Dan Mitchell on Mt. Whitney. Sequoia National Park, California. August 11, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

I have written elsewhere on this site about the gear I use, including the setup I use for backpacking, so I thought it might be interesting to show a photo of the gear in action, so to speak. This photo shows me on Mt. Whitney in August 2008 with the whole basic kit: Lowepro Toploader AW containing Canon EOS 5D with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS and Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L and a few other small items such as CP filter, remote release, extra batteries. The tripod is a Velbon 540 carbon-fiber unit with 4-section legs to which I’ve attached the Acratech Ultimate Ballhead. In more typical situations the tripod rides on my backpack, but here we had left backpacks a couple miles back so that we could go light to the summit. (Yes, the tripod makes a serviceable walking stick if necessary… ;-)

We reached Mt. Whitney not from the usual east side Whitney Portal route but rather via a nine-day trip from the west across the Sierra from Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park. This followed my route from the first time I ascended Whitney 30 years earlier. I have been up in a few more times in the interim. Ironically, a year earlier this 2008 trip I had finally decided that there are so many other fine things to see and do in the Sierra that continuing to repeat Whitney climbs no longer appealed to me – and then my buddies contacted me and said, “Want to do Whitney from the west?” Sucker than I am, I said “yes.”

And how about that stylin’ hat, no? ;-)

(Thanks to my buddy, Owen Lee, for using my camera to make this photo.)

The Online Photographer reports that photographer Charles Cramer has redesigned his website. According to Mike Johnson of TOP the new site includes more beautiful and breathtaking landscape images. (Reports seen at Imaging Insider.)

I just spent some time visiting Charlie’s new site. It’s appearance is consistent with what I recall seeing previously, but look a bit deeper. Navigation of his beautiful and compelling photographic work seems much more logical now, and there are several substantial text pages well worth reading. I enjoy his “Fine Tuning in Photoshop” text on the printmaking page, where he succinctly cuts to the heart of the film versus digital printmaking arguments:

“Photoshop has a steep and frustrating learning curve, but it allows much more fine control over an image than was possible in the darkroom… This is very similar to the dodging and burning I used to do in the darkroom. Let’s say I wanted to darken the edges of an image, a very common adjustment. In the darkroom, it could take up to half a day to reprocess the print to see the change. With Photoshop, the results can be seen on the monitor—in real time! This allows for a great increase in the fineness and sensitivity of the adjustments.”

And when Charlie reports that, “I’m convinced Ansel would be pleased!”, you know that the statement carries some real weight.

But the real significance of Charlie’s work is not the use of this or that technique or technology – it is in the beautiful photographic art he creates. While the ultimate experience comes from viewing his prints, you can begin get a sense of what he does by visiting his online gallery.