Consumer article - title:
Volcanoes, Ghost Towns, and Ruins: Leica M goes Walkabout
(From LHSA Viewfinder, vol. 35 no. 2)

The sky looked darkly threatening. The less-hardy, unaccustomed to afternoon mountain rains, had fled the old mining settlement, leaving it looking more like the ghost town it was. This was fine with me, since cloud textures and no tourists make better photographic conditions for ruins.

In the wake of less-than-perfect economic conditions, I found myself with unexpected time on my hands, and hotel reservations in California's eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. I'd always wanted to explore the Mono Lake area, but I usually rush through it on my way to photographing pro mountain bike races a few miles south near the town of Mammoth Lakes. Mono Lake is a saltwater-filled remnant of a large volcanic caldera, and home to jagged limestone sculptures and unusual wildlife. Also nearby is Bodie, former mining town of ill repute and too many saloons.

The manual Leica M encourages a more contemplative style suited to ruins and landscape photography, and it puts less of a strain on your back and shoulders. I carried an M6 TTL with 12mm F5.6, 21mm F2.8 ASPH, 35mm F2 ASPH, 50mm F2, 90mm F2 and 135mm F3.4 lenses. Everything fit in a Domke F-803 camera satchel. I didn't realize it until afterwards, but I could have left the 90mm and 12mm lenses at home and not missed them!

The most direct route to Mono Lake from my home in the San Francisco Bay area passes through northern Yosemite National Park on the Tioga Pass Road. Spectacular mountain scenery invites you to stop at Olmsted Point and gaze south across the granite towards the back of Clouds Rest in Yosemite Valley. Drive a little further and you're greeted by Tenaya Lake, surrounded by towering peaks.

I spent more time than usual shooting some Yosemite scenes I'd visualized in my mind's eye before heading for Mammoth Lakes and a hotel. One thing I discovered was that you shouldn't leave home without your 21mm finder repair kit. The finder's optical section separated from the shoe; fortunately, this happened in my hotel room. A little epoxy set things right.

The next morning, I hiked around Panum Crater, with its views of the cinder cones of Negit and Paoha Islands poking up through Mono Lake, and the peaks of the Ansel Adams Wilderness. I devoted the afternoon to a ranger-led hike in the South Tufa area. The tufa towers are limestone (calcium carbonate) deposits around Mono Lake's shoreline. The ranger scooped water samples out of the lake and showed us a variety of marine life we would never have expected. I got a chance to scout out evening locations for sunset photos, and returned after dinner in the nearby hamlet of Lee Vining.

The sunset light rewarded me with great colors on the tufa sculptures and surrounding terrain. Waiting until after the sun dipped below the mountains, I got some nice landscape silhouettes. A Gitzo 1127 tripod and Arca-Swiss B1 head kept everything stable, and the M6's built-in meter gave accurate exposures, with a little bracketing for insurance.

The following day, it was time to explore big, bad Bodie. The California Department of Parks and Recreation has kept the ghost town in a state of arrested decay, so that it looks as it might have sixty years ago. Only five percent of the structures from its 1880 heyday remain. At one time, there were two churches in Bodie; the Methodist Church's steeple is one of the tallest structures in town. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear a tack piano tinkling amid raucous saloon laughter. More than $100 million in gold and silver was taken from mines in and around Bodie, much of it processed at the Standard Mill east of town.

There's a different kind of antiquity in the desert country of northern Arizona. Another plant shutdown in September gave me time to visit friends just south of Sedona, and I photographed cliff dwellings of the Sinagua (literally 'without water'), contemporaries of the Anasazi. Low sun late in the afternoon gave softer light for good shots of cliff polish and the ruin at Palatki. There's an unspoken feeling of quiet dignity; the ancients knew a good power spot when they felt one. If you're willing to drive rough dirt roads and hike a little, there are many ruins and lots of rock art in the Sedona area. My tripod came in very handy for low shutter speeds and maximum depth of field, and a new Tri-Elmar allowed me to travel a little lighter. I could have photographed the entire desert trip with the Tri-Elmar, 21mm, and 135mm lenses.

When I was given another unpaid furlough a month later, I flew to Grand Junction, Colorado, and Colorado National Monument. In the world of post-September 11 air travel, I was restricted to a personal bag or briefcase plus one carry-on item. I was able to carry two M6 cameras, five lenses, and a Metz 32MZ-3 flash plus clothes and personal gear, and avoid checking any bags. This would have been nearly impossible with my Nikon AF gear. San Jose Airport security hand-inspected my film at my request, but security at Grand Junction's Walker Field insisted on X-raying it. As long as you use 100-speed film and minimize the number of times it's X-rayed, you should be OK. I avoid X-raying of film if at all possible.

Colorado National Monument came about largely through the efforts of one man, John Otto, and his appreciation for the eroded red rock cliffs and monuments. Otto waged a one-man campaign to obtain National Park designation and protection for the area, culminating in the establishment of the National Monument in 1911. He was married at the base of Independence Monument in what came to be known as Wedding Canyon.

Shooting wide-angle vistas with a rangefinder Leica takes some pre-visualization and experience with wide-angle lenses. Since they don't give a through-the-lens view, M-series Leicas don't show perspective distortion which results from pointing the camera at an angle or shooting close to the subject. Normal-appearing results always come from keeping the camera back parallel to the subject or at 90 degrees to the ground, as in Wheelbarrow and D.V. Cain House, Bodie. A simple foreground object like the wheelbarrow directs your eye to the sun-browned house, and makes great use of extreme depth of field. You can angle the camera if your subject is far away, like the sandstone features of Independence Monument in Wedding Canyon. Sometimes, the view may be abstract enough that distortion is unnoticeable, as in Cliff, Ruin and Sky. Anyway you slice it, Leica M gear is lots easier to carry as you scramble around the rocks, and the great photographic results are a bonus.

References:
Tierney, Timothy, "Geology of the Mono Basin"; Mono Lake Committee/Kutsavi Press, 1997.
California State Parks, "Bodie State Historical Park"; California Department of Parks and Recreation, 1988 (revised 4/01).
Topo map, Colorado National Monument; Trails Illustrated, 1989.