I’ve written thrice about backpacking (Ultralight Backpacking and Photography, Backpacking and Photography Re-visit, Light-Weight Backpacking and Photography), all pointed at ultra-lightening the backpack gear. The goal is to safely reduce pack weight to ease the burden of carrying a dSLR, lenses and tripod. And it works. Ultralight backpacking is a photographer’s godsend. Ultralighting gets us […]
Making room for camera gear: More backpacking ideas for pack, footwear, stove, water, food, misc. This month (December) was about planning for next year, and part of the 2012 plan is quicker and lighter backpack trips. I won’t compromise on photography, so the Canon 5D II, an adequate tripod and a trim list of accessories […]
Five more favorite images from 2010. It bares repeating: keep that viewfinder glued to your eyeball and look, look, look . . . Mazama Ridge after Sunset: 2010 wasn’t a good year for Northwest wildflower photography. The mountain meadow flowers were late; many never made it. I made numerous visits to Mt. Rainier, but I […]
I survived our Enchantments backpack trip. OK, maybe better than survived. I feel more like I thrived, despite the 4,400 ft vertical climb the first day over Aasgard Pass. The thriving resulted from getting in shape, and cutting the gear load. The eye-popping, golden-larch and granite spire landscape-that-rivals-Yosemite might be a factor. Maybe. Washington’s Alpine […]
A year ago I built a light-weight panorama tool out of wood. My hope was to make back-country panoramas. My dream was to rival the pixel count of high-end, medium-format digital backs, or scanned 4×5 film cameras without the weight, bulk or cost. Here in Washington State, I imagined Prusik Peak in the Enchantments, or […]
After hiking to Spray Park at Mt. Rainier NP (August, 2006), I shot a few frames to compare a graduated (split) neutral-density filter with achieving similar results in Photoshop. If you’re not familiar with split filters, they have darkened glass on half of their surface, to hold back the light, with clear glass on the […]
Wildflowers and mirror ponds at Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground. Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground is a huge bench with mirror ponds and an expansive sub-alpine meadow. Several ponds reflect the Mountain, including the pond made famous by the Ashel Curtis photograph. Find carpets of avalanche lily in July; densely-packed lupine in August. Most of the pictures […]