i’d never actually been to yosemite before and it had been a long time since i’d done any proper camping. it was so fun, and the park was amazingly beautiful in every way. on our first night, galen grilled up some steaks and veggie packets and corn. we had a large delicious meal before packing it up and going to bed early.

the next day we woke up at 6:30am and had another sizeable meal, and headed off on a 4-5 hour hike to the half dome site.

i won’t try to trivialize the hike. thousands of people do it every year. you start at a high elevation, and you go higher (a gain of 4800ft). you hike through the woods, up over two waterfalls, and up large rock steps for hours. then you can see the half dome site.  that means you must again climb the last very steep rock steps up to the rock face. at that point, you need to make a go-or-no-go decision to actually scale the rock face.

at the base of the rock face there is a pile of gloves. you put on a fairly well matched pair because you will be slowly ascending the rock using cables that have been installed on the rock. it’s slow, because people are taking their time, or taking a break, or panicking and turning around and descending. it can take 20-25 minutes to get up there if you decide to go up the “outside” of the cables, or over an hour if you decide to stay within the cables like most folks.

once you are up the rock face, you are at the top of yosemite national park, 8842ft elevation. you have a panoramic view of the valley, and a chance to relax with everybody else who has made it to the top. i was so exhausted and breathing such thin air, that i was wheezing at first until i relaxed a bit. at several points along the hike, i didn’t think i could make it and was formulating back-out plans in my head. i’m so glad i pushed forth and went all the way. in light of foot/hip problems i’ve been dealing with over the past couple years, i feel very accomplished having done this.

at the top of half dome, you are cooling off from the breeze and taking in one of the most amazing sights i have personally seen. the bad news is, you have another 5 hours to hike back and are racing to get back to your camp site before it gets dark. i paused along the way back, wondering how the hell did i go *up* all of this??

hiking half dome was quite awesome and i’m so glad i did it.

notes:

• 2 litres of water is not enough for this hike. filtering fresh water to replenish your store should be done
• eating a granny smith apple on the way down was AMAZING
• if i were doing it again, i would start the hike much earlier and before sunrise.
• having a good flashlight is essential for the trip back

all images were shot on arista premium 400 at iso 6400, developed in rodinal 1+50 for 45 minutes. shot with a widelux f7.

discarded chair in a chinatown alleyway, oakland, california.

this alley was a treasure trove of great objects, light, and graffiti. i found some similar alleys in san francisco’s chinatown, some locations i hope to use for portraits in the future. i think my current desire is to go there with my 8×10 and a subject or two.

I was inspired by david on flickr to post an updated gear photo. Ya, I collect camera gear. I think this year I want to come up with some way to display cameras at home – some way they’ll look nice but I can grab one easily when I’m on my way out the door. ‘Cause, you know, you gotta carry a camera.

Not pictured here are two medium format folders I have at work. And the digital p+s camera that took this pic. I also have two complete enlarger systems (Beseler and Omega) and two Lighting systems (Novatron and Speedotron).

My post of this pic on flickr has a breakdown of gear.

(2048×2048)

kodako 160vc shot on a rolleicord v (xenar).

this is one of the fantastic lamps from x-21 modern in the mission district. some of them are pretty crazy, and one day i hope to own one. x-21 is one of the great local shops in the mission.

The best part of this is the difference between two arms of Capital One. Someone needs to update their COBOL!

This is Echo Lake, the start of our 16 mile hike.

A panoramic view of Lake Aloha, the hike destination. Click on the images for larger versions. These images are plagued by the horrible smudge that was on the lens.. but you at least get a sense of scale of the landscape.

This is a digital snappy taken at lake aloha in the Sierra Nevadas.

This was part of a weekend trip with friends to South Lake Tahoe. I call it the “workout trip,” since the first day was lower body (a 16 mile hike) and the second day was core and upper body (kayaking on Lake Tahoe). Both were awesome, but I got a really bad sunburn on my feet!

i took this on my trip to the abandoned naval air station in alameda.

on my past few photo trips, i’ve found myself focusing on repeating patterns. also, something really intrigues me when i use color film to shoot mostly monochromatic scenes. i guess it’s about finding the subtleties in life.

this one is from the same drive, but in emeryville.

today i decided to go to the hayward camera show, but it wasn’t until i was heading down the peninsula that i realized it’s tomorrow and not today. i was already on the road with the pentax and film, so i decided to go to Alameda. you can see my route on the map.

aside from getting what i think will be great images of some of the buildings on the grounds there, i met dennis, a medium format shooter! he was out in alameda, where he just moved, with his pentacon. i recognized that camera a mile away, since it’s a cousin of my kiev-60. we had a little show-and-tell, since he had been thinking about a pentax but was disuaded from getting one. he showed me a czj 180/2.8 he has — that lens is crazy! anyways, we had a great conversation and i hope to bump into dennis again.

last weekend i was in portland, oregon. ryan was attending a conference and i decided to tag along. i brought my pentax 6×7 and several rolls of portra 160vc. portland turned out to be a fresh, clean city that was easy to get around in.

this image is a picture of the portland center for the performing arts, the most iconic views of the city.