Instagram story viewer> @austincamsmith> Posts

Austin Smith

@austincamsmith

34.3K

followers

816

following

📍Colorado
Pilot 🚀
Colorado 14ers & 100 Centennials finisher 🏔
TransAmerica Trail finisher 🏍

POSTS STORIES REELS

A few from my climb of Thunder Pyramid in the Maroon Bells Wilderness last week. I’m in the final stages of a 12 year project to climb the 100 highest mountains in Colorado; Thunder Pyramid was the 98th (and also the peak with the coolest name). I’d been looking forward to this one for years - it was a fun scramble with incredible views the whole way up. It’d been a decade since I’d climbed anything back here and it was great to be back (and I immediately remembered how awful the rock on these mountains was). Meanwhile, I’m heading down to Durango today where I’ll catch the Durango-Silverton steam train that will take me to the trailhead to climb Jupiter Peak, number 99. So close! by @austincamsmith

A climber ascends through the famous Keyhole feature on Longs Peak (Colorado) backlit by a full moon. I never needed to turn on my headlamp that night. | August 2015. #longspeak #rmnp #rockymountainnationalpark #climbing #mountaineering by @austincamsmith

Lately in the last couple weeks. California & Colorado. Photo of yours truly via @josiahwalkerphoto by @austincamsmith

We chose to go to the moon in this decade. I honestly never thought I’d live to see the day. by @austincamsmith

Deep in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado | July, 2020 by @austincamsmith

A few outtakes from the time I spent three months holed up in an Airstream wandering the Southwest. Cold deserts, apocalyptic oil fields, caves thousands of feet deep, ruins of ancient civilizations, dormant volcanos, dusty arroyos. Canyons that cut a bottomless caesura across the worldskin. I was tailed the entire time by an enormous Mercedes Unimog with license plates that hinted at suspicious and evil origins that would appear nearly a dozen times, always parked and unmanned, across over 1500 miles. My grandfather chased Nazis across the Western Egyptian desert in 1942 and in 2023 they haunted me across the Western American desert. by @austincamsmith

Swimming in the eddies of ancient oceans. #utah #moab #utahphotographer #moabutah by @austincamsmith

The wheels keep turning. One of the best years on file so far. Climbed a bunch of mountains, saw a bunch of shows, logged a bunch of flight hours, skied big lines, had search and rescue called on me for the first time (and called off), lots of family time, acquired an airplane hangar after a 2 year wait (stay tuned on that one), my business had the best year yet, etc, etc. Cheers all y’all. Glad y’all are still following the show here from time to time. by @austincamsmith

One of the spookiest mornings I’ve ever known was one I spent driving through the San Luis Valley of Colorado on a frigid, -6F, winter dawn with the entire world covered in hoarfrost. by @austincamsmith

YEAR END MOVIE REVIEW. I haven’t seen all of the big movies of the year just yet (looking forward to No Other Choice and still need to see both of the Linklater films that came out), but so far here are my top favorites so far. What were your favorites?

1. The Secret Agent (Brazil) - The only masterpiece on this list. This one won’t be for everyone. It’s long, talky, requires attention, and it’s not one you can watch on your couch with one eye on your phone. But this movie transported me like no other movie has in years; transported me in time, to another country, into the lives of characters that that seem so real that it also seems impossible that they don’t exist. Which is much like how we sometimes imagine those we once knew from the past, and which is one of the themes of the movie. In an just world, this movie would win Best Picture and Wagner Moura would win Best Actor.
2. Frankenstein - Sweeping melodrama, gothic sets, heaving catharsis. Great modern myth telling. Guillermo del Toro continues to be a gift to us.
3. Train Dreams - A small, quiet, beautiful character drama. We need more movies like this.
4. One Battle After Another - A super fun satire that I thought was expertly crafted in its technical aspects and a lot of fun overall, but just not as self-aware as it should have been for how smart it was trying to be. I think it’ll win Best Picture, but, while I really enjoyed it, some critical flaws keep it lower on my list.
5. F1 - great popcorn fare 🍿 Who can ask for more than a fun time at the movies by @austincamsmith

It is a wonder that people have visited this place: another celestial body in the solar system 238,900 miles away from Earth. They traveled on rockets taller than a 36 story building. They hurtled through deep space at 25,000 miles per hour. They calculated their journey with a slide rule, graph paper, and a map of the stars. They lived and slept there. They took home movies. They brought a car with them. They did this fifty-five years ago. They are very old men now and some are still with us.

#moon #moonlight #moonphotography #artemis #apollo #apollo11 by @austincamsmith

Riding into a dream, or maybe a Sting music video.

This striking scene is one of my favorite moments I’ve had the privilege of documenting. We arrived at @whitesandsnps just as golden hour was washing over the dunes, and as we crested the first hill we caught sight of these 4 riders off in the distance. Four iconic shadows in silhouette against the mountains, galloping across the dunes and kicking up sand. It felt like we’d walked onto a movie set; it was truly one of the most cinematic moments I’ve ever experienced. The three photographers in our group immediately lost our minds, running around, trying to find the best angle on the riders before they disappeared from sight. The whole thing lasted 9 minutes, according to the metadata in my image files. Felt like a single breath.

This image, along with 4 others, is currently for sale as a custom print through 12/7 in collaboration with my local print lab @photoworkssf. I’m closing orders this Sunday to ensure there is enough time to get them printed and shipped before the holidays.

DM for more details! by @austincamsmith