Japanese Northern Alps - Haute Route

[BernardLanguillier]

Dear all,

I am just back from a fun 7 days trek along the lenght of the Japanese Northern Alps. This route is a variation of what is know in Japan as the Japanese Haute Route, refering to the famous backcountry ski route connecting Chamonix and Italy in the European Alps.

The route is supposed to be along a ridge, but we did nonetheless climb about 20.000 feet up total in 7 days.

The 100 GB of raw files will take some time to process, but some first pics can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardlangui...57622461345786/

All was shot with a D3X using the 3 following lenses:
- Zeiss 100mm f2.0,
- Nikkor 24 mm PC-E,
- Nikkor 70-300 VR.

Tripod was my trusted Gitzo 5531s with a RRS BH-55 head and RRS spherical pano head. Besides the annoying loosening of the base screws of the BH-55 all gear performed flawlessly.

All raw conversions done with C1 Pro 4.8.3. The pano work was computed with both Autopano Giga and PTgui Pro.

Comments and advise most welcome as always.

Cheers,
Bernard

[NikoJorj]

Wow!
Gorgeous, as usual or even more.
If I had a gun to my head, I'd vote for "Ridge at dawn", but the whole is really beautiful.

And now, I know that I can say at least two words of japanese with perfect accent!  

[wolfnowl]

Some great work there, Bernard.  Thanks for sharing them!

Mike.

[BernardLanguillier]

Wow!
Gorgeous, as usual or even more.
If I had a gun to my head, I'd vote for "Ridge at dawn", but the whole is really beautiful.

And now, I know that I can say at least two words of japanese with perfect accent!  

Thanks a lot, it was a great trip!

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

Some great work there, Bernard.  Thanks for sharing them!

Mike.

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to comment Mike!

Cheers,
Bernard

[francois]

Congratulations Bernard. I'm always fond of alpine photos and yours are truly outstanding.

[BernardLanguillier]

Congratulations Bernard. I'm always fond of alpine photos and yours are truly outstanding.

Thanks a lot for your kind words Francois.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Josh-H]

Some nice work there Bernard - good stuff, I really enjoyed going through them.

Japan is a beautiful country - definitely on my list of must visit locations.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Some nice work there Bernard - good stuff, I really enjoyed going through them.

Japan is a beautiful country - definitely on my list of must visit locations.

Alas, at my age I don't expect to get to Japan in person, so I depend heavily on Bernard's gorgeous work as an armchair substitute.


Eric

[BernardLanguillier]

Some nice work there Bernard - good stuff, I really enjoyed going through them.

Japan is a beautiful country - definitely on my list of must visit locations.

Thank you Josh.

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

Alas, at my age I don't expect to get to Japan in person, so I depend heavily on Bernard's gorgeous work as an armchair substitute.

Thanks for the nice words Eric! On the other hand all it takes is a plane ticket and a copy of the Lonely Planet guide...

Cheers,
Bernard

[Thomas Krüger]

Fine pictures, I like the "Micro Elegance". Shinzo Maeda did a lot of photography in the Japanese Alps, I have three books with his photographs from Benedikt Taschen, 1983.

[BernardLanguillier]

Fine pictures, I like the "Micro Elegance". Shinzo Maeda did a lot of photography in the Japanese Alps, I have three books with his photographs from Benedikt Taschen, 1983.

Thanks. Maeda is pretty famous in Japan, although his Hokkaido images have probably been the most successful.

Cheers,
Bernard