picturing myself backpacking

Less than a month from now we leave for Colorado for our summer backpacking trip with my family. I am truly excited for this because it has been far too long since I’ve been packing in the Rockies.

This will be Steph’s first time backpacking, so that’s going to be an adventure in and of itself. She’s a little concerned about the bear issue though, and I’m not really sure how to reassure her that things are going to be ok. Truthfully I’ve never seen a bear while backpacking, and I figure as long as you make a decent amount of noise while you’re moving along the trail, and don’t keep beef jerky in your tent at night you’ll be ok. She’s not convinced though.

We have a couple of goals to outfit ourselves with some camera gear before we leave. First of all, we need to hook up Steph with a new digital camera because the one she currently has, I believe, is running DOS as it’s operating system. I think it measures resolution in Kilo-pixels. This is obviously unacceptable, so we’re gonna fix that.

As for myself, I’m all analog. As much as I’m all about the techie stuff I have a great appreciation for good ol’ black and white photos captured on film, and I enjoy removing myself from digital world when I go out to take pictures. I have a very nice SLR that I’ve had for a few years, but I’m in desperate need of a new lens. Ultimately I’m looking for a good wide-angle lens as well as a nice zoom lens. I’ve been seeing some good deals recently on lenses, so I may in fact try to find myself a wide-angle lens this weekend, as that will be the best lens for big mountain scenery pictures.

Which reminds me… something I want to do by the end of the calendar year is to try my hand at developing my own film. I’ve been reading up on developing 35mm film and my understanding is that it’s relatively uncomplicated. I need to do some additional studying to see if that’s something I can pull together over the next few months. Note to self – need to add this to the 101 in 1001 list.

Other note to self – review your 101 in 1001 list because you haven’t looked at it in months, and let’s face it, time is ticking.