Cerro Fitz Roy Group
Taken on a photo-camping expedition to Patagonia in the early morning after hiking up from Camp Poincenot. The moraine lake is the Lago los Tres....
Read more
Taken on a photo-camping expedition to Patagonia in the early morning after hiking up from Camp Poincenot. The moraine lake is the Lago los Tres.
Read less
Read less
Jun, 2023Views
368
Likes
Awards
Summer Views Award
Peer Award
Top Choice
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
Top 20 rank
Top 10 rank
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
The photograph was taken at the Lago de los Tres with Cerro Fitz Roy in the background. We had camped overnight at Poincenot (750 metres) and hiked a bit more than 400m up to the lake in the dark so as to be in view of Fitz Roy before dawn. The photo was taken towards the West but, as the highest point in the chain, Fitz Roy is visible from the Pacific Ocean and is named after the captain of the Beagle, the ship on which Charles Darwin made his famous voyage.Time
The sun just touched the summit at around 08h30 local time, but this was taken about an hour later when the whole massif was illuminated.Lighting
The sun was behind me and still very low with a reddish dawn colour.Equipment
The image was taken with a Canon EOS 70D. This was placed on a tripod and a one second exposure was triggered with a remote control. The lens used was the Tamron 10-24 F 3.5-4.5 SP at 13 mm. The aperture was set to F20 to get a large depth of field with ISO set to 100.Inspiration
This was my third exp[edition to Patagonia. The first time I was touring with my wife and we even landed on Cape Horn in a Zodiac. I was knocked out by the scenery, but on that occasion I had only seen the Towers of Paine and Cerro Torre from a distance, and so later returned twice with a small group to take photographs. Beware, though, that access is not easy, and we each carried well over 20 kg of camping and photographic equipment for 50 km.Editing
I took graduated neutral density filters with me to deal with the contrast between land and sky. In post-processing my goal was a result which reproduced the views as I remembered them. Thus, I likely made small changes to clarity, sharpness, contrast and vibrance.In my camera bag
I still use the EOS 70D, especially for photographing grandchildren as it has a built in flash. With the 70D I mostly use the EF-S 15-85 F 3.5-5.6 IS USM which is better than a kit lens. I now also have an EOS R6 Mark-II with the RF 24-105 F 4.0 L, which is excellent. The problem with the camera is that the instruction manual runs to 1073 pages, but the autofocus is amazing once you work out how to use it. As a telephoto I bought the RF 100-400 F5.6-8.0, which is quite good. I gave up on the idea of the RF 100-500, not because of the price, but because it is much bigger than the 100-400 and twice the weight. Owning a marvelous lens is useless if it is too heavy to carry (along with a tent and food for 5 days). I also own the Samyang AF14 F2.8 RF, but this requires the latest firmware version to work with the R6-II.Feedback
I have spent 30 years mountaineering and carrying lots of photo equipment to remote places. My wife thinks I am mad (what a surprise). However, there is no alternative to carrying the gear to where the scenery is and waiting in the cold until the lighting is right!
