Equipment - 'Blaze Starr'

"Entire books have been written about a lot less than what 'Blaze Starr' and I have been through." - Tom Gamache

Through freezing Uinta Mountains winter rains and blasting 120+ degree East Mojave summer sun over sharp rocks, perpendicular ledges and through spring runoff quicksand halfway up the doors; panic-gripping the steering wheel staring at horizonless blue sky views through the windshield wondering whether the road is still beneath me; opening my eyes thinking that I had died and gone to heaven after an overnight snowstorm left more than six inches of snow covering all the windows casting a unique light inside that was the softest, shadow-less light I had ever seen.  Surely this had to be heaven.

Photography uses tools. Some tools can become the key to your success.  To outdoors photographers cameras and lenses are tools; so are the cars and trucks that get them to their work. Like great coffee and wine, "outdoor photography" is a blend...blending camera, lens, tripod and truck.

In Yosemite Ansel Adams had his mules. Without them many of his high country images might never have been made. When asked about my photographic equipment I redirect the question so I get to talk about my mule.  What is my most valuable piece of equipment? My 1972 Chevrolet Blazer that I have been driving for more than 35 years.  Spending as much time on the road as I do, it is important to identify with the vehicle you call home. Familiarizing myself with the vehicle’s twists, turns and sway over all these years gives me tremendous confidence that, no matter how difficult or chancy the path, I will get to my destination and return safely with myself, my passengers and my cameras, film and gear intact.  They surely … “Don’t make them like they used to”!