Current Photo Equipment (July 2007)
Cait (who posts at Light of Morn) recently asked about the gear I use for my landscape/mountain photography, so I think I’ll take that question as an opportunity to summarize what I use these days.
Camera: I lug a Canon 5D digital SLR (DSLR) around on the trail. The 5D is a full frame DSLR, with a 12 megapixel sensor that is essentially the same size as 35mm film. This provides certain advantages for my photography: higher resolution for large prints, wide angle lenses are truly wide, smaller apertures are usable for DOF control, somewhat better dynamic range, better noise control. There are some downsides, but they are worth it for me: cost is more than twice that of more common “crop sensor” DSLRs, size and weight are greater.
Lenses: I try not to succumb to Lens Fever, so I use a small set of good Canon lenses: EF 17-40mm f/4 L, EF 24-105mm f/4 IS L, EF 70-200mm f/4 L, and 50mm f/1.4. While I may take all four on some hikes, more often I take a subset. On pack trips where weight becomes a significant issue I may take only the 17-40mm and the 24-105mm lenses.
Tripod: On shorter hiking trips (and car supported trips) I use a very large and relatively heavy carbon fiber Induro C313 tripod. This is often too large for backpacking, so I substitute a smaller (though not exactly tiny) carbon fiber Velbon 540 that is lighter and packs more easily. I fit an Acratech Ballhead to whichever tripod I use. I do shoot handheld sometimes, but I almost always use the tripod for landscape work.
Packs: Like many photographers, I’m always looking for the perfect bag or pack – even though I know full well it doesn’t exist. I use a Lowepro Rover AW for longer day hikes, since it can carry my photo gear and enough general equipment and food/water for serious hiking. I’m fond of my Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW for shorter hike and urban photography. When backpacking (and sometimes on longer day hikes when I’m heavily laden) I carry my camera in the Lowepro Topload AW bag with a chest harness. Sometimes when I carry only the 5D and the 24-105 lens I may use a Mountainsmith lumbar pack.
Other stuff: I use a remote release (“cable release”) with tripod shots. I sometimes use a circular polarizing filter. I carry a bunch of extra memory cards and batteries when I’m out for a longer period of time.
As you can imagine, you need to be pretty committed to doing photography if you are going to carry all this stuff on the trail – and I’d forgive any of you who decide to go with something a lot lighter. Fortunately, you can do some very nice photography with less expensive and lighter gear these days.
Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Pentax all sell very nice crop sensor DSLRs these days. Because they use smaller sensors than my full frame 5D, the cameras can be smaller. In addition, smaller and lighter lenses will provide the same reach. The Canon Rebel XTi/400D (or the previous model, the Rebel XT/350D) with the 18-55mm kit lens can do a fine job. I’m sure that equivalent models from the other manufacturers are also quite excellent. Some of the smaller “point and shoot” cameras also perform well and can be quite small and light.
Sunflowers in Almaden Valley
Cait (from Light of Morn) shares a hint about sunflower plants in Almaden Valley:
A family that lives along Old Almaden Road as it nears downtown New Almaden plants a bank of sunflowers every year at the entrance to their property. There’s no curb, so I usually pull over under a pine tree just to the right of the sunflowers. If you have any interest whatsoever in taking photos of sunflowers, I encourage you to drive by the location over the next 2-3 weeks. There’s only a few blooming now, but this year’s display promises to be the best yet! I’ve never seen so many sunflowers planted so close together in one spot!
She has posted photos at http://lightofmorn.com/html/sunflowers.htm
Thanks, Cait!
Yosemite Photographs – Early July 2007
I spent three days in and around Tuolumne Meadows in the Yosemite National Park high country in early July, visiting the area around Tioga Pass, the route out toward Young Lakes, Tenaya Lake, and Mount Hoffman. I’ve already posted a few of the following photos, but here is a collection of some of my favorites from that trip.
Dawn, Mounts Dana and Gibb
Sunset, Dog Lake and Mounts Dana and Gibb
Three Snags, Gaylor Lakes Basin
Rocks, Tenaya Lake
Alpine Tundra and Rocks, Gaylor Lakes Basin
Rocks and Trees, Gaylor Lakes Basin
Rocks and Reflection, Gaylor Lake
Shoreline, Gaylor Lake
Some Photography News
First, I recently move my photography web site, G Dan Mitchell | Photography, to a new host. In addition, I began work on a new Gallery companion site where I will archive – and display – my photographic work.
Second, in early June I spent a few days photographing the Yosemite high country around Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Pass. Many photographs have already been posted at the photography site, but I’m going to put a few of them up here over the next few days.
Two-Heel Drive on Sanborn-Skyline Park
Tom Mangan (Two-Heel Drive) writes about one of my favorite local hiking areas:
Latest Hikes column: Sanborn-Skyline County Park. From my Hikes column at the Mercury News.
… A typical Saturday afternoon at Sanborn-Skyline might see a wedding reception, a family reunion and a half-dozen large cookouts all happening on the park’s main grounds. Busy, crowded, noisy. With an 8 a.m. sharp start, however, you might get to see a couple of young deer casually grazing within a stone’s throw of the park’s visitor center, as I did the last weekend in June. Quiet, calm – you know, what you go hiking to find.
One of my favorite “hikes with a climb” starts at Sanborn Park and ascends through forest (including some second growth Redwoods) to the ridgeline before traversing to Castle Rock State Park.
Book recounts environmentalists' fight in the Bay Area
Paul McHugh writes in SF Gate about a new book that I’d like to read:
The broad bands of green land that embrace Bay Area urban zones offer both humans and wildlife refuge, respite and regeneration. These preserves are no accident of history. They result from a hard-fought, century-long crusade. This immense battle is recounted in illuminating detail by Cal professor Richard Walker in a book, “The Country in the City,” just out from the University of Washington Press.
Tom and Bob
Tom and Bob remind me – as if I needed reminding – why those blue parking spaces are relevant in surprising places like at the top of Tioga Pass…
“This looks pretty steep through here, ” I say. “You sure you want to try it?”
“You can’t let six feet of trail defeat you,” Bob says. What happens next is an unforgettable hiking-with-Bob moment…
Danger on Half Dome
An interesting and slightly scary article at SF Gate looks at the traffic jams on Half Dome:
The last 400 feet of the grueling 8.6-mile climb to the summit of the world-famous peak was like a holiday scene at a Disneyland ride — a long line and a few thrills.
It was typical of a weekend summer day at the 8,842-foot top of Half Dome. Hikers wearing tennis shoes and sandals, city kids in baggy basketball garb, children, flabby tourists and the elderly were clambering around on the slick granite, where three people have tumbled to their death within the past year — one of them just a few weeks ago.
I’ve been to the top a number of times – including by way of the “Snake Dike” route in my climbing days – but not in quite a few years. I’ve thought of doing it again, but these stories – and the photographs! – make me a bit less inclined to do so. (And, heck, the view from uncrowded Mt. Hoffman is actually better!)
Half Dome, from Mount Hoffman. Yosemite National Park, California. July 4, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
I never felt that the cable route itself was particularly dangerous. For the most part, one could (and Royal Robbins apparently did – without using his hands!) friction climb the whole thing – the cables are there more for safety than for climbing aid. But the crowds that I’m hearing about add a whole new set of dangers – impatient hikers who push others or climb outside the cables, hikers unused to the exposure having panic attacks compounded by a sense of being trapped in the crowd, and the number of people who regard this as a “day hike.” While Half Dome can be a day hike for those in great shape, a 16 mile roundtrip including a 5000 foot ascent/descent is not appropriate for your average tourist.
Three Days in Tuolumne Meadows
I spent the first three days of this past week in the Tuolumne Meadows area, camping in Tuolumne and getting in some quality day-hiking and photography time.
I arrived on Monday and (surprise!) easily got a camp site at Tuolumne. Apparently lots of people don’t understand what an early start we’re having to this year’s high country summer season, and the crowds had not yet arrived. I actually had my pick of campsites when I arrived and I don’t think the campground filled that night.
After setting up my spartan campsite and hanging out for a bit, I headed up toward Tioga Pass with a general plan to visit the Gaylor Lakes Basin. The Basin is a short but steep hike over the ridge right above the entrance station, and it is a beautiful, wide open area of alpine tundra with several lakes, wide-spread clumps of trees, and lots of large rocks set into the open landscape. There are great views back towards Tuolumne Meadows and the Cathedral range, including Cathedral Peak.
I dropped from the ridge into the Basin in the late afternoon and spent the next hour or so exploring the area below the large lake where the trail comes down. My goal was to find a few likely subjects for sunset photography, and I soon found several, in particular a group of three dead trees. I set up for my primary photograph with nearly an hour of not-quite-there-yet light, and settled back to enjoy my surroundings while the sun dropped towards the ridge to the west. Soon the light began changing quickly and I went to work, beginning with the composition that I had already set up and then moving on to quickly shoot several other scenes before the light faded completely.
Three Snags, Gaylor Lakes Basin. Yosemite National Park. July 2, 2007. Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
(More photographs will appear during the coming week at G Dan Mitchell | Photography. Yes, some of them are in color.)
By now the light was nearly gone and I was starting to regret leaving my headlamp in the car. I headed back up over the ridge and carefully picked my way down the other side in the twilight, finally arriving at my car around 9:20. I didn’t get dinner until nearly 10:00 p.m. back at my campsite.
On Tuesday, I got up very early and headed back up to photograph the small tarns near Tioga Pass. Finishing that, I headed back to Tuolumne for breakfast – finally! By about 9:00 I was ready to start an all-day hike out towards the Young Lakes area, so I headed on over to the the Lembert Dome parking lot and was on the trail around 9:30.
The day’s hike clearly revealed just how dry the Sierra Nevada is this year. In a typical early July (much less a wet year like the past two) much of my hike would have been through very wet and even snowy areas. This time I barely saw any mud at all, and no snow whatsoever. My favorite spot on this hike – a meadow before the last junction to Young Lakes – did have some lupine in bloom, but things were already going dry. After lunch and a visit to the ridge above this meadow I finally started back toward Tuolumne. Near the end of the hike I decided to take the .2 mile lateral trail to Dog Lake. Although I’ve hiked all over the Tuolumne are for years this was my first visit to this large, shallow, and quite peaceful lake. I stuck around for a good hour and a half so that I could photograph the sunset on Mounts Dana and Gibb.
Dog Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. July 3, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
Once again, having indulged in sunset photography while still out on the trail, I arrived back at camp in the dark.
On Wednesday I was lazy and did not get up at the crack of dawn to do more photography. Once I did get up I ate breakfast and broke camp before making another visit to the area between Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Pass. I then headed back down Tioga Road and stopped to photograph Tenaya Lake. I’ve photographed there before, but this time I thought it would be an interesting challenge to shoot in midday light and with a completely clear sky.
Rocks, Tenaya Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. July 4, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
Although it was now early afternoon, I wasn’t quite ready to leave the park yet. I went up the old road to the May Lake trailhead, loaded up my pack, and hiked quickly to May Lake. This spot is filled with a lot of memories since it is the place that I took each of my three kids on their first pack trips when they were three years old. (If any of them are reading this… yes, the “lightening tree” is still standing. :-)
After a quick visit to the lake itself I headed up the route to Mt. Hoffman, the peak that towers directly above May Lake. The route is more of a very tough hike than an actual climb – most of the trail is quite obvious, though there are a few sections where you have to fake it a bit. I finally stopped at the highest summit (there are three lower ones) for a short break before heading back down the steep and gravel/rock covered upper section of the route.
Done now, I started the drive back home. A surprising highlight of the trip home was watching fireworks displays of various sizes going off in many of the small towns out there.
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Dan's Outside 
Trip Preparation
Since I have a couple Sierra pack trips coming up later this summer, I’ve been thinking about my process for getting all of the necessary gear assembled and ready to go. (See the Equipage section for many, many more details about this process.) My approach goes something like this, at least for a trip long enough to require more than a couple of hours of last minute scrambling:
One week or so before the trip – I begin to go over food and equipment issues – but not in any organized way and often primarily while daydreaming. At this point I’m forming a “back of my mind” mental list of things to think about, gear to check, and menus to plan. I may take out a few key pieces of gear and double check them, but other than that no specific, organized preparation is happening yet.
Three days before the trip – I’m still not really getting organized, but a couple of important things are beginning to occur. At this point I recognize that I really do need to accomplish some serious organization and planning very soon, and I also start to take care of certain city things that must be handled before I can go.
Two days before the trip – Time to start locating gear and going over checklists. At this point I may start writing things down, making lists of equipment that needs to be purchased. I probably am still not actually making food lists, but I am starting to develop a basic meal plan in my mind.
One day before the trip – For a longer trip, a good portion of this day is devoted to serious planning and organizing – though I may find ways to stall enough that I don’t really get to work until afternoon. On this day I locate all of the gear I need and get it out and organize it. As I work I write out a shopping list that includes the inevitable last minute gear purchases, and a checklist of non-backpacking gear than I need to bring along. I develop an actual food list; it begins as a meal list and then evolves into a grocery shopping list.
I print out my standard packing list and look over my piles of gear, checking them against the list. As I do this I actually put my hand on each item to make sure that I have it – if I don’t, I either find it right away or add it to the to do/shopping list. Once this is done I make my final run to the stores – typically an outdoor store for one or two last items plus a grocery store for the bulk of my food.
Once I finish the shopping I should have all the food and equipment that I’ll need. The next step is to assemble and pack the food ingredients. Since I don’t rely primarily (or sometimes, at all) on prepackaged backpacking meals, I spend some serious time in the kitchen measuring and bagging lots of food. Once the food is ready to go I assemble everything in one place, go over my lists once more, and start packing. Once packed, everything is either collected together by the front door, ready to go, or else packed into the car ready for an early getaway.
If I’m lucky, I get to this job before it is too late. Usually I’m not lucky… :-)
Midnight or so the night before – Finally time to get to bed.
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July 17, 2007 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Trip Preparation