Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. The weather has warmed up and it's a great time to get out and shoot.  In this blog I'll talk about hiking and photography. Two of my favorite things. I love a good hike and of course I love photography. Now it is said that when the weather gets bad the photography gets better and I believe that is true . But what I have also noticed in my years of photography is that if you get off of the beaten path you'll not only get photo's that everyone else doesn't get but maybe even better ones. When you're out traveling we all want to get that shot that everyone else has got. Especially in National and state parks or waterfalls where everyone has the same shot. But I have found that if you hike out even just a little bit you can get a unique to you photograph of the same subject (say a waterfall) from maybe a different perspective or different angle that may make your shot even better than the shot that everyone else gets. Sometimes you have to hike in to a place to get a great landscape or wildlife shot. Being able to hike in safely and efficiently will make your photography of these areas even better. Now in this blog I will talk a little bit about photography gear but mostly I'll talk about hiking gear you should have with you when you're out shooting.

Photography Gear- There are lots of different types of photography gear you can take with you when you are hiking. But being able to keep it lightweight is a plus. A lot of times if I'm just going out for a hike for exercise I always have a camera with me. When I'm out with my wife or Forrest the wander dog I want to keep it simple so I take a point and shoot camera with a 24-120mm equivalent zoom lens on it. But if I'm by myself or with other photographers and I'm going to say a water fall I'll take my trusty Sony camera with appropriate lens or lenses. Say maybe a 20-70 and a 70-300mm equivalent lenses that gives me a big range. I'll only take a wide angel like a 16-35mm if I know I'll need it. So that's camera covered. Other gear is a tripod if you think you'll need it. A Travel sized one, I have one that will support 17 lbs which is way more than I'll ever need. Also Extra batteries, Filters, cleaning clothes, and some sort  of rain protection. I always have a shower cap that will cover up my camera if I need it. Some sort of tool to work on tripods or camera mounts will also come in handy. I use a Peak Design camera clip on all of my backpacks to have the camera at quick access while I'm hiking. Then there is the backpack that I hold everything in. First of all don't get one that is too large. The bigger it is the more stuff you'll put in it and the heaver it will be. Make sure that you have a bag that when it's loaded down with all the gear that you're taking it is comfortable to wear. There are a lot of cheap camera bags that have lots of camera storage but really hurt when you put the loaded bag on your back. When I have my point and shoot I have a small Mountain Hardware day pack that I have used for quite a while that is built for hiking. It has a camera insert in it but lots of storage for an extra jacket or so. When I'm taking my big boy camera I have a Shimoda Action X-30 liter bag which feels like a backpacking backpack. It's the most comfortable camera backpack that I've ever used and it has extra room for all of the hiking gear I might need. Now for the meat of the blog Hiking Gear.

Hiking Gear- Having the correct hiking gear can keep you safe as well as making your hike easier. In hiking there are the 10 essentials that you should have with you when you're out in the wilderness. They are Navigation, Headlamp, sun protection, first aid, knife, fire, shelter, extra food, water and extra clothes. Now I suggest if you're hiking 5 to 10 miles in that you have all of these things with you but if you're only going for a mile or so on a established trail you won't need all of these.  I'll go over these things quickly. Navigation a simple trail map , either paper or on your phone but make sure its on your phone not the internet you might not have cell signal when your out on trail. A Headlamp can always come in handy for extra lighting for photography or help when you're coming back from that sunset shot you just got. Sun Protection in sun screen or hat or clothing that covers your skin can make a long hike better. Nothing is worse than sun burn. First Aid kit. I have a small first aid kit in all of my camera bags it includes bug repellent , band aids, foot care and that sort of thing , I keep it in a small zip lock bag. I also take some medications like ibuprofen, stomach relief,  just a few tablets of each. A Knife, I usually have a small pen knife in my bag and hardly ever use it but it's small and lightweight. Fire. I hardly ever hike with this one but if I were somewhere I wasn't familiar a Bic lighter would be easy to carry. Shelter , I usually have an emergency poncho that I carry with me . It's small and lightweight and cheap but will keep you dry in a pinch. Extra Food I always carry a protein bar of some kind with me incase my blood sugar gets low. Extra Water. This is a biggie! Nothing worse than getting dehydrated. Take plenty of water and maybe an electrolyte powder to add to it to keep you hydrated. Extra Clothes like a light jacket.

Other things to think about. Comfortable shoes, I know this sounds silly to mention but people think that if you're going hiking that you need hiking boots and you don't. Most through hikers like the ones doing the AT (Appalachian Trail) use trail runners which is just a fancy tennis shoes. But they must fit well and have room in them because your feet will swell when you're hiking or just walking a lot. I try to take a trekking pole. When I was younger I used to think that these were just for old folks . How wrong I was. There are proven studies that says hiking with trekking poles is easier on your knees and you don't get as tired as with out them. The biggest benefit I found when using them is that when I used to hike  my eyes were always down looking at the ground for a root or rock to trip over but with the hiking stick my eyes have come up and I see more than the ground just in front of me. Don't try to use your tripod as a trekking pole. It's not made to that and can easily break and they are a lot more expensive than a hiking stick. My trekking pole has a mount on top of it I can put a GoPro on and I can use as a selfie stick. Sunglasses can come in handy also especially if you're in terrain that is not covered like out west. And don't forget that big brimmed hat when out in the sun to protect not only your face but your neck also. Lightweight clothing is also a must . When in the summer time wear clothing that is light like polyesters not cottons that can absorb water and become heavy. There are many water wicking fabrics that are great for hiking. No jeans. Dress in layers . If it's cool in the morning you can bulk up and peel layers as the day goes on and warms up and just the opposite when it cools off. I often wear convertible pants ones that the legs zipper off to make shorts out of them and zip back on when it gets cooler. They make long sleeve cool shirts that can be used for sun screen but still be cool in the heat much better than sun screen if you ask me. 

Being able to hike in the back country and photograph the lovely scenery and wildlife is a great privilege that you should take advantage of. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Too Much Rain Hi Everyone! Hope you're having a great week.  I have been taking pictures for a long time now and I have come to the conclusion that when the weather is bad the photography can be very good. Shooting in rain or snow can be a perfect place to get some great photo's that your contemporaries miss because they stay inside and out of the weather. Some of my best photo's have been in the rain or the snow or during inclement weather. The hardest thing to do is step outside when the weather isn't perfect. Stormy and cloudy skies make perfect backdrops for moody landscapes and even black and white photo's.  As photographers you want that cloudy sky. Its much more impressive that a blue bird sky with no clouds in it . Shooting in the rain is also great because everything is wet. You get all sorts of reflections and the leaves and vegetation really pops. Shooting in the snow makes everything look fresh and clean and ordinary objects really stand out. But getting out in the weather does come with its difficulties . You have to protect yourself and your gear. Here are some tips on how to do this.

Protecting Yourself. If you're going out in the rain you need to keep dry. Getting wet will lower your body temperature and could lead to hypothermia.  You don't want that. A good rain coat and hat and even some rain pants can help in this. But remember that sometimes wearing a raincoat that isn't properly ventilated can result into profuse sweating underneath the coat. So buy a good coat and bring plenty of Rain Flower 1
water to drink. In the cold rain you might not need as much layering underneath the rain jacket as you would say in a snow storm. Rain jackets tend to keep the warmth in.  If you wear glasses like I do you know that the first rain drop always lands on your glasses so keeping clean dry microfiber cloths handy is a must. In snowy cold weather layer up. Start
with a good base layer (long johns) that aren't cotton. Cotton can absorb moisture(sweat) and become heavy and cold. Then start adding layers. Jackets with a good wind breaking ability is a plus. The wind can really cut though you when its cold outside. Gloves are also a must to keep your hands from freezing. There are special Photography gloves that the fingers slip on and off so you can make adjustments on your camera then cover up your fingers again. Good insulated footwear is also a plus. If you're like me when your feet get cold that's it you're done for. A good insulated hat of some sort will help keep the heat in.

What Rain Im Fishing!
Protecting Your Gear. If you're like me you have a lot of money in your camera gear. Protecting it is important. Keeping moisture out is the key. Most modern cameras are very moisture resistant with gaskets and seals built into the camera body's and lenses. Some are better than others so I don't like to take a chance. When in the snow I don't worry about moisture as much as I do in the rain. Although the big fat snow flakes tend to not be as cold and melt on contact with your camera more than the small tiny flakes do. A simple keeping the camera under your coat before you shoot is usually good enough.  You can buy covers that protect your camera that are special made to protect them. But I find one of the biggest cause of moisture when in the cold is when you come inside to a warm moist house. Water can condense to the outside and inside of your camera . To prevent this from happening its a good idea to wrap up your camera in your coat or leave in your camera bad for a half hour or so before opening it up to the elements in your house giving it time to warm up thus preventing condensation. When shooting in the rain I like to protect my camera with some sort of rain protection. If its just a light rain or drizzle I just do the under the coat thing and don't worry too much about it but when it starts to rain more steady I break out some sort of rain protection. You can buy special maid covers that are made for your camera brand and some generic ones. The Generic ones cost about 5 bucks and work well. I use a shower cap that is easily stored and can be put on the camera very quickly keeping the rain out of it. I bought about 100 of them for 5 bucks off of Amazon. They work great for
what I do. When working in extreme heat be carful from going out of a nice cool air conditioned house into the hot steamy weather the same condensation can happen to your camera and your lens can fog up . To prevent this let your camera warm up just like in cold weather for a half and hour or so before use. When shooting in the cold your batteries tend not to last as much and deplete prematurely . To prevent this keep extra batteries in your pocket close to your body to keep warm when you change batteries put the used battery back in a warm pocket and you will see later that the charge has come back when the fresh battery gets cold and week. You can swap back and forth quite a bit before the batteries are truly out of charge.

As you can see shooting in inclement weather isn't too terrible to manage and you can get some great photo's from it that no one else is getting. So if you have a photography trip planned and it starts to rain don't cancel your trip you might get the best photo's ever. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Everybody! Hope this week had found you healthy and happy. Me? Pretty good. This week I want to talk about something I certainly have been guilty of . Taking photographs for social media. Taking photographs just for social media and everything that comes with it. I used to call it feeding the gram.  Now I still like to post to Instagram but I try not to take photo's just because they will get likes. Now I know everybody likes to get likes and nice comments about their photography but if you look at these sites al of the photos' have that same look to them. Do you know why? Because we're looking at these sites so much scrolling through other peoples best shots that we start to think that that's how photography is suppose to look like and we try to copy those styles. We even think that our photography is lacking because we can't take photo's like them. We think that they are so talented photographers and we are not. But we forget that they like us are just posting their best photographs and they may have taken 500 shots to get that one good one that you are looking at. I've heard it said that you're looking at the Algorithm's Eye and not your own. Your looking at what the computer said was a good shot and not what your own artistic eye is telling you.

Try to remember back to when you started your photography journey. Why you love taking photo's. What got you started? I wasn't because you would get likes on Instagram or Facebook. If you're like me the internet was far from being invented and you started from the love of it. We took photo's of things we loved or places so we wouldn't forget them. We tried to steal a moment in time by freezing it in a photograph. At least I did. I had no dreams of becoming a famous photographer or a journalist of any sort when I started taking photo's . I wasn't even on the yearbook staff in High School even though I walked around with a 35 mm SLR. You must remember what it was that drew you to photography and try to get that feeling again. Shoot for you. If you do this you will become an artist again and not a copy cat of other peoples vision.  This is easier than said. I'm in the process of trying to do that again. I try not to look or get caught in the scrolling of instagram but I can't help it I do find myself doing it almost every day. I still post to Instagram my Social Media of choice besides Facebook which I don't post photos too often. Beside my website which this blog is on Instagram is where my photo's live. So I'm in a sticky wicket as it were. Trying not to follow the crowd and post photo's like everyone else's and post original things that I like. I think social media is a good thing but too much of a good thing can be bad and social media tends to be this especially for photographers. 

I'm hoping to start a new chapter of my photography life with taking photo's of what I like taking .  Travel fb-art and Landscape. With the MAV (Max's Adventure Van) as my home base I hope to travel to different places and document as I go. I'll be posting to Instagram and Facebook and hopefully getting more recent photo's to my website. 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link