Sheer - Some Background to the Shot

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(Edited)

Looking across at the sheer chunk of rock which makes up Gimili peak. In Norse mythology Gimlé or Gimili is described as the most beautiful place in Asgard, the realm of the gods.

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The scale here is hard to comprehend. If you zoom into the high resolution image you can just make out our small party of adventurers resting on the ridgeline. They are totally engulfed by the sheer scale of the landscape (see zoom in the video).

I had never seen Gimili shot from this perspective and felt I could do it justice. Both a physically difficult and complex shot to get due to extreme terrain (access shots below) and the fact that Gimili literally towers above you even after climbing high onto the spine.

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It was technically challenging to shoot due to the vastness of the peak. To capture the entire massif, the image was formed using 36 images stitched into a single panorama then cropped and downscaled to ~77MP. High image numbers allowed maximum overlap reducing distortion.

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The high quality of the rock at Gimili is amazing for scrambling and climbing, particularly compared to the crumbling sedimentary strata of the Rockies. On the way down we passed some Mountain Goats who call Gimili home.

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Gimili is part of the Valhalla Gneiss Complex. The complex consists of lower grade metamorphic sediments interspersed with massive high grade granitic and granodiorite intrusions such as Gimili. It sits at 2774m (9100 ft) in the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia, Canada.

Hopefully this gives you a feel for the complexity and logistics that goes into an image like this. Sheer is up on my Super Real series on SuperRare and was sold to the legend Dansung for 2.69 ETH https://superrare.com/intrepidphotos

Gimili is part of the Valhalla complex and sits at 2774m (9100 ft) in the Selkirk Mountains of Valhalla Provincial Park. British Columbia, Canada.

If you would like to learn a little bit more about my background in photography you can read the interview @photofeed did with me here.

Robert Downie
Love Life, Love Photography

All images in this post were taken by and remain the Copyright of Robert Downie - http://www.robertdowniephotography.com



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25 comments
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That was so breath taking. I was just amazed how large it's scale from the video.

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So glad to see the video. It brings justice to the scenic beauty of the place.

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Yep I put it in as it helps to appreciate the sheer scale of it all.

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When you pass mountain goats and keep going higher lol you are getting a ways up there. Great shot 🙂

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Beautiful shots of Gimli and bonus mountain goats! I've lived near here for years and still haven't made the trip out. Need to now more than ever. 🙈

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Valhalla is one of the best parks I've ever been to, can't wait to do more backpacking there. Awesome images Rob!

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I could only gauge the scale once I saw the photo with the two people in it, that is one insanely huge sheer cliff face, beautifully captured. The mountain goats are awesome, I have seen how those things climb, insane!

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Muy geniales las capturas, la montaña se ve muy hermosa, imagino la vista que debe tener

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