I wanted to share a few photos from my recent backpacking trip to the Jackson Meadows area, a bit northwest of Truckee, California. If you've been following along, you've seen three videos from the trip (links below). These photos below were photographed on the second day of the trip which was about a 6.6-mile stretch. Not a bad hike and tons of wildflowers along the way.
These photos were all shot on a Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens. I only brought one lens with me as weight is always an issue on long multi-day hikes. The 24-105mm lens is my favorite go-to lens when I can only bring one along. It has a fairly wide angle view at 24mm and I don't usually need a longer lens than 105mm.
click photos to view larger
#1
The photo above was shot with an ISO of 50 and an aperture of f16. The lens was zoomed in at its max, 105mm. I also used a graduated neutral density filter. This all led to a 5-second long shot which required a tripod. I have a few different tripods but the one for backpacking is a lightweight small carbon-fiber tripod. It's not my favorite tripod but it gets the job done.
#2
This shot (above) was taken handheld with a shutter speed of 1/250 second with the lens set at 55mm. The ISO was 200 and this all led to a fairly wide aperture of f5.6. There wasn't much of an interesting foreground so the loss of depth of field at aperture f5.6 wasn't a big deal.
#3
This photo was another one shot handheld while walking along the trail. I would stop for a second or two to take the photos but I had to keep moving as I was always a bit behind my two friends and I didn't have the paper map. They didn't have cameras so they weren't as happy to have me slowing things down haha! Shot with the lens set at 85mm, a shutter speed of 1/250 second, ISO of 200, and an aperture of f13. I usually shoot with manual mode on but in hiking and moving scenarios like this, I shot with the speed priority on instead. I set the shutter speed to 1/250 second and the best aperture was automatically selected by the camera.
#4
Another shot taken handheld while on the trail. There were tons of scenes like this that I quickly shot, but the bright colors of these flowers (I have no idea what type) really stood out to me. Shot with the exact same settings as the image above only this one had the lens set at 73mm.
Below is the section of the trail completed on day two. We didn't hike as many miles as the other two days and we had more stops so it was probably my favorite of the days.
I'm curious, which of the 4 photos of the day is your favorite and why???
Thank you for looking and reading!
Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
Videos from this backpacking trip:
- Backcountry Backpacking Fun With The Camera And Friends - Day 1
- Backcountry Backpacking Fun With The Camera And Friends - Day 2
- Backcountry Backpacking Fun With The Camera And Friends - Day 3, The Final Day
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