What’s in Your Backpack

The other day I was reading a post about what camera lens (lenses) nature photography types carry in their bags. (See Graf Nature Photography). So I thought I’d expand on that idea a bit and just rummage through the ol’ backpack and see what sorts of things we find in there.

I have a Lowepro pack that is several years old. It has held up really well for me. It isn’t real big cause I like to travel light if possible. It does the job for day hikes – too small really for multi-day type treks.

OK, let’s see. On top I have the camera of coarse – a Nikon D200 digital. I usually carry it around with a 35 – 70mm lens attached. Stuffed next to it I have a 19mm wide angle lens and a 2X tele-extender for some variety. Right now on the other side I have a 70 – 300mm lens. I don’t use this lens very much so it is the first thing I jetison on hot summer days when I need space for more drinks.

Digging down a bit we find a little case with close up lenses. I call these things diopters, but I’ve heard them called all sorts of things. They look like clear filters that you screw onto your lens. They let me turn my ‘normal’ lens into a macro. There are three of varying strengths that can be stacked to multiply the effect.

Ah, but what’s this? I have ditched one of the diopters and replaced it with a gradient filter. Gradient filters darken one portion of the frame to help balance light in situations like say a view from a mountain top with dark pines covering the slopes below but bright sunny sky above. The gradient darkens the sky portion of the frame so that the camera can handle the entire scene without blowing out the sky or losing the trees in darkness.

In the top flap of the bag is a pouch that I use for plastic bags. I always carry a couple of zip lock freezer bags. Sometimes I’m out wandering around and it starts to rain. Rain ain’t good for the camera. So I put a plastic bag around the camera body and I let the end of the lens stick out the opening. Then I zip the bag tight around the lens barrel. Sort of a poor man’s waterproof case.

I also carry garbage bags. Unfortunately many people find trashing the woods to be a satisfying experience. This kind of thing really chaps my hide. Sometimes I collect up all the cans, bottles, food wrappers, and articles of clothing and haul them out so that others aren’t subjected to the same eyesore.

I use the pocket on the front of the pack for small sundries. In here I always carry my notebook and a couple pens for writing down stray thoughts. As my body wanders through the woods, so my mind wanders who knows where. My memory is way bad so I like to write my thoughts down. Let’s see…lens cleaner and papers, ow! – hunting knife, bug repellent, waterproof matches, compass, space blanket, topo maps, extra memory card – that’s about it.

Hanging from a ring on the side is my GPS dealie. This thing is fun to play with, but I don’t ever rely on it for navigation. It is too much of a hassle to use properly and the signal down deep in the woods (where it is needed most) is pretty non-existent. I rely on my own sense of direction and in unfamiliar territory; my compass and topo maps.

Finally there is empty space. Places to put food and drink mostly. I know that real hiker types carry vitamin enriched power bars and specially formulated re-hydrating drinks. I, on the other hand, carry a couple cans of pop (or soda or “coke” depending on which part of the country you are from) with which I wash down Ho-Hos and chocolate bars. Yum.

MDW

Buttermilk and Taughannock Falls

This week I took a quick trip to a couple of local-ish state parks. Now, as far as I can make it out, “New York State Park” is an old Native American phrase meaning “Let’s pour some concrete”.

I generally avoid state parks around here as they are very developed. Buttermilk Falls for instance has a beautiful big wide ski slope shaped fall that pours into a large pool. This must have been a pretty place at one time. These days the pool has had concrete steps poured all the way around it with seating for bathers and life guards. That’s right – life guards. The natural pool has been converted into a ”cement pond” complete with restrooms, pop machines, walkways, and heaps o’ signs.

Most of the really unique and spectacular natural areas in NY are state parks and have undergone similar treatment. If you want to go and see these natural wonders, your best bet is to go early morning way “off season” when the weather is really bad to avoid the crowds. Then try and turn a blind eye to the copious signage, light show equipment stashed in the bushes (no kidding), and chain link fencing.

I just wanted to go somewhere with some water in the stream. This dry summer has beaten many a stubborn waterway into just a pile of damp rocks. I didn’t get out as early as I would have liked, but at least the weather was cold and rainy and the autumn leaves are gone for the most part.

After climbing the hill past the first fall and beyond the brown chain link fence designed to keep boneheads from falling into the gorge, I was able to settle down to some relatively undisturbed shooting. I walked the gorge all the way to the upper end and back and then headed to another park that I would pass on the way home.Taughannock Falls is another spectacular feature. It is a single stream that free falls 215 feet straight down. Even now with the water levels low and just a thin veil falling, it is pretty amazing. There isn’t much to it though. Just a short walk (less than a mile) from a playground along a not too interesting stream bed to one huge waterfall.

This place gets photographed by everybody and his brother - especially from the overlook parking lot - especially in the autumn. All the photos that I have seen look pretty much the same. The fall is so singular and so huge that there really is not much that you can do with it. None of the photos I took were even decent, but I included one just so you can see what it looks like.

One weird thing that has always struck me when I visit – it is very quiet. Must be something to do with the acoustics of the gorge. It just doesn’t seem to make the kind of sound you would expect from water plunging that far. Today it was just a whisper.

Anyway – not exactly a wilderness experience, but once in a while I do the tourist thing just to see stuff like this.

MDW

Niagara Falls

I didn’t have any new shots to post this week so I decided to go into the vault and pull out something from way back. And I mean way back.

I took this photograph of Niagara Falls maybe twenty years ago. I was using Kodachrome at that time. I liked Kodachrome. Like the song says – “… they give us the nice bright colors, they give us the greens of summers, make you think all the world’s a sunny day …”

Well, as I understand it, Kodachrome is tough to develop – requiring lots of nasty chemicals and a system the size of an eighteen wheeler. I think that there is only one lab in the US that processes it anymore. You can still buy 35mm 64 film, but that is about it and who knows how long that will last.

Over the years Kodak has gradually replaced Kodachrome with the Ektachrome line. The switch to Ektachrome was not too tough for me. I had been away from photography for a while and when I got back I just made the jump right off the bat. Each film has a unique look so it isn’t a direct replacement, but the higher speeds and ease of processing (I did it in my basement) made Ektachrome a good choice for me.

Of course digital is chewing traditional film up pretty bad these days. My guess is that film will always be around as a niche sort of a thing for artists working on a particular look, but the mainstream is all about digital from now on.

I like being able to take my digital out and take one shot at 100 and then crank the very next frame up to 640 if I like. Shooting outside the light levels can vary quite a bit.

I also like being able to come home at the end of the day and just download the pics. I can start the process, take a hot shower, and viola! when I get out there they are ready to sort through. No chemicals, no temperature controlled water baths, and no waiting for weeks to see my pics while I save up a bunch of rolls in order to batch process them.

A digital camera also eliminates the scanning process and all that time spent cleaning up the dust and scratches that always seem to appear on film no matter how careful you are when handling it.

MDW