Tuck and Robin Lakes

thapamd

Hey gang,

I just spent a couple of days at Tuck and Robin Lakes. The hike in was the most strenuous I've done in probably 5 years. I was wiped out when we finally made it to Robin Lakes, but boy was the hard work worth it! The light was nice, Rainier was out, and the mountain goats were quite friendly. I had a wonderful time exploring and photographing the area. I hope you enjoy these images.

Canon 5D MkII & 24-105 f/4L IS (That's right, I got a new camera and lens )

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cj99si

What a awesome place! this backdrop is stunning! The Goats look great!

Eia

Wowzer! These are fantastic! It might be me...but this seems to have a different 'style' from your usual. I think it is the color...and yea...the comps are great; and maybe the new camera has given you an edge! But, it could be the serious hike and place too! Whatever...they are great. How did you get him to pose in #5; that is magazine worthy.

scole

Very nice. I've eyed the Tuck & Robin Lakes hike for awhile myself. I love the shots across the valley at Mt Daniel the most!

ront

Mahesh, you sure do get around!! I love your work and have a special Mahesh file where I save a lot of it for desktop pictures and just to look at again later. Consistanly, you bring us awesome photos of places that I will never see in person. Thanks!! Great photos here indeed!

Ron

marcpro

Wonderful... my dream camera and lens.

I agree with Eia, the style and mood seems different than your previous posts in these pics. There's a different "je ne sais quoi" somewhere.

Very nice.
Marc.

coscorrosa

Sweet series again! I'm loving all those mountain goat photos, I've never seen them that close in person, one of these days... Great comps.

Also congrats on the new purchase. Probably 2/3 of my landscape photos are 5D MII / 24-105, and the other 1/3 are with the 16-35 (which will be your next purchase!), and any remainder (yeah, I realize the math doesn't work) are with the 100-400 or 70-200.

Awais Yaqub

Great series with great new Camera !

Tango

not sure what to say.... a few expressions come to mind though, but I resist...

nice series, but what you say on comparing your a900 with the 5D2? do you plan on a move over or stay? or just simply both?

thapamd

cj99si wrote:

What a awesome place! this backdrop is stunning! The Goats look great!

Thanks! The place is indeed fantastic! All the effort was worth it. Even today, I'm a little sore.

thapamd

Eia wrote:

Wowzer! These are fantastic! It might be me...but this seems to have a different 'style' from your usual. I think it is the color...and yea...the comps are great; and maybe the new camera has given you an edge! But, it could be the serious hike and place too! Whatever...they are great. How did you get him to pose in #5; that is magazine worthy.

Thanks, Eia! I've used Canon in the past, so it was like saying hi to an old friend you haven't seen for a long time. It was nice to have an "L" lens in my hand and the controls of a Canon. I dunno about getting some kind of "edge" though. I suspect it's probably the subject matter.

As far as the pose, I was just lucky to shoot at the right time. I followed him around for a while, trying to get a nice backdrop, and finally he acquiesced.

thapamd

scole wrote:

Very nice. I've eyed the Tuck & Robin Lakes hike for awhile myself. I love the shots across the valley at Mt Daniel the most!

Thanks, Steve! Mt Daniel is beautiful and quite majestic. I highly recommend Tuck and Robin Lakes. Make sure you bring some warm clothes, as it can get a bit chilly, even if the weather in Roslyn is in the 90's.

thapamd

ront wrote:

Mahesh, you sure do get around!! I love your work and have a special Mahesh file where I save a lot of it for desktop pictures and just to look at again later. Consistanly, you bring us awesome photos of places that I will never see in person. Thanks!! Great photos here indeed!

Ron

Thanks so much, Ron! You always have such nice things to say about my photography. I really appreciate it.

thapamd

marcpro wrote:

Wonderful... my dream camera and lens.

I agree with Eia, the style and mood seems different than your previous posts in these pics. There's a different "je ne sais quoi" somewhere.

Very nice.
Marc.

Thanks, Marc! Save up your pennies, because that camera/lens combo is awesome!

As far as my style and mood...I hope the difference is for the better.

dlplumer

Outstanding set Mahesh. Love those goat shots. What made you switch from Sony to Canon? I want to hear more about this hike.

thapamd

coscorrosa wrote:

Sweet series again! I'm loving all those mountain goat photos, I've never seen them that close in person, one of these days... Great comps.

Also congrats on the new purchase. Probably 2/3 of my landscape photos are 5D MII / 24-105, and the other 1/3 are with the 16-35 (which will be your next purchase!), and any remainder (yeah, I realize the math doesn't work) are with the 100-400 or 70-200.

Thanks, Ron! My plan is to take this setup hiking, so I'll purchase the 17-40 f/4L and the 70-200 f/4L IS. I won't have the extreme long reach, but the weight/quality ratio can't be beat, IMO.

thapamd

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Great series with great new Camera !

Thanks, Awais! LOVE the new camera and lens!

thapamd

AaronNelson wrote:

not sure what to say.... a few expressions come to mind though, but I resist...

nice series, but what you say on comparing your a900 with the 5D2? do you plan on a move over or stay? or just simply both?

Thanks, Aaron! On pure resolution, there is no beating the a900. However, the noise profile on the 5D2 is 2nd to none. Often I have to shoot ISO 400 or even 800 to keep flowers still. That was virtually impossible with the Sony. The 5D2 just gives me more options. I also like the fact that I don't have to lug around the 24-70 and 16-35 Zeiss lenses everywhere...great lenses, but WAY too heavy for long trips. The 24-105 f/4L IS and 17-40 f/4L are the perfect weight with great quality. I also plan to add the 70-200 f/4L IS. Will I get rid of the Sony? Probably not. I only have to look at a file from it at 100% so see its pixel quality (as long as I keep the ISO down to 400 and below).

thapamd

dlplumer wrote:

Outstanding set Mahesh. Love those goat shots. What made you switch from Sony to Canon? I want to hear more about this hike.

Thanks, Dan! I haven't switched, really. I love both systems and will probably continue to use both. For long hikes, I'm taking the Canon set. My Oly is great too, but I want more than 12MP.

The hike itself is great. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, so I was mentally prepared. I read several trip reports at various websites. I have also been doing moderate hikes regularly, so I thought I was well prepared. The first 4 miles is easy and relatively flat with some elevation gain. The next 2 miles is moderate to severe, gaining 1000 in the last 1 mile (lots of steep uphill scrambling). This gets you the Tuck Lake. Robin Lakes is another 1.7 miles away. The first 1.2 miles gains you another 1000 feet in elevation before leveling off/descending .5 miles to Robin Lakes. Start elevation: 3350. Highest elevation: 6250 End elevation: 6200. We took little breaks to snap some pictures. We had a 20 min lunch at Tuck Lake. It took us about 6 hrs total to get to Robin Lakes and 5.5 hrs to get back the next day. I found the way back to be more difficult and tricky.

dlplumer

thapamd wrote:

Thanks, Dan! I haven't switched, really. I love both systems and will probably continue to use both. For long hikes, I'm taking the Canon set. My Oly is great too, but I want more than 12MP.

The hike itself is great. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, so I was mentally prepared. I read several trip reports at various websites. I have also been doing moderate hikes regularly, so I thought I was well prepared. The first 4 miles is easy and relatively flat with some elevation gain. The next 2 miles is moderate to severe, gaining 1000 in the last 1 mile (lots of steep uphill scrambling). This gets you the Tuck Lake. Robin Lakes is another 1.7 miles away. The first 1.2 miles gains you another 1000 feet in elevation before leveling off/descending .5 miles to Robin Lakes. Start elevation: 3350. Highest elevation: 6250 End elevation: 6200. We took little breaks to snap some pictures. We had a 20 min lunch at Tuck Lake. It took us about 6 hrs total to get to Robin Lakes and 5.5 hrs to get back the next day. I found the way back to be more difficult and tricky.

Holy sore feet batman. 11 hours You and Ron are both photographic machines on steroids.

Seriously though, thanks for sharing. What a great trip and great photos.

thapamd

dlplumer wrote:

Holy sore feet batman. 11 hours You and Ron are both photographic machines on steroids.

Seriously though, thanks for sharing. What a great trip and great photos.

The way I figure it...the hikes are good for my health. Plus, I get to see and experience things that many others don't while having the privilege of capturing them with my camera. It's a win, win (that's what I'm telling my sore calf muscles right now, anyway.)

dseidman

Those are some pretty sweet images! It may have been a strenuous hike but it sure looks like it was worth it. Every time I'm up in the mountains I hope I'll see a mountain goat up close but it hasn't happened yet.

Marc Muench

Great day in the mountains Mahesh

The image of the goat with Rainier in the BG is well worth the hike IMO

anwmn1

That is a pretty spectacular set of shots from a one day trip.


Love all the mountain goat shots. Very nice as usual.

Garrett

AMAZING work (as usual). Those goats have sooo much emotion and character.

Side question: Could you, Ron, or anyone else that hikes a lot with their gear share you backback/bag/carrying setup? I've been looking for something that has dedicated photo gear storage (w/ tripod), but also room for food and clothing.

CWSkopec

Wow, Mahesh!! Just WOW!!

Congrats on the new gear and congrats on another excellent set!

I'm amazed you were able to get so close to the Mountain Goats. Even at full zoom you must have been almost on top of some of these guys/gals. They must be pretty docile to let you get so close, right?

thapamd

dseidman wrote:

Those are some pretty sweet images! It may have been a strenuous hike but it sure looks like it was worth it. Every time I'm up in the mountains I hope I'll see a mountain goat up close but it hasn't happened yet.

Thanks, Danny! These mountain goats were unbelievably friendly. I actually had to zoom out on a few shots to improve the compositions.

thapamd

Marc Muench wrote:

Great day in the mountains Mahesh

The image of the goat with Rainier in the BG is well worth the hike IMO

Thanks, Marc! Ya, I like to complain about my hikes...I probably make them seem more strenuous then they actually are.

thapamd

anwmn1 wrote:

That is a pretty spectacular set of shots from a one day trip.


Love all the mountain goat shots. Very nice as usual.

Thanks, Aaron! We were quite lucky to have good light and mountain goats on the same trip. Sometimes the photography gods smile on us.

thapamd

Garrett wrote:

AMAZING work (as usual). Those goats have sooo much emotion and character.

Side question: Could you, Ron, or anyone else that hikes a lot with their gear share you backback/bag/carrying setup? I've been looking for something that has dedicated photo gear storage (w/ tripod), but also room for food and clothing.

Thanks, Garrett!

I just use a regular backpacking bag and put my camera and lenses loosely in it at the top. I wrap my lenses in some extra clothing, but that's as much "protection" as I give. I hang my tripod from one of the side compartments. Works well for me.

thapamd

CWSkopec wrote:

Wow, Mahesh!! Just WOW!!

Congrats on the new gear and congrats on another excellent set!

I'm amazed you were able to get so close to the Mountain Goats. Even at full zoom you must have been almost on top of some of these guys/gals. They must be pretty docile to let you get so close, right?

Thanks, Chris! Oh ya, with some, I could probably have reached out and touched them. I was leery of doing that, however, as those horns looked pretty sharp.