The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 238

THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE AUGUST 2, 1992 Jt takes so much time to make it look so easy KTMt Bald eagles watch their first hatchling emerge from the egg in this view SCOTT NIELSEN PHOTO from "A Season with Eagles." i tuiinnanit iftHtfHMrfefoi A ati SCOTT NIELSEN PHOTO i i rim mi-t "Mallards," text and photos by Scott Nielsen, Voyageur Press, Min-Jnesota, 1992, $85, hardcover. 1 Season with Eagles," text and photos by Scott Nielsen, Voyageur Press, Minnesota, 1991, $21.95, hardcover. By Mark Wilson GLOBE STAFF In a good wildlife book, the pictures look great and they look easy. "Hey, I can do that" is the exclama-tion that has camera spine(j from tne mouth of more 'than one photographer upon being nice stuff. Such is the illusion of splendid wildlife photos, for haps no other field of photography has the potential to soak up such vast amounts of time.

Both "A Season with Eagles" and "Mallards" offer superb photos and lively text. But that is only part of the story. To fully appreciate these books, it helps to know a bit about their creator, Scott Nielsen. Nielsen was a dentist for 15 years before he chucked the routine' T)f the "office thing" as he calls it. Nielsen is quick to tell you that he considers himself the luckiest man alive.

At 42 he has his health, he doesn't have to work for a living and the Wisconsin wilderness begins at his door (he's 20 miles southeast of Duluth, Minn.) Most of the photos in his book "Mallards" were shot on a lake that's 100 feet from his house. The bald eagles he worked nested but a few from there. Lest you think Nielsen has the jngrediants for a sedentary early re- -Htirement, think again. Nielsen is so at his craft that the rigors of his endeavors are hidden from view. It was mid-April when a midday blizzard pinned Nielsen and his 2500mm lens up in his photo blind in a big white pine.

Eighteen inches of 'snow fell by next morning. Nielsen would spend more than 60 hours in his blind because snow-covered pine limbs are too slippery to climb down. "Spring is just a really crazy time around here. I was just so blasted cold all over. Frostbite up here in Wisconsin is kind of routine.

I was concerned about my right hand," says Nielsen, during a tele- phone interview from his home. Nielsen lost his left hand index finger down to the first knuckle as a result of frostbite. In those three A mallard hen jumps into flight and is caught at l100th of a second through a Nikkor 300mm f2 lens, from the book "Mallards." 1:1:3" Wildife Service to photograph an ea-' gle's nest after two-and-a-half years of waiting. The permit dictated his blind be an eighth of a mile away. The permit also stipulated that he have his blind in place by November, since any building while the eagles were at the nest could cause them to abandon it.

Nielsen located a huge old white pine whose crown had been snapped at 100 feet in a storm. Surrounding branches had grown up and created a bowl. It was here that Nielsen bolted the base of his 2500mm lens to the tree. The distance of the nest forced Nielsen to use the mammoth f10 mirror lens, a holdover from his youthful astro-photography days. A roof was fashioned from Wa-inch plywood wired in place.

Old sleeping bags formed the walls of the blind. His seat was a 2 8 nailed to the tree. Nielsen covered his lens with plastic and climbed down the tree. He would not return until March. The gamble payed off.

The blind survived the winter as did the lens. The eagles returned and did pick a nest near Nielsen's blind. The eagle pair had three nests, and there was no guarantee into which one they would settle. Nielsen's eagle photography per days he probably slept two or three hours. For his duck pictures, Nielsen uses an inner tube floating blind.

He weaves the shell with cattails to camouflage it. From the roof of it he hangs his prime duck lens, an 18-pound 300mm F2 Nikkor. From this set-up he is able to capture ducks at eye level as they swim, feed, mate, quack and jump into flight. Nielsen effectively combines an eye-level perspective with great light and a sense of understanding for his subjects. For ducks in flight, Nielsen tuned in to duck body language.

"Everything happens so fast. That's the problem. It's just a reaction type of thing. I try to guess where the bird will take off. For ducks, you develop a sixth sense for that.

I look for certain things lifting heads, orienting into the wind, a certain amount of agitation. If it's a pair, the hen always jumps first. It's a learned situation. If the bird is on the edge, I'll start the motor drive and that may kick him up. One third of the time I get what I want," Nielsen said.

Photographing bald eagles required careful planning and lots of patience. Nielsen received permission from the state and US Fish and become a casualty in a PC price war Will Bobby come out and play? By Harold B. Dondis SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE Are we supposed to believe that Bobby Fischer is going to play a match with Boris Spassky, as the Chess press has reported? Spassky and Fischer last played for the World Championship in 1972. According to the press, the match will take place beginning Sept. 2 in what we once knew as Yugoslavia, sponsored by Jezdimir Va-siljevic, a banker, who has announced that Bobby has signed a contract.

The match is claimed to be for the World Championship. Boris Spassky has confirmed the news from his home in Allemont, France. The winner is to receive $3.35 million, the loser $1.65 million. The winner is the first to win 10 games. Spassky sounded ecstatic about the prospect.

Indeed, Spasky, 55, a mild-mannered man with a ready sense of humor, seemed up to this time to have Chess answer uaanb ypvq am suim gN 8 9jx3 'Z 9Jx3 i 9JH "I -3u! -opun sii si 3up( pasodxa s.ijoBig South dealer Both sides vulnerable NORTH 752 9643 09532 K52 WEST 4643 VQJ107 OQ864 J8 EAST A1098 O107 Q10976 SOUTH KQJ VAK52 OAKJ A43 South West North East 3 NT All Pass Opening lead mit also required he be in the blind before dawn. He could not leave the blind until after dusk. Windy days were a bust since the swaying of his tree made photography impossible through the 50-power lens. When the eagles returned to the nest, Nielsen hoped the presence of his blind would not bother them. When the eagles mated, Nielsen knew they had accepted the blind.

When the first egg hatched, Nielsen watched the parent eagles peering down into the nest at the helpless hatchling at their feet. The moment remains a highlight in his life. And when the young eagles finally left the nest, Nielsen knew his gambit had not harmed the proud birds. Voyageur Press knows a good story and Nielsen's books are classics in the wildlife field. The day of pretty picture books has passed.

First rate images with bright text on a good storyline make these superb books fill an important niche on the bookshelf of the 1990s. "Doing these books is a lot like taking the picture. Once the book is done, that's it; all you can do is move on. The experiences are what I've enjoyed, in working with the birds. It's the experiences you take with you," Nielsen said.

"I've never seen a Brinks truck at a funeral." better idea? Donate it to a church, a struggling nonprofit organization, or a needy student, then write it off your taxes. After all, victory is sweetest when it's shared. Marty Jerome is associate editor of PCComputing magazine. Best to play percentage By Alfred Sheinwold and Frank Stewart "That was the strongest hand I've held in years," South remarked after playing today's hand. "I've en- Sheinwold Jued picking jt On Bridge 'south's oPen- ing bid promised balanced distribution, strength in all four suits, and 25 to 27 high-card points.

North passed happily and thought he was lucky to lose only 100 points with his horrible three-point hand. Expecting to win two tricks in each suit South refused the first heart, won the next knocked out the ace of spades, and won the spade return. South then cashed the ace of diamonds, led a club to dummy's king and returned a diamond to finesse with a jack. Unfortunately for South, West had a queen of diamonds, and the hearts had failed to break 3-3. South could, therefore, take only eight tricks.

If you have 20-20 vision, you can tell that South could make his ninth trick in diamonds by leading out the A-K instead of trying the finesse. This plan works if you have the six missing diamonds break 3-J, or if 1 iL WHITE lost interest in chess. He had been notoriously lazy, and lately has been shunned by chess promoters because of his penchant for draws. It is hard to believe Fischer signed a contract. He never signs contracts.

Fischer is a recluse, paranoid, frightened of people and society. Certainly he can play good chess, but can he approach the board to start to play, even against the easy-going Spassky? Can he weather the approaches of the fans and the press? Fischer has had virtually no practice since he forfeited his crown. He claims to have studied the Garry Kasparov-Anatoly Karpov matches and that the last match was rigged. Another complication the match is to be played in war-torn Yugoslavia, which is under UN blockade. It is being held there to create problems for the UN, according to the promoter.

Well, we must concede that this is electrifying news, but the columnist simply cannot believe that Fischer will play. A rising young star in the world firmament is Alex Shirov, 19, of Latvia. He recently tied for first with Johann Hjartarson of Iceland in the APPLE tourney in Iceland and has turned in a 6-0 score playing for Hamburg in German Bundesleague, and many commemtators are saying he could be a challenger to the world champion in 1996. Here is a game from Bundesleague in which his opponent is forced to avoid two Queen traps but nevertheless loses in a game in which both Kings are exposed. SICILIAN DEFENSE Shirov Luther Black White Luthw White 1.

64 2. Nf3 3. d4 4. Nxd4 5. Nc3 6.

HdbS 7. BI4 8. BgS 9. Na3 10. Bxf6 11.

Nd5 12. Bd3 13. Qh5 14. c3 15. Qf3 Shirov Black C5 06 cxd4 Nf6 Nc6 d6 65 a6 b5 gxfe ts Be6 RgB (A) Rxg2 Rg4 16.

exfS (B) 17. Qxd5 18. Qb7 (C) 19. Nc2 20. Rd1 21.

Qf3(D) 22. Qh3 23. Ne3 (E) 24. Qg3 (F) 25. Nxf5 26.

Bxe4 27. 0-0 (Q) 28. Qxd6 29. QxbS Bxd5 Ne7 Bh6 Kf8l R14 Bg5 B4 Nxf5l RxtS Qe7 0xe4 I Kg7 Bt4 30. Resigns (H) (A) The most challenging line.

13 14. c3 is standard. Bg7 14. CO or (B) ECO touts 16. h3 I Rg8 17.

exfS Bxd5 18. Qxd5 Ne7 19. Qe4 with a white edge. (C) Now 18. Qe4 isn't possible and 18.

Q13 meets R14. (D) The queen trap 21 Qxa6 Ra4 explains Black's 19 Kra I. (E) The greedy 23. Qxh7 tails into another queen trap by Rh4. (F) This opening of the position favors Black.

Prognosis after 24. Be2 is unclear. (G) Or 27. Od3 (27. 13 Bh4) Re5 28.

f3 d5 winning easily. (H) The finish might be Bxh2 I 31. Kxh2' Qf4 mating shortly. How not to By Marty Jerome SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE Like to watch a good fight? The pricing brawl that has engulfed the computer industry in recent weeks Pprcnnal promises to get reouildl downright bloody. Computing This is good news for the consumer, of course, and the computer press is already leading a loud (if disingen-.

uous) campaign urging readers to buy, buy, buy. A spending binge today, however; can lead you to a fleecing. Yes, prices on PCs and peripherals have never been better. But the latest price war culminates a profound shift in the way computers are bought and sold. The upshot of this change won't fully be known for several months.

M-i Compaq Computer Corp. picked the fight Its introduction four weeks ago of the ProLinea, a low-cost line of PCs (that sell for as little as $799 on the street), sent shock waves through the industry. Long a darling of Corporate America, Compaq built its reputation on superbly engineered, exorbitant machines. Over the last two years, however, big business has begun to realize what hackers, and hobbyists have long understood: Personal computers are little more than commodity electronics; they're as reliable and unremarkable as toasters. Armies of loyal customers have abandoned Compaq, IBM and other "high-quality" manufacturers in recent years for low-cost clones that quite often come with better service and support.

Industry leaders have waged a philosophical battle against this trend, insisting that the quality and engineering of their machines warranted premium prices. Unfortu nately fox these computer giants, disagree. And because consumers vote with their wallets, makers of pricey machines have had to swallow a bitter pill. The ProLinea is Compaq's tacit admission that price matters more than vague claims of quality. Already Dell and AST have made similar concessions by augmenting their expensive PCs with a line of cheap machines.

A similar announcement from IBM is due any day now. This puts tremendous pressure on makers of low-cost clones to go even lower. While the spoils of this price war belong to the consumer, peril lurks in its midst A few guidelines can help you survive and benefit from the impending melee. Casualties will be legion. Several computer makers already besieged by the recession have begun to teeter.

More will follow, including several companies that seem financially invincible today. Buy a computer from a manufacturer that goes bankrupt, and your machine's warranty is suddenly worthless. This is a good case for shopping at a local dealer (assuming it doesn't bite the dust). Make sure your dealer will honor your warranty directly. And get it in writing.

Wait for the fighting to subside. The early stages of this price war have created a feeding frenzy that is actually keeping prices firm. Compaq has added two shifts to the factories that produce the ProLinea, and still can't meet demand for the machines. Other manufacturers are reporting similar sales. When the cash registers stop ringing, prices will tumble further.

Bargains will flourish. Beware of an ambush. Many retail shops and mail-order houses will advertise a PC at an eye-popping low price. Once you grab the bait you may discover that a monitor isn't included, that DOS costs extra or jthat the memory required to run "Microsoft Windows" (a key rea son many people plan to buy more powerful computers) costs $120 per megabyte twice its street price. Also watch out for "assembly," "burn-in" and other mysterious charges that creep into the final bill.

These are the telltale signs of a shyster. Demand adequate cover. In introducing its new low-cost line of PCs, Dell Computer also announced that it would provide "additional services" to owners of its premium computers. Whether Dell is actually beefing up service on one line of machines or reducing it on another -begs the question of whether the glass is half empty. Many manufacturers may shy away from providing full technical support and service for their low-cost PCs.

Get specifics before you bite. The Macintosh can't claim neutrality. Its prices won't fall as far or as fast as prices on DOS PCs, but they're certainly not exempt from this war. Despite the Mac's near-religious following, consumers today are eschewing boutique hardware for dollar value. This fact is not lost on the folks at Apple.

Win the battle and the war. While hardware pricing fetches great hoopla from the media these days, another battle has quietly commenced in software. Gone are the days when 8 million new computer users entered the market each year, eager to buy their first software applications. With slower growth, publishers are beginning to duke it out over pricing a trend that will continue in the coming months. Bargains will abound.

Share the spoils. As the prices of new PCs plummet so does the resale value of your current system. If you planned to trade in your old PC on a new computer, prepare to get very depressed about its j)rth. A either the 10 or the queen drops singleton or doubleton. South can later lead a club to dummy's king to cash the good 9 of diamonds.

Which plan is more likely to succeed if you can't see all four hands? Declarer's actual plan, depending on a simple finesse, gave him a 50 percent chance of success. If South adopts the other plan, his chances are almost 36 percent of finding the diamonds 3-3 plus almost 30 percent more of dropping a doubleton queen or 10; 65 percent is very much better than 50 percent. I 4. jr.