Best products from r/EarthPorn

First things first: Disclaimer.

I used to work at an outdoor retailer and got ridiculous savings on quality gear. Basically, something like up to 75% off. This may seem like a Merrell, Patagonia, and North Face fan-rant but it's not. Those were great deals or given to us for free from the supplier to demo. At the end of the day though, I was looking for the same thing I do now, as a broke, cycling bum hitting up good will. I still want decent construction, durability, and key materials.

So here we go.

Base I'm most unfamiliar with my base layers because I've been in warm weather since February. Sorry this one is kind of scrambled.

Feet: Fits or Smartwool hiking sock (Smartwool PhD series fit the best for me and are super comfy). In the winter I use some Remington socks I got on sale at Cabela's. Work great.

Leggings: icebreaker.

Long-sleeve: Patagonia Capilene Thermal or Smartwool long-sleeved.

Make sure your base layers in the winter are tight to your body. Next to skin is what they're typically called.

Mid

Pants: On a coldish day (40-50F) I don't have a base layer on and usually just wear my cheap knock-off cycling pants. Cycling or hiking or even just wandering around town. (Link) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AQDTTC6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_iNBZzbC9W9AZQ] I have some Carhartts I wear for pretty much any work I do outside around the house or if I'm camping deep in the woods in the cold. They're flannel lined!

Top: Usually the Patagonia Better Sweater. This thing is an absolute animal. It's classy and is usually seen as a staple in the frat boy look but there's a reason why. It's awesome. It's very comfy and extremely warm. I've also used it in rough situations and it has come out fine. It's surprisingly durable. I also have a tattered up Moosejaw zip-up stretch fleece sweater. Stays really warm, even when wet! I've also heard great things about the North Face Denali.

Shell/Outer

Pants: Carhartt fleece—lined pants I mentioned above. If I'm out ice fishing and it's really windy, then I'll splash water on them and freeze them to make them more wind resistant.

Jacket: On windy, chilly days (low 40s to high 30s) I have a Moosejaw Harper Hooded Jacket. It's got a jersey cut so I'm covered when bent over. On cold days when I'm doing a lot of moving I have a North Face Morph Jacket that I got from the vendor. Anything from high 40s and up I usually just stick with my mid-layer. If I have a rainy day and I have to be outside then I just throw a Torrentshell on. If I'm in a pinch then a trash bag works too. I'm not picky on waterproof shells. I don't try to stay dry, I just try to stay warm when wet.

Apologies about how unorganized and formatted this is. I'm on mobile currently. I do better answering directed questions about gear then I do just telling about gear. I hope this helped though!

The biggest tip I can give you is to pay attention to light. While you perceive the world as a bunch of 'things', you really need to pay attention to the light, and how it interacts with the 'things' in the scene. The tip on early/late day light is a good one, but should be treated as a guideline rather than a rule. You can make great photographs at any time of the day, but you may have to work harder when the light is less forgiving.

Check out this book by Bruce Barnbaum: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Photography-Approach-Personal-Expression/dp/1933952687/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474377504&sr=8-1&keywords=art+of+photography

It spends a lot of time talking about light and composition, which may be useful to you. It also focuses (ha!) a bit on film photography, but the general concepts of photography are universal, so the book is still very useful.

One other tip is to look at photographs. A lot. Look at good ones. Bad ones. Try to understand why the good ones are good, and the bad ones are bad. This will help you with composition.

Equipment is a tool; learn to use your tools well. Don't think buying the best tools will make you a better photographer. It may help, but learning how to photograph will help much more.

Good luck, and photograph. All the time!

Well specifically for this photo according to the EXIF data he is using a Nikon D810 with a Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens.


As you can see from the price tag this is beyond an entry level kit but that doesn't mean that there aren't some affordable DSLR/Mirrorless that can get you started.

To start off I would recommend a crop sensor camera. Here is a list of some entry level crop sensor camera's.


Compact mirrorless camera's are also a great place to start!.

If you have any more questions head over to /r/photography and don't be shy!

Edit: Obligatory "better gear doesn't automatically mean the best photo". Proper technique and composition will always get you further than a kit upgrade. Also just as an aside: saying something like "wow you must have a nice camera" to a photographer is about the equivalent of telling a cook that they must have amazing pots and pans after a good meal.

Well, it depends on what you want to do. One advantage to Olympic NP is that there is a wide variety of environments -- you have rainforests, coastal areas, and mountains. However, there's really one road that goes all around, so it's not particularly great for car touring like Yosemite or Yellowstone would be -- it's more geared for hiking and backpacking.

So you'll want to pick up a guidebook and plan out your trip, and be aware that weather on the peninsula is completely unpredictable, and have alternate plans.

I like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Day-Hiking-Olympic-Peninsula-Washington/dp/159485047X

If I were planning on spending a vacation, I'd check out the following:

• Hike up Mt. Townsend. Relatively easy hike, pretty epic views. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgwizdak/267591342/
  
• Hike up Mt. Ellinor. A lot more strenuous. Watch out for aggressive mountain goats. My friend captured this image: http://www.somephotons.com/default.aspx?imgid=426
  
• Head to Hurricane Ridge. Pretty touristy during the summer, but I once saw a black bear there.
  
• Go backpacking at Shi Shi Beach. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgwizdak/sets/72157604905745236/with/2469347241/
  
• Check out 1st, 2nd, 3rd beaches along with Ruby Beach. Probably doable within a day or two.
  
• Enchanted Valley is a popular backpacking trip, you will probably see black bears though. Marmot Pass is also popular.
  
  If you were totally badass, you could hike from the Hoh Rainforest to top of Mount Olympus like this guy.
  
  But I wouldn't recommend that unless you're into mountaineering -- just a link to show how epic Olympic NP can be.
  
  
  
  

Read Freedom of the Hills, it's your textbook for everything mountaineering. Just start hiking and camping a lot and start climbing easy peaks and progress to bigger, higher, and more difficult ones. You might want to move somewhere with bigger mountains, like the western US to have better local training ground for the big mountains. Learning to ski or snowboard is a good way to get used to winter in the mountains and from there it's easier (and more fun) to progress to climbing steep snow and doing some actual mountaineering and dealing with things like avalanche danger. Also learn to rock climb and how to use ropes, and ice climbing is good too if you really want to get into hardcore mountaineering. Really you just have to progress little by little starting with hiking easy peaks picking up all of the skills along the way. It doesn't take as long as you would think if you dedicate a lot of time to it and love getting out there and learning. I was just doing very easy hikes 3 years ago and I already have plans to climb a few of the biggest peaks in the lower 48 next year, granted I've been skiing and hiking and camping for a long time.

Awesome thanks! Never thought about it being easier to bring up shadows than darken highlights...

From my stalking it looks like you shoot with a Sony a7r? My mate has one of these (not sure on the specific version but it's a year or two old Sony mirrorless). He also bought a fancy lens too.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-16-35mm-Vario-Tessar-E-Mount-Lens/dp/B00NGTN25C

Takes great photos! The dynamic range on that camera is amazing! Pretty tempting to upgrade my old Canon 450d :D

Also, I played with this drone for a while before getting a DJI

https://smile.amazon.com/Parrot-Airborne-Night-MiniDrone-Black/dp/B0111O7VBO/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518113674&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=Parrot+refurbished+swat

This also just hovers in the air when you don't control it, and you can get it for 30 bucks easily as a refurb. Its a ton of fun too; it has built in tricks you can perform from the app by simply pressing a button. If you have kids its definetly worth it as you can code the drone also.

Easily the best 30 buck purchase I have made. (Note the link I gave is for a new one, so you will have to shop around if you want a refurb. Amazon seems to no longer carry the refurbs.)

Parrot drones are the best for the sub-100 price point. DJI drones are the best for 400+ price point. DIY racing drones are the best for the in-between.

I'm not a camera expert, nor do I own a GoPro, but one thing you'll have to watch out for with a GoPro is the fisheye lens aspect of it. Especially when taking wide landscape shots (like OP's). You could always crop it later, but then you are losing quite a bit of detail.

I would suggest getting any decent point and shoot camera and you'll have MUCH better results than a GoPro. Plus you'll get at least a bit of optical zoom so you can better frame landscape shots like mountains, etc.

Just to be clear, what I mean by a point and shoot would be anything like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HLDFNKQ

It is easier to carry than a full DSLR "pro" camera, cheap enough that if you break it, it isn't too big of a deal, you can share the memory cards, and you can save your GoPro for what it is good at: action video!

I recently bought [this tripod] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZTCHES/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) for a trip through the Alps and it was great. It's not as tall as your standard tripod, but folded up, it is really tiny. It's also pretty solid and stable. If you have the money, something like this can make carrying a tripod all over the place much easier.

We bought this book for our Amazon Kindle App and used as a guide to find all these cool off the beaten track places on Maui. Especially on the Road to Hana.

https://www.amazon.com/Maui-Revealed-Guidebook-Andrew-Doughty/dp/0996131884/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=maui+guidebook&link_code=qs&qid=1565370116&s=gateway&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-3

If you like to try an insane amount of fruit at once. Set up a tasting and tour at Ono Organic Farms. I fell in love of Maui mangoes here and it ruined all other mangoes for me.http://www.onofarms.com/


If you love poke, you will find some of the best in regular local grocery stores. Just ask the locals and they will point you to the best places to go. It will be cheaper and taste as good if not better than the overpriced versions in the tourist trap restaurants.

You can usually get the kit which includes everything you need like this. But there are 3 main components:

The Ring Adapter which you purchase depending on the size of lens you're using. It screws on the front like a filter. In my case I needed the 77mm.

The Filter Holder which clips on to the ring adapter and, like the name suggests, holds the filter

And lastly, the Filter

They can be expensive but Cokin makes a relatively inexpensive kit. They are known for casting a pink hue to the photo on long exposures but I'm sure you could fix that in post-processing. The only reason I didnt purchase them was because they're impossible to find in Canada. Everywhere was sold out or backordered. I sprung for the Lee's because I wanted them for my trip to Iceland otherwise I would have saved to money and got the Cokin Kit. Hope this helps

Buy the BSA:Fieldbook. Read the relavent sections. It gives a great overview of the things you should know. Check out /r/CampingandHiking , especially the wiki page where it gives you a wealth of good information and resources. You want to have an idea of how to handle situations that can easily occur out there. A lot of people make basic mistakes and get themselves in trouble, in my area the search and rescue costs have tripled in the last few years, mostly from simple mistakes like not enough water and not knowing how to navigate when if the GPS fails. A little planning and reading ahead will go a LONG way out there. It's not hard to learn and you don't have to get crazy technical and expensive with gear at all, but don't "just go for it," you're more likely to enjoy it and stay safe.

Do you have a copy of "The Cloud Collector's Handbook"? It's an awesome little book with descriptions/pictures of the types of clouds and associated phenomena. It even has a checklist and a scoring system to keep track of all the special clouds you see! I got it as a gift years ago and I still pull it out whenever I've seen a neat cloud formation.

Beautiful. Did you ever read The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie De Poala? That was one of my favorite books growing up. I loved the illustrations.

Issue with those is going to primarily be the battery. The good news with those is a lot are already waterproof. You can use handwarmers strapped to them to help. A small neoprene sleeve would work. The only issue would be to ensure it doesn't overheat it, so you'd want to insulate/not have direct contact.

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Dew-Not-Heater-Strip-DN009/dp/B003V36ZMK

Is made to counter the cold for a camera. The obvious drawback is... you have yet another battery powered thing that is susceptible to the cold. Which is why I like handwarmers.

If you're into hiking, I would recommend Jane Huber's 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of the Bay Area book. It's a great way to explore all the local parks in the area. Her website is great too.

For me, Banff & area are all about hiking. But there's still tons of stuff do do & see without plodding along a trail all day. Thats just what I like to do all day. In fact, just driving the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93 North, to Jasper) is amazing, with lots of sightseeing opportunities, including the Columbia Icefields.

Get yourself a copy of Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies. It's a phenomenal hiking resource for the National Parks. My personal favourite is Helen Lake.

I was able to get decent results with this kit, if you're brave enough to try cleaning it yourself. :)

https://www.amazon.com/VSGO-Camera-Full-Frame-Cleaning-Cleaner/dp/B00K8MTQGY/

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B011HTRFDW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_8OSSr5KXWMQS6

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Never forget to smile again | ^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

Haha, the tripod I have isn't light either... here's the Amazon link! F&V HDV-Z96 II Z-flash LED DSLR Photo Video Camera Dimmable Light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011HTRFDW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_8OSSr5KXWMQS6

Get the book "Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies" You'll get to see the best and avoid the crowds. http://www.amazon.ca/Dont-Waste-Your-Canadian-Rockies/dp/0968941974