DarvOz
Member
Firstly, thanks for the kind comments from everyone, it really was a great experience, and I consciously chose to focus on enjoying it over focusing on photography.
I use lightroom for post, usually bumping up the colours a touch, with some small changes to lift shadows or improve contrast. The other thing I do is usually change the curves a little too, lifting the shadows will give that slightly washed out "film look" where the blacks are more of a very dark grey colour.
Also I almost never crop an image, I feel by cropping it makes my composition when I take photo's lazy, by refusing to crop, I think a lot more about how I frame my shots. So that Elephant definitely is as close as it looks, we had one pass not more than 4 ft from the Land cruiser, it was incredible!
The climb took us 8 days, it can be done in less, but you really want to acclimatize to the altitude for the best chance at making the summit. It isn't a technical climb, instead it is a hike. There are some rock scrambles, and summiting is by no means easy. You leave at about midnight for a 6-7 hour slog up scree, the altitude makes this very difficult, and you fight fatigue, altitude sickness and your capacity to go on. The payoff is worth it though, the sunrise was incredible, and I will never forget it. I would recommend Diamox for altitude sickness, and taking 7-8 days to do the climb, as I had no symptoms of altitude sickness, apart from minor headaches and the inevitable shortness of breath/fatigue.
I use the lens hood, and a cap, the rest is as it came. The lens hood saved my camera on a few occasions, as it got beat up a little, it also allowed me to carry it without a lens cap for quick shots should I see them. I also carried a lens pen for quick cleaning, a small gorilla pod which i used only on one night, and a cable release for the night shot of kili.
Great series of shots, DarvOz - thanks for posting! What was your processing (on the the 2nd image, in particular)? I have an x100, but I've never got this 'look' out of it. Very nice.
I'd be very happy to see more from your Africa trip, if you have them.
I use lightroom for post, usually bumping up the colours a touch, with some small changes to lift shadows or improve contrast. The other thing I do is usually change the curves a little too, lifting the shadows will give that slightly washed out "film look" where the blacks are more of a very dark grey colour.
Also I almost never crop an image, I feel by cropping it makes my composition when I take photo's lazy, by refusing to crop, I think a lot more about how I frame my shots. So that Elephant definitely is as close as it looks, we had one pass not more than 4 ft from the Land cruiser, it was incredible!
The climb took us 8 days, it can be done in less, but you really want to acclimatize to the altitude for the best chance at making the summit. It isn't a technical climb, instead it is a hike. There are some rock scrambles, and summiting is by no means easy. You leave at about midnight for a 6-7 hour slog up scree, the altitude makes this very difficult, and you fight fatigue, altitude sickness and your capacity to go on. The payoff is worth it though, the sunrise was incredible, and I will never forget it. I would recommend Diamox for altitude sickness, and taking 7-8 days to do the climb, as I had no symptoms of altitude sickness, apart from minor headaches and the inevitable shortness of breath/fatigue.
I use the lens hood, and a cap, the rest is as it came. The lens hood saved my camera on a few occasions, as it got beat up a little, it also allowed me to carry it without a lens cap for quick shots should I see them. I also carried a lens pen for quick cleaning, a small gorilla pod which i used only on one night, and a cable release for the night shot of kili.
DarvOz
Member
Great series of shots, DarvOz - thanks for posting! What was your processing (on the the 2nd image, in particular)? I have an x100, but I've never got this 'look' out of it. Very nice.
I'd be very happy to see more from your Africa trip, if you have them.
My flickr has more shots, this is the first round of processing, but I don't think I will add many more, just a couple I want to re-process before uploading them too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/philb8/
goamules
Well-known
Wonderful! I really enjoyed looking at your picture selections.
gm13
Well-known
Did anyone recommend coca leaf tea to help with altitude acclimation? A friend went up a couple of years ago and swore by it.
clicker
Well-known
Beautiful images made with a keen eye and a fine traveling camera.
Thanks for sharing .
Thanks for sharing .