Thursday a.m. I loaded up my trunk with 25 pounds of camera gear, 10 Ledo's pizzas, and a spare pair of pants and started the long drive to North Carolina.
8 hours and 300 pounds of roadkill later I finally arrived to find the rest of the PDML crew lounging at Chez Owens, with at least 10 camera bodies lying around. I managed to pick up at least 3 of them without breaking anything. Surprise surprise, there was beer, and I drank some of it. It got late, some of us headed back to the cabin, and since the next morning would be my only opportunity to do any sunrise shots, we set the alarm for 5:10. It might have even gone off, but we ended up rolling out around 9. Oh well, just in time for a BBQ sandwich. More people started arriving that day, and we were hoping to meet some new PDMLers, but none showed up. It ended up being the same folks as last year, except Cesar stepped in for Jeepgirl. Cesar, you are no Jeepgirl. (You drool much less.) Anyway, we were a bit disappointed that no one else showed up...we were hoping to see another 2 or 3 PDMLers, but our pain was assuaged by the approximately $50,000 worth of Pentax gear made available for our use by the Pentax guy. I personally used a FA 200/4 Macro, 250-600/5.6 (Christian, I tried to "borrow" this for you, but it stuck out of the bottom of my pants and gave me a rash), 645 33-55/4.5, 645 150/2.8, 645nII, 67II, 67 100/4 Macro, 67 55-100, 67 45 and 67 300. I think the FA 300/2.8 went untouched, but other folks had fun with the MZ-S's, 645nII, 645 45-85, 645 80-160, 645 300/4, FA 31, 43, 77, 24-90, 20-35, 300/4.5, 28-70/2.8 and other stuff I can't even remember. Sorry you couldn't come. Oh, there were also 2 bricks of Kodak Max, but I think Doug probably hoarded all of that. Thanks Pentax! The next 2 days were pretty much a blur of pizza, beer, Velvia and belly dancing. The speakers all did fantastic jobs...oh wait, I only saw Bill Fortney. Ok, Bill Fortney did a fantastic job and is my new hero. I heard our own Mark Roberts did a great Intro to Digital presentation, but logistical difficulties <cough> prevented me from attending. A few notes: - The 33-55 seems like a pretty nice lens. The 33 end is definitely wider than the A 35/3.5, but it doesn't focus as close at 35mm. - Jeepgirl was sorely missed. - Otters are pretty damned cute. - I like BBQ. - Mr. Beer is a bad man. - Phyllis Owens is a candidate for sainthood. - Pentax has some pretty good customer service guys. - Russian cameras smell funny and are ugly. - I *really* need to bring more clothes next time. - PDMLers are a pretty good bunch of folks, especially after they've bathed. Hope to see some more of you next year, or maybe in August at the GFM Camera Clinic. tv - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
