I’d just like to finish off with a couple of miscellaneous items that came in handy.

The Nexto DI eXtreme is…aggressively unattractive.  But it can back up 250gb of photos directly from a memory card, it has an amazing battery life, and they have somehow perfected an interface that only uses one button (using long and short presses to navigate).  I drag this along on any trip where I’ll be taking a lot of pictures, and may not have access to my laptop for long periods of time.  Fortunately, I’ve never had a failure that necessitated having a backup, but it certainly makes me feel better.

I’m not going to mention my iPhone, because…well…it’s been covered.  But I did use it constantly, and my favorite app from this trip (besides Angry Birds) was Yelp.  Being able to see every business in my immediate vicinity that’s open was great, especially at 11:00 on a Sunday night in Missoula.

“Once more upon the waters! yet once more! And the waves bound beneath me as a steed That knows his rider.”

We are modern day adventurers, and our vehicles are our steeds.  For this trip we mounted up in a 2009 Kia Sportage.  It actually managed to seat five people in relative comfort, even with all of our gear (and I’m guilty of bringing a little more gear than everyone else).  Gas mileage was great, performance was decent, and and amenities (MP3 player connectivity, etc.) were plentiful.

All of my photos from the trip are viewable on Flickr.  And now back to your regularly scheduled program!

The Sportage at night in Wyoming.

Ok, time to talk about camera gear.

Like usual, the D90 made an appearance, and performed as I’ve come to expect.  I can see how photographers get attached to their cameras - when you use a tool that often, and rely on it that much, you come to respect it.  For its features, its durability, and the things it allows you to create.

Surprisingly though, the fisheye only made it out of the bag a couple of times, and only produced one photo that made my final cut.  Am I done with that phase, or did this trip just not provide many opportunities to use it? Who knows.  But there was a surprising underdog.

My version of the Tamron 28-300mm is so old, I couldn’t even find a decent picture of it.  And this link will take you to a review of the stabilized version.  I got mine as part of a trade several years ago - it’s not stabilized.  And I’ve hardly used it.  I’m normally not a fan of superzooms, so this one sat in a box for quite awhile - I brought it along as a backup, but a combination of factors kept it on my camera a lot more than I would have expected.  It actually produced better images at long range than my usual telephoto lens, and offered a lot of flexibility without having to swap lenses.  It made me reconsider both superzoom lenses, and getting a real telephoto lens, especially if I’m headed back to a national park.  As for downsides, well, it’s still a superzoom, which means it’s useless in low-light situations.  28mm isn’t really wide enough for a lot of my photos, and lack of active stabilization makes shots at the 300mm end a little difficult.

The photo in the header here was taken with this old friend.

I’ve had this Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 for a couple of years now, and it rarely lets me down.  Something about the layout of the park didn’t look right through the fisheye — it had lots of straight lines and sweeping vistas that I wanted to capture without (much) distortion.  The review I linked to mentions only a couple of problems with this lens - inconsistent sharpness (yep) and distortion (yep).  I can live with both of these, mostly because this lens was about $400, and the Nikon equivalent is 2-3 times that.  It’s a solid performer, and one that I use constantly.

Next: Photos.

We went through several different climates on this trip - from freezing in the passes to needing AC in the flatter areas.  There was also extremely limited space in the car, so choice of outerwear was important.  I found myself mostly using my Marmot Tempo.  

It’s made of a super light soft shell material that’s wind and water resistant, but not too warm.  The water resistance was put to the test during a couple of short but enthusiastic rain showers in Yellowstone.  And it held up equally well to a freezing walk at night.  Its light weight and stretchy material made it comfortable to wear in the car, too.  I got this one on sale at REI for half off, so I didn’t expect much from it - I have to say though, I’m impressed, and Marmot will definitely be on my list next time I’m looking for a jacket.  Three issues: The cuffs don’t have thumb holes.  The cuffs are too tight, making it difficult to push the sleeves up.  And a hood would be nice.

All pretty minor stuff though.  Available directly from Marmot for $90.