PCT photography

imported
#1

I’m not sure if this is the right place to put this, but the photography forum doesn’t seem to get much traffic.

Last year I did a fairly slow speed hike from Campo to Sierra City and focused pretty heavily on photography. Tha Wookie: if you happen to read this, I started out late in the afternoon on May 17 - the same day as you and Island Mama. I never had any chance of catching up with you but I enjoyed seeing your drawings in the trail log for many hundreds of miles… Congratulations on making it to Canada, you guys are awesome!

One of these years I will get back to the PCT either to continue from where I left off or start from the beginning again and I hope to create a series of high quality landscape photos covering the whole trail.

You can see what I’ve done so far at:
www.pbase.com/aaron111/PCT

I’ve also got a gallery of images from a hike I did of the Wonderland trail but it doesn’t have much in it yet.
www.pbase.com/aaron111/wonderland

aaron111

#2

I messed up the direct link to the PCT gallery - here is the correct link www.pbase.com/aaron111/PCT

aaron111

#3

Wow. I’m speechless. This is a collection of some of the finest landscape photography for long-distance hiking that I’ve ever had the pleasure of viewing. THANK YOU for sharing these with us. I’ll be back many times to view these, so I’ll leave comments in your gallery.

awesome.

-Howie

HungryHowie

#4

I’m with Howie. Great shots. I’m impressed. Thanks for sharing them.

Colter

#5

Awesome pics!

Apple Pie

#6

Oh, Aaron, you did an amazing job capturing the majesty of the California PCT. Thank you for allowing us to see the product of your work. What fantastic images!

JustSit

#7

Absolutely beautiful work Aaron! I wish you the best in getting your pictures out there. You have a great eye; (& most likely a steady hand!)

Leah

#8

Very nice color balance and composition in all of your photos. Thank you for sharing your work with all of us. What did you learn on the trip as far as camera storage, cleaning and use? I have two bodies that I use, one for B&W and the other for color and have been thinking more over the last few months about getting them out on the trail. Any thoughts or experiences would be helpful. :slight_smile:

Zaphod

#9

What beautiful images!!!
I’m getting ready to hike the John Muir trail and would love if you could share some of your knowledge. What type of camera, exposure etc did you use.
I appreciate you sharing your talent with the rest of us.
Thanks again,
Crockett

Crockett

#10

Someday I plan to hike the PCT. Your photos made me want to leave tomorrow! Thanks for the link.

Jeffrey Hunter

#11

Thanks everybody. I’m glad you like the pictures.

To answer some of the questions:
I chose to take along a lightweight digital camera. Although I have heavier SLR equipment I’m starting to see less reason to ever lug it around, and I certainly wasn’t going to carry it for hundreds of miles on the PCT. I use a Canon G3. It has a 4 megapixel sensor which is good, but when it comes to digital cameras megapixels really aren’t the most important feature. A good sharp lens and the capability to capture a low noise image are the most important factors for me. The technique I use for most of my shots actually makes the resolution of any given digital camera irrelevant. You could capture very high resolution pictures even with a 2 or 3 megapixel camera. I do this by taking many shots of a single scene and then use software to stitch them together into one big image. Using this technique a digital camera can rival medium format or even, theoretically, large format photography. Some of the images in my gallery are made up of 15-20 or more individual frames. This method also lets me capture ultra wide angle shots without the need of any additional lenses. AND it lets me take differing exposures of different parts of the scene. The sky can have one exposure and the ground another. This allows me to double or triple the effective exposure latitude - creating images with a unique look where everything is perfectly exposed - no blown out highlights or black ground regardless of the contrast of the original scene. This opens up and whole new area where you can create images that are difficult or impossible to capture with traditional photography.

You could adapt these methods to a film camera as well, but it would require the extra step of scanning your negatives or slides.

There are many image stitching programs out there. The one I use is called PTAssembler. It is one of the more complex but also more powerful solutions.

All of my images go through Photoshop as well. After the image is stitched I have to make it look like a single seamless image by blending the different exposures together and correcting parallax errors that occur because I don’t use a tripod. I also use various tools to improve contrast, sharpness etc.

Another nice thing about digital is that even though everything is shot in color I can easily convert any given image to B&W if it seems more suited for it. I can even add a warm or cool caste or create a duo tone style image.

It is really important that you make your camera easily accessible while hiking. If it is buried somewhere in your pack you may not feel inclined to go digging for it when you come to that perfect awesome vista. I carried mine in a water resistant pouch tucked into the side pocket of my pack. I could reach over and get it as easily as my water bottle.

My camera uses rechargeable battery packs which are charged by plugging in the camera itself. I often wish that I had the option of using rechargeable AA or AAA batteries so that I could carry a solar charger strapped to the top of my pack and never have to worry about running out of juice. Even so the G3 happens to have good battery life and I tried not to mess around with many of the bells and whistles such as the LCD too much in order to conserve. Carrying three batteries I was able to go a surprisingly long time between charges. You have to think ahead when you are entering into remote areas where you will have no chance to recharge. Even when close to civilization you have to get creative. I often found power outlets in campground bathrooms etc.

I hope this info helps and if you have any more questions feel free to ask. I’m thinking about creating a website at some point in the future where people can share their various tips and techniques for hiking photography.

aaron111

#12

my heart is on the floor

Tha Wookie

#13

Wow, the what heartrendering lovely pics. We hiked in 96 and 1000 miles again in 2002 and those pictures make me yearn all over again. You, my frind, have a gift. You wanna come to Alaska ?..:slight_smile:

yappy

#14

With most pictures, we flip quickly through them until one may strike us. With yours, Aaron, I found myself staring at each one for minutes…almost as if I were there. Thank you for capturing the beauty of those places and giving us the chance to connect to it. Just wonderful.

Rashberry

#15

Tha Wookie: I just read about your next adventure hiking the west coast. Sounds amazing, good luck! I’m curious about a couple of things though: how will you deal with crossing through large urban areas such as LA and the bay area etc? I’m assuming there is going to be a fair amount of road walking involved in this endeavor? I’ve driven on parts of highway 1 and it seems like there is a lot of sheer cliffs that drop into the sea, and the only way of following the coast is the road. Also, how much of the coastal land is private property? I’ve hiked on the Lost Coast in northern California and it was incredible to walk for miles on an untouched isolated beach - if only the whole coast line was still so pristine… regardless of any of this, it will be a great experience I’m sure. I’ll be checking your journal.

Yappy: thanks. Alaska? Sure, I’m on my way…

aaron111

#16

I wrote a long reply, but I lost it somehow… but it boiled down to:

We don’t know how we’re going to do it.

But we have some ideas.

I will be producing a photojournal book, and if anyone wants to know, it can be preordered at www.thawookie.com in the coming weeks.

Yet after looking at your pics, I had a strange urge to zing my film-guzzling Nikon F3 out the window. Yet some invisible force prevented me from doing so.

Perhaps it was the $300 dollars in transparency film in the fridge. :lol

Or maybe it was the stack of cokin filters and polarizers I have been amassing over the past three months.

But most likely it was a stubborn sense of pride and the intolerance for sitting any longer in front of a computer-the luddite’s vice or versa.

Enough!

I love the photographer’s website idea. There needs to be a medium for that kind of sharing for long-distance hikers. Perhaps Leif and Zipdrive would be willing to support as well on the web end of things.

I will answer all the rest of your questions in the next four months.

Take care, and by the love of God, keep shooting and photoshopping!

peace :boy

Tha Wookie

#17

Tha Wookie, for various reasons I’ve come to prefer digital cameras and the digital darkroom to the traditional method. But in many circles film is still put on a special pedistal. Prestigious publications and publishers such as National Geographic are being slow to accept digital imagery and are only just beginning to do so on a limited basis - the change will come but for the time being film still has a lot of “cred” so don’t feel discouraged about using it. I thought long and hard before finally deciding to bring a digital rather than film camera on the PCT - it was an experiment in many ways. I would have loved to have been able to get an old fashioned Hasselblad, a stable tripod and many other toys out there on the trail but it would have been far more costly and a FAR heavier load. In the end I came very close to brining 35 mm but decided to try something different.

Obviously all of the greatest photographs in history were taken with film and that doesn’t suddenly change because digital comes along. I don’t think Ansel Adams would have felt a need to give up using analog technology if he had lived to see digital. But make no mistake, Ansel Adams used every trick and the best technology available to him in the wet dark room with great artistry to order to enhance his original exposure and create his ultimate vision on the final print.

I’ve seen your photography and you’ve got nothing to worry about man – you definitely know what you are doing. From reading many of your trail logs and journal entrees I can tell that you are a truly thoughtful human being. If you let your enthusiasm and vision flow into your photographs you are going to have a great book on your hands which I will be very interested in seeing. It is never the tool that matters but what you do with it!

I have to say though, that for a Luddite you have certainly used computers to a quite sophisticated and successful degree so far to document and publicize your journeys. :wink: For my part, I still dream that human beings may become conscious and responsible enough to realize that technology can be used in harmony with our natural existence. Machines are indeed a natural result and expression of the human mind and they aren’t going away any time soon – we’ve got to learn to use them to make our lives and environment healthier rather than the other way around.

I’ve just got one suggestion for you as you walk along the coast - don’t be afraid to take pictures of some of the less pretty sights that you will inevitably encounter. Documenting devastated and polluted areas will be a very dramatic and important contrast to the spectacular beauty you will also find.

GOOD LUCK!!

aaron111

#18

yeah, you’re right, I almost typed “psuedo-luddite”, but was then thinking that in relative terms I’m “behind” in many respects as far as technological tools go.

I really appreciate the positive encouragement, and I think by your work is a powerful testament to your words. It is true that cameras (as are computers) are merely materials for production. Art does not depend on technology (thank you God).

By the way, I gave your URL to my father, who has been a pro for 30 years (vice president of APA), and has made a leap into the digital world (www.olive.com). He absolutely loved your results. Are you working on publishing, submitting for stock images, or doing print shows with them?

Yes the point about Ansel is well-taken. I actually mentioned that my first reply that’s now floating in the cosmos of cyberspace. Ansel also did a lot of work to promote his finished images, and to use them to make statements about why those views should be preserved.

One last thing here… I am torn about the pollution and development images. I will show human influence, however. Galen Rowell avoided negative images becase he said there were enough and that they desensitized people to the harsh reality. Instead, he focused on beauty and harmonay with man and nature to reinforce the potential for that connection, even in the most remote corners of the world. I don’t necessarily agree 100% with this, but there is a point there. What do you think?

My focus will be “Dancing the tidal line”, as I explore the interface of land, sea, and celestial influence of the tides providing the sexy backbeat. I suppose I will shoot anything that falls into that construct. Somewhere along that line will be exchange of people and the natural ecology.

Ok, got a trip to plan for…

I keep going back and looking at your images. Simply fasinating!

Take care

Tha Wookie

#19

When I go into the big trees grove on the northern California Coast I take photographs of all of the enormous 300+foot redwoods, the forest, the undergrowth, the animals, the river, the rocks, etc. When I come out, I document the sawmill accross the street at the entrance. I’m sickend by the fact that these people are cutting down trees that were around before the New World was even “discovered” by Europeans. Not only “just” trees, these trees grow in only a few select places in the world (due to the last glaciation wiping out the other extensive growths). Seeing 5-foot diameter redwoods chopped to pieces for greed is…well…disturbing.

Here’s my take. Yes, Galen has a point. We don’t want to desensitize people to the devastation that urban expansion/encroachment creates on the wilderness…but if you never show them what’s really going on, they won’t even know. Document how awesome stuff CAN be, but show them (and TELL THEM) how it really is too. Everyone has a different philosophy. Mine is to be realistic.

-Howie

HungryHowie

#20

i know the thread has digressed, but dude. i showed my family your pictures because i felt that i have never seen images that come so close to actually showing what it was like out there. the multiple exposures translate the detail of the eye. i saw the detail of the foreground and the towering peaks shimmering perfect orange behind. nice, nice work, hombre.

milo