Point and Shoot Backpacking

Just returned home from a backpacking trip in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The hike in was only 3.7 miles thanks to a ride from a park ranger we befriended last year, but the elevation gain was nearly 2,300ft. in that short distance. I wanted to pack light so the pro camera gear just wasn't practical, and as I found out, not necessary for nice pics.
At one point I had planned on bringing a monopod with a ball head quarter 20 but in my quest for a lighter pack, decided against it. In the end, I brought a small point and shoot Cannon with 2 spare batteries and a handful of SD cards...... thats it! Lightweight and easy to operate, cheap compared to my pro gear, super reliable and the added bonus of being able to shoot some video.

We set camp at around 10,500 feet next to a lake that will remain unnamed. We spent 3 days catching some of the largest native Greenback Cutthroat trout in Colorado. Our largest fish was 22+ inches, the average was around 18 inches or so. After three full days of fishing, the three of us landed around 50 trout total, all on dry flies and nymphs. Our philosophy here is "catch and release" despite a 2 fish keeper limit. We bring the fish in, admire it's beauty, take a quick picture and then its' back in the water... "catchya next year"!

Having such a small and simple camera was very liberating, I enjoyed walking around taking pictures and shooting video almost as much as the fishing. My "wish I could" moment came at night when the tents were lit up from within and the stars were shining and reflecting in the glass-like lake. I had no tripod and the camera didn't have enough manual controls to make long exposures for light-painting. The disappointment at my lack of capable equipment was such that I will be bringing the extra weight next time.  Our spot on the lake is amazing at night and on our next trip I am going to get a killer night-shot. Maybe I will leave the tent and food at home, sleep in a cave and eat trout sushi... no, I need the tent for the shot,........ darn.

This is a photo I did last year at my campsite on McLure Pass. I used a tripod, 30 second exposure on my D70s, a strobe in the tent, pocket wizards, and a big Maglite to light-paint the trees. 

Its' Wabbit Season!

The critters are coming out of their hiding places and I have taken some recent opportunities to shoot some wildlife in the not so wild. This bunny lives just outside my front door and was the subject of a recent practice session with my 300mm 2.8 manual lens. It is an old beautiful piece of glass, fast and sharp with fantastic bokeh. I bought it used from a professional for $275.00. David Tejada has been using his for most of his career and I have long loved many shots captured with it, so when the deal came up I jumped on it.

Last week while house sitting I was able to sneak up on one of the very skidish frogs that live in David's pond. I caught this guy with the 80-400mm on my D70s....... he eats birds!


While in Wyoming this week working on an oil pipeline project, David and I came across this nice little wetlands on the bank of the North Platte River. These guys were flying all over in the cattails and once again I was doing it old school style with the 300/ 2.8 and a doubler, making the effective focal length somewhere around 900mm.

Headlamps and Maps

I met with the client over lunch a few weeks ago. He brought with him the items for the shoot, a custom painted hardhat, a standard headlamp with battery, a headlamp and battery with their state of the art tagging system, and a couple of maps to use as backgrounds. The tagging system is a small device that is is integrated onto the battery pack, it is like a sophisticated avalanche beacon that tracks underground miners and relays their whereabouts to a central system. In the wake of some recent mining disasters this technology has made a push and Koehler appears to be leading the way with this new system.
I spent a full day in the studio jammin' tunes and creating a few shots that I could email my contact for feedback.
We discussed a few minor changes, the name on the helmet was set back too far to be readable with the helmet set at it's most aesthetic angle. To see the headlamp meant you couldn't read the full name but neither of us thought it was a big deal. He loved the test shots so the next day I finished up with the finals.