Climbing to New Heights (Literally)
Back in January I had the opportunity to visit Palm Springs, California for the first time. I was excited to head back to California for the third time now in the last year and a half. The last two times were to visit San Francisco and Santa Monica. Palm Springs excited me since it's a different part of California that I had not yet explored, it's a desert resort city surrounded by towering mountains. Basically, I heard mountains and I was already in. We were going to be visiting for about 5 days, the first and last also being traveling days. So, since we left in the morning on the first day, we had the rest of the night. Technically we had a little over three days to do fun stuff and explore. For this trip, much like Costa Rica, I wanted to pack as lightly as possible so I didn't have to feel the weight of my camera bag on me while out and about. I took the same type of equipment and gear to make it easier to get around (and less hassle at the airport).
My camera of choice was the Fujifilm X-H2s once again, with it’s newer sensor and high quality video that it can take (6.2K open gate, using the full sensor of the camera) in case I wanted to record some good footage. The lenses I brought with it were the same two I brought to Costa Rica: The XF 16-55mm and the XF 100-400mm, covering pretty much everything I needed from portraits and wide angle shots to telephoto. Using just the two lenses made it easier for me to carry around and it limited my options so if I had to make a decision, it came down to using just one or the other. Better than going, “Hmm, but I could bring a 35mm for portraits - or oh! What if I need the 80mm Macro for some super up close shots, maybe even of flowers! But I can also bring the 16-55 for the range. Hmm.” There’s already a lot of decisions being made on the trip and I don’t like to bring too many things when I most likely won’t even use it. I try to keep an essentialist type of mindset when packing for these trips. Next, I really wanted to bring a film camera and some film. So, I brought along my faithful Olympus 760 Superzoom point and shoot camera, along with a roll of the newer Cinestill 400D and a roll of black and white film that would actually not be used. I also decided to bring along the DJI Oslo Mobile (3rd Generation) for anything that I might catch on my phone. I find that it comes in handy for certain things, or quick sharing to social media. My favorite use for it is to that gimbal for timelapses while I’m shooting photos with the Fujifilm camera. I brought a smaller, compact tripod as well as my laptop for any editing or file transfers that might need to be done. Costa Rica definitely taught me how to pack more efficiently for what I actually need.
Once we arrived we had some dinner and took it easy for our first night there. It was the next day that we got up to go explore. We haded to Palm Desert to look around the shops and in the afternoon we headed to the Palm Canyon Trail and hiked it for a bit.
While on our hike, it was a great opportunity for some really neat portraits of Olivia.
The grand scope of the mountains was incredible. This little trail that we went on was perfect for some really interesting portraits as well as capturing some stunning scenery shots. The trail was only the beginning though, as Palm Springs had a lot of different trails to explore. Originally, Olivia and I wanted to go up the tram that would take us to the top of one of the nearby large mountains - and believe it or not, but due to the cold and snow up on the mountain, they had to shut it down when we went to go on it. Instead, we found a trail to hike up the same mountain. We already knew that we would definitely not be able to hike up the entire thing, but maybe reach one of the peaks at least.
What started as a casual hike turned into a near two and a half hour hike, which, I was not at all prepared for and am totally out of shape for such a journey, and these were some of my captures up to the top. The last shot, was the reward. The photo that truly made the whole experience worth it.
Ah, there it is. My new favorite shot. Palm Springs will have a special place in my heart because of this shot. What started as a simple hike, turned into a long journey that I was not prepared for, but reaching a peak to see this: absolutely worth every second up the mountain. This was the first thing I printed out when I arrived back in Austin, and I adore this shot. I couldn’t believe how grand it felt, especially after capturing everything that I did leading up to this, but thanks to the XF 100-400mm lens, I was able to create this stunning image of the mountains that Palm Springs had to offer. This hike will go down as one of my favorite photography experiences ever. In many ways, it elevated my standard to how I view my photos. This has pushed me to get more shots like this. That feel big, epic, or whatever other word you want to substitute with it. This was one of those adventures that leveled up my photography skills to new heights.
This was a rather long post, not of what was written, more so the format of how I presented these photos. Normally, I would do a carousel of them and have you click through each one, but with the excessive amount of photos, I felt it might have been easier just to scroll down instead of constantly clicking through each one. If you have any feedback or epic photography stories, I would love to hear about it!
Until next time!