How musk risk / danger have you taken for a photograph or access to shoot?

**David_Senesac** · 22-Oct-2016, 08:25

Noticed this is a resurrected 2012 thread haha. DW are you referring to my Merced canyon poppy shot or someone else's post? Noticed my link to the larger image was stale so just fixed that. Just to reach where I climbed up the canyon slopes was on the side of the Merced opposite the highway. There is a disintegrating old dirt mining road on that side above the river used by a few mountain bikers but very few hikers because it is relatively unknown except by locals. We had to start hiking at dawn in order to reach the goods when morning light was still optimal and went several miles on the road with our usual 20>30 pounds of gear each. I've since gone back there during another spring to the opposite ravine side in the pic and explored way back over into the next canyon. Very tricky and moderately dangerous places with a fair amount of poison oak to avoid.

I've set my tripod down in a lot of dangerous spots in the Sierra Nevada high country but not nearly as much as you have DW. Far more times the real danger was to my Wisner Expedition on the big Gitzo setting up in places the contraption was on the brink of falling somewhere sure to smash it to pieces or end up floating down some whitewater torrent. Looking through my Gallery_B sub page found another good one that was at the end of an epic adventure with a long story I'll summarize below:

That is a shot in Capitol Reef National Park of famous Golden Throne but a long ways from where visitors view the tower. The same friend Doug that was with me for the poppy shot, in 2005 went on a 3 week Utah Colorado Plateau road trip with me visiting a bunch of pristine locations no other people much less photographers have since probably stepped on. Capitol Reef in particular has vast areas of dangerous to access landscapes with cliffs all about and unstable sandstone geologies to climb through. Real topographic map puzzles. One morning we started off early dawn from the lonely Notom area across miles of weird water less landscapes without any trails or use paths with several cliff bands en-route to figure out that we managed to work through. The above shot was on the brink of one and the one below nearby.

**Drew Wiley** · 24-Oct-2016, 13:47

Oh I've peered into the void at Capitol Reef too. One of my favorite places. But David, I was referring to your Merced Riv canyon poppies. For quite a few years I hauled the 8x10 up some very steep places on both the lower San Joaquin and lower Kings, when there was often quite a poppy show too. But somewhat earlier in the Spring you can get some stunning stairstep waterfalls over the metamorphic rocks typical of the lower canyons, slippery and strenuous to be sure. Then atop
the bends of the San Joaquin there are steep-sided columnar basaltic "tables" with unbelievable flower shows in the vernal ponds in March.