I took my infrared camera with me to the gorilla hike, mostly because I had it. I didn’t really expect it to be such a good choice. Almost all of my favorite photos from the trip were in infrared.

The physical challenge of walking on the mountain was more than I had expected. I’ve hiked in a lot of conditions and, while I’ve never really been all that physically fit, I am in better shape than I used to be and it was still hard for me. Part of this is the elevation. Part of it is that I am always exhausted by the time I get to where I am going – even when I try to allocate time to rest and recover. In this case, though, a big part of it was that we walked for a few hours to get to the gorillas and then had to stand on fresh (slippery) vines on the side of a steep incline. I only actually fell once, but it felt like I was just about to fall on many occasions.

I am glad that I hired a porter to help me carry the gear, but when it came to the actual photography, I was carrying the cameras and lenses that I needed. They’re heavy for walking, but not so bad for standing.