buck forester

December 16, 2004

Fantastic! Awesome depth of field, great balance of light and color and it's a gorgeous subject!

December 16, 2004

That is a beautiful place and I long to go there and see it! To me that is the ultimate compliment to a photo... awesome job of capturing nature! Your folders are outstanding.

December 16, 2004

Here's another shot of Pioneer Basin in the High Sierra, a little

earlier in the evening than a couple others I posted. The light is

more contrasty so it was tougher to keep it in line, I'm not sure if

I succeeded or not. If I remember correctly, I used three stops of

GND as I knelt on my knees and prayed. I'm curious how this appears

to others. Gracias senors and senoras and senoritas. Adios amigos.

December 15, 2004

This is a mid-morning shot of Arrow Peak over Bench Lake in Kings

Canyon National Park, taken during a backpacking trip a couple months

ago. It had been breezy and cloudless for most of the week... both

of those elements are enemies of mine for wilderness photography, ha

ha!, but finally the wind subsided and the lake glassed out. Well,

almost, there's a smidgen of ripples in there. I know it isn't magic

lighting or dazzling creativity, but I'm curious what you think and

if there's anything you may have done differently. I used Velvia 50

and an 81b warming filter with a 70-200 zoom at about the 100mm fecal

point, I mean, focal point. I love film, but the Canon 20D has got

my attention, especially with the amount of film I shoot on my

backpacking trips. Any thoughts on dumping Velvia and going with a

good digital slr? I just can't decide, captain! My mind is at full

warp speed... she's gonna blow!

November 6, 2004

Just another mid-day backpacking pic from a recent trip. I sure

would like to spend a week at this lake and wait for some magical

lighting, but it's still a beautiful place even without it.

Hopefully somewhere in my undeveoped rolls of slides from this trip

are some pics with really sweet lighting.

November 4, 2004

Here's another shot from a backpacking trip a few weeks ago. This is

in a remote area inside Kings Canyon National Park. No magic

lighting or dramatic atmosphere, this was taken mid-morning on a

clear sunny day. I think I shot this without a polarizer and I used

a 81b warming filter and a 2-stop soft GND. The film was Velvia 50.

Any advice, recommendations, comments, or leftover pizza would be

appreciated. Thank you!

October 18, 2004

Here's a pic I took on a recent backpacking trip of a remote lake

deep inside Kings Canyon National Park. By the time I made it here

with my camera, it was mid-morning, not magic lighting or anything

but the area was spectacular. Aesthetically I would have preferred

to move a little to the right from this perspective but darn it, it

was all marsh to my right. I would have loved to try this shot later

in the evening but we had to hike on. Any thoughts on composition,

color, Bush vs. Kerry, favorite trail snacks, what I should've used

for fishing, etc.? Thanks.

October 12, 2004

Thanks for the comments! Yes, I took a series of this scene, with and without my buddy in there, with and without a polarizer (this is without here), and various zoom angles. Yes, I burned a few shots, ha ha!

October 9, 2004

Hi! I took this on a recent backpacking trip into some remote areas

in Kings Canyon National Park. I often enjoy the human element in a

wilderness photo, so I had my hiking partner who was wearing a very

bright red jacket go stand on the other side of the pond. This was

taken with Velvia 50 in the morning. Does the photo work? (whatever

that means, ha ha!) Any suggestions on composition or coloring? I

used an 81B warming filter but being at such a high altitude and

shooting with Velvia it still came out a bluish cast.

September 19, 2004

Thanks Ken! It very well may be tilted to the right, but that might also reflect my political leanings or perhaps the gradiant of the creek actually was pretty steep and flowing strongly to the right. But most likely I wasn't paying attention to the bubble on top of my tripod, ha ha! I could either fix it in Photoshop or you could cram a magazine under the right side of your monitor and even it out a bit. ha! As for wading out there, I did (but not neked) because I had to cross this sucker to continue on hiking. What you see here is only half the creek, that's actually an island on the right and the second half of the creek flows on the other side, even wider. It was a pretty hairy crossing and I think I wet my pants, I couldn't tell for sure because they were already soaked. As for the shutter speed, it was insanely long, probably 15 seconds. I'm guessing 15 seconds because the mosquitoes were thick and I was getting bit every second. After the shot was over I counted 15 bites all over my body. That's why I wasn't neked, otherwise I'm a nude photographer.

September 19, 2004

Thank you so much for the kind words, Rajeev!

August 31, 2004

Wow, I really like this shot! It seems you got pretty decent DOF for shooting at only F4. Good eye! I love your wilderness stuff too! Clickity click click click!

August 12, 2004

Thanks, Ken and Rajeev! Yes, Heidi and Sierra are mother and daughter and they head out into the wilds with me every weekend! Rajeev, they pretty much just carry their own food in their packs. They used to carry some of my stuff too, but they're around 10 years old now so I try and keep their packs as light as possible.

August 12, 2004

Wow! Gorgeous! I bet if you uploaded larger files of your pics you'd get a lot more looks... your stuff is grandtastic!!!

August 10, 2004

Hey Matt, e-x-c-e-l-l-e-n-t shot! This is so beautiful! Hands down a "7" all the way! Being an avid backpacker myself, those who comment that the colors are too saturated here either have different settings on their monitor (which happens!) or have not experienced the AMAZING true colors of a High Sierra sunset! The colors during sunrise and sundown in the Sierra are simply stunning, and your pic brings it out wonderfully. In fact, looking at the red on Cathedral Peak, I bet you even toned it down a bit because I've seen those reflections turn coal red. It's ironic you posted this shot because Upper Cathedral Lake is on my backpacking itinerary this weekend! I'm hoping for some thunderclouds! If not, the fishing should be great anyway. Again, incredible shot, keep showin' off those Sierra Nevadas! Yaaaa!

August 5, 2004

Thanks for the compliments!

Cande, to answer your question, this is located in the John Muir Wilderness in the High Sierra. The easiest way to get there is from the Mosquito Flat trailhead on the east side of the Sierra just north of Bishop, and then hike over Mono Pass (12,000'). It's about 8 miles of hiking through incredible scenery. The fishing is good too, oh yaaa, baby! There are beeeellions of spectacular basins all throughout the High Sierra.

August 2, 2004

Hi Gilbert! You're correct... my monitor at home is off a bit, so when I look at this from my work monitor, I see the color is a bit off, and it's a little dark too. I always try and match the scan with the slide the best I can. It's not far off, but it's enough off that I need to rescan it. Thank you.

January 7, 2004

It was a great feeling, as Forester Pass was our last major pass before tackling Mt. Whitney! As for the elevation, the sign said 13,200, but most maps put it a few feet below that, so I'm not sure which to believe! Either way, we were high in more ways than one!