The Ultimate Guide to Digital Photography in the Mountains

I probably don't need to mention it, but light is usually very good at sunrise and sunset. And if you have good looking clouds, you are in for a treat! Here, Nevado Chacraraju seen from Chopicalqui moraine camp. Photo by Alexandre Buisse

III. Taking the picture

When to shoot

Assuming you have your camera handy, it is easy enough to take pictures during breaks, when you have time and are not busy with climbing-related thoughts. But that also means that you are not choosing when to take pictures, and that you will be missing most of the "climber in action" images that can be so interesting. For that reason, you need to be actively looking for pictures all the time, and often will have to create your own opportunities. Whenever you see a good photo, it is time to assess the situation, taking into accounts the following factors:

• How long is this opportunity going to last? If it is relying on someone doing a climbing move or on fast-changing light, then you need to act quickly. If it is a landscape, conditions don't look about to change dramatically and your path is not going to alter the perspective, then you have more margin.
• How safe is it to stop here? Can everyone on the party anchor safely? Is there no risk of stonefall, nor of avalanching?
• How convenient is it to stop now? Did everyone just take a break recently or is one due soon? Are you pressed for time before nightfall or snow warm-up? Is it getting cold? Are your partners starting to get annoyed at your photography slowing things down? When is the next stop likely to happen?
• How good is the picture likely to be? Did you already take similar shots earlier in the day? Can you take more than one image with this one stop?

Once all of this has been weighed (it goes without saying that the safety part is the most important and that if you have any doubt stopping would be dangerous, just forget about photography and get out of there), you can take the decision to ask for a quick stop or to wait for the next break. It is very important to discuss it with your partners, maybe even before the trip, and to be ready to compromise if they object. After all, while you are happily snapping away, they will be standing around and getting cold.

In my opinion, the best moments to take pictures are at belay and abseil stations: you are already anchored, someone is maybe climbing close by (if you are the belayer, you should obviously not be taking pictures) and you are likely to be in an impressive looking location. And it is usually ok to take an extra minute for photos when the team is getting ready for the next pitch. Then, of course, there are regular breaks, summits and camps.

Shooting from a lower position exacerbates the impression of exposure. Though to be fair, that traverse was truly scary. Photo by Alexandre Buisse

Modus Operandi

Here is a more or less complete of all the steps I go through to take a picture while climbing:

• Assess the situation as explained previously, paying special attention to safety. Let's assume I decided to stop (or that a break was scheduled anyway).
• Inform the rest of the party.
• Anchor myself safely to the ground (as one should always do when stopping). Even on very easy glacier terrain, I at least bury one ice axe: since I will redirect some attention from keeping my balance to taking pictures, I want to have some safeguard.
• Get into a comfortable position where I can freely use my two hands. It often means sitting down.
• Unzip the camera bag.
• Without taking the camera out, get the biner attached to the camera strap and clip it to the bag strap. My camera is now safe from falling.
• Pull the camera enough to be able to access the front of the lens, but still keeping it in the bag. Take the lenscap out and drop it in the bag.
• Put the camera strap around my neck.
• Take the camera out of the bag
• Close the bag (but without zipping it up).
• Check that there is no snow on the lens (I learned this one the hard way).
• Turn the camera on.
• Check that the battery level is high enough. If not, swap batteries (inside the bag!).
• Check that the shooting mode and the parameters are what you want (in my case, it's 98% of the time aperture first, f/8, ISO 200).
• Check exposure compensation is correctly set (-0.7 stops if sunny, 0 otherwise, see the next section)
• Check autobracketing is off.

I am now ready to shoot. For each image that I want to shoot, the process is:

• Take a test shot.
• Check histogram. If highlights are clipped, dial exposure compensation by -0.7eV steps until they are not blown anymore.
• On the last image, if shadows are heavily clipped, then bracket for HDR (again, see next section).
• If I can see anything on the LCD and if battery is not expected to be too big of a problem, then zoom in to evaluate sharpness.

When I am done shooting, I will take a few seconds to reset autobracketing and exposure compensation if I modified them, then revert the initial steps in the exact same order. I try to make the whole thing a small ritual, as forgetting anything could range from mildly annoying (forgetting autobracketing was on) to downright catastrophic (wasn't this biner clipped to my harness?). With a little bit of practice, the whole thing takes less than a minute.

Taking a rest on the way to Chopicalqui high camp. Photo by Alexandre Buisse

You will maybe have noticed that nowhere do I mention taking off my gloves. That's because it simply isn't needed, and I encourage everyone to not take the habit of relying on having small gloves or bare hands to operate their camera. It is very easy and fast to get frostbite, and even if it doesn't go that far, there are few more efficient ways of turning a climb into an ordeal than having cold hands. It's true that I can't take pictures when I have mittens on, but then I can't tie knots either (I know, I know...), and if I have to be wearing mittens, photography won't be my main concern anyway.

Since it is very important to shoot fast, I often don't have the time to compose as carefully as I would usually do, so I tend to try multiple compositions and angles, shooting away, and do the selection once back home. I also often shoot several frames of the same basic composition if I feel the image is good, simply for safety, as it is often hard to judge sharpness on the spot. That's one of the big advantages of digital over film, and I make full use of it.

Previous Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next Page