We summitted Rainier via the Kautz route and did an "up and over" - up the Kautz, down the Disappointment Cleaver - meaning we had to carry our full packs (~60 lbs) all the way. It's a technical route that required my full attention, so photography was a lower priority, and the biggest miss in terms photo opportunities was the Kautz ice chute: Utterly beautiful, but it required one ice axe in each hand. We were dealing with 40 mph winds at the summit, so again the camera stayed in the pack so the wind would have no opportunity to blow away any essential gear as I reach for the camera.
All taken with a Q2M and a dark red filter. Any ugly gradients in the dark skies are caused by Zenfolio.
theHUN wrote:
We summitted Rainier via the Kautz route and did an "up and over" - up the Kautz, down the Disappointment Cleaver - meaning we had to carry our full packs (~60 lbs) all the way. It's a technical route that required my full attention, so photography was a lower priority, and the biggest miss in terms photo opportunities was the Kautz ice chute: Utterly beautiful, but it required one ice axe in each hand. We were dealing with 40 mph winds at the summit, so again the camera stayed in the pack so the wind would have no opportunity to blow away any essential gear as I reach for the camera.
All taken with a Q2M and a dark red filter. Any ugly gradients in the dark skies are caused by Zenfolio.
This is the best example I've seen of a monochrome sensor paired with a dark red filter producing results that simply can't be replicated with a color sensor and post-processing. If I tried to achieve this with a color filter conversion, it would take an enormous amount of post-processing time just to smooth the transition tones and avoid artifacts and haloing. It really shows something a monochrome sensor combined with a dark red filter can do that a bayer-filtered sensor can't, at least not at this level of quality.
Fred Miranda wrote:
This is the best example I've seen of a monochrome sensor paired with a dark red filter producing results that simply can't be replicated with a color sensor and post-processing. If I tried to achieve this with a color filter conversion, it would take an enormous amount of post-processing time just to smooth the transition tones and avoid artifacts and haloing. It really shows something a monochrome sensor combined with a dark red filter can do that a bayer-filtered sensor can't, at least not at this level of quality.
Many thanks for the kind words. Mountaineering and glacier travel are the perfect match for a monochrome sensor + dark red filter. I had taken this combo on two separate summit attempts on Denali with equally great results.
Edit: And credit to Peter Schön, his work (which inspired me to commit to mono + dark red), and his insights as I was exploring camera options for these trips.
Fred Miranda wrote:
This is the best example I've seen of a monochrome sensor paired with a dark red filter producing results that simply can't be replicated with a color sensor and post-processing. If I tried to achieve this with a color filter conversion, it would take an enormous amount of post-processing time just to smooth the transition tones and avoid artifacts and haloing. It really shows something a monochrome sensor combined with a dark red filter can do that a bayer-filtered sensor can't, at least not at this level of quality.
A lot of this is due not just to the monochrome sensor plus red filter but also the high altitude, low humidity, and clear air that I assume was part of the environment in which these were taken.
highdesertmesa wrote:
A lot of this is due not just to the monochrome sensor plus red filter but also the high altitude, low humidity, and clear air that I assume was part of the environment in which these were taken.
I thought the same thing, but all hail the guy willing to go there to get the shots. I can't get much above 13k without feeling very old these days.
Wow! Utterly incredible!!! These make me feel like I was there and I'm so undeserving :-)
I looked at your photos from the previous climbs too, and they are breathtaking as well.
Thanks!!!
I was in El Dorado SP today shooting a couple of climbing friends of mine and also brought along the mono rII for other fun. This is what you’ll see at the gas station on the right when you turn off HW93.
Who needs Coffee and Cars when you’ve got Eldo Liquor and a very cheap imitation ECTO-1?
Those were taken with the Minolta MD 28/2, a lens that continues to impress me both on the mono and film. It’s my favorite wide with the MD 50/2 and 100/2.5. Today was the first time I put an IR filter on it (850nm) and it did very well. This one’s shot into the sun with hand-shading.
Nothing to cry about performance-wise. I had hoped for better skies, since we had such a great morning, but no.
Anyway, here’s a couple shots from what has become part of my favorite kit, the Minony (Sonolta?) 50/2.8 and then the Canon EF 100/2, both of which thrill me. They’re great in IR, too, but I was going for vis mono here.
