Hillwalking and photography

I got into hillwalking as an extension of landscape photography. To get me to more interesting and wild places. Well, that plus a couple of fanatics I work with talked me into the idea that walking 95 miles across country can be fun. Strangely, it is. The trouble is that hillwalking and photography aren't easy bedfellows, if you are trying to be serious about either.

Firstly, there is the weight issue. Food, water, waterproofs and extra layers, maps, compass, GPS and safety gear. It all begins to add up to a weighty bag. And that is before you start adding camera equipment. Even an entry level SLR weighs a ton in comparison to the compacts most walkers would use. Extra lenses, spare batteries, filters. And as for a tripod. Even my lightweight travel one feels like a lead weight after 5 miles. Frankly, I don't know how the likes of Colin Prior does it. Most of the time I settle for one body, one 28-105 lens, one spare battery and one spare card and my trusty walking pole monopod. A fraction of the kit I would take on a club outing.



Secondly there is time. I don't normally go walking alone. When you are part of a group and you have 12 miles to walk and 4 hills to climb, you can't stop constantly to take another shot or wait half an hour for the light to change. It tends to be grab and go. My walking partners would argue about that, but they don't see how long I can take over a single shot when I am by myself. Believe me lads in comparison this is grab and go.

Consequently, from all the many walks I have been on I only have half a dozen images I am truly happy with. Still I keep trying. It is worth lugging the gear for those few good shots.



Over Easter I had two good days in the Lakes. We climbed Sca Fell via Slightside the first day, and Pillar via Kirk Fell (with Scoatfell and Steeple added on) the second. The weather was beautiful. Still I only managed a few pictures. Not least because I discovered another issue mixing photography and hillwalking. Camera's are fragile things. Despite having been out in considerably worse weather in the past, and coming back unscathed, this trip proved a hill too far for my faithful little 300D. Somewhere between Kirk Fell and Steeple it stopped working. Canon have it now for assessment, but potentially these might be the last pictures it ever took. Shame, if I'd known that I might have tried for something more than a couple of record shots.