Zuikos, rattlesnakes, High-Speed Infrared, and missiles (long, but on-topic)

["Gary Edwards" <garyetx@xxxxxxxx>]

Originally submitted to the Olympus List:

> The following is a long story.
>
> Synopsis: Olympus photographer achieves modest published success shooting
a
> missile launch with infrared film.
>
> It was to be a very complex missile engagement with no less than five
> vehicles in flight simultaneously
> (http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/10/14/missile.test.ap/index.html) .  I
arranged
> for the company photographer to photograph the mission from several
hundred
> meters behind the launchers. The Range provides trajectory photography
that
> is used to calculate the position history of each missile with great
> accuracy - typically an order of magnitude better than radar tracking.
They
> produce excellent work using a large number of very sophisticated long
> telescopes and high frame rate cameras, mostly radar-guided.  We made no
> attempt to duplicate their work.  Instead, Scott and I planned to get
> something more descriptive and documentary.
>
> With knowledge of the planned mission, I estimated the field of view
> necessary to capture the entire flight in one frame.  Allowing headroom
for
> text to be inserted (always plan for that Aviation Week cover. . .), I
> decided that the angle of view required dictated a 21 mm lens, shooting
> portrait format.  While I was discussing these plans with a colleague in
> marketing (they pay for such things), he suggested using infrared film.  I
> explained to him that infrared film did not actually capture the radiant
IR
> from objects, which is what he was thinking.  However, it seemed to me
that
> the enhanced contrast between a clear sky and a very reflective rocket
smoke
> plume that Kodak High-Speed Infrared would provide might really help the
> image.  So, we planned to add a camera with HIE to our arsenal.  Scott
would
> set up a number of his n*k*ns and his Hasselblad XPAN. I asked him to use
> two of my OMs, just so I could say that I had used Olympus gear. I
contacted
> Tom Scales, who had very graciously offered to loan me a lens before, and
> asked to borrow a second 21 mm lens.  I caught him with his 21 in the
shop.
> I then went back to the drawing board and convinced myself that a 24 mm
> would do.  So, the plan was for several wide angle n*k*ns and a Hasselblad
> XPAN with color negative film; and my two OMs: an OM-2N/21 mm f/3.5 with
> Provia 100F and an OM-4T/24 mm f/2.8 with HIE.
>
> Unfortunately, during the mission I would have to be at my station in the
> Range Control Center, some 30 miles (50 km) away, leaving Scott to trip
all
> of the shutters when things got exciting. The day came, and we all drove
out
> into the dark desert at 0300 ("oh-dark-thirty").  When we got to our
> positions, we learned that the target missile at Ft. Wingate in northern
New
> Mexico had a problem with guidance software that could not be corrected in
> time to shoot that day.  The weather was marginal that day for the
mission,
> but terrible for photography, so it was good that the shot was postponed
two
> days.  Scott, however, had to be in Washington for a major convention on
> Saturday.  That left me without a qualified photographer and down to two
> cameras.  First off, I decided to play it safe and swap the Provia for
some
> 400 speed color negative film.  Then, I was going to have to pick someone
> available at the launch site to trip the winder remote as the missiles
flew.
> Since it would not be a photographer, I could not count on him to adjust
> exposure setting depending on conditions.
>
> The next day I drove an hour out into the desert to the launch site.  Most
> everyone was resting up for the next morning, so I had the site pretty
much
> to myself.  The site is in the gypsum flat north of Lake Lucero and White
> Sands National Monument and is very austere - just some survey stakes, a
> couple of porta-potties, some instrumentation trailers, and miles and
miles
> of white sand (gypsum crystals, actually).  I set my tripod up next to a
> wooden light pole and began emplacing the cameras on a homemade wooden
> bracket.  After sighting the cameras in using the launchers for reference,
I
> secured the tripod to the light pole with lots of duct tape.  I would have
> to leave the cameras in place for 22 hours and I was concerned not only
that
> they might be knocked out of alignment, but that the tripod might get run
> over by a truck in the night.  Both cameras had Winder 2s attached.  I had
> fabricated a junction box to connect both winders to one Olympus Remote
Cord
> and had thoroughly checked it out at home.  For some reason, it did not
work
> at all now.  On pressing the button once, the OM-2N began running at full
> speed through the roll and didn't stop when the button was released.  The
> OM-4T fired the shutter once, then the winder motor continued to run
without
> advancing film.  I was half way through the roll of color neg before I
could
> get them stopped.  I needed full rolls for the mission, so these now
became
> test rolls.  I was pretty uncertain about the infrared exposure, so that
> wasn't all bad.  Fortunately, I'd brought spare rolls of each, but only
one
> each.  I fired off a number of shots on each roll for test exposure at my
> chosen settings, and bracketed the infrared plus and minus one and two
> stops.  It wasn't exactly the same time of day, but it was the best I
could
> do.  After that, I troubleshot the winder problem.  I never did figure it
> out, but they stopped running away when I set both to "single" instead of
> "sequence."  My shutter tripper was going to have to pace the exposures
> anyway, so that wasn't a real problem.
>
> I loaded both camera with the final rolls.  For the IR film, that required
> removing the camera from the bracket and loading the film inside a
changing
> bag.  For those of you not familiar with Kodak High Speed Infrared, the
> cassette must always be handled in total darkness, hence the changing bag.
> I reset everything and taped literally everything with ripped duct tape
> strips - the camera backs, the camera mode switches,  the aperture rings,
> focus rings, and the plug connections.  On the OM-4T camera back tape I
> wrote "Do Not Open except in total Darkness!"  Then, I doubled bagged the
> setup in white garbage bags to protect it from the gypsum dust, which was
> already collecting on every surface.
>
> As I drove back to civilization, I eased the rent car over to the left to
> straddle a stick on the pavement.  As the last instant, I saw the brown
> diamond pattern.  I quickly turned around and drove back to face a VERY
> angry western diamondback rattlesnake.  You'd be pissed, too, if you were
> awakened from a pleasant nap on warm asphalt by a car passing over you at
55
> mph.  We stared at one another for a minute, then the snake moved off the
> road and I went into town.  Since I was shooting infrared, I took the
> survival of this pit viper as a good omen.
>
> In Las Cruces, I found a portrait/one-hour lab that could soup the
infrared
> for me.  After lunch I reviewed the film and determined that my basic
> setting seemed to produce a good negative, so I did not go back out to the
> site to adjust my camera setting.  Then to bed and try to sleep.
>
> Early the next morning, after completing the missile arming and retreating
> to the camera site, one of my pad engineers removed the bags from the
> cameras and waited.  He was quick on the Olympus Remote Release, and got
> most of each roll exposed as the missiles flew out.
>
> Some weeks later the company published the one of the IR images on the
front
> page of a company newsletter.  They also made me a set of 16 by 20 prints.
> I am very pleasantly surprised that the images held up so well in that
large
> a print.  One of the images can be seen at
> http://members.home.com/zuikos/Index.htm
>
> Technical particulars:
>
> Kodak High Speed Infrared film
> OM-4T with Zuiko 24 mm f/2.8 lens
> Automatic exposure with Exposure Index of 250, metered through a 25A deep
> red filter
> Lens aperture at f/8, exposure probably at about 1/60 s
> dimpled pressure plate covered with backing paper from 120 film
>
> Regards,
> Gary Edwards
>
>
>

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