New Growth

How many of you tuned in for both days of the iPhoneography workshop on CreativeLive? I thought it was great. I picked up some new tips and tricks in the apps that I use, and even learned of a few apps that I hadn’t seen before.

I also felt validated because when I first decided to review iPhone photo apps, I did it with the goal of finding the best of the best photo editing apps. I was hoping to find a few apps that would essentially give me photoshop in my pocket. Jack seemed to share the same opinions I did about Snapseed being the best. We are both also fond of quite a few other apps, but Snapseed is the workhorse.

It was also cool hearing Jack talk about the iPhone 5s. He got me even more excited about it because his enthusiasm was contagious. I’d like to get one on the 20th and start sharing photos right away. We’ll see if I’m lucky enough to get one.

I do intend on writing up a post soon where I lay out my favorite apps, why I like them over others, and what I use them for. You’ll have to bear with me though, because I’m notorious for forgetting stuff. I have so many notes on my desk that its not even funny. They don’t seem to be helping me follow through on all of my ideas.

View from Grizzly Peak

Last year I hiked up Grizzly Peak, in Ashland, Oregon, and found myself lost in the dark with my cell phone about to die. Luckily, my friends were able to come and find me after my phone had died. It was quite the learning experience haha. This is the view from the spot where I was found. I had no idea it was this amazing, because it was already dark when I got to this area.

Monday was my second time hiking the 5 mile trail on this peak. I didn’t think it was going to go well because I was getting light headed pretty early on. I’m not used to the elevation, and the summit on this peak is 5,922′. This time I was smart enough to leave very early in the day and bring a friend along. We hung out at the top for a good half hour, just enjoying the view of this valley on one side and a view of burned trees on the other. I got some cool shots of them that I’ll probably share later this week when I make it back to the bay area.

Shot with TrueHDR and edited with Snapseed for just a bit of contrast and saturation.

Busting Out

Somehow, I ended up in Ashland this past weekend We didn’t plan on going there, but spontaneity took us there for a few days. It was great to feel at home again, even if just briefly.

I shot this out on the side of the road up to Grizzly Peak. It wasn’t possible to get up to the trailhead because of snow on the road. We didn’t have chains for the Prius and I don’t have much experience with driving on snowy roads. That didn’t stop us from making it up to Crater Lake though. I’ll post a pic from there tomorrow.

Shot with camera+ and edited with Snapseed.

My Stranded Story

I’ll include a few photos in this post just because I don’t know when I’ll be able to set up my mac again.

So here is the story of how I got stranded and rescued.

I wanted to get out of the hot apartment for a bit and shoot the sunset from somewhere in the hills. As I was driving up one of the mountain roads I saw a sign for grizzly peak, which I’d heard of and new was a tough hike, but never knew where it was. I wasn’t really thinking about anything other than making it to the summit by sunset, which was going to be a challenge because the views were about a mile and a half into the trail on a steady incline.

Instead of grabbing one of the flashlights from my car, I just went for it. The trails I’m use to don’t go through forests, which means theres plenty of light even after the sun goes down. Well, if you’ve never been in a forest at night, theres no light. I’m painfully aware of this now.

The trail has a loop about 1.1 miles into the hike. I wasn’t familiar with the trail or the loop, so after I was done with the sunset, I thought I’d continue on the loop instead of just retracing my steps. Bad idea. As I got to the other side of the mountain, I got a signal again and checked the map on my phone. Turns out the loop is quite long and I was taking the really long way back. Instead of turning around like I should have, I continued on.

One of the things that screwed me was the map on my phone wasn’t even accurate. There was another short trail off of the loop. Of course, thats where I ended up and had trouble finding where that trail led with the flashlight app. To make things worse, my battery was being drained by that app. I decided I had to just call my friend to come find me because I knew the battery wouldn’t last much longer now that it was below 20%.

It was about 9:45 when I called them to come find me. I turned my phone off for about 45 minutes to conserve the power. The temperature seemed to be dropping fast at about 5900 feet. Luckily, I brought a light jacket with me. I was worried that there might be bears or mountain lions around, so I laid down next to some large rocks in a clearing. I decided to just watch some stars and satellites for a while to keep myself busy. Unfortunately, just laying there wasn’t keeping me warm, so I got up and started shooting some stars.

I’ll fast forward a little bit now. Cory, my friends fiance and outdoorsman, brought a whistle and flashlight with him so I could hear him when he got nearby. It was a funny feeling being able to hear the whistle in the distance. Even moreso when I heard it go too far in the wrong direction. I made a quick call at that point and told them to turn back and take the other loop trail. As soon as I said my phone was about to die, it did. Whats interesting to me is I usually take headphones with me and listen to music while I hike and shoot. This time I left them in the car. If I had them, my battery would have been dead long before this point and I may have been stuck for hours longer.

Back to the story, Cory turned around and I could hear the whistle getting closer. I was whistling back at him, which I later found out he couldn’t hear at all. It sounded loud to me though. A few minutes later we started yelling each others names back and forth, like marco polo in the forest. I think it was around this time that I realized I could use my autofocus assist lamp to light the path, so I started heading in his direction. KEEP THAT IN MIND IF YOU’RE EVER STUCK IN THE DARK!

Another 10-15 minutes of that and we were finally getting really close to each other. Then I heard something big. Like really big just ahead of me in the woods. I thought I heard a large animal and a large boulder. That kinda freaked me out, so I stopped in my tracks until I saw his flashlight. He finally found me around 11:30pm and we made our way back down the mountain and made it to the cars by 12:15.

So heres what I learned. No sunset shoots until I know the trails. Let people know where you’re going and take someone if you can. I was too close to being that guy from California that gets airlifted from the forest in Oregon after living here for a few days lol.

I’m going to be adding a little flashlight, a whistle, and a pocketknife to my camera bag now.