My birthday was actually earlier in the week but since I've been down with the frickin' flu for the last week or so, I decided to hold out for a long weekend. After a decidedly non-alpine start, I rolled into Alpental around 9:30AM. I was surprised by how good it looked. It must have snowed a bit more or maybe the wind cleaned things up but the lower mountain looked pretty good. It was fairly cold and the pow had stayed very light - people were getting face shots on turns coming down Sessel... Damn, if I'd have known, I'd have rousted out at the crack o' dawn!

Took a warmup run down Debbie's and felt awful - the leftovers from being sick were in full force; wheezing and hacking up phlegm-globs, legs burning with no power, ad infinitum. I almost rode back to the car and went home right then. But...

...I really wanted to get up to the Patrol shack and secure the coveted and mystically effective(works with no partner, avy gear or knowledge) key to the Alpental Backcountry - the famed Plaid Alpental BC Pass. So, I hacked up a nice one to clear my lungs and got back on Armstrong. Skated over to Chair 2, waited 1 chair and had a solo ride to the top. After interrupting the Patrol's tasting looking brunch, I received the key to the Kingdom from a slightly grumpy Patroller manning the stacks of unread yet signed waiver forms. Goal attained, I worked my way around the 4 year old skierette with the bunny ear helmet ripping the gut of Upper'Nash (Alpental is sooo flat) and made my way down to the car via Snake Dance. The BC was tempting but I was solo and rational thought won me over for once.

The snow was well tracked but the pow was very light, even the bumps were nice. Actually, I started aiming for the bumps because they were just big piles of fluff that exploded in white clouds when hit at speed. Skirted the edges of Snake Dance to find some clean(ish) lines and on to Sessel to get a few of those blue groomer face shots of my own. That's when I noticed that I wasn't coughing up green goo anymore and my head and even my legs felt OK. "Must be the high mountain air" thought I so I made a beeline for Armstrong and again up Chair 2. Dodging the Chair 2 exit ramp carnage, I did another down Snake Dance(ish) and back to base. Still feeling good, I decided to stay up high and did 4 more laps on Chair 2, Edleweiss, Schluct, Rollen and closed out with a run down the trees skiers left of the Fan, dunno what that's called, Breakover maybe? Whatever, it was good, well tracked but poofy pow all the way, face shots a plenty.

By this time, the fog had rolled in along with dumping snow, visibility went to schitt and my post-flu lack of fitness was starting to show. I hooked over to the traverse and down Sessel one last time on the way to the car.

It was a good way to celebrate my B'Day. Didn't get any pristine pow but it was mostly blower even where it was beat. It didn't even hurt with the inevitable schitt-eating event getting off Chair 2 (only once!).

In retrospect, Alpy suXor, everyone should go to Stevens Pass and not waste their time up at Snoqualmie...

Skins off and splitboard now desplit, we bombed the heavy pow slope back down to the trees which was kind of fun(but not half a day of skinning fun). Tried to ride the traverse through forest and the iced over tree bombs which wasn't so fun. It was pretty ridiculous, only a last second grab at a tree kept me out of a creek at one point... Gave up and ended up booting the last half of the way out which wasn't fun either but was more efficient. Got back to West about 4:30PM.

Snow was 4" of heavy pow on top of consolidated mank. It was a little better up above 4,500 or so but it was still heavy. Dug a pit about half way. There was a soft layer about a foot down, probably facets underneath the old rain crust. Got a pretty clean shear on the first tap from the elbow, consistent results on a repeat test. Lots of point releases all over the place but nothing deep.

I forgot my digicam but did manage to have a little fun with my Holga:

Kendall Ridge

Learned a few things:
1) Long ski tours are not my thing. Too much up, not enough down
2) Riding a splitboard in AT boots and plate bindings is fantastic for the skin up
3) Riding a splitboard in AT boots and plates sucks for the ride down
4) Splitboards are cool, rock in pow, and good at going straight up due to the wide skins but skis are probably better for anything else. Good thing I only want to surf the pow.

Basic gallery here: Dark Forest 2

The basic goal was to shoot the same sort of 'IT' shots that I've been working on for some time now but translating them into color. I used similar exposure settings to retain a darker sort of look but tried to keep the color values relatively high lest I lose the point of dealing with the expensive and finicky transparency film.

MISC.COLOR.02

http://www.crowmountain.net/Urban/Obon_2005/index.html

This one is from the shoronagashi for my maternal grandmother-in-law who I owe a deep debt of gratitude. My son was pretty tired after pushing the spirit boat for an hour or so.

Tech Blabal - Mamiya 7 w/65mm, Fomapan 400 pushed to 1600 in XTol.

Link to full set: Intersectionary Tales: #3 (Japan)

I started these in late Spring as a way to work on a specific look: pin
down film stock, exposure, development, etc. I ended up liking the
first few more than anticipated so I kept on throughout the Summer and
early Fall.

At the risk of leading the viewer, I consider the primary fault in these
as a failure to convey the slightly creepy feeling of dusk in the
temperate rainforest when you know you better haul ass to keep from
stumbling around in the dark and getting lost. They ended up being too
pretty. Probably because me and the kids were having too much fun at
the time chucking rocks in the river and looking for bugs...

Tech blabal - film favorite was Fomapan 100 in Rodinal 1:50 but a couple
of these were done on Tri-X in Xtol 1:2. They were shot with a Mamiya 7
& Rollei SL66 and scanned on an Imacon 343.

This is from the cemetary at Hon-kyou-ji Temple in Omura City just outside Nagasaki. We were visiting my wife's family burial plot as part of the Obon holiday. More about that in future entries but in short, Obon is when the spirits of the ancestors come home for 3 days every August. It's especially important if a family member has passed away in the current year since their spirit hasn't really left yet and must be helped along the start of their journey.

Both of my wife's grandmothers died this year so this year's Obon and Shoro-nagashi (procession of the spirits) was a big deal for both sides of her family. More as I continue to wade through a mountain of unprocessed film...

Here's a bigger version.

Tech:
Mamiya 7
65/f3.5 @f11
Fomapan 100 in Rodinal 1:50
Very long exposure, about 4 sec but still intentionally underexposed and overdeveloped

Well, I guess there's an easy answer - a Nature Photograph is a photograph of Nature! Oh, wait a sec... "whatinhell is Nature anyway?". When in doubt, pull up Dictionary.com:
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
na·ture Pronunciation Key (nchr) n.
1. The material world and its phenomena.
2. The forces and processes that produce and control all the phenomena of the material world: the laws of nature.
3. The world of living things and the outdoors: the beauties of nature.
4. A primitive state of existence, untouched and uninfluenced by civilization or artificiality: couldn't tolerate city life anymore and went back to nature.
5. Theology. Humankind's natural state as distinguished from the state of grace.
6. A kind or sort: confidences of a personal nature.
7. The essential characteristics and qualities of a person or thing: “She was only strong and sweet and in her nature when she was really deep in trouble” (Gertrude Stein).
8. The fundamental character or disposition of a person; temperament: “Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill” (Percy Bysshe Shelley).
9. The natural or real aspect of a person, place, or thing. See Synonyms at disposition.
10. The processes and functions of the body.
[Middle English, essential properties of a thing, from Old French, from Latin ntra, from ntus, past participle of nsc, to be born. See gen- in Indo-European Roots.]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
*******************************************************************************************************************************************

Hmmm...

While my photographs do often resemble certain noxious 'processes and functions of the body' as noted in #10, it seems most Nature Photographers are very concerned with #4, often focusing on it completely and exclusively. I wonder why? Capturing #7 seems so much more compelling (and difficult) and is what I've been attempting, albeit with little success, all along.

Hot Damn! I guess I AM a Nature Photographer working to make Nature Photographs even though I spend 90% of my Nature Photography time in downtown Seattle... Soto Voce - I must admit, it was a rigged game. I was going to use definition #1 if all else failed.

Please see one of my failed attempts at making a Nature Photograph above. While it obviously captures some of Nature definition #3 and some people will certainly classify it as belonging to #10, ie a pile of shite, I don't think it works for #4 so wouldn't be classified as a Nature Photograph on the website in question. Much, much worse to my eye, it does not fulfill my own definition of a Nature Photograph as it does not capture the essential character or quality of the asshole who visited this pristine site before me and left this plastic chair and garbage bag full of beer cans that stank up the back of my car on the way home.

Hold the presses! This spot required a 45 minute drive and a short hike. So it must be 'Travel Photography'. Problem Solved!

***Post-script - Since I first uploaded this entry earlier this evening, I've been trying to think of some really good Nature Photographers. The first that came to mind was Helmut Newton. That's one guy who could capture some really kickin' #7 Nature in his photos although he was prone to a different sort of #10, too...

Tech:
Mamiya 7
65/f4
Kodak UC100

Tech:
Mamiya 7
65/f4
Tri-X / Xtol 1:3

Here's a link to the new set: misc.crap.color - #1

The Galleries section is in a bit of flux at the moment so here's a direct link to the new set: Intersectionary Tales: Mar-Apr