RRG & Falling

climber Evan Johnson, photo by Kurt Hager

This fall a few new friends invited me to go to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. This place is sport climbing mecca. I couldn't believe the variety of routes. Everything from slab, to steep, to severely overhanging rock routes :)

the greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I fell on a lot of routes, and really pushed my limits. We learned a lot on this trip and ended up writing every day off as a "learning day." It was serious fun and I hope to get back soon.

There's a pizza place called Miguels at the gorge where everyone camps and hangs out. The climbing community there was a new experience. There were people from all over the world, and people from all different stages of life.

The climbing community is incredible, and the people you meet is often the most exciting part of any climbing trip.

More North Shore Ice

Lake Superior Ice Climb

Took another trip up the north shore of Lake Superior towards Grand Marais in search of more ice to climb. We found some fantastic routes and got on the classic Minnesota route - Nightfall, pictured below.

Nitghtfall WI4 Ice Climb

The picture above shows my climbing partners approaching the lower section of the climb. The Devil Track river that leads to this climb also contains other ice flows and seeps. Some are covered by heavy brush in spots, but this is an all around fantastic climbing area.

North Shore Ice Climbing

Climber - Carter Stritch

Went up to the north shore last weekend and climbed some ice over lake superior. We rappelled down and set up a hanging belay just above the crashing waves. One of the craziest places i've climbed in Minnesota, or anywhere.

Ohhh... Canada

Me at the bottom of Tempest

I recently got back from an ice climbing trip in Canada. I realized I need a better camera. A DSLR will always be too much camera for me to carry around, so what should I get?

Some things I need:

-Ability to shoot RAW
-Relatively compact size
-Durable enough to take anywhere

Some things I want:

-Good image stabilization

-Low noise in low light conditions

-Medium to low price range

I'm really stumped on which camera to get. I have an older version of the Olympus Tough camera right now, but I haven't really needed the waterproof feature and there may be a better solution to my needs.

Any ideas? Leave me a comment and let me know what to get.

New amateur photo competition

Kodak Automatic
(vectorized image)

I was recently contacted by Lavenderworld about a new landscape themed amateur photography competition they're doing.

The prizes sound great and landscape photography is always a fun subject to shoot. I would encourage anyone interested to check out their entry form and details page here.

Photography contests have always pushed me to work a bit harder on my photography, might as well go give it a try.

An added bonus: they've mentioned they would like to sponsor a photography contest here on Photography Exposure in the future.

We had a lot of fun last time, so head over to the sidebar and subscribe to keep an eye out for more details.

FotoFlexer Review

a photo I took at the RedBull crashed ice event recently,
edited with the cartoon effect on FotoFlexer

If you're looking for a free online photo editor, then try FotoFlexer. It's an extremely powerful and free digital image manipulator.

You can upload a photo straight from your computer.

This website makes editing Facebook photos easy too, just grab the URL. There's even the option to sign in through Facebook.

Other services offer integration as well:

• photobucket
• myspace
• flickr
• Picasa
• Smugmug

They've covered most everything you could want in an online photo editor and it is free :)

There isn't much else I can say - other than go play around with the buttons. Then come back and let me know what you think.

climbing shoes

This Friday I have a bit of film photography for you. This is a shot of my rock climbing shoes attached to a carabiner. I took this picture with a Pentax K1000:

La Sportiva Tarantula

I've always found outdoor gear fascinating. The designs are evolving and changing continuously and technology is becoming more and more involved with the simple act of going outside.

These shoes are a fantastic all day trad/sport multipitch shoe. They perform reasonably well on technical climbs as well.

bus

greyhound

Here's a photo of an older greyhound bus in St. Paul Minnesota. I have been using GIMP a lot lately to edit photos since I have started transitioning to the Linux Mint operating system.

unknown route

This is an image of a friend of mine climbing a route in the South Seas area, just past Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota.

South Dakota Climbing

This is one of my favorite places to climb, based solely on aesthetics. The spires are scattered all over and many have multiple routes to the top. Too much fun :)

sandstone ice festival 2011

Just got back from another great ice fest in Sandstone, Minnesota. We had some decent farmed ice, thanks to Jeff Engel, James Loveridge, and the MCA (Minnesota Climbers Association).

unknown climber at Robinson Park

gift basket winner

..and the photographer's gift basket goes to Tracey, check out her blog: 

A New Beginning

Her winning photo "Praying Mantis Perspective" was shot with a Nikon D60 and she will receive a gift basket containing some handy tools, and even some Nikon camera specific items.

Praying Mantis Perspective

I will post up a list of the items included after all details have been finalized.

Thanks for the entries, don't forget to subscribe to photography exposure in the side bar - you don't want to miss the next give away!

Happy Holidays

photographer's gift basket giveaway!

Last time I gave away a flexible tripod and we had some great responses. This time I want to see some entries in the form of photos.

This giveaway is a bit different - it is sort of like a contest for a gift basket, tis [almost] the season after all.

badlands, SD

The theme is unique. Either photograph something in a different way or with an interesting format (i.e. photos taken from the ground, or using a pinhole camera).

I will select the winner based on creativity. The winner's photo will also be posted on Photography Exposure!

badlands and the plague

Had a great time camping and climbing in the Black Hills. We stayed in Custer SP and climbed mostly in the South Seas area just past Mount Rushmore.

We almost t-boned a bison, climbed some scary routes and had to avoid gypsies. Instead of taking highway 90 the whole way back we decided to stop in the Badlands.

badlands

I learned from a sign that prairie dogs have the plague, interesting.

Sink Swim or Climb

Recently I went climbing at Palisade Head in northern Minnesota. This place has an air of seriousness about it that isn't found anywhere else in Minnesota or even the Midwest.

To access the climbs, you need to down-climb through a loose gully, then rappel over the cliff from an expansion bolt placed in a large boulder.

Once at the bottom, you have a couple options (because swimming really isn't one, Lake Superior's average temp 40º F) - either leave a fixed rope to ascend or pull your rope down and climb out. 

Bowling Alley

Thinking about climbing Devils Tower again sometime, so I was looking through my photos of the last trip. Here's a shot from the base of the Bowling Alley - aka Durrance approach route.

I took this photo while a strange calming sensation came over me about the climb.

Coming down into the valley where the tower stands I couldn't believe how big it was. Once up close, I felt like it was more approachable - probably because only part of the climb was visible.

Capturing the emotion involved in climbing is something very difficult to do. I recently found someone who really blew me away: my hat goes off to those people that can take stunning images while climbing - like Simon Carter. Check his work out!

Fallen Arch

Not the flat foot type, but the rock type. My girlfriend and I went up to Tettegouche State Park to do some climbing on Shovel Point and saw that the arch had fallen. Sad stuff, here is what it looked like before

and after:

Picasa Review

Your computer is full of photos, they're everywhere. Some are accidentally nestled deep in strange folders, and some are on your desktop. Picasa can search your whole system and organize everything in an easy to browse format.

Picasa follows with all google tools, it is simple and easy to use. There's plenty of options to get your images online. There's even free hosting space available. If you want a bit more than the simple tabbed choices of Picasa, you can easily edit them with a click of a button on the free online editor Picnik.

Pioneer Plaza

While checking out the sites in Dallas not too long ago I got this picture of a cowboy.

Fort Worth has their real life cattle drive down the streets, so Dallas decided to go for an artistic take on the longhorns.

Dino Print

Recently stopped by Dinosaur Valley State Park and was trying to get some pictures of the Acrocanthosaurus tracks clearly visible just below the surface of the paluxy river. 

After having problems with glare and reflection on the water I dunked my camera under the water for a few shots.

Easy Canvas Prints

I was recently given an opportunity to try out a new canvas printing service, easycanvasprints.com.

One of my favorite things to do with my digital photographs is to have them printed, framed or used in a unique way (see creative commons license at bottom of page).

lynx on canvas 

It was a difficult choice deciding which photo to use for the print, but after looking back at my photo blog and asking around I chose to go with the Lynx photo used in a post about two years ago.