Photography and Rock Climbing?

[syd]

Hey guys,

 

Just curious if anybody out there is taking their camera's with them

whilst rock climbing or mountaineering in any fashion? I'm studying

outdoor rec in the outdoor adventure capital of my country where I

live and have yet to do any serious photography hanging off a cliff

face. The first thing that struck me was - no tripods, probably no P

styled filters and fairly fast film, to a degree; but what about

formats? Has anybody shot LF from a rock climbing perspective? I know

Galen Rowell was well known for this ( shooting whilst climbing not

shooting LF while climbing! ) and my inroads with mountain hiking

shooting nature and rainforest landscapes has now stretched me into

wanting to shoot from very unique positions and perspectives in

climbing terms, et al ...

 

Anyone doing this?

[paul beiser]

I do it very poorly, but Jeff Achey ("Guide to Climbing Photography") does it very very well (and of course Galen Rowell did it quite nicely).

[awahlster]

Finley the great bird photographer did this with an 8X10 plate camera along the coast of Oregon. Some amazing stuff. I know a number of guys who techincal rock climb that use rangefinders while climbing. One of the most famous cameras in the world is the lost little kodak from the Mallory expidition on Everest

[steve_mcallister]

Dude if your planing to shoot while your climing you otta be shure your a good enuf climer not to git yourself killed while your fussin with the camera. An you otta be shure your a good enuf photographer to risk gittin yourself killed for it.

[gloria_hopkins]

http://www.dbpix.com/

[syd]

"Dude if your planing to shoot while your climing you otta be shure your a good enuf climer not to git yourself killed while your fussin with the camera. An you otta be shure your a good enuf photographer to risk gittin yourself killed for it."

 

Sure, my work is good enough and I don't plan on free soloing. Rock climbing has it's dangers but if done properly is very safe if you do it right and respect the invironment. I'm training to be an outdoor guide so it's not going to be amateur hour I can assure you. In my part of the world Rock Climbing is the no-1 activity asides from the other disciplines like canyoning, abseiling etc. I'm more cautious than most but essentially I feel safer on the side of a mountain than in city traffic!

[WalterFlint]

Simon

I used to do this all the time. I don't really climb much anymore but I do have a few words of advice. Static ropes are best unless your gonna be doing lots of traverses that require lowering out on your jumars. If your jugs pop off the rope (and assuming your tied in short) a dynamic rope will save your life, a static line will probably break your back. You might want to manufacture some form of stilt system for you legs or feet to help push you away from the wall a few feet as this gives a much nicer perspective. Also, carry a sling or small rope bag to coil and stack your rope in as a seperate line hanging in the picture is not attractive nor desired. A large format camera is utterly out of the question unless your stationary on a large ledge. A medium format camera would of course probably work but is limited because of not having a motor drive among other things. If your seriuos about all this then 35mm is the way to go. A good quality 28-70 f2.8 lens, a body with a motor drive, a lens hood and a polarizer are all you need for most situations. Most of my photos were done with Kodachrome 25. Learning how to properly handhold a camera can make all the difference in the world. I also almost always wore some type of sticky rubber approach shoe so I could move around on the wall easily without my feet paddeling. It's a fun type of photography but as you are aware, serious too. We all pack our own parachutes!!

Best of Luck

Walter Flint

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=82270<div></div>

[syd]

Hey Walt!

 

A talented climber and photographer all in the one package!; clearly a man after my own heart. ;) Thats a beautiful portfolio my friend and I'd love to do some climbing/abseiling and general mountaineering in your neck of the woods ... superb stuff! Your exactly the kind of person I was hoping to hear from actually. I'm a beginner climber right now and more experienced in trekking and ski touring side of things. My aim is not to be crazy ... not sure I have the guts to solo at this early stage!!!! ... I have no idea how you guys do that and hold your breakfast - but rather my thoughts were using climbing as a means to reach generally inaccesable ledges and the like where you could potentially set up a Crown Graphic from backpack and shoot LF like that? My Crown is totally compact and would not weigh a whole lot more than my 35mm system stuffed in a ruck but for most jobs 35mm will certainly be the way to go. I'm at a point now where I can sell my work gallery wise with representation ( nearly all of my images are not scanned for the net alas! ) and so I'm looking at combining my outdoor adventure career with my photography career. A major benefit of climbing is that a climber or abseiler can get to places that the tour bus never reaches! Many of the national parks have the usual well trodden photographers who all take their own version of the same rock and sunset from about the same place ... not so the rock climber!

 

I am thinking a Warm Pola would be perfect with my 24mm wide for 35mm climbing and would fit snug in a pack. I'm more interested in Alpine, Trekking and Mountaineering than lead climbing but in order to specialize in the others I am going to train up hard in climbing generally. I don't anticipate making a habit of the more extreme climbing but ya never know ... stuff gets in yer blood!

 

May I ask why you no longer climb, you look pretty darn good at it and comfortable too.

 

Best, Simon.

[russ_butner]

When I did Salathe Wall, Half Dome & Sentinel, I hauled along a small Ricoh P&S loaded with Kodachrome 64. It delivered very nice and sharp slides. Hauled it up hundreds of J-Tree and Tahquitz routes too.

 

Russ

[WalterFlint]

Gee Simon I hope you did'nt think that was me in the photo. Well rehearsed 5.8 was my solo limit back in the day when such things were possible. I took the picture whilst hanging from the top of the Cookie cliff in Yosemite. The person climbing is my big wall partner Dave Schultz who, by the way, was the first person (with Peter Croft)to ever climb the Nose and the Salathe Wall on El Capitan in one day. Good luck with your pursuits.

[qtluong]

Here is my feeble attempt at

<a href = "http://www.terragalleria.com/mountain/">climbing photography</a>. I suppose using a hand-held LF like a speed graphic would be fairly practical if photography is the main goal of the climb.

[brien_m]

I usually take my 35 Ricoh GR1s for climbing when bulk and weight are primary considerations. It's a tiny camera, aperture priority, takes filters, can be accessed and operated with one hand, and has an excellent 28mm lens. 28mm is kind of the narrowest focal for the shots I like to take climbing. I've seen people using the GR21 (21mm lens) for climbing and I think it was made specifically for that purpose. Too bad it is so $$$ and discontinued. The GR is ideal for my purposes but then again taking photographs is seldom my primary objective. LF gear might be ok if you don't mind hauling it and can get to a safe spot, but I can't say I'd consider it for anything too technical.

[brien_m]

Quang-Tuan Luong - feeble attempt? I wish I was as feeble!

Beautiful folder.

[lex_jenkins]

From the narrowly focused perspective of carrying your photo gear, you might take a peek at the Kinesis website. They make modular web gear. I'm considering getting some because I can't comfortably carry a backpack or shoulder bag anymore. And none of the web gear I've seen in local shops from the better known bag makers quite suits me.

 

As for conditioning, I'd suggest working on the upper legs, especially around the knees, and lower back (which includes strengthening the stomach) as much as any other part of the body. When I hiked and rappelled years ago I was often surprised to find how quickly I tired in those areas, while I had no trouble with my upper body or lower legs. But I was lazy about lower body work and I've always had weak knees.

[bonsignore_ezio]

Based on some 40 years of (modest) mountaineering and (very modest) rock climbing: You will soon discover that there is a fundamental difference between photos taken WHILE you are actually doing your own mountaineering/climbing, and photos OF mountaineering/climbing. In the first case your photos will mostly have a sentimental/documentary value and may certainly include some nice landscape shots, but will never match the stunning quality of photos in the second category. Most of the beautiful photos of people climbing or ascending that you see around were made during ascents, organised with the specific purposes of taking these photos, and in any case by people who were in positions, that had nothing to do with the logic of the route being climbed. It is virtually impossible to get a really impressive shot of you partner(s) during a serious climb - all you can get is their head/shoulders or lower parts, depending on whether you are leading or following. The only acceptable shots of climbing people I ever was able to make were either at belay places, or of total strangers that were climbing on a parallel route to ours. I have thus since long abandoned these futile attempts, and thus just do the climbing photos I want as a memento while concentrating on the landscape possibilities (which of course include the wall itself).

As regards the equipment, what you want is a camera that a) can be attached to your climbing harness (or slid into a pocket) without impairing your movements, b) can be used easily without requiring acrobatics, and c) would not break your hearth if it intercepts a falling stone or takes a short cut to be base of the wall. All the rest (camera in the packback. etc.) is strictly reserved to climbs intended to take photos, but is out of bounds for climbs for the climb. I mostly used and use an Olympus XA and its modern Mju equivalent that fit perfectly well in a breast pocket and have a protected lens, while my medium-format needs are covered perfectly well by a Super Ikonta III in the large pant pockets. I will be off for a climbing week in the Brenta Group the day after tomorrow, and this time I will experiment with my wife's Canon Epoca (I dont't remember how it was called in the US) because although being rather bulky if offers the capital advantage of a zoom while being usable with only one hand with all functions under thumb or index finger control.

[syd]

Hey Bon,

 

I probably didn't make myself clear; I'm basically wanting to take landscapes from beautiful places that are reached by climbing and not shooting other climbers or to shoot specifically whilst climbing if that makes sense. My goal whilst climbing is to climb and not take photo's, my goal is to use climbing to get to stunning vantage points where unique images are possible ... I am essentially a landscape and nature photographer and plan to remain one rather than a sports photographer shooting other climbers or myself whilst climbing.

 

That being said, I have a perfect light weight camera ( 35mm ) for climbing in my Contax 139Q with 24mm lens which is possibly one of the smallest and most compact SLR's I've ever seen ... perfect for such jobs. My curiosity which will only be borne out by direct experience I suppose is whether I can lug my Crown Graphic around in a backpack whilst climbing to these locations and whether I could rig a tripod into it also ... choose my battles though with that one.

 

I'm going to have a look into a nice SLR holster system and see what I can find also.

 

Best, S.

[bonsignore_ezio]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, which resulted in me loading you with advice and suggestions you didn't need in the sligthtest. At this point, I'll say it is basically a question of how much extra weight you are prepared to carry. If I could still put forward a suggestion without sounding positively silly, I'll say you should buy yourself a cheap 6x9 folder (a Moskva, an early Bessa, an Ikonta or Ercona) and experiment a little bit. If the results please you to a more significant extent than your 35mm gears, despite the lack of interchangeable lens etc., then it all boils down to what your shoulders and backs would tolerate. My photographic interests "up there" are very close to yours, and due to the above misunderstanding in my previous note I didn't mention that unless weight reduction is an absolute priority I also normally carry a Minolta XD7 with two lenses in my backpack.

[josh1]

<a href="http://www.pbase.com/jhansen/trips_and_events">http://www.pbase.com/jhansen/trips_and_events</a>

 

<p>Most of my recent trips have involved some climbing. I use 35mm with a 28-70 zoom lens most of the time.

[alastairjamieson]

Hi Simon,

 

Not much to add to the above, but while you mention Galen Rowell's work, you may not be aware that some of his very useful articles covering some of the practicalities of mountain photography (among other things) are still available on the web here: www.mountainlight.com/articles.html (sorry - you'll have to copy and paste that link).

 

Also, at the risk of triggering an avalanche of camera recommendations, another camera you could consider is the Mamiya 7 or 7II. They're a medium format (6x7) rangefinder with excellent lenses, and popular for outdoor work due to light weight and compactness. Lots of info. to be found elsewhere on photo.net if you're interested.

 

All the best,

 

Alastair.