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My predicament has been a long time coming… I looked through my earlier postings and see
that it started around 2012 with a hike in the Jemez Mountains, the Rio Cebolla
in particular.
I have been day-hiking on and off for the last 25 or so
years. I have been enjoying my hikes
through New Mexico with different friends and coworkers; occasionally on my own
much to my wife’s apprehension. During
the first years it was enough to get out just hiking.
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| Tiny, frozen bubbles |
While I enjoyed photography, with film it was
too much work and expense to want to lug a camera, shoot various things of
interest then wait for some period of time for the prints to arrive. I did a poor job shooting an entire roll of
film on a particular hike so each roll may have several outings of which I would
have to sort what shots were from what hike; not always easy when it may have taken
me over a month to shoot a roll of film.
Upon return of the film, prints were quickly examined with the few
superb ones making it into a photo album while the rest were placed back in the
sleeve in which they arrived. Even the ‘wonderful’ prints that made it in the
photo albums are rarely seen again. This
really hit home last year when I inherited several large boxes of slides from a
relative which had passed several years ago.
He was a backpacker frequently carrying a 35mm or a 4x5 camera on his
outings. I started looking through his
slides; saw numerous trips to various national parks in CA including Yosemite
and others I did not recognize. After the
first hundred or so all the slides looked the same. I am sorry to admit that they all went into
the trash BECAUSE they all looked the same, while they meant a lot to the
person who took them they don’t have much if any meaning to anyone else.
Since that time I have been thinking about this collection
of stuff; not just photos, stuff in general, although I will focus on images. I have many photo albums of people and places
which mean something to me. I’m
relatively certain each of you have your own photo albums which mean something
to each of you.
The problem of all these images has gotten considerably
worse with the popularity with digital cameras. The
cost of digital images essentially stays the same whether you shoot one or ten
hoping one of the ten is a keeper.
Inevitably if one does come out as the keeper the other nine are still
kept ‘just in case’. As my shooting has
improved I have learned that the other nine do not get better, in fact they get
worse, even the one ‘keeper’ may not be a keeper any more. When I went to photo school I would check out
a 4x5 school camera for my assignments.
You do not rush shooting with a 4x5.
A great deal of time goes into planning, composing and exposing those
images. That does not include film
processing and printing. You make sure up
front you want that image because of all the time and effort that goes into
each. I still have a number of prints I
shot with those 4x5 cameras and remember the work involved making them.
I did an internet search on the quantity of photos taken
this past year. One site estimates that
over 1 trillion photos were taken in 2015.
I certainly did my part; Adobe Lightroom keeps track of how many images
I took last year; 1,998 on my camera and probably several dozen more on my
phone.
On another subject, I bought a fly rod as a
Christmas present to myself. On my
second hike of 2016 went fly fishing for the first time. Hence the title of this post 'Dilemma' ….
Each time I will hike the question becomes. “Fly rod or camera????”
Both came along on this trip, although I did not bring my
tripod. I can only carry so much and I
don’t want to drag a wagon behind me carrying all my stuff. I found that having a fly rod in hand means I
am concentrating on the water; locating possible trout hideouts and ways to get
to them. Occasionally I look for photo
ops but that is secondary this day. I
have no expectations on catching anything, and I lived up to those
expectations.
Byron and I went to the Guadalupe River just up from the
Gilman Tunnels so I could start my new hobby.
The road just north of the Gilman Tunnels is closed for the season so
our hike is along the forest road. At
this point the trout do not have to worry about my fly fishing capabilities. Byron was the photographer on this hike, (no
Mark, he did not bring his fly rod). He
helped me with sneaking up on the trout, and casting. I did manage keep the fly out of the weeds;
trees, shrubs and other assorted fly magnets.
I even managed to get the fly to the spot I was aiming for, give or take
a few feet. It was fun. I will have to work on my patience. I will do this again, hopefully having better
luck.
Check out Byron’s blog with his photo adventure on this day
AND photos of my first fly fishing attempt at https://byrondemos.wordpress.com/
Thank you for stopping by,
Mark
Hi Mark,
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hitting the river with you and Byron this season. I enjoy these trips. The fish might not always bite, but the company is always great!
Mark