The Berkshire Eagle from Pittsfield, Massachusetts • 68

The Bl3iliife Eagle Games Hobbies H8 SundayAugust 2, 1992 Good beach shots are easy as sand pie Camera The softer afternoon light also does wonders for a scenic shot The setting sun casts light from a low side angle, highlighting the. ocean spray from a breaking wave or putting a glow of warm color into a beach scene. This side light will give the trees, buildings or mountains crisp outlines in your prints. When choosing film for these beach pictures, go with the slow speed, fine grain stuff, say one with an ASA of 25 to 50. Strong natural light makes a flash unnecessary and a slower speed film practical.

Using a slow, fine grained film also can give your pictures eye-popping, deeply-saturated color in a situation where a faster film would be overwhelmed by the abundance of light and produce thin, washed-out colors. The two essential accessories for the advanced photographer are a tripod and a polarizing By John S. Callahan Associated Labor Day weekend will soon be here offering a final chance at capturing on film summer's ebbing glory at the beach. With a little preparation, you can take your best beach photos ever, the kind that will have family and friends lining up for reprints. The first thing to remember is to protect your camera from the elements.

The beach environment is harsh: Salt water, sand and midday sunlight are not good for your camera or film and should be avoided. An inexpensive way to keep your equipment safe is to place it in a large Zip Loc plastic bag with the top securely sealed. Keep your camera in tie shade, and the bag will keep out sand and water from that sneaky wave rushing up the beach after you've fallen asleep. The sealed bag also protects against the salt-laden sea breeze. Airborne salt can coat your lens A tripod will give your camera the wobble-free stability to take longer exposures and get those stunning twilight shots where the whole sky seems to glow with color.

Putting your earner on a tripod in combination wjtbja self-timer will enable you to be in that big family shot 'Awhile the waves lap at your feet One caveat: You might need to shift the tripod a bit when setting up to firmly plant the legs in the sand. The polarizing filter is unique in that it affects all colors equally. There is no color shift involved in using a polarizer the filter simply acts as an "organizer" for the light entering the camera. Much like polarized sunglasses! extra light from reflections is eliminated by turning the outer ring of the filter. While sometimes tricky to use, a polarizing filter and slow speed film can produce prints with the deep, rich colors favored by professional photographers i r- Mi.

ft pi I rru jp WMffiff Jam- WW. -a 'f si iL ii 1 "1 Mllll IJ, 1 1 1 jN tit- i I1-" A iaswr V', I hV r- -fs? V' with a hazy film, making for fuzzy pictures, and eventually corrode the hard plastic shell or inner workings of your camera. Ghouls frolicking Just when to bring the camera out is an important consideration. The best time for beach pictures is early in the morning and late in the afternoon. The strong midday sun from 11 to 3 tends to wash out color from a landscape and produce heavy facial shadows that make most people look positively ghoulish.

While you may have considerable trouble getting anyone on a beach vacation up early to have their portrait taken, almost everyone is active in the late afternoon. The light quality is equally pleasant and all concerned might be in a better mood for a few happy snaps. A little nectar offered to lure new collectors Stamps Photo by Rick Meyer Los Angeles Times Flying high Wall Stars posters of the U.S. Olympic basketball team stick on walls or windows and are reusable. sheet: abcd, badc, cdab and dc ba.

But on the minerals sheet, the combinations are staggered across the sheet Thus, in addition to four blocks of four stamps, there are four different strips of four. Strange but true: Such configurations, and the different plate number positions on the wildflower stamps, really are important to some collectors, those who aspire to collect not only one of each U.S. stamp, but one of each configuration of each U.S. stamp. Thus the Postal Service, which is trying to sell -more stamps to people who don't use them on letters, seems to have found a way to separate those collectors from more of their money.

55134-0328. Minerals stamps The Postal Service is also using an unusual format for the minerals stamps to be issued in Washington on Sept. 18. Four 29-cent stamps picture copper, azurite (a semiprecious gem), variscite (a green aluminum phosphate) and wulfenite (a yellow crystal lead compound). Such combinations are usually arranged on a sheet in blocks of four with, for example, azurite and copper at the top and variscite and wulfenite at the bottom, which is represented by the scheme ab over cd, or abcd.

In such a conventional sheet, there are only four possible configurations of blocks of four in a New York Times News Service The U.S. Postal Service issued a sheet of 50 wildflower stamps on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. In its effort to attract new collectors, it will also market a special album for the stamps. The 29-cent stamps, each with a different flower, are likely to prove as popular with the public as several similar series: the 1976 State Flags, the 1982 State Birds and Flowers and the 1987 American Wildlife. But there are differences that will interest specialist collectors: The stamps have been printed on two presses that yield slightly different configurations of the plate numbers on the margins, and the Postal Service promotes the sale of the wildflower album in a message on the margins.

The stamps were printed by Ashton-Potter America of Amherst, N.Y. On one press, the full sheets of stamps have four panes of 50 stamps each, and the plate numbers are even; on the other press, each sheet has six panes, with odd-numbered plates. In addition, the margin of each pane has an outline of the sheet layout showing the location of that pane. The advertising message notes that the wildflower album, with a pane of 50 stamps, is $21.95, plus 50 cents handling, from Wild-flowers Album, U.S. Postal Service, P.O.

Box 14328, St Paul, Minn. Design chosen for White House coin Coins Where are the tricks? Perot will find them filiTi-ili-lrMUl 'Ah, Hastingsmon ami, it is a svtd day when they try to fool me and get away with murder by By Bill McAllister The Washington Post WASHINGTON When the Commission of Fine Arts reviewed proposed designs for the White House silver dollar last month, there was an uproar over something John Adams said 192 years ago. "May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof," Adams had written his wife Abigail in 1800, said after spending his second night in the still-unfinished executive mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Under a design approved by Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady and forwarded to the commission, Adams' words were to be inscribed on the reverse of the new commemorative dollars, over a view of the North Portico.

That would be "asking for trouble," cautioned Fine Arts Chairman J. Carter Brown, the former director of the National Galley of Art Other commission members agreed the word "men" might be offensive and urged Mint officials to seek a redesign of the coin. Last Friday, when the final designs were released, it was obvious Brady had acceded to the commission's wishes and the U.S. Mint had produced a new coin that could be judged politically correct Adams' quotation was gone and so was the cluttered view of the White House on the obverse that the commission had attacked as "too busy." Vm if The Mint shelved the controversial reverse and replaced it with a new design that carries a bust of James Hoban, the architect who designed the White House, set against its main entrance. The obverse was stripped of the surrounding trees and foundations, which the commission said cluttered the initial "We incorporated the comments of the Fine Arts Commission," said Mint spokeswoman Hamilton Dix.

The Mint hurriedly assigned its Philadelphia sculptors to produce designs for the coins this spring after a dispute over coin designs had delayed final congressional action on the White House coin proposal. The commemorative silver dollars were endorsed by first lady Barbara Bush as a device to raise funds to purchase antiques for the White House. Securing favorable congressional action on the measure became a high priority for the Treasury Department, which wanted to have the coins available for this year's celebrations of the bicentennial of the laying of the White House's cornerstone. With only 500,000 of the coins authorized "the lowest mintage for a commemorative silver dollar in nearly a century," the Mint noted officials are hoping for a 'V 0 By Omar Sharif and Tannah Hirsch Tribune Media Services Neither vulnerable. North deals.

NORTH 7 4 0AKQJ9 6 WEST EAST 6 A 2 VAK985 V10 62 0 10 62 08543 8732 9 5 SOUTH 10 9 8 5 3 9Q4 0 7 A 10 4 The bidding: North East South West 1 NT Pass 4 Pass Pass Pass Opening lead: King of "Ah, Hastings, mon ami, it is a sad day when they try to fool me and get away with murder by concealment!" This was not a case involving mayhem that had occasioned such an outburst from the great Belgian detective, Her-cule Poirot, but rather an incident at the bridge club. Their opponents had arrived at four spades on a direct auction after North had opened the bidding with one no and Poirot had attacked with the king of hearts, to which Hastings had correctly followed with the deuce. Declarer dropped the queen! "Of-course, I realized from the outset that you would have contributed the two of hearts even had you held four cards in the suit you know that I cannot abide count signals at trick one and insist that we show attitude: whether we want a continuation or not Therefore, I realized that declarer's card could have been honest "As usual at such times, I put those little gray cells to work Let's suppose that you held the ace-queen of clubs. Even if we could collect two club tricks, that would not be enough to defeat the contract Declarer would then have been marked with the ace of spades and, at best, we would have to hope for an unexpected trump trick unless, of course, we had a second heart trick coming and declarer was trying to take me in. 1 "Once that was clear, it was a simple matter to continue with the ace of hearts at trick twq, Notice that, had I shifted to a minor suit declarer would have" wrapped up 10 tricks with ease.

As it was, down one was all he deserved for trying to, how you say, stretch the wool over my eyes." Camera club awarded gold medal Photo by Greg Baker Associated Press Mao multiplied PITTSFIELD The Berkshire Museum jCamera Club was awarded a gold medal by the New England Camera Club Council for being first in the Class black-and-white print! yearly competition. The club had the highest score of 14 clubs competing in the past year. Also earning a gold medal was Ann Kotowicz of the museum's camera club for the best black-and-white print of the year at the NECCC conference competition. The NECCC conference was held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, on July 10, 11 and 12. Eleven members of the camera club attended.

Mao pins were the rage among Chinese during the Cultural Revolution, when the cult of Mao was at its height. Now Mao pins are back and being hawked by Beijing street vendors at unproletarian prices. Hydraheaded stalks world chess match BEGINNER'S CORNER SOLVE-IT AFTER 21 Kxg2 Tal Chess i is SSSS iSsSSSSS I iSSS! 8 IK IlliB 111 I XW. -ww 8 itoH sw nt hi SI, 6 SI 1 II Ssil S-s. tion, followed by China, Hungary, 7.

Bd3 Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhistan 8. 0-0 and the United States. 9. Bxc4 As usual, the Olympics was an 10. Qc2 occasion of friendship and cele- 11.

dxc5 bration. But a sad note was the 12. a4 absence former world champion 13. e4 Mikhail Tal who had been ex- 14. h3 pected to play on the Latvian 15.

R(f)el team. Tal, who was reported to be 16. Bfl gravely ill, died a few days after 17. R(a)dl the competition was ended. 18.

Qbl Below is a sharp tactical win 19. Bel from Manila by the emerging 17- 20. Nd2 year-old Russian star Vladimir 21. Na2 Kramnik over Jean Costa of 22. b4 Switzerland.

23. hxg4 Costa Kramnik 24. Nf3 1. d4 d5 25. Khl 2 c4 c6 26.

Rxel Nf3 NIB 27. Be3 4. Nc3 e6 28. Bgl 5. e3 N(b)d7 29.

Rxe4 6. Bd2 Bd6 30. Rxg4 0-0 dxc4 a6 c5 Nxc5 b6 Qc7 Bb7 N(c)d7 R(a)c8 Qb8 h6 Bb4 Bc5 Bc5 N(e)g4 Nxg4 Bxf2ch Bxel Qg3 15 fxe4 Rf5 White resigns. By Shelby Lyman Basic Chess Features Although teams from the Soviet Union have won virtually every World Chess Olympics held during the last 40 years, the traditional four-board Olympic format showcased only a fraction of the Soviet talent available. Perhaps naively, players and experts from other countries welcomed the breakup of the So.

viet chess colosus as an occasion of new opportunity in Olympic chess competition. Instead they have found themselves presented with a curious phenomenon. At the recent 1992 World Chess Olympics in Manila, in place of the customary Soviet men's and women's teams, they were forced to contend with a hydra-headed monster of 24 teams from 13 i i former Soviet republics; In the 102-team men's section, easily won by Russia who scored 39 points, teams from former republics took six of the first nine places. An unheralded entry from Uzbekistan finished second with 35 points. In third with 34.5 points was Armenia, a half point ahead of the United States.

After losing to an untitled Lithuanian player, former U.S. Champion Joel Benjamin exclaimed: "Can't they put the country back together again?" Women's teams from the thirteen republics achieved a comparable success when Georgia and the Ukraine finishing one-two in the 62 team women's sec a i ii WHITE WINS THE QUEEN Whit movas BEGINNER'S CORNER hint explanation: Black, who threatens 31 Rxf3 32. gxf3 Bxf3ch 33. Kh2 Qh4ch 34 Bh3 Qf4 mate, has an overwhelming attack. a Fischer BLACK TO PLAY Solution to BEGINNER'S CORNER: 1.

Rxb7, etc. If 1 Rxb7, then 2. Bxd5ch gets back a rook. Qxg4.