Simplifatico

Absaroka Sunset (Leica M6 & Fuji Velvia 50)

 

Absaroka Sunset

Leica M6, Fuji Velvia 50

I love Velvia 50 because it can simultaneously do pinks, blues, and whites without much color casting and contamination. Digital can't do that, and it's nearly impossible to easily correct in Photoshop, which means that it's tedious and thus, a waste of precious time. Time should be spent on doing important things, not tedious things.

I miss film photography for its ability to deliver out of camera images that don't require fussing, and I find it pretty ironic that most professional digital photoprocessing software like Color Efex Pro uses nonlinear (and probably, logarithmic) image manipulation functions combined with dodge and burn features to help digital look, well, more like film.

This isn't a digital vs. film argument. That's a dead horse I really don't care to visit or spend time on. I just think it's really neat that the image above was scanned and dropped straight into my blog without a robust appointment with Photoshop.

So let's talk about the image instead, and not photography.

This view looks straight into the western edge of the Absaroka Range. One divide behind the horizon is the Absaroka Backbone (hydrologic divide), which snakes towards Wyoming for a distance of 300 miles. It's my favorite long distance trek in the lower 48. I wrote about the trek, and the Backbone, in Issue 6 which now lives on in PDF format.

It's a Tough Walk because if you're going to stick to the benches below the Backbone, and you should, because the trails take you too far away from it, you have to contend with Stuff and deal with Issues.

That Stuff and those Issues were what was on my mind this January evening as I snapped this shot, because I wasn't really dealing with any Stuff or Issues, having just completed a nice soak at Chico.

Don't get me wrong, I like hot springs as much as the next guy.

But some days, like today, I miss the toughness of being in a Wild Place.

Dreaming of Favorite Places

 

South Fork Flathead River, Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex - a favorite place.
(Photo: Sigma DP2)

I got a message this morning from a PR agency in San Francisco that I started my day off with a good laugh:

    "Now that the weather has finally warmed up for good, it’s time to head outdoors!"

I had to laugh because the view out my window today was awfully ... white.

Spring snow always gives me a chuckle because of the irony it brings to the landscape. Yesterday, Stephanie and I took our first spring walk in the Bridger Mountains and found arrowleaf balsamroot and shooting stars in bloom.

Today, those same flowers are buried.

But as much as the spring flowers yesterday offered hope of a new hiking season, so too did today's snow remind me that accessing my favorite places by foot and packraft is still a ways off.

Patrol Campfire

 

 Patrol Campfire

Tobacco Root Mountains, March 2010 (Sigma DP2, f/2.8 15s)

Our Scouts are learning about lightweight backpacking.

Unlike most of us, who learned about it on our own, these kids are learning it in the context of the Patrol Method, that tenet of the Scouting program that develops character, teamwork, and leadership of the group.

In the photo above, one of our patrols is cooking dinner. They were issued a 1 gallon pot and a firestarting kit and left to their own devices with dehydrated meals they shopped for, and packaged, on their own. This was a practice run before we went backpacking for the next two days.

Our next trip is this coming weekend - a patrol outing into the Lee Metcalf Wilderness. We're preparing for bigger trips this summer on the CDT in Glacier National Park and a traverse of the Beartooth Plateau.

Our troop website has lots of great information on how we "do" lightweight backpacking with Scouts, including our Troop's Backpacking Handbook, Gear List, and more, and we're spreading the gospel to Scout Leaders and High Adventure Staff at this course in May, which is almost full.

Olympic Coast Sunset (1991, Nikon FM2, Fuji Velvia)

 

Olympic Coast Sunset Near Cape Alava, WA
(Nikon FM2, Fuji Velvia, March 1991)

There is something to be said about film and it's hard to put it into words, so here's a photo instead.

I've never shot a sunset with digital - even with a full frame 5D - that feels "right" putting up on my wall, but I've shot plenty with Velvia, like this one. It just sort of dances.

Here's a great example of how long my workflow with film can be. I shot this slide on a backpacking trip with Stephanie in 1991 - our first trip together. I then had it developed, probably looked at a few times on the light table and said "neato" and then packed it in a box. Nineteen years later, I scanned it to take a look at the file quality, because I'm not finding so many shots from the digital years that I'm proud to hang on the wall.

The beauty of such a slow work flow is that I have boxes of slides taken with great film and lenses from 20-odd years that I can now scan and digitally develop, and/or turn into prints and I don't have to buy any new camera equipment to do it.

Which means, maybe, I should spend more time with my Nikon FM3a, Leica M6, and Contax T3, to take some more new photos now, so I have something to do with the new generation of scanners that will be around in 2030.

Spring Hostility in Montana (Photo: Sigma DP2)

Spring Hostility in Montana, Sigma DP2 (click for larger)

Last weekend we took the Scout troop on their first backpacking trip of the season into the foothills of the Tobacco Root Mountains. We cooked over fires, slept under tarps, and learned the art of navigating in coulee country.

It was cold, too. Twenty one degrees on the first night. On our second day, we hiked and camped in outrageous winds that toppled shelters, chapped faces, and put ultralight stoves to shame. This was a trip where some troops might take mountaineering tents, balaclavas, and XG-K's.

Instead, we chose light packs: our boys had pack weights that averaged less than 20 pounds (including food and at least 3 liters of water in this dry country). That's minus one anomaly: our SPL carried 43, because we saddled him with 8 liters of extra water.