In a former blog post photograher and guest blogger Michael Kennedy said that one key to getting cool photos was to keep shooting no matter what the weather throws at you. Yesterday we were hiking up Highland Peak doing some frontcountry skiing at Aspen Highlands ski area. The wind was blasting so hard it knocked me over once, probably a 65 or 70 mph gust. To save weight I’ve been experimenting with a smaller digicam, a Canon PowerShot A620, good because it’s got a manual mode as well as point-and-shoot “snow” mode, menus I can see in bright sunlight, 4x optical zoom, and it runs on AA batteries. It’s not the smallest of the “small,” but most of the really tiny cameras lack modes such as a “real” manual that lets you set shutter speed and aperture, and they use proprietary batteries (I’m so sick of having 16 different battery chargers). That said, if you want a slightly more robust yet compact camera with a larger LCD as well as a top-view LCD, the Canon G6 is also worth considering. But it’s larger, costs more, and doesn’t use AA batteries.
The gale force wind yesterday was carrying an amazing amount of snow from the previous night’s storm, swirling the white stuff around like some kind of Bermuda Triangle maelstrom effect. Per Michael’s instructions, I yanked the A620 out of the napoleon pocket on my Cloudveil Serendipity Jacket (yes Virginia, a shameless product promo) and kept shooting. Below is one result. Fun stuff.
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| On the Highland Peak hike, Highlands Ski Area, Colorado. Not exactly backcountry skiing, but it can be an adventure nonetheless. |
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
