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Glen Lednock & the sports climbing that never happened0
neil posted in Photos, Neil, Climbing, 5Dmk2 on March 1st, 2009

Fraser, David and I drove into Glen Lednock in pitch darkness and set up camp so we could go bouldering. The problem was the boulders were at the wrong scale. Often we would see a wonderful looking boulder in the distance and head towards it, only to realise it was head height or less. After some dispiriting tramping around we found two sensibly sized boulders which Fraser and Dave set about.

I wanted to try something a little different this time rather than just tossing hard light at the climbers from various angles. I schlepped a 46″ umbrella and badass lightstand up and down and across the glen to provide a big soft source. A flash bracket allowed me to affix two speedlights where they could shoot into the umbrella to give me  enough power to work against daylight levels. I see there is a three way bracket for this sort of nonsense and its on my shopping list for next time. I’m pretty convinced that doubling flashes up on a power hungry light is the way to go. It means less lightstands to move, faster recycle times, slower battery reload intervals and much lighter and more flexible than battery studio gear (although I’d LOVE to field test a Profoto acute 7b….).

The umbrella light, with only two strobes, only really “cut it” when it was slightly overcast, but it provided a different look for these images. If we’re shooting bouldering and not route climbing and the weather report is for still air, I might bring the big brolly out again. As it was I spent a large time rolling huge rocks around to secure the lightstand to the ground. The bouldering problem we found seemed quite tricky and it was good to see Fraser having to pull out all the stops to make a move. The background of Glen Lednock was nothing to sneeze at. A good moment in a good location makes my life easy!

We then went to a roadside sports crag and I’ve been asked to say no more about it, save for Fraser’s manparts were wounded by his harness and the rock was really strange.

Night in the Pentlands2
neil posted in Photos, Neil, Climbing, 5Dmk2 on February 5th, 2009

I was relieved to see Fraser’s headtorch dissappear behind a shoulder of rock at the finish of the second route. I could let go of the freezing cold metal camera and shove numb fingers back into warm gloves. I tucked my 5D’s only battery into my pocket to keep it warm and contemplated changing to the 70-200mm I’d dragged up the hill. A minute later Fraser topped out and set about rigging a belay for Dave. It was about then that an electronic whoop echoed up from the distant car park. A set of flashing blue lights had pulled into the ski-center. “Bugger, its the Police!” shouted Fraser while I winced, imagining what my flashes must have looked like to a non strobist. I had been tossing every joule of flash I had at the icy, rocky shoulder in order to get some form of exposure from a long long flash throw. “You’d best stop with the photographs” advised Fraser as I killed my pocketwizard and dialed up my ISO “The…FLASH photographs.. sure!” I corrected him. We had Dave on the end of a rope halfway up the route, so we were staying put until he reached the top and there seemed no practical way of signalling “We’re OK…really!” from the top of the crag. It had been a good evening til that point with Edinburgh’s sodium glow providing a wonderful backdrop. We finished up, packed gear and descended to face the music.

We met the policeman where the slope flattened out, he had lifted two ski poles from the center and was using them to good effect. Fortunately for us he was quite cheerful and understood what we were up to very quickly. We apologised for inconveniencing him and he passed us the number for the FCC, who we could warn in future. Apparently the good people of Fairmilehead (2km away) mistook my strobes and Exposure Enduro torch for an SOS signal. He chatted amiably on the way down and left us with a semi-menacing “Catch you later….”

Peaking0
neil posted in Photos, Neil, Sports, Climbing on August 11th, 2008

 

The weather looked grim for our weekend away. Front after wet front lined up in the atlantic to make camping a misery and climbing impossible. After a colossal faff on the first day we managed to do some trad climbing and bouldering. Early saturday morning looked promising but we all knew the rain was coming. A reconnaisance of the cave we had planned to sleep in was spent being eaten alive by midges and the idea was abandoned. The rain swept in when we met Jamie and Pablo and drove us into the famous Grindelford cafe. A pint of (embarrasing) instant coffee later we checked out the nearby quarry before following a climbing guidebook to some dry limestone. We spent a happy few hours there with epic traverses and battles to climb above head height. Oddly I was happiest with the “look” of the photos I took in this wet dimly lit environment. I used two strobes, both in freezer bags, mosly in line with the sun, just at differing angles. The limestone reflected the beams nicely onto faces but left an “enhanced ambient light” feel to the images. Once sapped we retired for the evening to chip butties, pies and ale.

 

We woke to the reek of unwashed bodies and wet gear, purified the air by frying bacon and making coffee. After packing camp we hiked several miles to a crag set atop a boggy hill. The wind was intense and time short. I discovered I climb better if there is a photo to be had at the top. Some precarious and brief photos were made before we had to run to meet the car and womenfolk. Many pages of photos here.