Bard
And to complete the little trilogy of old Araps soloing pics… here we have an early morning pic of Jo Whitford soloing the five pitch route Bard (12), cira 1991. This was her morning routine at the time: get up, solo Bard, start the day… you know how it is, right? (Me neither).
Some thoughts on shooting soloing… So, because this was something Jo normally did, and was doing anyway, I didn’t have too many qualms about shooting her on this. However, I turned “pro” with my photography a few years after this and have given this issue a lot of thought over the years… and basically if you look through my collection you’ll find very few shots of soloing in there, very few where someone has soloed for my camera and in more recent years I’ve just stopped doing it entirely. My thinking is this: if they don’t know you are there shooting then that’s one thing, but if they know, or if it’s planned, then how can you be sure the camera hasn’t just become a factor in their decision to solo? You can’t. In fact, the more effort you go to to set something up, the more it’s not something they regularly, normally, do… the more having a photographer involved *may* play into their decision to solo – or not. When the decision is borderline and/or the climb is sketchy, then I don’t see a lot of justification for that. Both the climbers and photographers need to be really clear about their motives. If you’re going to solo, then solo, but why do you need/want a camera there? Why do you, as a photographer, want to shoot it? Yes, soloing is a part of climbing, and there is a case for documenting it, but when it becomes a promotion of it, or is a self promotion for someone, then that is a greyer area. I think the clincher is this: if something went wrong, would you be comfortable with your involvement? Anyway, it’s a complex, grey, issue, I’m not trying to judge others. This is a rare soloing shot from me — and those reasons above explain why I don’t shoot it more and why I’m pretty comfortable with that. Besides, these days we have deep-water soloing – and how good is that!
#throwback #film #kodachrome @nikonaustralia #MyNikonLife @thinktankphoto @julboeyewear #climbing #rockclimbing