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Sunday, December 30, 2012

A Quick Night Amongst Mt. Hood's Winter


I decided to head out on the skis to enjoy Mt. Hood's solitary peace for the night. It ended up being a fantastic night out. I've had this lightweight bivy bag for some time and it's only been used when the weather has been ideal. This was a good opportunity to try it in the winter and see how it performs. Weather conditions were stable, cold, with an accumulation of about 2 inches. Perfectly peaceful really. 

I brought along some camera gear and a tripod hoping to capture beautiful light on Hood's Southeast face. Unfortunately, the light conditions I was hoping for didn't happen, although the precipitation and lower than expected visibility proved calming and wonderful. 

Guess I'll have to make another journey up there in search of the winter light I'm hoping for.  


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Riding Bicycles, Climbing Jefferson, and Riding Bikes again

3 tired, hungry, and thirsty friends nearing the end of a quick but long journey
CLICK here or any image to see the entire photo story
Terry, Sam, and I headed out from my house at around 4am on July 20, 2012 for a quick 90ish mile bike ride South to climb Mt. Jefferson's Park Glacier before riding the 90ish miles back home. Although the trip was a self supported bike to summit tour, Gina and Alissa met us at the South Breitenbush TH to saunter in with us and enjoy Jefferson Park for a couple of nights; a wonderful lake and meadow area at the base of Jefferson's North side. 
The trip took us 4 days. We rode the 90ish miles down to the TH and hiked in most of the 3000' into Jefferson Park on the first day. Day 2 we had to fire up our nav skills as the trail was completely covered in snow; we all thought the snow would be clear that late in July, oops. The rest of day 2 was spent hydrating and just enjoying being in the mountains. I was still feeling thrashed on day 3 (climb day) and elected myself to spend Sunday helping the ladies navigate their way back to the cars as they had to head out. TC and Sam had a fun climb along with a successful summit. They rolled into camp shortly after I made my way back, and an oncoming storm caused us to pack up and head down to the TH for a night of rest before riding the 90ish miles back on day 4. 

Sam talked about the Ripplebrook Ranger Station (halfway home mark) and all of the food he was going to crush since we left camp that morning. He didn't lie, can't remember his tic-list exactly but he consumed a couple of cokes, 2 instant noodle cups, several Twinkies, and I don't know how many more well deserved treats. 
Another successful and memorable Mountaineering Bicycle Tour (MBT) put together by Terry Campbell. Thanks TC, awesome trip. Mt. Rainier MBT 2013!

A Wilderness Honeymoon in Isle Royale National Park

Moskey Basin Sunrise- CLICK any image to see the full photo story
It was honeymoon time; we decided to head back to the state that raised us and enjoy Michigan's Isle Royale National Park. A truly amazing and peaceful place. Every moment of this trip from sauntering on the island, to meeting new people, to hearing the Moose rut was filled with a genuine peace. No special yoga or meditation practice was needed to feel collected, calm, and all around grounded. These Northwoods have a special vibe I have never experienced anywhere else. It's a land of simplicity that makes it difficult to leave. Every time I've been fortunate enough to explore the Northwoods, from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota to Isle Royale NP, and everything in between, there is a great pull, to stay and breath its unfiltered harmony...
Moskey Basin

Lake Superior

Gina excited about her breakfast

Gina and me at Moskey Basin

Lake Superior from Hwy 2 on our way back South

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Around Crater Lake....

Brian taking in one of the many views we were gifted with.
 Kevin Clark and Brian Anderson asked me to join them on a ski adventure around Crater Lake this spring. Turned out to be one of the most amazing places I've seen in any time of year but particularly in the winter.

Kevin and Brian happy to be done with the major climb of the day
Used a wooden pinhole camera at sunset to capture this image.
Saw this composition on our last day.


Monday, May 7, 2012

Searching For The Mystery Trail...

Chris and Julia on the Devil's Backbone. A feature on the ROA trail.
Julia, Chris and I wanted to climb Mt. Hood Sunday and Monday but the weather wasn't trending in a positive direction for this. We brainstormed a bit and came up with the idea to go out and look for the Mystery Trail in the Columbia River Gorge instead. We found it all right! And one heck of a spectacular adventure un-folded. 

Chris swinging out to make the second rappel.

Julia on the last and most spectacular rappel of the day.




Monday, April 23, 2012

A Lesson in Art, Pinhole Photography, and the Goat Rocks...

Mt. Adams at sunset as seen from our camp in Snowgrass Flats.
The first weekend in September of 2011 I joined a few close friends for a weekend saunter in the Goat Rocks Wilderness in Washington. Kim, Steph, Nick, Bill, Todd, Duke and myself made up the mountain crew. On our way out of town, I stopped at Blue Moon Camera in St. Johns and picked up a medium format pinhole Holga camera along with a few rolls of Kodak film. It's basically a plastic lensless camera that takes 120 film. Shooting with this camera in the wild was exciting and delivered a certain type of freedom not easily found with digital equipment. These cameras don't produce sharp images with perfect color and contrast, they don't use batteries, there are no settings to adjust, HDR, huh? They are one of the rawest, and some may say purest, forms of image making with light. They also produce lots of failure. Most of that failure is human caused of course. But when it works, wow, it works wonderfully.
It is easy to forget to advance the film in a pinhole camera as it is 100% manual. The results of multiple layered exposures can be amazing though.
I have to admit, I felt like a failure after picking the film up from the lab. Originally I thought it was just that my lack of experience with using pinholes was to blame or that I'm just too used to seeing images from high-end optics and the right side of my brain had let me down. I now think it has to do with a reoccurring theme that happens when I get back from beautiful places. When I cull through my film/images right quick, I usually feel slightly overwhelmed and usually even a bit disappointed. This is because I critique my work harshly with the experience of shooting it fresh in my mind. Oh, I should have moved over to the other side of the meadow, or, why didn't I change the composition, or, that wasn't how that sunset made me feel, are a few thoughts that come to mind. Only after letting my work steep for a few weeks, or in this case, months, do I start to have an emotional response to them and see them for what they are. The longer I let images steep, the better I am at seeing photography for art instead of a technical way to record an experience.

Again, a bit absent-minded on the whole film advancing thing, but I love how  layered images can almost feel like a comic strip.
Well, I looked at the negatives again a few days ago and thought, wow, I really like some of these. More importantly, I responded emotionally to them in a favorable way and forgot all about them being from a pinhole camera or about any technical mumbo-jumbo that really doesn't mean a thing. 
Taking a lunch break near Goat Lake, incredible September mountain sun.
 I would be interested in hearing what emotional response, if any, this lo-fi form of image making does for you.
Group photo with lensless flair! Common to get lens flair, but amazing how this came out. 
 Stay tuned for more pinhole photography. I recently took a 35mm Zero pinhole camera with me on our Crater Lake circumnavigation via skis. I'm hoping this lensless medium will take me deeper into the art of creating emotionally charged imagery.
Sunset not far from our camp. This creek provided us with delicious water.

Sunset from camp

Crystal clear waters. 
My personal favorite. Mt. Adams from camp. Simple, the way wild places are meant to be.


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