Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A Gift, Shared


I bought you a gift for Christmas...though no, you didn’t find it wrapped under your tree, and I must apologize too that I haven’t even told you about the gift until now, three weeks after the holiday.

The gift is a superlight, 1-man tent, which I realize is not something you asked for. And what’s even weirder about my gift is that I’m not actually going to present it to you, but rather I’m going to use it myself, kind of sharing it with you. But trust me, I bought the gift with you in mind, and I think you will like it that I/we have the tent.

I guess I need to explain myself?

You see, I’ve been making a list of amazing mountain locations where I’ve camped in past years, places that I think beg a revisit. I thought maybe you too would like to see those places, and that (here’s the cool thing about the tent I bought) I could do the hikes by myself (the tent is, after all, a one-man shelter) and I will take photographs for you, then post the images here on this online journal where you and I meet. You won’t need to toil your way up a steep trail, or get blisters or bug bites, or even sleep on the ground. My hope is that you will get to enjoy the visual benefits of me using your/our gift, but that you can stay home and can read a book or nap while I schlep my backpack and cameras in the mountains.

How cool is that for you?

This gift-sharing scheme of mine will be swell, too, in that I’ll get to make pictures on my hikes that you will know were done with you in mind (photographs are only fun for me if I get to show them to others.) So the Christmas tent I got for you/me will have a life that will go on and on, all year long.

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The two pictures I’m posting today were shot in the past week or so on ferry trips across Puget Sound. The top image presented itself during an on-and-off rain squall, while the scene below was one I photographed at sunset.

The photo trips I’ll take us on in the coming months will be a bit different because they’ll primarily be done on foot. I hope you’ll enjoy the visual gifts I find and bring back for you.