I took these on the hike back to Logan Pass from Hidden Lake in the early evening. Both pictures have hikers in the frame. You’ll have to look a little harder in the second one. Like I said in a previous post, it was pretty weird walking across deep snow in the middle of July. It was also very slippery. I had to try very hard not to fall because I was carrying two cameras, my Canon 40D with the 70-200mm f2.8 + 1.4x teleconverter and my Canon 5D with the 24-105mm f4 lens. That was about $6K worth of equipment around my neck…definitely not something I wanted to fall on. Thankfully, I didn’t, but there were a few close calls.
Why carry so much equipment? I carry the 40D combo for shooting wildlife and the 5D combo for shooting the landscapes. I don’t like to constantly change lenses as I hike, so I carry both so I don’t have too. Wildlife doesn’t usually hold still long enough to change lenses and still get the shot. Even landscapes can change quickly (clouds/shadows moving across the scene, rainbows that appear suddenly and then disappear just as quickly, etc.) and you don’t want to miss a great shot because you were busy swapping lenses. Besides, the more often you change lenses in the field, the greater your chances of getting a dirty sensor, exposing your electronics to the elements, or simply just dropping a lens. I’m willing to carry a little extra weight (one extra camera body) to prevent that.
