THE
MOUNTAINEERS

Personal stuff: Members of The Mountaineers Photo Committee were invited to do a photo shoot of students in The Mountaineers Basic Climbing Course (http://www.eskimo.com/~pc22/CC/cc.html) practicing rock climbing skills at Mt. Erie. The weather had been miserable (thunderstorms, snow, hail, etc.) on the drive up; I almost turned back before even arriving. Shortly afterward, the weather let up a bit, and I noticed this particular climber, who had just weathered the morning’s storm in the brilliantly colored gear in this photo. Later, in exchange for a print of one of my photos of her from this shoot, she gave me a unique photo of herself standing on the summit of Mt. Rainier. Let’s just say she got a tad hypothermic posing for that one…

Technical stuff: The 300mm f/2.8 lens is a monster in terms of size and weight, and I had brought an industrial-sized tripod to use with it. However, it was way too tedious to shoot with a tripod while climbing around on the wet rocks to get the angles I wanted. This photo shoot made me a believer in image stabilization technology. Out of four rolls of film, shot almost entirely hand-held with the 300mm lens at speeds slower than 1/125 sec, only a couple weren’t tack sharp – because of subject movement, not camera movement!

Image taken at Mt. Erie near Anacortes

Canon EOS-3 35mm camera (hand-held)
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens in image stabilization mode
Fujichrome Velvia film, rated at ISO 50
Exposure: Not recorded; ~1/80 sec @ f/4
Date: 4/07/2001