Photos and Movies

I think photos are super important. I have a very extensive photo gallery of everything i've ever climbed, from sport climbing to expeditions. By looking at my windows photo gallery i see that i have 3275 photos from 2011 alone, and theres another 5 months left! I'm also very lucky that my main alpine partner is an extremely good photographer, and therefore am guaranteed some gobsmacking photos nearly every time we go climbing.
       I regularly find myself flicking through my photos and getting lost in the moment that the photo captures. I'll sometimes spend literally hours staring at my own photos remembering and pondering the moment they were taken.
         "Tangibility" is an extremely crucial word when it comes to any sort of pleasure, and i think that in alpinism it is especially relevant, as its often not possible to enjoy the moment as it happens. Sometimes you may feel very scared and stressed, which isn't something that is naturally enjoyed at the time, but of course is fun to look back at. However, for me tangibility has more relevance when it comes to times of extreme beauty, which are frequent when alpine climbing, expecially in the greater ranges. I sometimes find (perhaps ashamedly) that natural beauty in its unique and rawest form can go slightly over my head. Of course i'm not saying that i don't appreciate it at the time, but its a bit like my brain exceeds its awe quota for that moment, and it therefore stuns me too much, and i can't take it in, forcing some of it to glide over my head. This is a real shame as these moments are rare, and when you find yourself seeing something that so few people, or sometimes noone has seen in the same way before, you want to receive an amount of pleasure in proportion to that. But maybe that's prusumptuous to expect.
       Anyways, i guess what i'm saying is that photos can help you salvage a little of the awe you missed out on at the time, as well as confirming that yes, you were actually there.

Soaking it up.

Head to the ground, too fucked to soak anything up.

A sleeping bag-less brew stop/bivi three quarters of the way up the buttress of the Moonflower. Not a particularly good photo but one of my favourites. 

A couple of years ago i got a Panasonic LX3, and since getting this camera i've been taking lots of movie footage. I also find myself watching clips over and over again reminding me of the moment. Although movie clips aren't quite so good for staring at and thinking, i find that because they're dynamic and often have a dialogue, i really enjoy showing them to my parents and other friends, as although you can say the same for photos, footage has a realness and interaction factor.
       Here's a fun 360 i did from the summit of Cerro Standhardt last year.


Untitled from William Sim on Vimeo.


I've decided i'm going to upload some clips on to Vimeo from trips, and also just from big routes in the Alps. So have a little look through to see whats up already.