be at or nearly full and would interfere unless I could get behind a mountain that would block off the extraneous light from that and Denver's lights. At 12,000 feet in mid to late March the snow is still pretty heavy and it is still pretty cold.

I found my spot and got my gear out and got all set up. I figured I'd need lots of lens based on my experience with Haley so I got out my biggest lens and strapped on a 2x extender. I was using a Nikon FA and 500mm mirror lens with the 2x, pushing it up to 1000mm. Figured that would be enough.

I hadn't figured on how much difference this experience was going to be nor how fast I was going to freeze my butt off and I'm not big on planning or preparing but more of a dodger of missiles from Murphy - you know the guy with all the laws. I find that I'm better at staying loose and adjusting. I looked through the lens and found that I had way too much lens so I started backing off. I wound up using the FA and a Vivitar 28-85 Series 1 lens. The Series 1 lens was designed to compete with the top lens of Nikon and Canon which would now be the "L" lens for Canon.

I had not used the heater on the way up so I wouldn't get the gear so warm that it would fog up and collect moisture but I don't guess I was all that successful because I'd get in one and a half shots and my gear would freeze up with the shutter open on the second shot. I'd have to take it off the tripod and get into the car with it, turn on the motor and heater and in about a minute I'd hear the shutter close so I'd go back out and do it again.

Well I continued to shoot for almost an hour like that which caused the earth to rotate moving the comet to my left so I kept moving my gear out in front of where I'd parked my car. When I had moved about 100 feet, give or take, away from the car I had also moved in behind a berm created from cutting through the rocks to make the road. I had gotten in about ten shots when I began to hear twigs snapping just up the berm behind me and then I got that legendary atrocious cat smell we've all heard about. I started toward the car slowly and began to whistle, figuring if you could 'whistle past a graveyard"
when you were young to keep from being scared, perhaps I could whistle past this illusionary cat I perceived to be about to enjoy me for lunch. The closer I got to the car, the faster I was moving. I jumped into the car, drove forward to the gear, and without getting out, reached out and tossed everything in the back seat. Long story long, I went back each night for about two weeks and shot over fifty rolls of film, naturally from different places from that first night.

I don't know what I was thinking but I got some shots I think are astounding given my equipment. For those who might not be familiar with that time, there was a worldwide circle of amateur and professional astronomers who sent in photographs to a website dedicated to the comet and even the Hubble was used to photo it. Having looked at all the images on that site, I will humbly submit to you that my shots fit right in with the best of what was there. I hope you enjoy these three and then I'm going to take a rest. If you have any suggestions how these could be improved, I'm all ears.

In #1 the white stuff at the bottom is the snow capped continental divide so my position relative to that attests that I was at a pretty high altitude.

In #2 I have broadened the view to indicate the feel of vastness of the space I was a very minuscule part of.

In #3 I caught it coming through a gap in the mountain

I do not the stats on the settings except I know that I had the lens wide open and somewhere around 60mm with that Vivitar. I bracketed the shots but don't have a record of which is which at this point. I apologize if anyone considers this to be an inappropriate post and will let me know, I'll see if I can get Admin to pull it. If not, I hope you enjoy it.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

all i can say is incredibile. I hope you think these shots were worth the hasssle because I do. so was there a mountain lion?

rocco_7155 Loc: Connecticut/Louisiana

Gessman,
GREAT story....with great photos to document it. I was freezing my butt off on a beach at Cornfield Point, Saybrook in Connecticut during Haley's appearance. I got a couple of decent photos that ended up in my ex's possession....another story. I decided to sit out Hale Bopp. Thanks for the photos and the chuckles. Rocco

gessman Loc: Colorado

Thanks sinatraman. You know, all I can say is if he was up there and had bad intentions, he may have missed a good lunch. It is unbelievable how quiet it is at that altitude when the wind isn't blowing as it wasn't most of the time this was taking place. Twigs don't normally snap unprovoked and that is a smell from hell. I'm just glad I didn't get any of it on me. Being sprayed by a skunk would be an intense pleasure compared to this. Thanks again.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Thanks Rocco. It is good to hear from a kindred spirit about a similar experience. I think next time I'll take my chances with the crabs too. I probably won't do again what I did before. Hopefully, I won't get the chance then I won't have to make the decision.

tilde531 Loc: Seaford Delaware

It's definitely the whole experience behind getting that photo that keeps a true photographer coming back for more.

I started a blog page because I felt the need to share the "story behind the shot" so much... as if it would make any difference to the person looking at the pictures (regarding aesthetic value that is).

It really doesn't matter as much to them because they weren't there...

But your story, added to these shots (which are INDEED remarkable, especially for all that you went through to GET them), definitely helps me appreciate them all-the-more.

These are really nice (#2 my fave).

I'm glad he chose that week to go on a "no-people-meat" diet! You would be MISSED! :)

(*snickers* My lil' grand-daughter Taylor is 5 and sometimes she "serves" us exotic "entree's" made with vegetables and "people meat". Hilarious... a real nut of a girl!)

gessman Loc: Colorado

Thanks tilde. It sounds like your granddaughter's mtDNA may be traceable. It's funny how it works out, the way kids from fertile imagination backgrounds seem to have fertile imaginations. Your manner amuses me in a good way.

tsamori

can't improve much on perfection...nice job

Rich Loc: Titusville, Fl

gessman you amaze me. You appear to have a great life and a great hobby, keep shooting

TraceyG Loc: SW, Fl.

Ditto tsamori!

Loved the commentary and the pics! Well done!

Yooper Loc: U.P. Michigan

Great pictures and a great story to with it gessman. That sounds like my kind of adventure (although I would likely hav a gun with me if I were to do somthing like that today). Considering that you had to be concerned with reciprosity failure and weren't able to see your results without getting the film printed, I say you did an amazing job. Thanks for sharing.

Phyllis Loc: NE PA

Your shots are spectacular! Thanks for sharing them with us and thanks for telling us that amazing story. You, sir, are a real photographer. :D

gessman Loc: Colorado

Thank you all. The generosity of your remarks overwhelms me.

And Rich, I reckon you're a man who knows what he's talking about. It's not a lavish life, nor a deprived one but whatever I may be missing is made up for in enough ways so I don't feel like I'm missing much.

Yooper, the adage at the time was, as I'm sure you recall, "if you get one good shot out of a roll, you'll be doing okay." You tried to know a little bit about your stuff, bracketed, and hoped a lot. Then, you got to hand pick from the bunch afterwards. You turned your negs over to the lab and went home and went to bed. Now you are the lab and you stay up all hours doing the lab work sans chemical poisoning. I've wondered if the instant gratification of digital is worth it. I figure it is.

Yooper Loc: U.P. Michigan

Actually, I hadn't heard that. I tried to teach myself photography when I was in college and first got married, but wasn't able to afford to get them developed and printed right away, and by the time I did, I couldn't remember what I had done, so I could never figure out what I needed to change to improve. It wasn't until I got my first DSLR in 2005 that I was able to see what I was doing right or wrong, and learn from it. So you photographers who were successful in film days have my deepest respect. It would have helped if I had written down my settings, but I'm not that organized and I find it is very disruptive to my creative thought pattern. And you are right about being up all night; I finished processing some waterfall images that I captured in July in PA about 3 a.m., and will post a couple a little later. I think it is worth it because of the info that is available.

gessman Loc: Colorado

I think the adage was originally coined to express the degree to which pro photographers were discriminating in editing out the losers but it morphed into an excuse for being hasty and maybe even sloppy. But, there IS an awful lot to remember and even if you do remember everything, other natural elements come into play that can rob you of the results you expect, especially when we do those things infrequently as non-pros. That's no secret but hopefully it doesn't hurt us to say it now and then just as a reminder for we amateurs to not swell up too much when it all comes together.

When you don't have the good sense to start with non-moving objects but think you should jump right in there doing football games or flying birds, especially those that flit, when the action heats up, memory often goes out the window and most of us aren't equipped to do anything but fire away with no time to keep notes, at least I wasn't. I bought tape recorders as they kept getting smaller and smaller eventually winding up with them in my shirt pocket talking to them as I would shoot so I could later analyze what I had done. It didn't work too well. Too tedious for a non-pro who thought his camera was designed by Richard Gatling of gun fame.

By the next time I'd go out to shoot, I'd have forgotten about everything I thought I knew, money being a factor. Actually, it has never been a battle between me and the camera. It's been a battle between my tenacity and my weak conscious recall facility. I suppose I just couldn't walk from the challenge of overcoming the downside of all those licks on my head I took when I was a kid, being one of three boys.