Mountain Photography - hints and help!

from stu in the USA office
March 2, 1011

In the coming months our members will be heading head off on climbs and treks to Cho Oyu, Broad Peak, K2, Spantik, Satopanth, Ama Dablam, Aconcagua and more. When they come home they'll all enjoy sharing images with other members of the trips, with family & friends. For some it may even be more serious with quality photos needed for slide shows, talks, sponsors, fundraisers and magazines.

It can be a real challenge to even have a functioning camera when it is -20°C.  You have it accessible and be able to manipulate the tiny knobs and dials with your thick gloves - all the while on steep terrain!  Keeping the camera accessible with battery power and a clean lens takes often all you can muster in difficult conditions and a great deal of planning, practice and forethought is required to just reach this stage.

C2 on Spantik © chris szymiec

 Given the bewildering array of options available on the market today it begins with a lot of questions for most of us. What camera, what lens (or lenses!) and what filters? Where and how to carry it? Given that you can even turn your favorite digital camera on and take a photo, what more do you need to know to get the best images possible? What aperture, shutter speed, ISO, lens and white balance? How do these things affect the depth of field, sharpness and exposure of my image? How to frame, focus and pan? Flash, fill flash or no flash? Raw or JPG or both? Moons, stars and night time exposures? When you get home...then what? Sizing, resolution, sharpening, stitching panoramas, high dynamic range image processing and more to consider!

To understand and master the process of getting and showing great images requires practice and research and will continue to do so with the ever changing marketplace of technology. Fortunately the gear today is great and with a little effort you can get yourself on the path to taking great photos that you'll be proud to share when you get home!

Ama Dablam C2 © stu remensnyder

Where to begin? To help you out we have some great articles and links for you to look over...enjoy.

FTA AlumniOne of our Ama Dablam '05 alumni Brad Jackson has been taking ripping good pics from the mountains for quite a few years and claims as one of his favorite articles on taking great pics in the harsh conditions of the cold, high or cold & high mountains to be an article by Alexandre Buisse. Here is the link to a very extensive tutorial!
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/mountain-climbing.shtml

Another of Brad's favorite sites focuses on the technical aspects of the camera and is very easy to understand. It is by Jon Griffiths and can be found at:
http://www.alpineexposures.com/pages/mountain-landscape-climbing-photo-tips

Brad also like 10 tips for better photos from Jake Norton at:
http://blog.mountainworldproductions.com/2007/11/picture-perfect.html

Brad has a series of his own excellent set recommendations and general reflections at:
http://hobyjackson.info/category/photography







Veronika Bartova has been on quite a few trips with Field Touring and has great images of Satopanth, Tharpu Chuli,  Spantik, Snow Lake Trek and Cho Oyu and we can't wait to see her pictures of the upcoming Khumbu Peaks and High Passes in October (spaces still available!). Here are the links to the image galleries from her 5 times with FTA!
Satopanth 2009
Tharpu Chuli 2008
Cho Oyu 2007
Spantik 2006
Snowlake 2005

Veronika has a really nice eye for composition and making the viewer be transported into her image

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Many of our alumni have outstanding images from trips and if there is a particular trip you are interested in please contact us at info@fieldtouring.com and we'll pass you on to some of the best!

FTA's Resident Expert
FTA founder Dave Hancock has been taking images for more than 2 decades in the mountains and on adventure. He offers his own high valuable tips at the following link on the FTA site. In the series he walks you though some of the basics of exposure, night photography and more.  We'll be adding to his series so come back often!
http://www.fieldtouringalpine.com/trip-resources/mountain-talk/photography-tips

Be sure to click to see the full image and the stunning stars and fire trails
in "Bonfire in the Outback" by dave hancock. High ISO for this one!

Its not about your camera
For a truly exhaustive resource on gear, techniques and more have a look at Ken Rockwell's site
http://www.kenrockwell.com

He has an article called "Its Not About Your Camera" which is a great read and a reminder that we can take great pics or bad pics with nearly any type of gear.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/not-about-your-camera.htm

camera in a plastic baggie keeps the lens snow free!

FTA Gallery
We have a select set of images from trips and treks on our site and more coming all the time. If you are an FTA alum and have pics you think would be nice additions let us know!
http://www.fieldtouringalpine.com/fta-news-and-dispatches/trip-galleries

I have tossed a few in below for some ideas and fodder for conversation!

To get "Ribas Hut on Cotopaxi" Brad Boehringer
had to get out of the warm hut and suffer a bit!

Long exposures can really sap the battery power but they yield often such unexpected results!

having your camera ready for the right moment is key!

A momento of Merv's summit rappel on Ama Dablam  - nothing wrong with asking people to pose!

Climbing to C2 on Ama Dablam with a few thousand feet of air below

high f-stop to get the sun star... i could have gone a few more even!

a little punch in saturation can have a tremendous impact

If you have a great image, article or link lets us know!


Enjoy all of the articles and happy photo hunting!

FTA Aconcagua Feb 2011 - SUMMITS

from stu in the usa office

16th February, 2011

Brent has written in with the good news that he and Bernardo topped out on the 14th at 1005h and were the first party of the day to top out! They are now back in Mulas BC safely and making arrangements to head back to Mendoza shortly!

Summit Recap

On the 12th they headed up to Nidos and spent the night. On the 13th they had a short day to Berlin camp and then helped to bring a climber in distress down to the helipad just above Nidos. They then left at 0200h from Nidos and topped out at 1005h - a pretty quick 8 hours from Nidos to the top! They enjoyed the summit and then returned to Nidos to spend the night of the 14th. On the 15th they dropped down to Mulas with a first load and then on 16 they back-carried the last of the gear.

They had debated a push to the Polish Glacier but the route apparently has too much snow on it at this time for a good attempt.

We'll have a more detailed report along with pics in a few days!

don't forget.....

We are accepting applications for next season on Aconcagua so if you are contemplating reaching the highest point in the Americas....drop us a note to "info@fieldtouring.com"!

FTA Aconcagua Feb 2011 - Summit bid under way!

from stu in the usa office

14 Feb, 2011

Our team left on Saturday for summit push and hoped to top out on Sunday/Monday if all went well. We expect them back in Mulas today or tomorrow with hopefully some good summit news!

On the 12th they left Plaza de Mulas and moved up to Nidos de Condores to spend the night. The jump is about 1000m and so they planned to see how they were feeling on 13th before deciding to move up or add in a rest day. After moving up to high camp they were going to assess again how they were feeling and either head to the summit early the next am or add a rest day. If they take all the rest days then the summit might well be tomorrow and they'll be back on the 17th just in time to avoid the snow expected to begin in the later half of the day.

The weather window is expected to close on 17/18 with some moderate snow headed their way but they have a very good window for this push. If they return without the summit there will still time for them to make a second bid with a summit on 22 or 23. If they come back from the top then they will have lots of extra time for wine tours and golf in Mendoza!

We'll pass on the summit bid news shortly!

FTA Aconcagua Dec 11 Falso - Summit bid brewing!

from stu in the USA office
Feb 10, 2011

Brent has written in from BC at the end of a second day of hauling loads to Nidos de Condores to let us know that all is well!

After two load carries to Nidos our team has approximately 10 days of food stashed and they are now just waiting for a weather window to open and looks as though they have a few days ahead of mediocre weather before they will see a good window for moving up! They have been moving really well doing the round trips to Nidos in about 4 hours so the acclimatization climbs on Catedral and Bonete have clearly paid off!

In a day or so they will begin the push and likely not return to Mulas until after a summit bid unless the weather deters them. The wind can be very strong on Aconcagua and is called the "viento blanco" or "white wind" and we'll hope they do not encounter it! The weather reports in the days ahead suggest very strong winds for the 12th and then less strong for the next 4-5 days. It seems they will have good weather through the 17th but nevertheless we'll keep a watchful eye!

Next up?
Brent and Bernardo are having a great time and already scheming for the next climb to come after Aconcagua. It seems climbers are often barely begun on one project before they dream of the next and our climbers are no different!

For many people the altitude and severe weather on Aconcagua provides a great stepping stone for a first 8000m peak like Cho Oyu or Broad Peak. Having a good experience sleeping at approx 6000m/20000ft and climbing to near 7000m/23000ft is important for gaining the confidence and experience to tackle a peak in excess of 8000m/264000ft. It can also enable a climber to take on a more technical peak like Ama Dablam or Satopanth and know they will be able to focus on the climbing and less so on the altitude.

Interesting stuff...
In fact due to the southerly location of Aconcagua it is often considered to behave as an mini 8000m peak with "thinner" air than a mountain of the same altitude in a more equatorial location like Nepal. As I understand the core theory, the earth spins it keeps a thicker layer of atmosphere at its middle and less at its extremes. I have seen one report that the troposphere reaches 12-15km high in the tropics and only 8-10km at the poles. The temperature being colder in the polar regions is said to have an even greater effect on the perceived altitude. Denali is said to fool people into thinking less of its ~20,000ft altitude when it acts perhaps more like 23,000ft Himalayan peak. Interesting stuff and yet another reason to acclimatize carefully and listen to your body!

for more fun i have added a few links on the topic of latitude and climbing...enjoy!

http://www.kowoma.de/en/gps/additional/atmosphere.htm

for a fun thread
http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=27173

for the scientifically motivated
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troposphere

Trip updates

We have recently confirmed quite a few trips and they include

Cho Oyu - April 10, 2011
Broad Peak - June 10, 2011
K2 - June 10, 2011
Spantik - Aug 1, 2011
Satopanth - Sept 3 start

We have spaces available still on all of these trips but some of them are filling fast!

See a list of all of our expeditions and treks at the main FTA site: www.fieldtouringalpine.com

FTA Aconcagua Feb 2011 - Acclimatization Summits!

from stu in the usa office

feb 9, 2011

Brent has emailed in from high tech Plaza de Mulas to let us know that all is very well with him and Bernardo! They had an awesome day yesterday climbing 2 summits and enjoying getting some ice climbing in as well. On the 8th they topped out on Cerro Bonete (4950m) and Cerro Catedral (5265m) during a beefy 9.5 hour/11km day ascending 1800m of hill in that time. On Catedral they had a nice stretch of 300m of 30° ice and both felt strong!

They had planned to do only Catedral but the morning weather was iffy so they tromped over to Bonete in the morning. They then found the weather clearing up and sound not pass up the opportunity to knock off Catedral!

This very full and demanding day bodes well for a summit push which will be around 1000 meters and 6-10 hours to the top.

The plan for the 9th is carries up the route to Canada or Nidos and then on the 10 to rest up. On the 11th if the weather is good and they feel well they will begin to push!

more news soon!

stu