Spent the end of last week and the weekend hiking Mt. Whitney in eastern California. My legs are sore. I'd like to go back at some point in the near future and do it all in one day. Not this time.

This was my 2nd time hiking with my camera (K100D). I took about 700 pictures. On the advice of folks here, I took my 18-55 II kit, FA50 and 100-300. The 100-300 didn't come out of the bag. Took my tripod along too.

Thanks for all the advice. All criticisms and comments welcome. If anyone feels like it, the rest of the photos are in this Flickr set.

Here are a few of the shots. Click on 'em to pick on the large versions.

Restaurant sign in Lone Pine, CA.




Creek next to our trailhead campsite.



Looking back down the valley. Lone Pine Lake on the bottom right. I HDR'd this with Photomatix. Any advice on making it look more natural? I think for the future I'm going to track down a graduated ND filter.



Mt. Muir from Trail Camp at 12,000ft.




Wish I could make my elbow disappear from this one. Oops.




Departing camp the morning after summiting. And a 14 hour rainstorm. So happy to be dry again.

[flockofbirds]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/3854549975_0c27802911_b.jpg
the way the clouds are creeping over the rock faces on this one are great looking. And from your perspective that pond/lake down on the right there looks totally weird... like its not flat or something... very intriguing.

Hey there, nice work.

[paulyrichard]

Great photos. These deserve to be seen larger. Great stuff.

[Black Magic]

Awesome. The photo of Lone Pine Lake, and the photo beneath it must be printed and hung on your wall.

[OrenMc]

I'm jealous, I would love to do Whitney some day. Anyway, looks like you had a memorable time. Great shots.

[Wolfsfire]

Really nice work with this series, the shot of Mt. Muir at 12,000 feet with the clouds drifting in front and the gorgeous lake needs to be a wall poster. Great shots.

[Ash]

Very nicely done - a variety of top shots.
An effective use of the kit lens on a beginner's dSLR - results speak for themselves...

Thanks for sharing.

[cupic]

Isnt Mt Whitney one of Ansel Adams fav shot he composed in 1944?
Great series

cheers

[MRRiley]

Very nice. I particularly like the 3rd and 4th shots. The lake in 3 does look a little sloped, but this is a trick of perspective which goes away after you look at it a moment.

Mike

[scott-devon]

Beautiful series all well thought out.

[Marc Langille]

Excellent series - loved the shots - #3 and #4 are especially beautiful!

You did well with Photomatix'd image... I suspect that your thoughts that the mirrored lake/mountain shots may go even better with a Grad ND may hold some weight.

Regards,
Marc

[reeftool]

Nice series. Another place is now added to my visit list.

[Sailor]

Wonderful group of photos - everyone very well done technically and compositionally. Super job.

Jer

[Andrew Faires]

The 3rd and 4th shots are amazing. Nicely done!