Ready to launch, waiting for the wind.
In the late 1970s/early '80s, McCarty's Bluff on Lookout Mountain was the setting for the World Hang-gliding championships, with teams coming from as far away as Australia to compete. The event was sponsored by Glider Rider magazine, and I was commissioned by the publisher, Tracy Knauss to document the first few years of the event.
Lookout Mountain Flight Park, located on Georgia Highway 189, about 20 minutes southwest of Chattanooga, is still very much in business. McCarty's Bluff is about 1500 feet above Lookout Valley and has prevailing winds from the west, making it possible to fly almost every day.
Leaving the bluff, flying into the setting sun.
I had my Olympus OM cameras in those days, loaded with Kodak Ektachrome film. (This was several years before my switch to Fujichrome.) Although I had a full set of lenses, including the Olympus Zuiko 21mm f3.5 ultra-wide, which was used for the photograph at the top of this post, the hot lens of the day was the new Vivitar Series One 70-210mm f2.8 zoom. Now nearly forgotten, it was the first of the really good mid-range zoom lenses. A little heavy by today's standards, it was nonetheless a great lens and enabled me to get some shots I would not otherwise have been able to get. I had Olympus Power Winders attached to my cameras, which enabled me to shoot at one frame per second. Seems pathetic in these days of cameras that can shoot 10, 20, and more frames per second, but it was enough. Since these were the days before auto-focus, there was no point in shooting faster than I could focus.
Soaring like an eagle.
Some of the time I was on the bluff photographing launches, and sometimes I was in the valley below photographing landings. On one occasion, I saw a glider launch from the mountain high above me. Just as he launched, the wind apparently failed and he went swooping straight down toward the trees. He managed to pull out just milli-seconds before destruction. When he landed, I saw something fall off his glider. I went over to see what it was. It was a freshly-broken, leafy twig!
Flying over the western slope of Lookout Mountain.
In an interesting sidelight, one of the Australian glider pilots stayed on in Chattanooga, married a local girl, and became a professional photographer and one of my competitors!
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Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.
Tags: photography Hang gliding Olympus OMcameras Olympus Zuiko lenses Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain Flight Park McCarty's Bluff Kodak Ektachrome film Vivitar Series One 70-210mm lens World Hang Gliding Championships Olympus Power Winders
Dave, it's amazing you could get those shots with a manual focus lens. I try to pre-focus my auto lens and still miss on fast action most times. 😁
ReplyDeleteIn the days before autofocus, the ability to follow-focus was part of every sports photographer's toolkit. One of the things I hate most about the digital age is that the skills I spent years developing no longer have any value.
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