jg and i did our routine hike a bit late in the day today. we had never hiked in the dark on purpose before. we brought along our snazzy l.e.d. head lamps. jg used his for light drawing.
it was neat to see the city lights. the clear sky and the half moon made for good pictures. we got to the top at 7:25 and sat around until i got a mosquito bite before we decided to head back.
look what we saw on our way down!
it was only about 1.5 inch long. first time have ever seen a scorpion in the wild.
that's an analog hdr* shot i took of jg on our second night hiking expedition. we made it to the top in 28 minutes, about 2 minutes faster than the last trip. by we i mean me; jg can hike a lot faster than i ever could. anyway, how nice it was to be greeted by a heart ready with our initials in it!
manual bracketing
(just for you, tate)
*all i did was copy the top half of the first picture and paste it on the second picture. genius, eh?
venus to the west
moon to the east
i was rather annoyed that jg kept pointing his headlamp at the camera. i had no idea that the light would make for such awesome lens flare.
on the way down we descended into the thick layer of fog we had been admiring from above. so thick that my headlamp blinded me. i did my best following the bright blur ahead of me.
it was jg's idea to do the coloring. it took me four tries (different camera settings) to get the picture right. the letters in the heart were T+L today. it took jg no time to fix the L.
waxing gibbous
i really dig the lens flare in that shot. anyway, we started the hike as late as we could today because we wanted to experience the hike up with least light possible.
7:50
i made it to the top in 25 minutes. this was my best time last year when i carried nothing but a .75 liter bottle of water. today i did it wearing a backpack with a ten pound camera in it.
it was perfectly warm and calm and i would have liked to stay longer except jg was too hungry to hang around. on the way down we tried to hike by moon light but it didn't work. would have been nice if it did.
tonight was supposed to be a romantic full moon hike but then i learned that it's only at 99%. even the heart wasn't very romantic, stating simply SB. anyway, i carried a bit more weight tonight and made it to the top in 25 minutes. not bad.
i had the shutter set at 30 seconds for jg to trace the heart. some other crazy night hiker unwittingly interrupted the shot. i said it was no big deal but he was rather apologetic.
jg defying gravity
over all, it was another perfect hike. calm, clear, and warm. the moon had barely risen. i like that it was accompanied by jupiter.
