I like hiking in the rain, and I don’t forego shooting pictures simply because it’s wet outside. I sling my camera strap around my neck and keep the camera itself tucked inside my jacket, protected but still ready for action. A wide-brimmed hat helps keep the drizzle off my lens when I shoot, but there’s an even better way: an umbrella. I have several, and I always stow a compact brolly in the slot behind one of my rucksack’s side pockets so it’s with me whenever I need it.

Then, when I’m done, I close the umbrella and slide it between my rucksack and my back. The weight of the pack keeps it in place, ready for quick deployment.

An umbrella’s utility extends well beyond its role in keeping the rain off your lens (and your pate), too. It can also be put to work at other jobs, like keeping your gear dry while you answer a call of nature:

Of course, brollies have their limits. A stiff breeze will carry one away in the blink of an eye. You’ve been warned. But don’t be deceived. They’re not just foul-weather friends. Umbrellas can be used in the midday sun, too—to minimize lens flare, to shade a subject, or as a refuge from the heat while you snatch a few Zs along the trail. And if you meet an unfriendly dog running free on the trail—an unfortunately frequent occurrence—and if he seems keen on getting up to mischief, just point your umbrella at him and open it up. The effect is often dramatic, and even if it doesn’t send the dog packing there and then, it still buys you time while you fish around in your pocket for the Halt! For all I know, it might work on bears, too.

Umbrellas. They’re lightweight, cheap, and versatile. Fair weather or foul, a compact brolly is the best of companions. The only surprise is that more backcountry wanderers don’t carry one.

 
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We’ve come a long way since the first article in this series appeared, back in early March. We’ve assembled our tool kit, practiced the art of the quick sketch, learned to use light and shadow to good effect, and worked on capturing the fluid essence of water in all its moods. Now we’re ready to step back and take in the big picture. In other words, we’re ready to turn our attention to landscapes.

This can be daunting. How can you possibly reproduce everything you see in the world around you? Flowers and trees, rock and river, lake and shore, clouds and hills… It seems like mission impossible, doesn’t it? But it’s not — and you don’t have to be a da Vinci to do it. It’s surprisingly easy to construct a landscape on a sheet of paper. You just need to identify the building blocks…Read more…

 
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Last month, we explored how the interplay between light and shadow can be used to evoke the three‑dimensional world on the flat surface of a sheet of paper. Now we’re ready to move on, and we’ll start with a subject that’s close to every paddler’s heart: water. But water has many moods, from the placid stillness of a tucked‑away mountain tarn on a sullen summer’s day to the howling tumult of a surf‑hammered shore. Luckily, most paddlers soon master the elements of water’s secret language, learning to read the many hidden forces that dictate whether a body of water sulks or storms. And this “secret language” is the key to capturing water’s moods with a pencil.

How do you begin? In the same way you learned to paddle, by venturing cautiously out onto flatwater… Read more…

 
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