Do you go out alone or with a buddy?

I mostly go alone. The majority of my shooting is in the North Georgia mountains. I'm usually day hiking, though occasionally I'll spend the night out. I used to hike fairly often with others, either my kids or friends. As my hiking hobby has evolved into a photography hobby, the fun of the companionship has changed to a frustration with the need to hurry along to avoid my companions' impatience with my shooting. Even before my photography passion, I was just as happy on my own as with someone. So, going alone is now my strong preference.

 

For day hikes I'm usually wearing a day pack with water, photography gear, lunch and a basic emergency kit. For overnights, I carry camping gear and more food as well in a bigger pack.

 

I've been hiking up there for many years and have never had a problem. Though an accident can occur at any time, most of the trails have enough traffic that someone would come along eventually in a real emergency. In theory, you can encounter crime, but that can happen anywhere. In all my hiking, I've run into a couple of weirdos, but no one dangerous or even terribly impolite.

I usually go alone and on foot, or drive there with a friend but then we split up for the actual photo-hunting. Two people tend to make four times as much noise and see eight times less wildlife than one, or so it seems.

 

Then again, the two local tours I've done that produced encounters with the largest number of species of critters were both with a friend and while biking, where I had my tripod strapped to the horizontal bar of my bike and took it off whenever something crawled/hopped/flew past.

Hi Katherine.

I'm also a woman, but I beagn going out alone.

 

I used to take a someone, but I couldn't 100% focus on photography. I liked to try different angles at the same

locations, or wanted wait for a while for sun's angle, etc... but I simply worried about if he is unhappily waiting for

me. In fact, he was complaining about I was taking too long time for photo before breakfast.

 

Now, I'm independent and feel free to go out shooting by myself. I camped at the public campground alone a few

times during the summer. I was even planning 3 weeks camping in Alaska this past summer by myself.

(Unfortunately, I had to cancell the plan for a personal reason)

 

However, I was lost in the wilderness while I was hiking in the Sierra a few month ago. I had to spend over night

without shelter and enough water. I was Ok to find a way back as soon as sun rose, but it was learning experience.

If you go alone, (or with someone else) be preapred!

Mostly I have to go with my wife and she is one of the biggest problem in my life while concerning art. If you are with a person like wife who is more concious in that whether you are caring and thinking only about herself or not, or busy with some other thing like photography or else, than the problem comes.

I go alone, because the quiet opens my seeing. It's deeply meditative and better photos come from that solitary state.

Once I was on a steep bank approaching a rock formation and suddenly was tumbling down uncontrollably. I landed on a

path with my camera still hanging on my neck but hopelessly damaged. That was sobering. My wife has asked me to

carry a cell phone "So we know where to find you when you break a leg or worse." But in some places there's no service.

When I was younger elements of risk for good photos were all exciting. Now they're beginning to just seem stupid. I'll be

sixty in two days.

Mostly I go alone or with my wife. Honestly I try to go alone as my wife can sometimes get impatient (suprise suprise). For camping/backpacking I don't go alone. I would consider it, but only on trails that are frequently traveled (like the AT) only because I would worry that I would manage to do something stupid like break an ankle and then be stuck. I prefer solitude when shooting and it feels more appropriate with early morning and evening shooting.

"Mostly I have to go with my wife and she is one of the biggest problem in my life while concerning art. If you are with a person like wife who is more concious in that whether you are caring and thinking only about herself or not, or busy with some other thing like photography or else, than the problem comes."

 

LOL! I guess i'm lucky in that my wife fully supports my passion for photography. However, if I wasn't making money doing it, she probably wouldn't be quite as supportive :)

I'm not married, but I agree with Pankaj; the photography slows down other people. I usually go alone; when I break out

the camera, I'm usually thinking about the pictures. I find it helps, when you go with other people, to bring more than just

one person along; that way, when you're introverted and focused on the pictures, the other people have someone to

interact with more; I also find that it helps if you are confident enough with your surroundings, and have a flexible

itinerary; work it so that the group doesn't feel "held up" because you stopped to make a picture. Having some

waypoints or a slow pace through the woods helps.

 

On trips where I have some other clear purpose; you have got to get from point A to point B for some clear and important

reason, I will not break out the camera at all, and just focus on that instead.

 

Some people worry about security and injury; okay, those are legitimate concerns; I think it would be easier to get into

trouble in a high-crime urban area than the woods. Here in Tennessee, our park system actually has a very good sign-in

sheet plan, with extra forms for overnight campers (one for the car dash, one for the hiker, one on file) that supports the

same basic, common sense planning that any responsible adult should have in place anyway.

 

Let's face it, the most common problem people have is getting along with other people. Many of our "nightmare" worries

about what would happen to someone alone is that they would be victimized by someone else, somehow. I find that if

you just proceed with a little bit of confidence, treat the locals with a little bit of respect; and, if people get defensive or

excited because you're a stranger and they see you there, just be nice and tell them directly you're just going about your

own business; 90% of the conflicts I've had in new places have been diffused on the scene, without incident this way.

This plan has worked for me in wars, emergencies, all kinds of trips and travels. Most people are so used to getting

either ignored or billed or penalized by others, that simple courtesies go a long way.

 

If your friends are worried, they probably just care about you. Maybe you could bring them along sometime, and let them

see how you handle yourself. You're probably doing alright. Proceed with confidence! J.

I'll usually go by myself but if I'm going with my wife she'll take a novel with her and read while I'm spending my time shooting.She still values this time we spend together.Overall,she fully supports my photography and the time it takes to do it.

This has been an interesting thread, esp. the last part about the wife! I too often do easy hikes with my wife, and always

bring my camera, but rarely get great shots because we don't get up early enough, or stay out late. She does support my

photography, esp. since I am trying to make some $ at it (but I still spend much more than I make - better keep the day job),

but her patience has limits. When we car camp in our van at a national park etc. I often get up at dawn and take off on a

morning hike for sunrise pictures, get back just as she is getting up, then go on an easy day hike with her.

 

I've done a lot of back-country climbing and skiing (most without the wife), often solo, and agree with the others here that it

isn't crazy if you go prepared (although I don't carry quite as much as Bruce, I do agree with him about fitness - both

physical and mental). Climbing taught me to focus and take care of every step. My worst accidents in the mountains have

all been on "easy" terrain where I let my guard down. When I solo hike or ski for photos, esp. far from others, I try to treat it

like a solo rock climb, with the realization that a little slip could have big consequences so I'd better be sharp. Fitness plays

into this because it is easy to loose this mental focus when you are tired. This also heightens my senses and helps me

"see" things I might have missed while walking and talking with someone (f course it is quieter too).

 

I haven't worried much about weird people out in the woods, but I'm a grizzled old man. I'm glad my wife doesn't go out

alone like I do!

Don't forget the 2nd amendment. Learn how to shoot and carry a small gun. I'm serious. Out in the wild, it's lawless sometimes, and the gun will be your only protection. Maybe I've watched too many Forensic Files shows.

So far I haven't been in any places I'd concider really dangerous, but from my (little) experience in hiking in the alps both has advantages or disadvanteges.

 

When you with others, they should be well aware of what you will do. I went hiking with some very good friends, they knew I am a photo nerd, but still they got quite annoyed when I stopped to take pictures and stayed back for a long time to get the right angle, the best view etc. Sometimes I just put the camera away, because it just wasn't possible to take pictures as we wanted to be at some certain place at night.

 

However, we followed some paths you should do in a group, you needed sometimes help to pass a steep step or climb a path. If you carry around some 15kg of luggage, you are happy if somebody is there to give you a hand when climbing or to pass on the backpack at sites where you cannot have it on your back. If you have to do some path at night because you misjudged the time, you are happy if there is somebody with a second lamp, as your sometimes need both hands and your headlamp points somewhere not helpful.

 

If you have the right person to go with you, then take her/him with you, it can only be of help. But finding that right person to accompany you on a photo-trip I believe is harder than finding the love of your life (at least in my experience)

Always alone but I always make sure someone knows roughly where I will be and when I expect to be back.

 

As for carrying a gun I think that is just one of the cultural/social differences between the US and almost everywhere else :-) A D3 with an L-bracket makes quite a good weapon in most instances...

I have to agree with Vic. My wife and I basicly shoot together in Prince William Sound, Alaska getting there with our own boat. We try to be try to be ready for anything from boat repair to having a surviel bag in our dingy. Like how would we get back to the boat if a bear took a liking to our inflatable dingy and tore it apart. The water is to cold to swim in so one would have to build a raff. Many times she goes off in one direction and I go another, we stay in touch with handheld radios, and carry shotguns because of the many bears that we see. We both have run into them many times and had no trouble but it is nice to know the guns are there. When we go on a shoot along the road system I always pack a 45 auto or my 44mag in summer. Living in the crystal meth capital of Alaska there are a lot of lowlifes that would love to put there hands on our valuble camera gear so the sidearm is part of my camera kit. So many jerks(especialy for women,sorry cant spell) and so few bullets. Ive only had one run in with a jerk and was glad to have my 45 as a back up. Don't like guns. Use bear spray or tasers or a monopod as a baton but that as with the guns takes training. Being sailors you must go over in your mind all that can go wong with the boat and have plans in place on what to do if such and such happens.

I have to disagree with Vic and Dennis, and not just because I'm anti gun. Most bear advice I've seen says guns are meager defense against a charging grizzly, and most people won't have the skill to hold their fire until the right moment to actually stop the thing. Wounding it might be a nice parting shot before you get mauled though! Packing a pistol to stop lowlifes might work when they are unarmed and trying to intimidate you, but it would have to be on a holster loaded and ready at all times, and your quick-draw/shoot to kill skills better be up to par. Of course if the meth head has a gun you most likely won't ever see it because they'll just shoot you in the back from an ambush. Chances of bear/werido attacks in the lower 48 are so low they don't justify the weight, training, etc. of guns. Of course #$%^ happens, but you can't prepare for every contingency or your pack will weigh 100 lbs and you won't get very far.

By the way, another obvious reason to hike with others is to <a href=http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/13496252.jpg>add the human element</a> which often spices up a picture.

I think the question is this: what's more important, making your images or maintaining your fear?

 

As to handguns, if you carry you'd better practice and you'd better know they almost never work the way you see them on TV. Cops almost never hit what they aim at under pressure (plenty of statistics on that), but the old guys are pretty good with a nightstick (maybe you should carry a golf club).

Howdy!

 

Too many people focus on the possibility of violent crime, when it's usually simple accidents that result in the majority of mishaps. That's because the thought of being victimized is more terrifying than the thought of breaking your leg by stumbling over a prairie dog hole. But if you are short on water, and have no way to signal for help, the prairie dog is a far more treacherous foe than the criminal.

 

There is one device that every outdoor person should carry: It's called the Spot Messenger, and it's available here:

 

www.findmespot.com

 

It's a satellite signaling device that sends your location to people who can help you at the touch of a button. It can also be programmed to send out a periodic "I'm OK" signal which gets forwarded to the Internet, so that people who tend to worry can know you are safe. An associate of mine flies with one all the time.

 

For those going into bear country: First the bad news: Nothing short of a shotgun with slugs will stop a determined bear.

 

Now the good news: If you are facing a determined bear, you most likely did something wrong. Always be aware of your surroundings, and never get too close to Big Wildlife. That's what long lenses are for.

 

If you are hiking to a photo destination in bear country, and you really want to be safe, walk with some kind of noisemaker, like two small pans strapped together. You can always quiet down before you get to your destination. Bears are more afraid of you than you are of them, and if they know you are coming, they will leave.

 

Regarding criminals: A small handgun can easily dispatch the most determined two-legged-varmit, but you have to know how to use it. Again, a better option is the shotgun. Those guys in The Godfather protecting Michael Corleone while he was walking through the Sicilian countryside weren't bird hunting.

 

Shotguns tend to be heavy, so if weight is a concern, consider a lightweight defensive rifle, like the Kel-Tec SU-16C. These rifles are far more effective than handguns, because they are easier to aim. Also, the sight of a person walking through the woods with a rifle over their shoulder generally deters criminal behavior.

 

But again, if you shoot a bear with your lightweight defensive rifle, you'll just piss him off.

 

Later,

 

Paulsky

When I'm out doing my job - I'm an editorial photojournalist - I usually work alone. If I have a bunch of equipment to carry

to a shoot, I take a helper.

 

When I'm out shooting for pleasure, I usually go with a buddy. For safety, help and the enjoyment of working together to

take great shots, discuss different ideas, and just relax.

 

Oh, and we always take at least one of our other little buddies - they go by the name of Colt, Beretta, Smith & Wesson,

Taurus, Ruger or Sig. Sometimes Remington, Marlin, and Winchester want to come along if we're in big predator country.

It's never wrong to be safe and secure in our property and persons.

 

Happy shooting - photos, etc.

 

Matt

Different opportunities... different choice

<br><br>

I stayed put for 5 hours for lighting shots, by the car, taking cover when monsoon brought rain, and that was ok

because i had cellphone coverage and didn't feel very alone... now hiking for 5-8hours, I would probably wish for

company (and i would have no phone coverage)

<br><br>

When I go with someone, I feel limited even if it is a photographer with me, I don't want to make it all about

the photos i want, and how long i want, yet i do... and the talking can be distractive to getting the variety and

"exhausting the options" available with the subject...... and sometimes i adjust so much I get the weakest photos

of the place, because i was too accomodating :-) but at the time i thought it's ok, I can just come back there

again - alone, and do what i want.

<br>

<img src="http://www.robertbody.com/panoramic08/images/2008-08-07-zoo-bighorn-20461sp.jpg">

<br>

on a weeklong trip in Yellowstone, I wished for company, but not just any company... alone is safer for getting

the shots you want (unless you are comfortable with the person) -- safer as in you won't miss photos due to...

interest differences

<br>

<img src="http://www.robertbody.com/panoramic08/images/2008-07-01-rip-ducks-17120sp.jpg">

<br>

But with an understanding company.... so happy together....

Oh I forgot... sometimes your friend/partner can be the subject, there are those times.... of spontaneous ideas...

<br>

<img src="http://www.robertbody.com/arizona08/images/2008-09-15-squaw-julia-26935.jpg">

Katherine,

 

Where do you live? I live in south florida and often go out shooting alone. I am was not affraid untill recently. I was

out shooting in an area where there are aligators. Well, I am sure so can see where this is going, but a momma

aligator came out of no where and was about 5 feet from me. I had stumbled upon her nest, and she was interested

in what I was doing there. I backed away slowly, and happily I still have my limbs. But it made me realize that even

in areas we are comfortable in, you never know.

 

<a href="http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z184/audiopro_photos/?action=view¤t=DSC_2373.jpg"

target="_blank"><img src="http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z184/audiopro_photos/DSC_2373.jpg" border="0"

alt="Photobucket"></a>

I find I work better alone. But it is nice to have someone along side. Also, if I want people in the images, that obviously answers that question.

I tend to agree with those who advocate caution in carrying a handgun while in the woods..

 

Although I don't currently own any large caliber handguns, at one time I did & was fairly proficient with them..

 

The motor skills & hand-to-eye coordination needed to shoot a large caliber handgun accurately under range

conditions with little or no stress FAR exceed those needed to accurately fire a rifle under the same exact

conditions..The skills needed to shoot the rifle under range conditions usually, but not always, exceed those

needed to accurately shoot a shotgun under the same conditions..When the stress of combat against another human

is added to the equation, then all bets are off as to ANY accurately aimed hits reaching the target; unless the

shooter is an exceptional shot, or has faced combat previously..The same holds true for facing down a dangerous

wild animal that has the capacity to kill you..Fear mixed with adrenaline makes for a dangerous situation if a

well-aimed shot is absolutely needed to save one's life..

 

The old time shootist Elmer Keith, who shot hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition through large caliber

revolvers, maintained in his later years that the majority of those who depended upon a handgun for their safety

should shoot at least 50 rounds a day, at least 5 days a week to maintain a high proficiency with ANY handgun..He

stressed that this should be done for however long they were anticipating the need to carry a handgun.. All elite

forces shoot EVERY day that they can in order to train & hone their shooting skills to the highest possible

levels..They also have the advantage of shooting houses & ranges that simulate the noise & stresses of combat

conditions so that the training is as realistic as possible..

 

A handgun that is capable of dropping a grizzly bear in it's tracks is going to require a tremendous amount of

shooting in order to master the recoil; even for someone that is already an incredibly good shot with, say a Colt

1911A1 .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol..The bear guides that I spoke with in Alaska during the 2 years that I

lived there told me that they carried rifles that were capable of breaking a bear's shoulder..They said that if a

client shot poorly or panicked, their goal was to first break one or both shoulders so that the bear was

incapable of attacking them, & then to worry about a killing shot...

 

The only shot that I'm aware of that would allow a shooter with a large bore handgun to instantly kill a bear is

a brain shot..Unfortunately, all bears & especially grizzly bears, have thick skulls that slope dramatically

along the sides & fronts of their skulls..If the bullet strikes anyplace except through the nose, there is a very

good chance that the bear will end up only being stunned & not killed..For an absolutely sure brain shot the

shooter MUST place the shot through the bear's nose so that it will penetrate through the thinnest & weakest part

of the skull in order to reach the brain..This IS NOT an easy thing to do..

 

A Bowen Classic Arms custom Ruger Blackhawk 5-shot revolver with a Bisley grip chambered for the .45 Long Colt

cartridge that was powerfully loaded with a heavy bullet would be the absolute minimum that I would want to carry

in bear country..Other, more powerful cartridges are also available to choose from..The Remington .44 Magnum IS

NOT one of the cartridges that I would choose as bear protection..I'd want to shoot every other day for AT LEAST

6 months, if not longer, before I'd risk my life on my ability to kill a bear with such a handgun as described

above..In my current physical condition I would need to lose weight, get into better physical shape, & seriously

weight train in order for my wrists, arms, & back to be able to withstand the sustained recoil that such training

would entail..Even if I was in great shape right now I would limit myself to low power rounds for at least the

first several months just to acclimatize my body to shooting such a powerful handgun..From speaking to several

people that have owned such handguns I understand that even the burliest men can't shoot more than 5-10 full

power rounds per shooting session from a revolver chambered for cartridges at this level before sustaining

long-term repetitive motion injuries as a result of the massive recoil that these weapons produce..

 

There is MUCH more to carrying & using a handgun for protection from human & animal predators than first meets

the eye..IMO, anyone that carries a handgun about for protection has an absolute duty to both themselves & to

society at large to master shooting the weapon under range conditions..They should shoot every week to maintain

that proficiency..If you don't want to do this, for whatever reasons, then I say put the handgun away & don't

carry it about..

 

Bruce

 

 

I go often by myself, sometimes with other photographers, it all depends. If allowed, I have my dog (I am in Washington and there are a few places dogs are not allowed). I've started carrying bear spray just in case. My biggest concern is twisting my ankles. I would advise at a minimum carrying sports tape for wrapping up your ankles as it can save you a lot of pain if you are forced to hike out on a twisted ankle. Having something (like a hiking pole) for possibly splinting a knee/leg is also a good idea.

 

Luckily, one of my photo companions is a doctor and I was with him when we did our hairiest pre-dawn hike in the North Cascades on the way to Grasshopper Pass.

 

I'd advise taking an outdoor emergency care course. I had one plus refreshers when I was a volunteer ski patroller.