By Giuseppe Mathis
 Everybody was Kung Fu fighting...except for Chester Rambo Zephaniac. The boy was clumsy, lazy, and not in my class out of free will. "Come take a karate mat," I instructed him for the second time, as the rest of the class waited for him. He lugged his drooping body to the front and slowly....slowly...walked back. The mat fell on the ground and made a slapping noise on the linoleum floor. Normal people would have calmly lowered themselves on the karate mat, and then proceeded to cross their legs, but not Chester Rambo Zephaniac. You could almost hear the ground grunt as he plummeted his body downward like a gravity loving meteor. Never will you see someone sit down so painfully.
"Ok let's just start off with some leg stretches," I extended my right leg, and placed my left foot on my right thigh, the class mirroring me. I stretched my arms out and grabbed my toes. "One..." I started counting.
"Why aren't you doing your stretches?" I heard a dull voice ask. Oh no. Peter Buck was sitting next to Chester. I
could handle elbow strikes, palm heel strikes, front kicks, and back kicks all aimed at me, but Chester and Peter within ten feet of each other? I'd rather take a groin kick. I looked at the clock, and realized that getting our karate mats had not taken up an hour, but only five minutes. Fifty-five more to go. "Two..." I counted. Fifty-five minutes and thirty-nine seconds to go, to be exact. "Because karate is stupid, and I only come here because my dad makes me," Chester retorted. "This isn't Karate, it's Kung Fu," Peter stated abruptly but calmly. "Three..." my voice strained. "Then why are we sitting on karate mats?" Chester snapped. Peter Buck said monotonously, "They're only called karate mats. They're actually used for a variety of different things. Karate, Kung Fu, Judo, Tai Kwon Do, Jujitsu-" "And cheerleading!" Chester interrupted. I switched legs and counted another three long seconds, and my shouts echoing in the room seemed quieter than Peter's silence in that time. "Yes, also for cheerleading," Peter sighed, "Because cheerleaders need mats also." "What do you mean also?" Chester said, "We don't even need mats, and we're in Kung Fu." " The mats help us so that we don't slip, have shock absorbers, and have impact resilience but aren't so spongy that our feet fall into them. We need them," Peter stated dryly. I stood up and the class followed me. I looked down at my feet and noticed that they were comfortable on the padded mat but still secure, which I had never noticed before. "You might even say," Peter smiled, "That Mat is my best friend."
Chester laughed and I forgot that I was leading a class, completely dumbfounded that Chester and Peter had a moment of friendliness. I stared, along with the rest of the class. Chester turned his laugh into a cough, and then stated "If everyone hates you so much that you have to start making friends with inanimate objects, that's your own business Foul Feet Pete. Gosh! His feet really do stink. I know these karate mats are precious to you and everything, but can't you make an exception and require Peter to wear shoes?" Chester Rambo Zephaniac said to me. I looked at the clock. Fifty-four minutes to go...
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A Guide to Manual SLRs
By Giuseppe Mathis
 For a small, but determined group, the Minolta SRT series cameras are still a viable path to SLR photography. Even though the cameras themselves have been out of production for over twenty years and Minolta exited the camera business in 2006, Minolta SRTs are still a hot commodity on ebay, pawnshops and used camera dealers. Minolta no longer makes cameras and digital SLRs are now king of the camera hill. Despite these factors, the SRT camera line is still producing great images.
The SRT101 started the series when it was introduced in 1966. Over the next 15 years, Minolta produced the SRT100, SRT102, SRT200, 201 and 202. The SRT series also appeared with other names outside the US. In addition, Minolta produced the SRT-MC to be sold primarily by K-mart. A similar model, the SRT-SC was sold by JC Penny.
With the huge distribution and rugged metal construction, you can understand why so many SRTs survive today. Yet it would seem they are hopelessly outdated compared with the array of fine digital cameras available. Why would any one want one of these old warhorses instead of a dSLR?
Make no mistake, digital SLRs offer a number of advantages that no film SLR can match. Digital SLR's allow you to preview your shots, you can transfer images to your computer for editing and you can use the same memory card over and over. In addition to not offering digital features, the SRT lacks autofocus, dedicated flash, program mode and auto film advance -- that is a pretty extensive list of lacking features.
Yet it is those missing features that make the cameras attractive to so many current users, With no electronics, the SRT returns the photographer to an era when one's own knowledge was paramount to getting successful images. As a purely manual camera, the SRT forces the users to learn photography from the ground level. Many users are using a SRT as s stepping stone to learning photography before splurging a full featured digital SLR.
Another attractive aspect is cost. Although there are a number of enthusiastic Minolta collectors, so many SRTs were produced and so many were well preserved by their owners, that good, used SRTs are still plentiful. While first class SRTs may eventually become highly collectible, for now you can easily obtain a good, useable model with lens for less than a hundred dollars. A little searching may turn up models for far less.
Even better, there are literately tons of lenses available for these cameras. Minolta, of course, produced the lion's share of these lenses, under the Rokker X and Celtic brand names. Vivitar, Tamron, Soligor and many others also produced excellent lenses to fit the SRT series. Unlike the autofocus A-Mount Minolta lenses that can be used on both Sony and Minolta dSLRs, the X-mount lenses won't fit any dSLR without an adapter. This means you can find some excellent X-Mount lens bargains. As more and more users switch to digital, their old Rokkor-X lenses end up on the auction block. The SRT shooter can find some truly rare and excellent lenses at a price that won't strain the budget.
Of course there are a few caveats. If you should happen on a SRT model, you have to remember it is at least twenty years old and the original SRT models have been around for more than forty years. Bad things can happen to a camera after all that time, particularly if it has been sitting unused in a closet somewhere. Although the SRTs have reputation for great reliability, always check the camera carefully before buying. After time, the shutter speeds have been known become inaccurate, requiring repair to maintain good exposures, The seals around the cameras back may start disintegrating, allowing light into the camera. New seals are available and it is a fairly simple fix.
Undoubtedly the biggest concern is the lack of a battery for the camera's internal meter. The meter on the SRT series is highly accurate, but it was designed to use a 1.35v PX-625 mercury cell. Environmental concerns ended the production of he mercury cells, and the available silver oxide cells are the wrong voltage.
This is really a paper tiger. Use of a silver oxide battery doesn't seem to affect the meter reading that greatly. If you were using 1960s era film, which had very narrow latitude, the voltage difference might be critical. With today's wide latitude films, I have used the readily available MS76 1.5v silver oxide cell with excellent results.
In addition, the camera will work fine without a battery, so you could use a hand held light meter.
If you want to really learn photography, there is no better way to start than a good, manual SLR. And there are few manual SLRs that offer reliability and accessory options at as low a price as a Minolta SRT.
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Fishing for Landlocked Atlantic Salomon
By Giuseppe Mathis
 Landlocked Salmon Atlantic Salmon are known only in the State of Maine. Some of the other names are Sebago Salmon or Quananiche and the scientific name is Salmo Salar. The average size is 16-18 inches and 1-2 pounds, but 3-5 pound fish are not uncommon. Adults are generally silvery wiyh a slightly forked tail and small x-shaped marking on the back and iper sides. Juvenile salmon have a dark red spot between each pair of parr marks. Mature males develop a kype or hooked jaw, during the spawning season.
Landlocked salmon are a freshwater form of the sea run Atlantic Salmon. Prior to 1868, landlocked salmon populations occurred in only four river basins in Maine, St.Croix including West Grand Lake in Washington County, the union, including Green Lake in Hancock County, the Penobscot, including Sebec Lake in Piscataquis, County, and the Presumpscot, including Sebago Lake in Cumberland County.
Today, landlocked salmon provide the primary fishery in 176 lakes comprising nearly 500,000 acres. They are present and provide incideatal fisheries in an additional 127 waters comprising about 160,000 acres. Maine supports one of the larges sport fisheries for this species in the world. Landlocked salmon also provide good fisheries in 44 rivers and streams totaling about 290 miles.
Hatchery stockings are needed to maintain fisheries in 127 lakes. These lakes do not sufficient amounts of suitable spawning and nursery areas to produce wild salmon. Without regular stockings, salmon in these lakes would disappear entirely, or their numbers would be very, very low. About 123,000 salmon were stocked annually in Maine lakes from 1996 to 2000.
Natural reproduction supports salmon fisheries in 49 lakes. These are lakes that have sufficient spawning and nursery habitat to produce enough salmon to support good fisheries. Most of these waters are located in western and northern Maine. Salmon spawn in lake outlets or inlets during the period from mid October to late November. Eggs are buried in gravel from 4-12 inches deep and remain there until hatching early the following spring.
Young salmon spend from 1 to 4 years in a stream environment prior to migrating to a lake. Recent studies in Maine show most wild salmon spend 2 years as stream dweelers. In wild salmon populations, most males spawn first at ages 3 and 4, although a few spawn at ages 1 and 2. Females usually spawn first at ages 4 and 5. Spawning runs of wild salmon may be composed of fish ranging in age from 1 to 10 but 3, 4 and 5 year old individuals make up the bulk of most runs. Landlocked salmon may be repeat spawners, but most fish observed on spawning runs are spawning for the first time. Salmon may spawn in consecutive or alternate years, some may spawn in consecutive years then skip a year, and some may skip 2 or 3 years between spawning.
Salmon populations sustained by natural reproduction often more older age fish those supported by stocking, wild salmon usually exhibit slower growth do hatchery salmon, so they reach legal size and harvested 1 or 2 years later. The oldest landlocked salmon on record in Maine was years old.
Rainbow smelts are the principal forage species for salmon in Maine lakes. Without adequate numbers of smelt, salmon growth and body conition will be poor, markedly reducing value as a sportfish. Maintain adequate numbers of smelt for forage is the most important element of salmon management in Maine. Extensive studies conducted in Maine clearly show that salmon growth rates, and consequently the size of fish available to anglers, is best in lakes with excellent water that do not have large populations of other smelt predators, particularly lake trout.
From 1996 to 2000 Maine open water anglers voluntarily released over 60% of their catch of legal salmon, ice anglers released about 25% of their legal salmon catch. Catch and release of salmon has improved fishing in many lakes, but in others it has resulted in depressed smelt populations and smaller salmon, because there are too many salmon. Maine fishery biologists have responded by reducing stocking rates by implementing fishing regulations designed to restore a reasonable balance between numbers of smelts and salmon.
Hatchery salmon generally provide fisheries for larger fish than do wild salmon because the number of smelt predators can be strictly controlled. Therefore, precise management for particular types of fisheries, such as those emphasizing trophy fish, is usually best achieved with hatchery stocks rather than wild stocks.
From 1996 to 2000, the average size of salmon harvested from all Maine lakes was 17.4 inches and 1.7 pounds, the largest since department fishery biologists began conducting scientific creel surveys in the 1950's.
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