Decision at the edge
Aug, 2012Views
371
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Awards
People's Choice in Above 10,000 feet Photo Challenge
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Top Ranks
Top 20 rank week 2
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in the Rockies when I was out ice climbing.Time
This was taken at early morning. When you are out climbing the photography is just an add on to what you are doing, so pretty much take shots as they present themselves. You often miss the most spectacular part of the day depending on what you are doing or what the circumstances are.Lighting
On clear day on climbing you can often get great shots. You do not really have any control over the lighting situation and often not in a position to change your perspective.Equipment
This is a copy of an image shot on a Canon G2 - which was my introduction into digital photography. Early day so digital was nice but most folks were still using film and the image quality was not on a par with slides on normal film. DSLR's were also expensive and out of most peoples reach.Inspiration
I used to climb with a camera all the time, and most of the time I was shooting just to keep a record of the climbs I had done. Always shooting slide so that I could share that with friends by giving slide shows in the mountain club. The transition into digital was useful in that you could email photos to friends.Editing
I did some photoshop post processing but this image is not the original (note to self....improve backup system). At that stage photoshop was new as well and both digital and photoshop were steep learning curves. The digital age was all a new adventure.In my camera bag
When I was climbing I normally only carried a small compact and my camera of choice was the olympus XA it had a superb lens, manual focus and was compact and a robust, easy to use compact 35mm camera which was perfect for climbing. Love that camera and took some amazing shots on it. If I was setting up for a shot I could use an SLR but most times, as I say, the photography was secondary to the climbing.Feedback
These day we have all sorts of wonderful gear available that I wish I had access to back then. The Hero4 would be a camera of choice in a lot of the more extreme stuff I did. I would also carry a compact of which there are a number on the market - probably something that was robust, waterproof with a manual over ride would be the requirements of choice. The olympus tough series would work well. The gear is secondary to knowing good composition and knowing the basics of your exposure triangle. This would be my choice of gear as a climber not as a photographer. Getting into climbing photography is a different mindset and has way to many variables to talk about but again the options that are now available with the digital gear is mind boggling. I would probably use a drone for a lot of shots.
