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| THE END OF THE EARTH |
At the light of the frontal flashlight I am heavily climbing among the huge stones of the lateral moraine. It is 5 o’clock in the morning. I must reach on the Acarreo lakeside before sunrise. The regulations of Torres del Paine National Park forbid camping in the area; this must stay virgin, untouched by civilization.
From the bivouac to the lake I have to climb for 1 hour and half on darkness among the huge rocks gathered on the moraine of the former glacier. I leave behind the frail path with no regrets. It does not matter where you are going; everywhere it is the same. As a guide mark I choose a rock which has the size of a house, shaped on the sky which starts to brighten up and I try to keep the direction among the rocks labyrinth. Reaching the edge of the moraine I remain breathless when seeing the landscape. The Paine towers are co-lo-ssal; literally.
The south Patagonia and especially Torres del Paine “have gone on me” many years ago when I found on the Internet an image with a family of guanaco (herbivorous related with Llama) shaped on Cuernos del Paine – one of the granite peaks of the massif. The only information which I had about the mountains of Patagonia was about the Fitz Roy rocky pyramid, famous for the difficulty of climbing it over.
There’s no wonder you wish to see such a place; but especially to take pictures of it. Easy to say… and I started to search for information. As I gathered material I realized that bad weather is not a joke, especially the wind will give me a deal of trouble.
But when assuming the challenge, finding solutions for various problems meant small victories on the way to Patagonia.
Until that moment Patagonia was the most important photographic project approached as an expedition. Although I do not lack the mountain experience, it was the first time when photography was the main reason of the expedition. I had to report all the travelling stages to this reason: how I travel by plane with the photographic equipment which has about 10-12 kilos (besides the mountain equipment of 20-25 kg), the protection of the 40 films which must not pass too many times through the radiations from the luggage check-up (it is known that the radiations are cumulative and by repeated passing through the scanning system they can get a veil which destroys the final image). Not finally there have been those of establishing the itinerary, of the daily stages, of the possibilities of supplying with food and fuel, electric power sources for the accumulators of the room, and many others. The most important guide mark to which have been referred all the other efforts: the hour at which I must be in certain points of the route to have a good light. Since in the morning and in the evening are the favourable hours for the landscape picture I established that the travelling in different areas of interest should be done during day between 11 and 17. I didn’t succeed to fully respect the suggested schedule. When I arrived on the spot I found that things weren’t really as I knew. Some worse, others better. The information which I found on the internet was correct on a scale of 90 % but not exhaustive.
Practically for two weeks the schedule reduced to three moments: in the morning at 5 I was awake to get to the sunrise at the chosen station spot, after 11 travelling from one objective to the other and after 17 o’clock pictures to the following place or finding some favourable framings for the next morning.
In only one place I stayed for two days, to the main attraction of the park: the towers of the azure sky – Torres del Paine (picture 2). The central tower, although it is not the tallest, has a vertical line of 1000 meters and from its base to the level of the lake from which I have taken most of the pictures there are other 1000 meters difference of level. Practically to cover a vertical line of 2000 m it is necessary to be at a distance large enough or to approach the subject with a superangular objective. The disadvantage of the superangular lays in the fact that the entire grandeur of the place is contorted. The ratios between the composition elements of the frame do not help to render the grandeur of the landscape. But since there is no other possibility, I tried to use elements of the landscape which, being recognizable, can give the real dimension of the relief. The ratio between the shade of the clouds projected on the towers and the towers, give the real measure of the towers. The play of dark and light, well divided, completes the composition and the usage of a neutral diminution filter helped me balance the exposure.
The used photographic equipment:
- two blocks of Nikon, F 100 and D 100. Although I laid stress on the digital camera with which I have taken most of the pictures, those frames which I considered very good I put them on Provia 100F slide, both for back-up and for future projections of slide, appreciated by a numerous public. The supplementary accumulator for D 100 is very necessary not only on the mountain but also in all the situations in which it is used a digital camera almost continuously.
- three objectives Nikkor 17-35/2,8, 35-70/2,8 and 80-200/2,8 plus a telecommuter Tamron 2X regarding the chosen optics. The big advantage was that I used the same optics to both cameras.
- a set of Cokin neutral diminution filters of one and two grades, polarization filter. All the three filters are basic for the landscape picture. In Torres del Paine the abundance of lakes, dramatic sunsets and sunrises require a permanent correction of the exposure with this set of filters.
- Gitzo tripod with offset head. Weighing only 1,7 Kg but having the robustness of a tripod with an at least double weight, it allows a normal height of work (1,5 m) and a station spot near the ground.
- the storing of the photographs was made on a hard disk with a memory of 40 Gb with supplementary accumulator of 4 Ah which provides a pretty large autonomy of the hard disk.
- a flexible solar panel necessary to charging the accumulators.
- published: June 2005, CHIP Foto&Video
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