One night alone in Mt Hood

I visited, hiked and photographed Mt Hood more times than I can count during the 6 years I lived in Portland. It’s a place where I’d go in search of peace and calm. Seeing that magnificent mountain helps to put things in perspective, how small we and our problems are.

But I’d never spent the night up there. I guess that having a comfortable bed just one hour away didn’t make it sound very attractive. I took it for granted, as I prioritized farther away locations.

This time, though, I wanted to fix that. I wanted to do the Timberline Trail over 4 days and 3 nights, but the amount of downed trees on the trail from a recent windstorm made that option almost impossible. I still wanted to spend a night up there, so I hiked as far as I could in one day, set up camp, and enjoyed the views.

It was perfect: there was no wind, it wasn’t too cold, clear skies, an almost full moon, and the whole place for myself.

When is an image worth risking your life?

A big storm was approaching really quick from the West. They were talking about winds up to 100mph and heavy rain -clearly a time to stay indoors, but nothing to worry about. Then, our phones started to go crazy with a sound I hadn't heard in years, and for very different reasons. Back then, it was an Amber alert. This time, though, it was a tornado warning, the first one I'd ever seen.

As we rushed to gather a few things -cameras included, of course- and went down to the crawl space, I thought about how cool it'd be to make an image of a tornado. Should I shelter or should I just wait at the window, ready to capture whatever might happen in the next few minutes?

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

After a few seconds of doubt, I decided to join the others. We sheltered for 15 minutes until the alert expired. An EF-1 tornado touched down some 10 miles away. A funnel cloud did a bit of damage in our local area as it took down a few trees on nearby power lines - we lost power for 24 hours and, as of the time of writing this, almost 5 days later, we still haven't gotten Internet back.

View fullsize

I'm glad I decided to shelter and not chase the possible tornado. This is one of those cases where an image is not worth risking your life. Capturing that photo would have made no difference.

I can think of just a handful of situations where it'd be worth it, though - scenarios where I'd put myself at risk to take the photo. After all, images have the potential to change the world, if the moment is powerful enough. From the photos of Tiananmen square to the video of George Floyd's death, visual records can spark a revolution and change -or even save- the lives of many.

When it comes to art, though, it's never worth it. It's not only about you - putting yourself at risk might put someone else in danger as well, like a rescue team trying to get to you. Think twice about the possible consequences of making that image.

I've left plenty of images behind because it felt unsafe. Maybe I had to get too close to a cliff, the terrain wasn't stable, it was too windy, or icy, or just too hard to get to. I regret none of those, because more important than getting that one image is to be able to come back tomorrow and get another one.

Please be safe out there, and happy shooting!

The Last Forest

Subscribe for more film and digital photography videos https://goo.gl/HUwvVZ My review of the Bronica SQ-Ai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNvDiUE5i2g 10 tips to create better B&W images https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV6c6cxi6Qo How to compose in square format https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtLGKeqYg0c Get my eBooks for free: "Long Exposure Photography", "Examples of the PNW" and "Lightroom CC Workflow" https://aows.co/publications/ Get in touch https://aows.co/contact Find me here Blog: https://aows.co/blog Instagram: https://instagram.com/aows Twitter: https://twitter.com/aows Facebook: https://facebook.com/aowsphotos ----- GEAR I USED IN THIS VIDEO ----- RX100VII - https://amzn.to/2OfMN5c Saramonic Microphone - https://amzn.to/2XeFFKD Tripod - https://amzn.to/2ULGqII Sony a6500 - http://amzn.to/2hdiQm1 Rokinon 12mm - https://amzn.to/2UKluBM Sony 16-70mm - https://amzn.to/2KLKxj0 Sony 70-350mm - https://amzn.to/2Nt69UO (affiliate links)

There are very few places that remain mostly untouched, pure and wild. Places that we used to call home and that somehow, still feel that way. The Devesa da Rogueira is one of those places, it's The Last Forest.