I bought a ticket to my good friend Mark Titus's documentary film titled The Breach, which as he describes it, is a Love Story with Salmon. Mark is a very close friend of Yes Bay Lodge, he worked most of his 20's at the Lodge as a Fishing Guide, he was the head guide and stayed at the Lodge year round for a couple years, after that he returned to his home in the Seattle area and started August Island Pictures and began his career as a film maker. Mark is the guy who put together out promotional film for the Lodge and he has done tons of Corporate work for clients like Microsoft and many others.
Several years ago he embarked on a quest to document the decline of Wild Salmon and search out the cause. This path led him on a multi year adventure and it is documented in his latest film which had its North American debut here at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. THE BREACH!
My trip to Palm Springs to see the film got me thinking it may be the perfect opportunity to visit the Living Desert and put a few miles on my new lens and show what it was designed to do!
So I got up early and loaded up the truck and drove 70 miles to the Living Desert - spent a couple hours putting some miles on the camera! It is a wonderful place and I certainly could have spent more time there, but did not want to miss the film premier, so left just after noon and headed to the Palm Canyon Theater!
I decided to make the most use of my new lens and the EC-20 tele-extender more on that in a minute! First, the details again on the lens, cause it is the finest piece of glass I have ever used or owned.
The Lens!
For my photography friends - here are the details and an explanation of my system. I specifically chose Olympus when I went digital because the format is what is known as 4/3 and is the only system which was designed from the ground up as a digital system, it has several unique advantages - my primary reason was the sensor size yields a doubling effect - which means - a normal lens for 35mm film cameras is a 50mm lens, on Olympus 4/3rds it is 25mm, which means telephoto lenses can be smaller and yield a much longer "reach". In the example of my new lens it is a 150mm or the equivalent of a 300mm lens in 35mm format! It also happens to be an F-2 lens so very good in low light as it captures a bunch of light. With the addition of a tele-extender which effectively doubles the focal length or Reach the 150 becomes a 300mm F-4 (you lose some light with the addition of the tele-extender. But this would compare with a 600mm lens in a 35mm world, which is a ton of reach and this lens being fast to begin with adding the extender has NO detrimental affect on the image quality. That's enough for the techies....suffice it to say it is an amazing piece of glassand one I am now proud to own and I prmise to make good use of it!
What it does!
This guy was a long way away so I added the doubler!
This is without the doubler!
I love these birds and they really show the clarity of this lens and the reach with the doubler!
I have only found one "down-side" to this lens - with the extender on it becomes very heavy and difficult to hand hold and get clear pictures - but I have found using my monopod solves the problem nicely and enables me to steady the lens for some amazing shots, with great detail and smooth creamy out of focus backgrounds!
Back to The Breach - fish farming, dams and pollution are hindering the wild runs of salmon - if there is NO MARKET for farm raised salmon then the business will die. So my friends DON'T BUY FARM RAISED SALMON! And STOP PEBBLE MINE! Demand your stores and restaurants only serve Wild Caught Salmon!
Wal-Mart has a contract with several Alaska Fish processing companies and sells WILD CAUGHT SALMON - buy your friggin salmon from them and make sure it says WILD CAUGHT! Even if you are not a fan of Wal-Mart - do not buy farm raised salmon from anyone!!!
The Breach is going on a 15 city tour - if it is shown in your area make sure you go see it and support my friend Mark Titus, but more importantly support Wild Caught Salmon!
Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for following along on my life's adventures. I will be posting some email links in the near future to write your congressman and representatives to Stop Pebble Mine and other causes to support Wild Salmon! Eliminate Genetically altered salmon and stop fish farming!
It is my Cause, not a new one but a reinforced effort!!
Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"
Traveling and photographing the Southwest and Alaska!
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