August 29, 2009 – Day hike at Stone Mountain

1/100

f6.3

ISO 400

18mm

RAW

As many of you know, I am the Scoutmaster for our church's Boy Scout troop. Next summer we are heading to Philmont Scout Ranch for a 12-day backpacking expedition, and today we officially started our preparation. It was nothing strenuous, just a 6.5 mile hike around Stone Mountain with simple day packs. Philmont allows only small groups, so our expedition will have only 12 people. Today's group was slightly smaller than that, but it did include one of the boy's mother.

Because the trail weaved mostly through the dense forest, I put my 18-55 f3.5-5.6 IS wide angle lens so I could capture more of the trail and our hikers. I didn't want to interrupt their pacing (and just capture things as they were happening, photojournalism style), so I set the camera in 'P' mode. This lets the camera make most of the decisions for camera settings, yet allows me to make modifications in case I think the shutter speed is too slow or the shots are underexposed (by the way, the camera did a great job picking).

I kept hiking ahead of the group to find places where I could get a good shot, like this one. The trail curved in front of me, and there was a log I could stand on. I had to wait a few minutes for everyone to catch up, but it was worth it.

My son is in the lead. If you will notice, his hind foot is slightly blurry, which helps convey the idea of motion in the photo. The 1/100 shutter speed was just fast enough to freeze the movement of their torsos but some extremities are blurred.

I shot about five photos at this bend in the trail, but this was the only one that was devoid of bright sunlight reflecting off of their clothing. This one also had some good spacing between the hikers, which is nice.

In hindsight, I wish I had put the people in the front a little higher up in the frame (hmmm . . . maybe I shouldn't have stood on the log). I also wish they were looking up and you could see more of their face. Sometimes it's the little details like this that can change a good photo into a great one.