FAVORITE MOMENTS OF 2015

I've had the good fortune to participate in some epic photographic adventures in 2015. Here's a quick slideshow of some of my favorite moments of the past year.

Happy New Year everyone!

PANORAMIC MERGER IN DEPTH: TORRES DEL PAINE, CHILE

 

View in HD: The depth and enlargeability of an ultra-hi-rez panoramic-merger.

Panoramic Mergers. I stumbled across the technique a decade ago when I was wishing for a wider angle lens for my medium format film camera.

On an amazingly calm Patagonian morning last month this scene could have been easily captured with a single frame with my Nikon D810, but by instead making a panoramic-merger from 8 images I created this highly-enlargeable, 80-megapixel image. Have I mentioned that I love this stuff?

Check out this gallery of select panoramic mergers. You can view this image full screen there.

Patagonia Slideshow: Cerro Torre

 
The legendary Cerro Torre in argentinian Patagonia

The legendary Cerro Torre in argentinian Patagonia

El Chalten, Argentina is the jumping off point for two of Patagonia's biggest and most famous mountains: Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. A quaint little adventure town, El Chalten has more backpacker hostels than houses, only a few paved streets and no less than 4 outdoor gear shops and 2 microbreweries. Think Mos Eisley from Star Wars; this is a jumping off point for adventurers and climbers from all over the world. It's my kind of place.

Cerro Torre map.

As Stacey and I arrived, our rented VW van (a.k.a. Home) conveniently broke down. There's really no place I'd rather be stuck for a few days. The weather forecast was for a night of calm before the next storm rolled in, so we packed up the tent and stove and headed up the nine kilometer trail to Lago Torre at the base of Cerro Torre.

Any concern about Stacey being six months pregnant dissolved as we started the trek. What a trooper! It was a blast climbing alongside waterfalls, under high alpine forest with fresh spring leaves, through a burned section of woods and finally into the high alpine ice and snow below Cerro Torre.

If the surrounding peaks look like Patagonia's teeth, Cerro Torre is the fang. Standing at it's base you have no doubt why mountaineers believed it unclimbable for so long. The sheer granite walls rise thousands of feet only to be capped by a crazy ice mushroom formed from the relentless southern winds. One thing is for sure: it is spectacularly beautiful.

We had an incredible time. The mountain gave us a rare calm night up there. The lake reflected, the stars put on a show, clouds came in the morning, we met a Magelanic Woodpecker in the woods and got out right before the next storm rolled in. Perfect. 

ON THE PLANE TO PATAGONIA

 
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I'm writing this with Stacey beside me on the first of three long flights that will take us from fall color in the Northwest to spring flowers in Punta Arenas near the southern tip of Chile. The Sub-antarctic! Several rows behind are our friends the incomparable photographers John Eastcott and Yva Momatiuk who have travelled these southern granite mountains and glaciers many times over the past 3 decades. If you haven't explored their website's galleries and read Yva's stories from the road, then you really should. Over the years John and Yva have evolved from friends to mentors and then become family to Stacey and I.

This adventure is exciting for a number of reasons. Of course it is a photographic journey I've dreamed of for years, but it is also a very special family trip. Stacey and I are bringing a new little life along inside of her. We are expecting our first child in February. A boy. 

Stacey and I can't think of a better way to season our new little guy for his arrival than by living for a month in rented vans driving through some of the planet's most spectacular mountains, lakes, and glaciers with his Uncle John and Auntie Yva. So... with our doctor's "arched-eyebrow-blessing" we are off. These four duffles are in the hold. My brand new F-stop Sukha bag is overhead with the D810, D750 and a lot of glass. Tripods, cookstoves and warm clothes are in the hold. I'll share as much as data connections in the wild allow.

Let the Adventure begin...

OUT ADVENTURING: DEATH VALLEY AND MOUNT SAINT HELENS

 

Nikon D800 multi-frame panoramic merger from Mount Saint Helens' crater rim.

This past few days I was hoping to be up on Mount Saint Helens camping, skiing and doing some panoramic work . However, after an entire winter of spring like weather, the cascades are finally getting some colder storms. I am so excited to test out my new F-stop Satori EXP bag on an overnight ski trip that I've had it packed for over a week now as you can see below...

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Gear for a multi-day ski touring adventure. Click to see bigger.

I've been wandering in the mountains long enough to respect their moods, so... I'm pivoting and taking off with Stacey for Death Valley today. A non-profit client is hosting an event down there and asked us to come photograph it. I love Death Valley in the Spring.

We'll be back Monday. If the mountains are in a better mood, then I'll be headed up Saint Helens on Tuesday. Fingers crossed...

-Hudson 

Death Valley's Racetrack Playa

Death Valley's Racetrack Playa