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Behind the scenes: Shooting a motion time-lapse in the Canadian wilderness

17 Feb

Back in summer 2017, I went on a six week adventure to British Columbia and Alberta in order to capture Canada’s beautiful landscapes in the most impressive way possible. I wanted to make a time-lapse film that raises more awareness of our planet and our environment.

Planning

When it came to logistics, I tried to be as prepared as possible for this 6-week trip, and did tons of research ahead of departure. I knew I probably wouldn’t have a whole lot of internet (or time to waste on the internet) in the Canadian wilderness, and wanted to be prepared to just take things as they came. So I collected locations that I discovered on Google, on Instagram, or on other photographers’ portfolios, and created a long list of spots that were worth checking out.

I didn’t have a specific shot list. I just tried to capture the most beautiful scenery and moments that I could find along my adventure. However, I paid a lot of attention to interesting details around me instead of going for spectacular vantage points only. That’s how the whole moody intro sequence was conceived. By stepping closer to the subject, I tried to approach time-lapse in a slightly different way than you see in your typical, ‘epic’ time-lapse films online.

Challenges

I guess my biggest challenge with shooting this project was my own safety—doing all of alone, in an area packed with grizzly bears, was pretty scary.

Hiking alone comes with a risk that I always had to bear in mind. I carried bear spray at all times, and tried to let the bears know that I was there by creating a lot of noise on the hiking trail (they can get really dangerous when they’re startled). When I set up a time-lapse shot, I always had to have an eye on my surroundings and make a lot of noise by singing or talking to myself. Over the course of my trip, that risk was something I got used to.

Being all alone also didn’t make it possible for me to camp out on location. Obviously because it is very risky, but most of all because I simply couldn’t carry camping gear along with my camera gear and slider all by myself.

As a result of this, I had trouble getting to the best possible location at the best times of day. In order to shoot at sunset or sunrise, I either had to find a location that was fairly close to the parking lot, or take the risk of hiking up or down in the darkness with my head lamp as the only light source.

This is all of the gear I brought with me into the Canadian wilderness

Gear

Since I was all alone on this mission and wanted to hike out to locations a lot, I had to keep my gear package as compact and efficient as possible. I packed my Sony a7S II and Nikon D5100 (as backup camera) together with a newly purchased Canon 16-35mm F4 and Rokinon 14mm F2.8, as well as two cheap vintage lenses: an SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.7 and an SMC Pentax-M 100mm F2.8.

As you might have noticed, my camera package was pretty humble. That was all I had and all I could afford, and honestly—that was all I needed.

A great Sony camera with only 12 MP paired with a sharp Canon wide-angle lens that could almost do anything on location. This lens is my absolute favorite due to its great flexibility for wide three-dimensional time-lapse movements. The Rokinon lens is well-known for its night- and astrophotography abilities, as it has just little amount of coma and is wide enough to capture almost the whole night sky. The Pentax lenses are actually my first lenses I’ve ever bought. Obviously, they’re old, cheap, and not the sharpest; they’re also small, light, and capable of projecting an image onto my sensor I was totally happy with.

In contrast, my time-lapse gear was downright extravagant thanks to a sponsorship from the innovative company eMotimo. They gave me a loaner for a great package for the duration of my whole trip: The spectrum ST4 is a newly designed 4-axis motion control system that, combined with the iFootage Shark Slider S1, simply can do it all—slide, pan, tilt and even pull focus in video or time-lapse shooting mode.

Using a Playstation Controller, I could easily set up literally any shot I wanted, and the ability to set keyframes in between the start and end point of my programmed shot gave me ultimate control over my composition. Additionally, an innovation that I’ve never seen before is a mountable extra motor to automatically pull the focus as the time-lapse is running. There are many ways to mess around with that: one I used was to shift focus from an interesting foreground to the revealing scenery in the background.

Another great feature worth mentioning is the ability to repeat a programmed movement at different speeds. This allowed me to record shots at different frame rates, but still have the exact same camera movement in each.

Since I couldn’t get the idea out of my head to combine a moving time-lapse shot with a real time video, with both shots having the very same camera movement, I did exactly that in the final shot of ALIVE. I recorded the whole scenery in dynamic time-lapse except for the person (me) being recorded in real-time video 25fps. Even though it took a lot of time perfectly masking out the person in post production, this shot probably wouldn’t have been possible without the spectrum ST4.

With all the flexibility of the motion control devise I felt an enormous freedom as a time-lapse photographer and could explore further ways to creatively make use of its features. However, this turned out to be a weakness as well, as I often found myself tempted to design way too sophisticated time-lapse shots. In this case, the inorganic/mechanical camera motion often drew way too much attention when watching the processed time-lapse sequence making the scenery appear surreal.

So in the process of my trip I learned that less is more in this case. It is way more important so be at the right spot at the right time—which is ultimately what I was seeking for my whole adventure.

Editing

In the editing process of ALIVE it was certainly very hard to come up with an edit as I had to choose the best among 149 time-lapse shots I recorded on my trip. Since I wanted to keep my film under 4 minutes, I forced myself to make some hard decisions. That turned out to be a pretty emotional process because every shot has a background story that connects to me personally.

It just often felt super frustrating to kick out a shot for which I woke up at 4 a.m. and hiked up a mountain for two hours in order to be there for sunrise.

A Story

Let me conclude my little behind the scenes tale with a story from Lake O’Hara, one of the most captivating landscapes I have ever experienced in person, and the final shot of the film. I decided to hike up to this incredible viewpoint for sunset and kept shooting until there was no light left to work with. That was the moment when I found myself alone in the darkness on the edge of a cliff.

The final shot of the film, captured above Lake O’Hara at sunset.

Should I take the risk of hiking down the steep and forested trail in the darkness potentially ending up as grizzly bear food? Or should I rather just stay up here all night and do another time-lapse of the milky way? Without camping gear and food, I stayed and spent another 5 hours in the cold darkness until the sun came back up.

Even though this shot of the milky way didn’t even make it into the final film, there is nothing I regret about staying up on this mountain all night all alone without a tent in bear territory… simply because it was one of these adventures that made my trip so unique.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Wilderness Huts for Backcountry Glamour: 15 Not-So-Rustic Retreats

24 Aug

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

If you’ve got an appetite for backcountry exploration but hate setting up tents, perhaps a more comfortable wilderness hut would be a better fit. Designs for home-like retreats in remote locations range from minimalist sci-fi sleeping pods to luxurious vacation properties with modest exteriors that retain the feel of a homesteader’s cabin, and they’re often self-sustainable, portable and low-impact.

Back Country House by David Maurice

Throughout the wilderness of New Zealand, adventurous backpackers can find basic, rustic huts that will put a roof over their heads for a night or two. ‘Back Country House’ by LTD Architectural keeps the spirit of those simple structures while making it a whole lot more comfortable. Designed for the architect’s own family, the home features a spacious terrace that functions as the living room, with an outdoor fireplace and two sunken tubs in the deck keeping it cozy in winter. The pop-up tub covers double as tables for a sunken seating area.

Drew House by Simon Laws

A series of pavilions joined by outdoor walkways offers living space for a family near Queensland, Australia. Though it looks like a reclaimed sewer pipe, the rounded pavilion was just built to that shape using metal sheeting, capped on one end with hardwood louvers. All components were constructed offsite and transported to the plot to minimize disturbance. The passive solar home is self-sufficient, with rainwater tanks and recycling systems, solar power panels and solar hot water.

Tiny House in the San Juan Islands by Prentiss Architects

Overlooking the sea from its perch on Washington’s San Juan Island, Eagle Point Cabin by Prentiss Architects looks modest from the outside, with its rustic wooden facade and grassy roof. But inside, it’s just as comfortable as any high-end home, offering a wood stove, a wall of windows for whale watching, a spacious bedroom and a bathtub with a view.

Eco POD Hotel in Switzerland

Designed by Robust Outdoor Brands, Switzerland’s first eco POD hotel features dreamy little rounded rooms set into a snowy landscape. After dark, when they’re illuminated from within, they look almost too much like a fairytale to be true. Each low-impact room is made with FSC-certified wood and double-glazed windows and accommodates two people.

Tye River Cabin by Olson Kundig

Located in a dense forest near the Tye River in Skykomish, Washington, the Tye River Cabin by Olson Kundig architects is envisioend as a meditative retreat with pivoting glass windows that swing open to blur the lines between outside and in. The architects set the cabin on a concrete base and wrapped the exterior in rusted steel siding.

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Wilderness Huts For Backcountry Glamour 15 Not So Rustic Retreats

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Heliskiing the British Columbia wilderness with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II

07 Dec

We took the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II up to Revelstoke, British Columbia and caught the season’s first helicopter out into the wilderness alongside some of the World’s top pro skiers. It was cold and terrifying, but we did it all in the name of putting this new flagship camera to the test. Part of a forthcoming feature video with Scott Rinckenberger, we wanted to share some of the images with you as soon as we got back. We also used the camera to shoot opening day at Revelstoke resort, which is famous for having one of the longest (and most fun) lift lines of any mountain in North America.

The gallery contains a mix of Raw conversions and out of camera JPEGs, including some shot using the Grainy Film II profile (a staff favorite), as well as a High-res mode sample. Many of the images shot in back country were done so under extreme conditions: sub-freezing temperatures, blizzard-like snowfall, avalanche warnings and the like. This in particular should demonstrate just how tough this this camera is, even if the photographer who shot the images was less so.

See our Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II Heliskiing Samples Gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How Two Weeks in the Wilderness with One Prime Lens Restored My Love for Photography

27 May

If you have read a few of my previous pieces here on the Digital Photography School like “5 Uncomfortable Truths about Photography“, or “How Making Horrible Photos Will Lead to More Keepers“, you’ll know that I have a much greater respect for learning, effort, and practice than I have for the latest and greatest gear. Good photography does not rely on equipment or rules.

But what happens if you lose your will to produce? What happens when the desire to make images simply slips away?

It happened to me last year, I just stopped wanting to make images. For most of the summer, my busiest and usually most productive season, I had no desire to shoot. Out of habit I still carried a camera on the wilderness trips I guide, and on personal trips across Alaska, but the images I made were few and lackluster. Now, a year later, I cringe to look through those, at the missed opportunities.

I broke out of the funk, but not the way I expected. Tired of carrying along gear I wasn’t using, for the final trip of my summer season, a 17 day pack-rafting trip in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, I carried only a camera body and one single 24mm f/2.8 prime lens.

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It wasn’t a creative decision, I took that combo because it was the best way to make my kit as light possible and still get the quality I wanted, and the lens and camera fit easily in a small holster style case that I carried, attached to the chest straps of my pack.

Toward the end of August my two clients and I flew from Fairbanks, Alaska north toward the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We passed little ranges of mountains in the interior, above the Yukon Flats, and over the rugged high peaks of the Brooks Range. Just to the north of the mountains on the arctic coastal plain of the refuge, the pilot descended, picked the unmarked strip out of the landscape, and settled the oversize wheels of the bush plane down onto the autumn tundra.

Within a few minutes of landing, we’d unloaded our heavy packs and the pilot was rocketing down the grass and into the air. He was the last person we’d see for more than two weeks.

The first 10 days of the trip were dedicating to hiking, though the mileage was such that we could take a day or two off periodically, which was good, because when the first snow storms of autumn hit a week into the trip, we were in no mood to walk.

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The route carried us through a narrow gap in the mountains cut by a small river. We walked through that gap on a cold, windy day when low clouds obscured the tops of the mountains. We had to criss-cross the river, and our feet were constantly soggy. But the willows along the creek and the small patches of tundra were bright with autumn colors, and a much-needed distraction from the cold.

Once on that first day, just once, I was stopped in my tracks by a scene that had to be photographed. I’d made photos earlier in the trip, but they’d been snapshots. This was a scene that inspired me; a rare thing.

The simple camera and lens setup removed much of the tedious decision making. There was no easy compositional escape in the form of a zoom lens, rather I had to move about to make the scene come together. I worked within the restraints of the lens (which were numerous), and it was utterly liberating.

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I gave the image five whole minutes before the chill forced us on, and for the first time all summer, five minutes wasn’t enough.

The following day, we woke to clouds, shredded by the previous day’s winds, and big patches of blue shone through, bright and optimistic. We hiked over a low pass, and watched a Grizzly sow and two young cubs graze in a sedge meadow a quarter mile and two hundred vertical feet below. My little lens didn’t have a prayer of making anything more than a token image of the brown specks on the tundra below. Instead I peered down through binoculars as the bears dug up sedges and combed berries from the bushes with their teeth.

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On the sixth day, the storm hit. We were camped on a meadow of soft, dry tundra above a small creek when the winds shifted from a pleasing breeze from the east, to a howling gale from the west. It happened in moments, the speed of the weather change taking me completely by surprise. Rain, then pelletized snow arrived, followed by a genuine snow storm in the night. For two solid days we were battered by the strongest winds and most intense storm I’ve ever experienced in the Brooks Range. Just keeping our tents standing was a constant battle.

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Yet in that time, my clients and I managed a few excursions away from camp. We climbed up to a low ridge where the full brunt of the west wind hit us hard. There, we leaned into the gale and watched the falling snow tear across the tundra.

It wasn’t a photogenic scene, at least not by traditional standards, and yet I made images because I wanted to. Creativity, quite suddenly, brightened up like a cartoon bulb over my head.

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On the third morning, before I even opened my eyes, I knew the storm had passed. My tent wasn’t shuddering in the wind, and when I did lift my eyelids, I could see the day was too bright to be dominated by clouds.

Emerging from my tent, I saw that fresh snow cloaked the mountains and dusted the tundra around our camp, but blue dominated the sky above. I went for my camera and spent a happy hour making images as the drenched tents and rain gear steamed in the rising sun.

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Two days later we reached the river and our cache of food and boating gear that had been waiting for us. In those two final days before we traded in our hiking boots for pack-rafts, I think I made more images than I had in the previous three months combined. I couldn’t get enough of it.

AK-ANWR-Katakturuk-Canning-Packraft-1085-384

The 50 miles of paddling stole some of my photographic productivity. (It’s hard to paddle a small bouncing raft through swift, splashing water while taking photos). Nonetheless, as we descended the river out of the mountains and onto the coastal plain, my renewed love for photography stuck with me. Even when another storm hit and we were pinned down for two more days, even when the snow fell in heavy wet flakes, and when the wind tore the autumn colors from the vegetation and shifted the landscape from red and yellow to brown.

AK-ANWR-Katakturuk-Canning-Packraft-1085-643

Our final camp lay where the river met its coastal delta. Caribou criss-crossed the plain in small bands, and migrant birds were congregating in the many lakes. My little lens was no match for the distant wildlife, but it didn’t matter. I’d rediscovered photography, which meant that I was more aware of my surroundings, and the images that lay in it, than I had been for some time. Even if I didn’t have the right equipment to capture some of the photos I found, I recorded them mentally in sharp detail. As it turns out, those mental images are just as rewarding as the ones glowing on my computer screen.

Paging through the images from the trip, I see an interesting evolution. The first images are mostly snapshots, but as time passed, and my inspiration picked up steam, the images become more purposeful, more composed… better, even.

Conclusion

Purposefully restricting yourself can be a great tool to boost creativity. It’s a little like playing charades: using limited tools to effectively get your message across. It can be fun, and a bit frustrating. It forces your mind outside its comfortable box, and into a place where creativity is far more important than gear. When, and if, you return to your diverse array of lenses and cameras, you will no longer take all those compositional possibilities for granted.

If you are stuck in a rut, or just want to try something new, give up your zooms for a couple of weeks, only shoot black and white, use your camera exclusively in manual mode, or shoot some film. After, share your experiences in the comments below, I’d love to hear what happens.

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The post How Two Weeks in the Wilderness with One Prime Lens Restored My Love for Photography by David Shaw appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Decide What Gear to Pack for a Wilderness Trip

11 Apr

AK-ANWR-Kongakut-108094-162

Each year, I spend many weeks guiding, and exploring, in the mountains and rivers of Alaska. The trips are a mishmash of different adventures; base-camp trips, mellow canoe trips, backpacks over rugged terrain and high peaks, or multi-day whitewater rafting trips.

One thing that always plays a part, no matter what type of journey I’m taking, is photography. The gear however, varies. Different types of trips demand different kinds of equipment, and there are a number of things that need to be taken into consideration. For me, photo equipment decisions are a multi-step process, and there are a few things to consider. Here are three and my tips at the end for packing a kit.

#1 – Weight Limitations

A DeHaviland Beaver, classic Alaska bush plane on a riverside gravel bar in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska.

A DeHaviland Beaver, the classic Alaska bush plane, on a riverside gravel bar in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska.

This is a constant in the backcountry. Weight is always, ALWAYS an issue. On backpacking trips, every ounce of camera gear has to be added to clothing, tents, food, cookware, and safety equipment that cannot be left behind. When I’m guiding backpacking trips in Alaska’s wilderness, this can mean that on top of my usual backpacking gear, I also have an expedition first aid kit, satellite phone, ground to air radio, and more than my own share of food. My pack is heavy, long before I add camera gear. Making sure that anything extra is as light as possible, is my priority.

Sometimes you can carry a lot of gear, as you can see from this camp along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, but even here every pound has to be loaded and unloaded daily.

Other types of trips are not as restrictive, but weight is always a concern. Most of the trips I lead involve small bush planes to get to and from our start and end points. These tiny aircraft have limits on the amount of weight that be carried. So even it’s a rafting trip where there is plenty of space in the boats, the number of pounds of excess gear is still a concern.

Even photography-specific trips are limited. Any time you are in the backcountry, you will have to carry your gear, so it’s got to be compact and light enough that you can get it where it needs to go, quickly, and without fuss.

I often find it helpful to run the numbers. How many pounds of total gear can I handle? For example, on backpacking trips I know that the most weight I can carry comfortably for extended periods without risking injury is around 70 lbs (31.75 kg). If non-photography gear weighs 60 (27.2 kg), then I’ve got 10 (4.5 kg) to play with (though I’m always happier with less!). For the guided trips I lead, we set a weight limit on our clients which is necessary to keep our cargo under the required limit of the small airplanes we use. Usually that number is around 50 lbs (22.7 kg) per person, less for backpacking. Start there, weigh your mandatory clothes and equipment, and then figure out what is left over for camera stuff. Safety first!

#2 – Photographic Priorities

Are you hoping to shoot primarily wildlife or landscapes? Do you plan to make formal portraits along the way? Will you need a flash or light modifiers? Ask yourself these questions, and know about the trip you are making.

On the night before, I get together with my clients to talk about the upcoming trip. I’ve been surprised how often photographers really don’t know anything about where they are going. Since they don’t know what to expect, they are often carrying far too much gear. Do your research, find out your likely photo subjects, and make educated decisions about your equipment. If you are primarily expecting landscapes, but may have a chance at shooting wildlife, then consider a compact telephoto rather than a monster 600mm f/4. If wildlife is a major target, then by all means, take that big lens, but consider cutting out some of the smaller glass. Maybe you can get by with a single wide-angle zoom?

#3 – Trip Types

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Base-camps:

Photography trips that I lead into Alaska’s wilderness are often based out of single site. We set up a comfortable camp somewhere beautiful, where we can explore the surroundings for a few days. These kind of trips (keeping in mind airplane weight limitations), usually permit a broad array of gear, and few special precautions are needed. To haul your equipment around, a standard camera backpack or daypack with a rain cover, is all that is needed. If the weather is really sour, we are usually drinking hot chocolate and playing cards back at camp.

Backpacking means every piece of gear needs to be carried, so think light.

Backpacking:

On most backpacking trips, weight limitations will keep you to the bare minimum of gear. My standard kit is a lens or two, and a single body. I attach a holster style case to the chest straps of my pack with small carabiners. My camera is always there when I need it, and I don’t have to take the pack off every time I want to make a photo. Any extra gear is placed in convenient outside pockets.

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Mellow River Trips:

Even on the quietest of rivers, accidents happen. A camera, left carelessly on the seat of a canoe can slip into the water with an unexpected wobble of the boat. Splashes from riffles can soak an unprotected camera. Your gear needs to be protected from these threats. On an easy river, where the risk of a flip, or rock-induced swim is small, I usually store my gear in soft-cases, placed inside a larger, roll-top dry bag. Such protection is sufficient to fend off splashes, or even short dunks, as long as the seals on the bags are closed tightly.

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Whitewater:

In big rapids, bad things can happen. Boats hit rocks and canyon walls, tipping, or flipping over entirely. Big waves routinely flood boats. No matter how perfectly a rapid is navigated, you and your gear will get wet, and may be submerged. This is not the time to mess around with ziplocks and cheap dry bags. If you are headed out on a whitewater trip, invest in a hard-sided water-tight case like a Pelican. Not only will these keep your gear dry, they will also protect your delicate electronics from impacts and the inevitable jarring they will receive in rough water.

Securing well-sealed dry bags to the front of a packraft, a daily chore on a remote river trip.

Sample Gear Kits

Base-camp: DSLR (or two), wide angle zoom, mid-range lens, telephoto (even a big 500mm or 600mm f/4), backpack, tripod, and accessories.

Backpacking Heavy: DSLR, wide angle zoom, telephoto zoom like a 100-400mm, soft cases, ultralight tripod, and ultralight nylon dry bags.

Backpacking Light: DSLR, wide-mid range zoom (24-105mm), case, and an ultralight nylon dry bag.

Mellow River: DSLR, wide angle zoom, fixed mid-range lens (40 or 50mm), telephoto zoom (100-400mm), tripod, second body or backup camera, dry bags. (If wildlife is a top priority, I’ll replace the 100-400 with a 500mm f/4).

Whitewater River: Same as mellow river with the addition of a suitably large pelican case.

Packrafting in western Alaska.

Conclusion

If you pay attention to your photography gear choices at the beginning of your trip, you are unlikely to have any troubles along the way. Think about the limitations of your journey, what it is you are planning to photograph, and how you are going to protect and transport your gear. When those decisions are made, actually selecting what to take gets easier.

A final note of warning from someone who as been there: Please don’t overpack. It’s happened too many times to count, when have I stood around with clients at a pre-trip meeting and been forced to ask them to remove some of their precious gear due to plane, boat, or pack, weight limitations. Too much gear is just as bad, maybe worse, than too little during a wilderness trip, so pack thoughtfully.

The post How to Decide What Gear to Pack for a Wilderness Trip by David Shaw appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Wilderness photographers caught up in U.S. Forest Service permit proposal

02 Oct

A proposed directive from the U.S. Forest Service that aims to protect federal wilderness from commercial exploitation may end up restraining photographers as well. Under the proposed restrictions, any individual or entity poised to reap commercial gain from photographing or filming federal lands in the U.S. will need a permit. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Wilderness Protection – Only As Strong As The Wilderness Act

20 Aug

Caribou Pass, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

View of the Kongakut River Valley, looking south towards the Brooks Mountain Range over Caribou Pass at midnight

This weekend an interesting OpEd hit the New York Times titled Rethinking the Wild, The Wilderness Act Is Facing a Midlife Crisis. If you haven’t read it I highly recommend you do, as you’ll hear much of this narrative in the coming months and years as various forces continue to try to chip away at it to weaken it if not undo it.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 did something amazing, it protected 9.1 million acres of federal land and now protects 109.5 million acres. This act oversees the protection of national parks, national forests, U.S. fish and wildlife services and the bureau of land management. What this piece of legislation defined as wilderness is such:

DEFINITION OF WILDERNESS (c) A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

The Rethinking the Wilderness Act OpEd” in short argues “we need to accept our role as reluctant gardeners.” Unfortunately this argument assumes that we have a full understanding of our environment and opens the doors to the organizations and people the act was put in place to protect the land from. Who will the “gardeners” be and what will their motivation be? Yes climate change is real, but it is also a very convenient excuse and lever for foes of the Wilderness act to weaken its strict protections.

The OpEd had one incredibly relevant quote that still holds true from Frank Egler:

“Ecosystems are not only more complex than we think, they are more complex than we can think.”

Humanity suffers from a good deal of well intentioned ignorance when it comes to our environment. While we’ve made great strides technologically advancing our civilization, but we’ve done a very bad job managing and fully understanding the impact we make on our environment. Just because we can make changes, even well intentioned changes, it doesn’t mean that we fully understand environmental systems let alone the ramifications of counter efforts. Case in point, as a teenager in the 80′s & 90′s they had signs up in Yosemite stating that Mirror Lake was drying up and was due to disappear in a decade or two. Now they know its a seasonal lake that ebbs and flows with snow melt. It’s a good thing they didn’t build a dam to try and preserve the lake.

Climate change certainly is happening, but nature is resilient. It will only remain resilient and in a wild state when left alone and protected as it has been, strictly as wilderness, free from natural resource hungry companies (oil, mineral, developers, etc.) To experience true wilderness you should make every effort to visit a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge. They’re not as easily accessible as National Parks, but you’ll quickly get an idea of how strictly these lands are protected. My favorite National Wildlife Refuge is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (pictured above), but many smaller refuges are near major urban centers. If you’re a nature or wildlife enthusiast then pay close attention to up coming discussions on revising the Wilderness Act as what you know and love may be irrevocably changed.

Wilderness Protection – Only As Strong As The Wilderness Act

The post Wilderness Protection – Only As Strong As The Wilderness Act appeared first on JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography.

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Thanks for share by Jane Martin

Wilderness Protection – Only As Strong As The Wilderness Act

07 Jul

View of the Kongakut River Valley, looking south towards the Brooks Mountain Range over Caribou Pass at midnight

DEFINITION OF WILDERNESS (c) A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

The OpEd had one incredibly relevant quote that still holds true from Frank Egler:

“Ecosystems are not only more complex than we think, they are more complex than we can think.”

Wilderness Protection – Only As Strong As The Wilderness Act

The post Wilderness Protection – Only As Strong As The Wilderness Act appeared first on JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography.

Minarets – Ansel Adams Wilderness

30 Oct

I know the feeling…

Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.
– Ansel Adams

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Minarets – Ansel Adams Wilderness, California

Technorati Tags: photography, Ansel Adams Wilderness, nature, landscape, stock photo, Minarets

Minarets – Ansel Adams Wilderness

JMG-Galleries – Jim M. Goldstein Photography

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Posted in Equipment

360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Wilderness’

Behind the scenes: Shooting a motion time-lapse in the Canadian wilderness

Planning

Challenges

Gear

Editing

A Story

Wilderness Huts for Backcountry Glamour: 15 Not-So-Rustic Retreats

Back Country House by David Maurice

Drew House by Simon Laws

Tiny House in the San Juan Islands by Prentiss Architects

Eco POD Hotel in Switzerland

Tye River Cabin by Olson Kundig

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Wilderness Huts For Backcountry Glamour 15 Not So Rustic Retreats

Heliskiing the British Columbia wilderness with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II

How Two Weeks in the Wilderness with One Prime Lens Restored My Love for Photography

Conclusion

How to Decide What Gear to Pack for a Wilderness Trip

#1 – Weight Limitations

#2 – Photographic Priorities

#3 – Trip Types

Base-camps:

Backpacking:

Mellow River Trips:

Whitewater:

Sample Gear Kits

Conclusion

Wilderness photographers caught up in U.S. Forest Service permit proposal

Wilderness Protection – Only As Strong As The Wilderness Act

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Wilderness Protection – Only As Strong As The Wilderness Act

Related Stories

Minarets – Ansel Adams Wilderness

Pages

Archives

Categories

Posts Tagged ‘Wilderness’

Planning

Challenges

Gear

Editing

A Story

Back Country House by David Maurice

Drew House by Simon Laws

Tiny House in the San Juan Islands by Prentiss Architects

Eco POD Hotel in Switzerland

Tye River Cabin by Olson Kundig

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Wilderness Huts For Backcountry Glamour 15 Not So Rustic Retreats

Conclusion

#1 – Weight Limitations

#2 – Photographic Priorities

#3 – Trip Types

Base-camps:

Backpacking:

Mellow River Trips:

Whitewater:

Sample Gear Kits

Conclusion

Comments

Related Stories

Related Stories

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Wilderness Huts For Backcountry Glamour 15 Not So Rustic Retreats