The NEW Post Your Campsite/gear/knife/hiking/anything Outdoorsy Pic Thread!

[JV3]

Hello, just bought a used Nikon D50, my first camera, 4 months ago. I've been enjoying your pictures for awhile now so I'd like to share some with you guys. Tips and criticisms welcome, please.

nice pics and welcome!

 

[eujaee]

SAVAGE Photos my friend.

Hard to believe it's your first Camera, you use it well, and have a good "eye" for interpreting the three dimensional world into valid two dimensional works of art.

The hole in the stone is the result of erosion. Quite possibly a glacial pot hole later moved and left as an erratic bolder.





Big Mike

I need to tell the whole story. The guy I bought the camera off is a co-worker and he is the camera god, his pictures look like the ones in magazines. He looks over my stuff and what settings I used and tells me what I did right or wrong. For example, all the Mt. Baldy pictures were at ISO 800 because I thought higher was better. I fill up my 2 gig card with 263 raw files and I estimate I erase 3/4 of the pictures I take, because they suck. And then I'm cherry-picking only a couple from each hike. So it's pretty much spray and pray. Here's some more though.

On the way to Cucamonga Peak (~8800 ft.), maybe 1/2 mile before Ice House Saddle, sun's just starting to hit the trees to my W.

First try at HDR. Almost to the saddle. The spots of light on the trail aren't as bright as I was hoping for, there's some ghosting on the branches of the tree to the upper right. I need a tripod.

Maybe 50 yds past the saddle, looking E. Got the sun kind of low and facing the lens, colors are weird no matter how I play with it.

Maybe 1/2 a mile from the saddle, there's an abandoned mine right next to the trail. I thought it was a cave until I went in.

The mine is "H" shaped with a small tunnel connecting two parallel legs and the entrance would be at the end of one of the legs. You have to crawl into the entrance but there's room to stand pretty quick. The leg with the entrance is about 20 yds long and the other tunnel is about 50 yds long. This is the connecting tunnel and you can see some green on the left wall. I suppose this was a copper mine. There are folks who still pan for gold in the rivers that run through these mountains.

Some rotten supports. Right here is where I thought maybe this was a dumb place to be. I'm using a Jetbeam BC25 for the camera to meter.

Back end of the longer tunnel, there is a shaft that goes down. It either filled in or whoever just gave up. I'm not sure if that log at the bottom isn't half buried or if it's just a short log.

Back at the entrance and happy no one snaked my pack.

Summit was cool, but no good pictures. Tried a panorama of Mt. San Jacinto due S, not sure of the distance.

Then back down in the canyon, a creek runs in it. Some places the flow is like this, some places there's more.

 

[HikingMano]

Jerry, nice score!! You just keep building and building your collection

Eujaee, welcome! Solid first few posts, and I like your last pic in your first post in particular, the one of the trail to Baldy :thumbup: Love the colors in your captured. How are you making your composites? Looking forward to seeing more from you!

I was backpacking last week in Yosemite. Still haven't finished going through all my pics, but I'll post them when I finish. Been inching along through em...

 

[eujaee]

Jerry, nice score!! You just keep building and building your collection

Eujaee, welcome! Solid first few posts, and I like your last pic in your first post in particular, the one of the trail to Baldy :thumbup: Love the colors in your captured. How are you making your composites? Looking forward to seeing more from you!

I was backpacking last week in Yosemite. Still haven't finished going through all my pics, but I'll post them when I finish. Been inching along through em...

Hello, looking forward to your Yosemite pictures. I was there only once when I was a kid and don't remember much, except standing in line at the ranger station for a camp site. When I can look at other peoples' pictures, I can see all the stuff I missed out on.

I am using Microsoft Image Composite Editor, which is free. I have tried using Hugin, which is also free, but it is too complicated for me. I don't know about you, but going through/adjusting pictures is my least favorite part of the whole process.

One last set of random pictures. Early morning looking W on Marion Mt. Trail. Cropped it to make more interesting, exposure bumped down, contrast bumped up.

On the trail to Ontario Peak, past Ice House Saddle, 4-5 image composite.

Somewhere on the way back down from Baden-Powell.

From Baldy looking at West Baldy. Kind of fuzzy, exposure was too long for hand hold and I was shivering.

Snake shaped cloud during Baldy hike.

This is another angle look at the picture you liked, from higher up, on the way back down to it.

 

[HikingMano]

Haha, yes, going through pics and uploading them is the least favorite part of the process for me as well. I do very minimal post-processing as a result (crop and levels mostly, sometimes saturation and exposure/contrast as well if a pic didn't come out well, would do sharpening but it's too much of a pain to take images over to photoshop and work on em with an unsharp mask...). I've been slacking lately putting up pics here, been in a posting slump I guess, haha. I have nearly 1k pics from the week-long backpack in Yosemite, takes me a while to sift through them.

Anyway, another nice set, thanks for sharing! :thumbup:

 

[taldesta]

eujaee ... beyond the quality camera and your most worthy mentor, the passionate eye is yours. Snake shaped cloud is now my desktop image. I don't change this image lightly, ever. Thank you.

 

[redsquid2]

eujaee, I don't know where all these places are. Baldy, Baden-Powell, etc. Are they in California? I am in love with this place based on your pictures.

 

[eujaee]

HikingMano, can't wait for your pictures. 1 week trip through some beautiful country will make for very good picture looking. I wish I could get away with not making adjustments to my pictures. I still remember your pictures from Tahoe, sharp and contrasty.

taldesta, thank you. If you would like I can email you the original image, or the original RAW if you have something that can read/adjust NEF.

redsquid2, these places are all in the San Gabriel/San Bernardino National Forests. 1-2 hours drive from home. What kind of sucks is that Los Angeles/Riverside counties sprawl right up to the borders of these places and you don't really feel like you are in a wilderness. I guess they'd be plenty wild if you ever got lost, though.

I am wrong about the mountain panorama shot from the Cucamonga Peak hike. It is not San Jacinto, which would not be due south from where I was standing.

 

[HikingMano]

I should be able to get them up later this week or this weekend, almost done going through them. Picture taking died off towards the end because I ran out of juice, haha. Some pics came out ok, some failed, but c'est la vie. It's always hard to do these places justice with a camera, particularly with my dinky point and shoot and meager photography knowledge/skill.

 

[HikingMano]

Gonna post these a day or two at a time probably. I'm not crazy about how most of the pics turned out (getting so annoyed with how P&S cameras don't handle high contrast landscape scenery), but oh well. Anyway, here we go


Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne Trip - Yosemite NP - Day 1

My buddy Ray and I start our week long thru-hike of the GCT.

Can't help but drool over the views as one drives into the Yosemite high country. Views here of Tenaya Lake and Peak, and the Polly, Pywiack, Medlicott domes.

After staging our vehicle and doing our final packing in Tuolumne Meadows, Ray and I mosey along into the meadows to kill time until our bus ride to White Wolf Lodge, about 26 road miles away.

Mariposa Lilies.

Checked out the Tuolumne River in the meadows.

View SW across meadows towards Cathedral Peak, Unicorn Peak, and Cockscomb.

Lembert Dome

We were eager to hit the trail upon our arrival at White Wolf that afternoon. Lupines and Asters greeted us as we started our descent into the canyon.

Heading down to Pate Valley, then up the canyon back to Tuolumne Meadows. My friend is an older gent, so we spread the 30 mile-ish trip over more days than required, leaving time for relaxation and side trips. Particularly bad pic, sorry.

Sierra Tiger Lily

We start descending more or less from 8k'

Paintbrush, Butterweed (?), and Daisies.

A few miles from White Wolf you get your first breathtaking views of the trip...

Looking NE along and beyond Rancheria Mountain.

Zoom in (landscape north of Pleasant Valley).

Looking NW towards the Hetch Hetchy end of the canyon.

Good spot to enjoy the breeze and take in the views.

Video of views. Watch any vids I post in 720p; they're slightly better.
[video=youtube;s4-fSKlwb70]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4-fSKlwb70[/video]

Paintbrushes

Not sure on this one.

I enjoyed the varied terrain as we made our way down towards Pate Valley.

Loved the late afternoon light.

I had planned to camp in an area farther down the descent on the first night, but we made camp a bit earlier due to some misinformation from hikers on the way up from Pate Valley and my caution in trusting my beta explicitly.

Our view as we chilled on a large boulder near our campsite (which was nestled near Morrison Creek) and ate dinner. I couldn't wait to get going on the morrow as we appreciated the canyon falling into shadow from our nearly 7k' perch.

Day 2 comin.

 

[HikingMano]

I just realized that for some reason photobucket is now uploading full size images. I thought it used to downsize them upon upload, hmm. Anyway, my storage space is filling up on photobucket, so now I have to resize images manually before uploading them...what a pain...

Posting these will take me a little bit longer, argh.

 

[cbr6fs]

What tent is that please?

 

[HikingMano]

That's a Mountain Laurel Designs cuben fiber Duomid with a MLD silnylon solo innernet. :thumbup:

 

[HikingMano]

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne Trip - Yosemite NP - Day 2

Heading down to Pate Valley and camping a couple of miles beyond, below 5352T...

After a restful sleep, woke up at dawn to watch the sun rise over the canyon.

Getting there... (iphone pic)

Ray opted to catch a few more zzz's...

I chilled on a nice boulder and enjoyed daybreak.

A little lighter... (iphone pic)

Almost there...

Ah!

w00t w00t.

Nothing quite as cheery as the morning sun.

Morrison Creek running behind our camp. More of a trickle, but it was good enough. After having breakfast, getting some water, and breaking camp, Ray and I continued down to Pate Valley.

Views of the area Piute Creek runs though started peeking through as we made our way down.

Zoom.

Great scenery abounds right on the trail as well.

Soon enough, we start getting magnificent views of Pate Valley and up-canyon.

This was taken near the area we were aiming to camp at the night before. We would have had spectacular views of Hetch Hetchy as well as up-canyon.

Zoom, backside of Hetch Hetchy.

This is the actual area; we're checking out the top of this dome that would have been amazing to camp on.

Here's the view without my mug in it.

Never ceases to amaze when I see the precarious positions some of these erratics live in...

Well, we didn't get to camp here, but we sure as hell made it a point to enjoy a nice snack and break here.

Reluctantly, we continued down.

The trail to Pate, and quite a bit of the GCT for that matter, is no cake walk; one must pay constant attention to foot placement.

Getting closer to Pate Valley.

Dried up little pond we passed by when we hit the canyon floor. Dry year.

Ah! The Tuolumne!

Beautiful. We stopped for a bit to have lunch, swim/bathe, and do laundry. Love Sierra waters.

Ayuh. We followed the river more or less as we made our way into Pate Valley.

Hiking through Pate, we came to this one beachy area of the river that was just ethereal. Just superb. I could easily have spent a day or two in the area lounging in the river and exploring. Had I more time, I would have done a day trip up to Pleasant Valley and the Table Lake area.

No eden is complete without a serpent.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

We did not camp in Pate on this trip, and neither of us were keen on the reputation Pate has for particularly active bears. I want a good night's sleep, thanks . So, we moseyed along. Next time, I'll do at least a night or two in Pate.

Split Tuolumne rejoining itself.

The hike through Pate turned into a bit of hot slog. As the day grew, the heat really started beating on us. Probably a factor of both the overall weather and the low elevation (we're about 4k' lower from yesterday). And the shaded sections of Pate were mosquito turf (though mosquitoes weren't that bad on this trip at all, with the dry year...not nearly as bad as they can be).

The river was always available if we really needed to cool off, though we never really took advantage, preferring to lounge at camp later.

Nearly to our second campsite, down at the edge of the forested section here and at the base of the slope.

Ray, looking forward to the end of the hot slog.

At camp, we were gifted this awesome cascade, almost mini-waterwheel-esque.

The river playfully rushed down this worn slope to feed this nice little swimming hole. On this slope was the most awesome little clean granite pool, fed and drained off the side of the main cascade. It was PERFECT for cooling off, getting water, bathing, etc. Didn't get a shot that really did it justice, on this day at least.

The next pool over, this guy was basking. Plenty of room for everyone .

"Good heavens, sir, I daresay I've been subjected to enough impropriety for one day!" Sorry, my good fellow, bathing at the end of a hot hike always feels so good...

Little fall above the cascade, quite a deep looking pool there.

View down the cascade.

Canyon walls and peaks fronting our camp.

Sun is setting. Time for dinner and other camp chores.

All ready...

All that was left was to enjoy the setting sun lighting up the walls (Colby Mountain here).

Day 3 comin.

 

[HikingMano]

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne Trip - Yosemite NP - Day 3

From campsite near cascade below 5352T to campsite on dome above Muir Gorge.

Dawn, baby! Always something I relish. I feel as if I pick up the string of the world and see, hear, feel the vibrations of existence. It's confirmation that the world turns, and that I turn with it.

Have a hard time staying in the shelter at sunrise. Had to get out and poke around the cascade in the ephemeral glow.

[video=youtube;qj-jjHrX63s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj-jjHrX63s[/video]

Looking down the cascade into the pool at the bottom.

Dynamic.

I feel a kinship with the river; it passes on coffee.

[video=youtube;RMsquM9Wfuc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMsquM9Wfuc[/video]

Sunlight descending into the canyon.

Went a few more paces up-river and came across a lovely and spirited little fall.

Cool.

Had to sit by the fall and just chill for a while, feel the world stir.

[video=youtube;PXJIxveQH58]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXJIxveQH58[/video]

Continually impressed with all the footholds life finds.

Continued in next post...

 

[HikingMano]

Continued from above post.

Boom!

Ray got out of bed in time to enjoy the last bit of the early morning. That little pool you see there, just to the right of the main cascade, right past Ray, was the best for lounging, getting water, washing, whatever. We spent a good bit of the morning being lazy in or around it, especially as the day started warming.

I brought him up to the little fall.

Kinda reminds me of the prismatic hot springs in Yellowstone. But this water definitely isn't hot

Basking after the night.

Enjoyable little cascade. We stuck around for a bit to soak up the sun for a little as it started to fill the canyon.

The lazy clouds cast dappled morning light on the surrounding canyon walls and peaks. Eventually, we hit the trail again.

Beautiful. Of course, these meager pics don't do it justice, sorry . Looking back SW along the canyon.

View south.

SW view further along the trail.

Heading east on the trail.

More ethereal scenery.

Don't know if photobucket offers enough quality, but, where's Waldo? We're almost to Register Creek and Muir Gorge here.

My first glimpse of the Muir Gorge. This is pretty much right above the confluence of the Tuolumne with Register Creek and the creek that comes through Rodgers Canyon.

Zoom.

Different angle from a little farther along the trail. My plan was to traverse Muir Gorge coming down river (since it's a dry year), but I wanted to check the outlet at the west and down-river end of the gorge to make sure I could get out (there's one deep pool you have to jump into and swim; I wanted to verify my beta that I wouldn't be jumping into a bowl I couldn't get out of). So, I'd be getting off trail later to check out the end pictured here.

Views SW along the river, taken from the crossing of Rodgers Canyon creek. Ray took a break here, so I reconnoitered ahead to scout the way down to the west end of Muir Gorge.

I was so focused on the off-trail scout, that when I turned a corner on the trail, BAM!, I was hit with the most spectacular surprise at the Register Creek crossing. There are few times when I've actually sucked in a breath in surprise, and this was one. Check out this freaking grotto! Mountain creek falling gently (this year) into an emerald pool, the clarity of which strikes a crystal note in one's soul.

Let's take a closer look shall we?

This is the stuff of myth, legend, Tolkeinesque reverie. I half expected a magical door on the other end of the pool... surely such a mystical grotto is the foyer to some world of incomprehensible beauty...

You know I had to swim in it. Anyone read the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons? I imagined this would be the baptism for Templars, those worshipers of Muir. Oh, let me tell you, it was one frigid baptism

[video=youtube;wUuU70OAbHQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUuU70OAbHQ[/video]

See, I am already one with nature, beloved by all. Bwahhaahah After the swim and standing in the Register Creek fall, it was time to move on and scout out the west end of Muir Gorge.

Wait a minute, let's take a look at it again, shall we? You can't leave a place like this without long, lingering, looks. Ok. Had enough? If so, let's continue on. If not, you're welcome to stay a bit

So, I left Ray to chill at the magical grotto, and I scrambled down to the western terminus of Muir Gorge. Here we are... now to see if I can find the big pool I'd have to swim.

Further in.

After a short jaunt, I was brought to a halt because I had run out of dry boulders to hop. I had my camera on me and wasn't set up to get wet with confidence (d'oh). I had anticipated being able to scramble out of the water all the way to the pool, silly me. Should have gotten equipped for a dunking before going down. Oh well.

A little bit farther, can peek a little further up the gorge. (I know this picture is pretty much the same as the last one. Too bad ) Seeing as it was already getting a bit late in the day, I decided to shelve the Gorge exploration until tomorrow morning, fit it into our schedule somehow. In retrospect, I should have just gone back up to the trail and rejoined Ray, geared up for immersion, then gone back down to fully scout all the way to the pool since the rest of the day would be just getting to and chilling at camp on the dome above the gorge.

I rejoined Ray, then we loaded up on water at Register Creek since camping up on the dome above the gorge would be a dry camp. Situations like that is why I carry a 2L evernew bladder and 2x1L bottles. Here's Ray gettin topside on the dome.

View north from the top of the dome.

Grand Mtn. really is grand! Eastern end of Muir Gorge area is visible.

Zoom. Water level looks doable, but it's still iffy solo. The rocks are slippery, and it's very easy to twist/break something. Easy enough when you're boulder hopping dry stuff, but sometimes it looked like there was no other option but to go down some little fall, which can be sketchy at best. It's ok here, but getting closer to the gorge (not pictured) presented a few sketchier areas. I decided I'd just attempt to get to the big pool from up-river tomorrow morning when the sun got into the gorge (for some warmth), and decide then on whether or not I wanted to trust my beta and take a gamble on swimming through to the west end without having verified a safe-outlet myself.

So, for the rest of the afternoon, there was nothing left but to chill out, take in the views. Grand Mountain, again, to our southeast.

Colby Mountain, to our southwest.

Looking north to wall separating the grand canyon from Rodgers Canyon.

[video=youtube;_Gy_9T8vw6A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gy_9T8vw6A[/video]

View east back along the river, whence we came.

My attempt to get the Milky Way with the pitiful sensor and optics on my P&S. Exercise in futility, I know. I can get an impression of it if I mess with the display of the image, but, here are some stars

Ray opted to sleep out in his bag this night since mosquitoes weren't a problem up on the relatively windy dome. I wanted to practice setting up my duomid with rock anchors in a windy spot. I didn't find enough easily movable rocks that weighed enough to keep tarp taut in wind. As a result, I woke pretty early in the morning to a good bit of flapping since the wind had loaded the tarp sides and moved my anchors. I suspected that would happen to some extent given the few rocks I used, but I hadn't thought it would be as annoying as it became. So, experience gained for next time: put in effort to move heavy rocks, or use deadmen anchors with good size piles of rocks. One can never be lazy if one wants a good night's sleep...

Next couple of days comin tomorrow.

 

[cbr6fs]

That's a Mountain Laurel Designs cuben fiber Duomid with a MLD silnylon solo innernet. :thumbup:

Thank you

 

[milani74]

Awesome pictures guys. That grotto is very cool Mano! Looks like you 2 had a great trip.

 

[HikingMano]

Thank you

You're welcome.

Awesome pictures guys. That grotto is very cool Mano! Looks like you 2 had a great trip.

It was a good trip! Still wish I could have joined John on his; he must be having a blast right now

 

[eujaee]

Uh, goddamn, wow. This is a never-ending train of awesome pictures and it's only day 3? I was going to quote the ones I like the most, but that would get ridiculous pretty quick. So far, my favorites are all the ones of the fast river and falls and the ones with the sun going up or coming down the side of a mountain with the trees in the foreground dark. And there was that one in the grotto where the water was large in the foreground and it looked all prismatic, that one's the best so far.

You keep saying crappy point and shoot, but your pictures are very sharp and detailed, what camera is that? Good exposures, the highlights aren't blown out even though your shooting mixed light/shadow. These pictures are crazy awesome.

What was your pack weight? What kind of food do you carry for a 7 day trip? I've never been backpacking before.