Those are beautiful pictures, @Hal9000. Thanks for sharing.
Wow. Simply wow. I was looking on the map, which direction do you come in from? The east or the west?
Thanks. I was coming down the mountain and found a nice little creek, so I decided to set up camp there to catch the sunrise and sunset. It was a good choice! @marquac, thanks for the kind words! Hopefully I can hike with some QT3 folks someday!
@Tman, I utilized the east side of the range near Lander; specifically the Worthen Meadows TH. For the prettiest, easiest hike to Wind River Peak, I think that Stough Creek Trail (easy day excursion to Stough), then Poison, Mountain Sheep, and Coon Lakes, then the mountain via Tayo Lake, with a return via Deep Creek and Ice Lakes. I sadly chose the Cirque trail leaving and it was just a horrible slog.
Another couple of landscape shots. More and more, I really enjoy the slow and methodical process of composing the shot, selecting the filters, and working out the exposure. It’s a great feeling when the scans come back from the lab, and all I need to do in Lightroom is tweak the white/black points to get it pretty much bang on to what was in my head when I fired the shutter.
you are getting really good with those. I like all of them. Really like the one with the rushing creek with all the trees.
Very nice shots. The waterfall looks unlike any landscape I’ve experienced.
You know what’s terrible? Hiking like 26 miles and then coming across a great waterfall, only to find out that you left your filters.
That was along the Iron Goat Trail, by Stevens Pass in the Cascades. I do recall that there was a placard nearby that talked about how there had been a major slide about a century ago that totally altered the foliage in this small little patch, so it was pretty much nothing like any of the surrounding area.
Hah! There’s no way I’d be making it 26 miles (or half that, or…) with my current kit, even without nagging foot problems, so at least I don’t have that to worry about. Last time I checked, it clocked in at 38lbs of gear.
HOLY CRAP! That’s more weight than I’ve ever carried, even for 7+ day self-support expeditions—is it form having nice glass? The good stuff always weighs so much.
My RB67 without lens weighs a little over 4lbs, and I generally carry 4 lenses (wide angle, tele, and two inbetweeners), averaging about 2.5lbs apiece. My tripod (a sturdy-yet-weighty wooden Berlebach) accounts for another 8lbs. And then there’s the light meter, spare film back (gotta have one color and one B&W), film, filters, filter holder, other sundry accessories, and the backpack, and it adds up.
I could also add another 2lbs+ to the camera by swapping in the metered prism finder, but I prefer composing in the massive waist-level finder, which is a fraction of the weight.
I’d actually save a ton of weight by making the jump up from medium format to large, but I love my RB67 to death. If only it allowed for tilt/shift movements…
That’s amazing and it obviously pays off. I’m thinking about all of the good shots that I have missed by having inferior equipment—especially at dawn and dusk—and your setup. Perhaps one day I should rent a pack llama for the gear…I’d never thought of a reason that I’d want to do that until now.
I mean, to be really honest, unless I were to spend like $100/frame for scanning on a drum scanner, you could probably get better pictures out of a quality full-frame/mirrorless digital camera and post-processing in Photoshop.
I think what really makes the difference for me is that between having only 10 shots per roll and the very methodical and deliberate approached required by using an entirely manual camera. It forces me to spend a lot of time looking at a scene before I even begin setting up and composing the shot. And, at about $3 per exposure all told, it forces me to really think hard before tripping the shutter. I’ve spent 20 minutes going through all the steps, including metering and setting up filters, only to decide it just wasn’t right, and pack up and move on.
The result, for better or worse, is I’ve found my pictures have developed a static and formal look I never got when shooting handheld on digital. I like it, at least.
My pictures have definitely gone downhill since reverting to mostly my phone, that’s for sure. Plus they tend to look garish.
With all that said, here are some “great” cell phone shots. I do at least think that they might entice people to see some of these lands more.
Middle Fork Lake and Lee Lake from Bewmark Lake, then Lee Lake from above; lastly, Bewmark Lake:
While on the no-kidding "Big Balls of Cowtown Trail."
Some natural hot springs we hiked to:
The stupidly-crowded Titcomb area:
One of the rarer trout species:
Me vs a rock:
Forgot to add that I saw no one near Bewmark for 3 days straight; I hiked an additional 36 miles before encountering another person. (From this camp:
)
I consider my trips to be successful when I encounter few other humans; for that reason, this was one of my favorite hikes.
Rainbow? Speckled?
Golden trout. They can be a bit picky about what they want to eat.
Those really are spectacular. I especially love the first shot, and the Titcomb ones.
There’s a really cool vegetable garden at a nearby botanical gardens, and you get to see lots of exotic and local vegetables and fruit growing. It’s interesting as you get to see food you eat in its natural form.
This is quinoa.
It is a very beautiful area, but for my tastes a bit crowded. You can expect to see people at least once every hour on the main trail. (And a few times a day if off-trail, though probably at a distance.)
Looks like one of those strawberry crunch ice creams! Mmmm!
Boy, I’d bet that for at least 90% of my photos, there’s another person within shouting distance at the time I tripped the shutter. I’d love to get out a bit more and visit some of the more distant parts of Washington State (not to mention the rest of the country…) but for at least the near future, I’m tethered to home due to a sick pet that requires medication multiple times a day and more or less limited to day trips. Luckily, the Cascades are only a two hour drive away.
I’m just making the final purchases I need in order to actually start shooting on my 4x5 view camera so I can get out there and really play Ansel Adams properly.