Lesson 2.
June 29th, 2003 byTake more film. Lesson 1 was remember which film you loaded into which back. Got out to Smith shot 5 rolls of 120 in about 45 minutes on Staedler Ridge and the Marsupials as the light was getting golden red, hiked to the Monkey Face, shot another 4 rolls on a nice sunset over Mt. Jefferson (gonna climb that bastard one of these days), promptly realized that I didn’t bring nearly enough film and drove home. Well, the plan was to shoot my remaining two rolls on star trails from the Old McKenzie Pass observatory, but as it turns out the road was closed because of snow. So I drove all the way home. What the hell. I had plans to shoot climbers, star trails, and the sunrise over the Crooked river. Lesson learned. I need to order 100 rolls from B+H or something. 120 goes fast. Really fast.
I jammed the Mamiya into my old tamrac photo backpack. It was hideously uncomfortable with the old tiltall tripod strapped on the bottom of it, but it worked. I even managed to stuff my water bladder in there, thus doubling the pack as a reservoir. So I guess I can hold off on the new backpack for a while. My stolen light meter is something I’m going to have to replace. My hike up Misery ridge would have been a lot easier if I weren’t carrying a 35mm Nikon and lens to act as a meter for the Mamiya. Blah, blah.
Overall, it was a good trip. Sometimes it’s nice just to get out and shoot pretty things. I have all sorts of ambition to be a cutting documentary photographer, and plan in all honesty to make a go of that. People intrigue me. Human experience amazes me. It does. But I don’t think I’ll ever lose my love for shooting climbers or for being in the high desert. I recharge my soul at Smith. I smell sage and dust in the air and I know I’m home. I feel the power of sun on my back, I navigate in a truly 3 dimensional environment where there’s as much vertical movement as horizontal and it just feels complete. It? Life. My day. Whatever… I step off the ground or I hold the shutter open… It doesn’t matter. That’s life for me. Plain and simple.