Category: photos

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West Coast Trail restoration

Photographer Josh McCulloch will be documenting the West Coast Trail winter storm damage restoration efforts.

It was a devastating winter in the Pacific Northwest. On the WCT:

– about 2000 trees down on the trail (80-100 is normal in a winter)
– cable cars down at Klanawa and Carmanah
– Suspension bridge at Logan Creek is down
– Landslide at km 12 near Michigan Creek

Josh has been out with the trail crews already and is optimistic:

If you are planning to do the trail this year, things are looking up. Though the damage is severe, I look at it more as an amazing event that shows the raw power of nature. When you’re walking through the forest near Pachena Bay, stop and look at the trees that are down there, it is absolutely mind-blowing!

West Coast Trail Winter Storm Damage and Restoration

This is a labour of love. Josh has done the WCT 11 times since 1997.

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We’ve linked to Josh’s photos tagged “West Coast Trail” from our West Coast Trail information page.

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not having a camera is a GOOD thing

Another great post from the surprising, thoughtful As The Crow Flies blog:

Ten years ago my camera was stolen and until this winter, I didn’t replace it. A camera is nice to have for blogging but for traveling and on the trail I find it too heavy and I think it encourages a person to objectify their experiences. Without a camera, when great sunsets are happening, you don’t think, “this will make a good picture,” you just sit back and enjoy it thoroughly.

On a trek in a jungle in Sumatra, a mother orangutan came down a tree with her baby wrapped around her, the guide gave me a banana as I was the only one without a camera in my hands, I handed the orangutan the banana, looked into her eyes and touched her hand. Over and over, I see people missing experiences by trying to capture them.

Five years ago, when I sold my house, I needed to get rid of all of my stuff. I looked through all the pictures I had, took out the ones of my son, sent them to him, and threw away the rest. Life is about now and you can never be in the now if you have to cart the past around with you.

My travels and hikes are not diminished by not having pictures; I think they are enhanced because not having a camera frees me up for experiencing the moment instead of trying to preserve it. In addition, my life is enhanced by not having to store bunches of pictures of the past.

As The Crow Flies» Blog Archive » Pictures.

(She actually does have a camera now.)

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amazing photos – Marc Shandro

Looking for inspiration today?

I particularly like some of those featuring his son Aaron, here atop Mt. Eiffel in the Canadian Rockies.

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Aaron Climbs Mt. Eiffel, originally uploaded by Marc Shandro.

A wilderness expert already at his young age.

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larger original

“favourite” photos of Marc Shandro – flickr

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Tasmania – Cradle, Ossa, Acropolis

Scrambling adjacent mountain peaks is one of the reasons we love the Overland Track in Tasmania.

The three best sidetrip climbs are Cradle Mountain, Mt. Ossa and The Acropolis. We’ve posted our photos of each of those three.

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more Cradle Mountain photos on flickr

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park – Wikipedia

Ossa is the the highest mountain on the island, but the easiest of the three scrambles we did.
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more Mt. Ossa photos on flickr

Mt. Ossa – Wikipedia

The sidetrip to climb The Acropolis adds a day to the regular Overland itinerary. Staying one extra night at Pine Hut is highly recommended.
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more Acropolis photos on flickr

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aerial photography of the Andes

Washington Post Staff Writer Marie Arana got the chance to fly over the second highest mountain range in the world.

What a stroke of luck! Or is it?

Bobby Haas, a seasoned aerial photographer, was on the seventh leg of a year-long project to take bird’s-eye views of all of Latin America for a lavish volume to be released in September.

When, in e-mail correspondence with him, I casually expressed an interest in seeing the mountains of Peru from that vantage, he invited me to go along. Now, I’m no high-risk adventurer and actually prefer the comforts of a good tub to the rigors of the road …

Winging It in the Andes of Peru – washingtonpost.com

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2006 Photo Contest Winners @ National Geographic Traveler

Agh.

This photo freaks me out.

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John Dranchak, Long Beach, California

It was a Merit Prize winner in the most recent National Geographic contest chosen from 15,000 entries.

John Dranchak—until recently, an aerospace engineer in Long Beach, California—took this image in Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, where he was traveling with friends. Dranchak says the guide is holding onto his friend’s belt to keep him from falling into the water.

“I was afraid to go down there and stand in that crevasse,” he says. “I walked up to the top of the ridge, and I thought, ‘This is just gorgeous.’ The colors of the image caught my eye.”

2006 Photo Contest Winners @ National Geographic Traveler

See the rest of the winning photos.

(via Adventure Blog)

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“13 Photographs That Changed the World”

Ansel Adams made the list.

I am still shocked at the number of people who seem unaware of the beauty of the wild world, even with ever increasing access to great photos.

Some claim photography can be divided into two eras: Before Adams and After Adams. In Times B.A., for instance, photography wasn’t widely considered an art form. Rather, photographers attempted to make their pictures more “artistic” (i.e., more like paintings) by subjecting their exposures to all sorts of extreme manipulations, from coating their lenses with petroleum jelly to scratching the surfaces of their negatives with needles. Then came Ansel Adams, helping shutterbugs everywhere get over their collective inferiority complex.

Brashly declaring photography to be “a blazing poetry of the real,” Adams eschewed manipulations, claiming they were simply derivative of other art forms. Instead, he preached the value of “pure photography.” In an era when handheld point-and-shoot cameras were quickly becoming the norm, Adams and other landscape photographers clung to their bulky, old-fashioned large-format cameras. Ultimately, Adams’ pictures turned photography into fine art. What’s more, they shaped the way Americans thought of their nation’s wilderness and, with that, how to preserve it.

Adams’ passion for the land wasn’t limited to vistas he framed through the lens. In 1936, he accompanied his photos to Washington to lobby for the preservation of the Kings Canyon area in California. Sure enough, he was successful, and it was declared a national park.

Neatorama » Blog Archive » 13 Photographs That Changed the World.

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The Tetons – Snake River (1942)

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Buck Forester – the best outdoor photographer?

Brian Ernst, who goes by the wilderness name of Buck Forester, seems to be the most popular photographer on flickr.

If you haven’t seen his stuff, check it out right now:

Buck Forester’s photos

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original – Mono Lake, California

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original – Lake Tahoe, California

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original – Lost Coast, California