Photography adds to my enjoyment of the outdoors, but it is hardly ever the main goal of a trip. Usually, I'll pick a destination for its own sake and then work photography around it, rather than letting photography set the agenda. This attitude makes it unlikely that I'll ever be a professional, and it has influenced my choice of tools. I bought my first camera in 1978, a Rollei 35T, to take pictures on climbing trips. The Rollei is a compact rangefinder with good optics. Many images in the gallery were taken with this camera, and a few have been published in magazines. When I started to feel limited by the Rollei's fixed lens and finicky meter, I moved on to other cameras--SLR's with zoom lenses, sophisticated metering systems, autowinders, and ultrasonic focusing. These tools helped me improve my eye for composition and exposure, and produced many of the images here. Eventually, I grew dissatisfied with the quality of zoom lenses and weary of the weight and bulk of SLR systems in the backcountry. Around this time, Contax released their G-series rangefinder. The G2 features high quality interchangeable lenses on a body about half the size of a typical SLR and perhaps twice the size of my old Rollei. It's a compromise system--great for scenics, not so good for following action--but one that suits my tastes. I resisted moving to digital photography for many years, but finally gave in for family trips. I chose a Canon digital SLR, which is compact, good for shooting action, and compatible with lenses from one of my older film cameras. I now have two primary cameras, the Contax for film photography and the Canon for digital. Increasingly, I have found myself taking the digital camera on mountain trips. Time will tell whether digital supplants film entirely for me. That's certainly where the world of photography seems to be heading. Lowell Skoog