Portraits in Mt.Tam

My go-to hike in Mt.Tam is Dipsea/Steep Ravine loop. I’ve completed it about 5 times over the last 4 years. Yeah I know, that’s not much, but hey.

I’ve been a landscape photographer all my life, so naturally I usually only bring wide angle lens with me on this hike. Every time I go, there’s always something new to shoot, some new angle I find, a different way the sun shines through the trees, or some whole different scene I’ve never noticed before.

A collection of shots from my previous trips:

This time around, I decided I wanted to challenge myself by bringing only my 50mm portrait lens. Last year, I bought a portrait lens for the sole purpose of taking pictures of my newly adopted dog, but perhaps it was time to expand my skills.

So, I invited a couple friends out (you recognize them by now) to a hike on Mt.Tam. It was a late October morning, and despite the fact that' we’re officially in Autumn, the weather was fairly mild — at least it was on the Steep Ravine portion.

My friends have never hiked on Mt.Tam before, so I took the opportunity to take snapshots of them taking things in for the first time. Plus, I’m a slow walker, so that’s why I’m usually behind. Ha.

The fallen tree that so many people take pictures on. It’s scarier than it looks to walk across it. Maybe I just have terrible balance, but the last time I tried to walk this tree I ended up crawling across it:

Once we made our way back up through the Dipsea Trail (damn those stairs every time) we get to one of my favorite spots on the trail. Something about the warm sunlight going through the trees, it always makes me feel happy inside! And of course, had to snap a couple shots of the couple:

After making it through the forest, now we’re out and granted a beautiful view of the ocean. Stopping to take a quick snack break before looping back to where we parked — no hike is complete without cheetos.

Overall, looking at the shots — I think I did okay! I should challenge myself more to do portraits, I had a lot of fun capturing these snapshots in time. We ended up gorging on some Shake Shack before heading home for the day. Another fun day!