[LeicaLens]

LeicaLens: another internet shout, glad to hear you and your family are okay.

I’m still trying to track down one of my Japanese teachers…….

Thanks!
As for your teacher, I hope he/she is alright. Communications still aren’t great, and there are a lot of houses around the Tohoku area without a telephone connnection right now. If your teacher lives elsewhere, then he/she should be okay. There have not been many casualties reported in other prefectures besides Miyagi, Fukushima, and Iwate–I only hope it stays that way.

[LeicaLens]

Thanks, rav. I am not sure if Corsec is still in Japan, but from what I remember he was in Okazaki City, which is in Aichi Prefecture, south of Tokyo, and still further south from the epicentre, so he should be okay. I haven’t seen any news about damage in Aichi, though I think the airport, Nagoya, may have been shut on Friday.

[LeicaLens]

I’m fine, and all my Japanese family and friends are fine too, so I feel very lucky. Friends up in Tokyo suffered some shaking (in older houses particularly), and power cuts, but they are mostly fine. Getting home from Tokyo on Friday night was apparently a nightmare, with many people buying bicycles to make the journey. Even high-end bikes sold like hot cakes.

I was back in Britain when the earthquake struck; I was actually due to fly back to Fukuoka via Tokyo Narita, and was at the airport when my wife mailed me to say there had been a big earthquake. I ended up flying back through Korea (from Amsterdam), and arrived back not much later than my original plan. Fukuoka, and Kyushu generally, is too far away to have suffered any damage from the earthquake and tsunami, so I feel very lucky. It’s the poor sods up north we’re all worried about, and now the nuclear power plants seem to be the major concern. Well, that and cleaning up, assessing the damage, and counting the losses.

[LeicaLens]

Are, ummm, primate hands acceptable? You know, opposable thumbs and all?

[LeicaLens]

Hell, why not swab everyone’s clothes, skin, bags, jewellery etc.?

Travelers have been reporting for several months now that TSA employees have been randomly demanding to swab people’s drinks inside the “secure area” at several airports.

Yes, the TSA is collectively stupid enough to believe that someone might actually be drinking liquid explosives provided in a cup from the Starbucks at the airport.

Well, I’m flying off to Britain tomorrow. I will have the pleasure of going through at least 3 security checks (Fukuoka, Tokyo, Amsterdam); I am sure I will come back with tales of airport joy, though to be honest, apart from the explosives swab mentioned above, I have never had an encounter to match all the TSA stories I hear from the States.
Although there was that time I got my luggage searched at Narita after a drug-sniffing dog reacted to the smell of hairs from my uncle’s dog that were stuck to a sweater of mine…

[LeicaLens]

SilverStag wrote:

Congrats to U-Man this week![/quote

Fess up- that’s a keyboard macro by now, right?]

Heh.

[LeicaLens]

When I traveled a good bit for field work, I would get my stuff searched following the swabbing every time. I work on contaminated ammunition plant sites so naturally my dirty boots and clothes were going to set off alarms.

Your job sounds a lot more interesting than mine 😥

[LeicaLens]

The security guy took the camera and all my lenses out of the bag, and swabbed them to check for explosive residue. He said it might prove I had been photographing around arms dumps or something.

At ATL I saw a photographer being hassled for “residue” when he had been shooting a fireworks display the night before. This was when they were still using the “puffer” machines that have since been mothballed and warehoused because they weren’t making Chertoff any money.

I hadn’t thought of residue from fireworks, but I do remember thinking at the time that finding traces of explosive materials on my lenses isn’t really going to prove I am a terrorist. Hell, why not swab everyone’s clothes, skin, bags, jewellery etc.?
I reckoned it was just posturing. Well, that and he wanted to play with his shiny new machine.

[LeicaLens]

Reading through this thread, I noticed that different airports seem to have different powered x-rays. I travelled last summer back to Europe with film, and I the scanners I saw said they were okay with film up to 3200. However, I took all my film out and handed it over to the security checkers. It usually raised a few quizzical eyebrows, but that’s all; no hassles. Once, I forgot to remove the film, but it did not appear to be affected by the x-ray (and I had a roll of 3200 in the bag at the time).

The oddest travelling-with-camera experience I had was at the local airport near my hometown. It was a couple of years after the September 11 attacks. The security guy took the camera and all my lenses out of the bag, and swabbed them to check for explosive residue. He said it might prove I had been photographing around arms dumps or something.

[LeicaLens]

Well, we are all having trouble choosing this week, it seems.

some bees:
http://flic.kr/p/9kCmZ3 (Old man in winter)
http://flic.kr/p/9kCn8G
http://flic.kr/p/9kzjHF
http://flic.kr/p/9kzjR6 (this is the one I was most torn about entering or not)
http://flic.kr/p/9kCnaE

I notice there are a few pictures of dogs in the snow, but NONE OF CATS!! That tells you something, eh?

That cats are too clever to go out into the freezing snow

[LeicaLens]

I’m with NoBigDeal on this one.

/off to finish selecting my shots for this week’s contest…

[LeicaLens]

I may be able to use one or two of those shots if they get developed in time.

i chuckled.

can i infer from your user name why you are still shooting film?

I wish that were the reason! My user name is kind of an in-joke; I have a “fake” Leica lens for my Olympus DSLR. It’s made by Panasonic under licence from Leica. It has the Leica name on the front, but it doesn’t have that classic Leica look.
The reason I sometimes shoot film is mainly that I just like it. That and it’s the only way I can get full frame bokeh, something that is harder on the half-sized Four-thirds sensor.

No, the Leica camera will have to remain a dream for a while, at least until I can find a way to dispose of the wife…. 😯

[LeicaLens]

Well, I haven’t been really able to get out and shoot much for this, but it is the first contest in a couple of weeks that I will be able to enter.
I did get lucky a couple of weekends ago when I was back at the in-laws, and they still had some snow on the mountains. I may be able to use one or two of those shots if they get developed in time.

[LeicaLens]

Nice shot.

From the picture, I take it that the play’s title is referencing the fact there are a lot of tentacles on show?

[LeicaLens]

Nice shots, but seeing as the groom was a sailor, I was expecting the other groom to be a sailor, too 😉

And, hey, two out of three isn’t that bad

[Author]

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