High Sierra Topix

For those interested here is a mess of photos from a trip to Vermillion Valley Resort and the Devil's Bathtub this past weekend.

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Great photo's Rogue, and a nice peek at a thawed PPL!

The star trails shot is pretty nice Rogue

After that trip I was left torn as to whether I want to take my 5D2 this summer or not. The thing I dislike the most is when it's mounted on my chest I can hardly see my feet which makes for more difficult and dangerous travel cross country. But after spending 500 dollars on memory cards I am just going to suck it up and take it along.

I am even more torn on bringing my Gitzo tripod. At 44 ounces it weighs more than my sleeping bag and tent combined. But even more annoying is the bulky size of not only the body but the head mount on it which is an odd shape and does not pack well. Thinking of easily being able to do beautiful star trail photos all over the Sierra though is difficult to resist. I only have 3 days to figure it out!

The tripod is useful for more than just night photography. It'll do wonders for your sunrise and sunset photography, which I personally prefer by a large margin. It also allows you to easily do self portraits. Lastly, you can hang gear off it above treeline to protect it from marmots!

Yeah that is some of the other reasons to bring it also. I hardly ever get photos of myself out there because I am too lazy to set up the camera but with that I could do much more.

Great shots! Bring the camera and tripod, it will help you document the sierras the way you want rather than settling for anything else. I bring a Mamiya 645 + film with me when i go out. It adds a good amount of weight, but everything else i have is so light i can't really complain. With my camera and all my fishing gear along with everything else, I still come in at under 30 pounds, and my pictures are the way i want them to look and i catch amazing fish.