Every year my brothers and I plan a backpacking trip. This year we ventured into the mountains West of Silverton, Colorado. The area was covered in old abandoned mines, incredible meadows, streams, waterfalls and fields of wildflowers. We camped on a stream right around tree-line (around 11,000 ft) and spent a couple of days hiking and exploring the area.

Typically, after a day of hiking around tree-line, with a pack big enough to haul food and supplies for a couple of days, doing some more walking to shoot the area is one of the last things I’m thinking about (not to mention reservations about adding “camera weight” to an already heavy pack), so I almost decided to leave my SLR at home and instead just bring my trusty Olympus 1030sw Point-and-Shoot. I’m glad I didn’t. I took my Canon 20D and limited myself to 2 lenses; a 100mm macro lens and a 10-20mm wide angle. Having only two lenses was nice in that it allowed me to focus a bit more on what I was shooting.

The macro lens was perfect for capturing those high altitude flowers while bringing in blurry background colors to frame them. The wide angle lens made hiking up above 12,000 ft truly rewarding. Some of the views above tree-line were incredible and having an almost 180º view really helped capture everything. It was also perfect for doing some really nice waterfall and stream shots. A great photography trip, but next time I have to talk myself into hiking in a tripod.