This shot was taken with a Kodak Retina IIF film camera that I found at an estate sale and a roll of high contrast black and white film.
part 4
The mosquitoes were still lying dormant, hiding from the cold morning air, at least up here in the shade where I was.
As the sunlight grew and spread to embrace Merriam Lake I shared the beautiful view with this group of trees.
I've seen photos of a single backpacker silhouetted against a glowing peak; I'd love to do a shot like that if I had some one with me but I usually don't. I the one thing that is almost always there are trees and they are just as sentient and just as deserving to be the subject as any wilderness wanderer.
"Wilderness Wanderer", that bring up another thought.
Backpacking, a boring title for something much more than boring. Sure its hard and dusty, dirty, gritty, difficult, challenging, full of sweat sometimes blood and maybe tears as well. I my opinion wilderness wandering is a much better name for what we do, especially those of us who venture off trail into the vast, wide open and unknown wildernesses.
Anyway, if you take time to read this and you like the term, "Wilderness Wandering" share it and spread it around, and who knows, maybe we could start something.
Tags: film landscape wilderness wandering black and white trees lake mountains sierra backpacking camping hiking wilderness view shadow light rocks water
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This shot was taken with a Kodak Retina IIF film camera that I found at an estate sale and a roll of high contrast black and white film.
I didn't give a very detailed explanation on my last upload because it was late and I was tired. I'll do better on this one.
Part 1
Friday night, 8/16/19, I left straight from work and drove to the town of bishop California. I arrived at a good spot to pull off the road and spend the night in my car at around 12:30 am. I spent the next two days acclimating to the higher elevation. On Monday I started on trail at North Lake and was prepared for nine days in the Sierras, however the mountains had other plans.
My pack was 55 lbs, mostly food and camera equipment, I also had crampons and an ice axe for one specific pass I would be going over.
For as heavy as my pack was, day one was fairly easy and I reach Piute Pass without issue. During a long break at the top I talked to a group of three who were coming out and who had stayed where I had planned on staying myself for the first night, Golden Trout Lake. They told me that the mosquitoes were horrendous there.
I continued and reached the marsh lands that surrounded the lake. There I took another break, but as soon as I stopped moving and stood still I was engulfed in a cloud of mosquitoes and immediately I started moving again. I searched for a spot far enough away from the marshes hoping that would reduce the size of the swarm and for a while it worked. I set my tent up on a gravel hill and so long as the breeze blew the mosquitoes weren't that bad.
when the sun sank lower the breeze died down and the swarm became more persistent, it's numbers grew and became hundreds. I had no choice but to take shelter in my tent, the sunset was still about two hours away. It was in there that I was held prisoner until morning.
My tent is just a mesh netting (with a rain fly if I need it) and is completely see through. At one point I held my hand no more than an inch from the mesh for about a minute and when I pulled it back there was a mass of the little bloodsucker silhouetting it. There were hundreds swarming outside my tent until I fell asleep. I never got the chance to photograph sunset that first night.
When I woke up in the morning the air was crisp and frost was on my sleeping bag. The swarm was nowhere to be seen, the frost had chased them away. I grabbed my two cameras, one film and one digital, and headed outside to photograph sunrise. Not one single mosquito annoyed me the whole time, that was until an hour and a half later at suntouch when the warmth from sol chased away the frost.
Tags: film black and white high sierra landscape contrast backpacking hiking camping wilderness wandering morning sunrise mountains california golden trout lake
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youtu.be/-uXkeAPVcrY
Taken on film with a canon G-III QL
Tags: utah high uintas wilderness aspen trees forest mountain mountains landscape black and white hiking backpacking camping wilderness wandering ligh and shadow shadow light contrast
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It was suppose to be a three day weekend. Then I was asked to cover a shift on Saturday, so the three days became two. On Sunday I drove almost 100 miles to the trail head and began to hike. I reached the waterfall after a few miles and it was dry... if it was dry the campsite another mile or so away was going to be dry too, so I headed back to my car and arrived with the sun just about to set. Then I drove back towards home. it was late into the night when i reached this spot along side highway 33. It's a very large turnout that is shielded from the road by a hill, so i decided to spend the night in my car here.
The night was warm and crystal clear and the stars where out in full. After watching a few shooting stars I climbed into the back of my jeep to go to sleep.
In the morning I awoke to see that the fog had rolled in from the ocean to fill the valley that i would soon be driving through.
youtu.be/0j7dRXeRQs0
Taken on film with a canon G-III QL
Tags: G-III QL film fog landscape black and white mountains ojai california los padres dark clouds 33 highway 33 wilderness
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taken on film with a Canon Rebel 2000
Tags: film rebel 2000 boat island ocean light seascape
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