Hello! I’m excited to be writing my first of many posts for my Lumos adventure. I will arrive in Kenya in less than a month, which is frighteningly soon.

I’m looking forward to returning to an area of the world that in some ways I know well, but in many other ways am still a total foreigner. During my time in the mountains, I’ll be completely immersed in the African culture and will have to learn how I fit into it now as an adult. I’m nervous, but I’m also thrilled to be able to expand my comfort zone even further.

A view of Mt. Kenya’s twin peaks from the east side of the mountain. I’ll be back on the mountain in just over a month!

In the month before I head off, I have lots of loose ends to tie up with school and work and relationships, but I’m almost completely prepared for Africa. I could (and would happily) throw my gear in a backpack and walk out right now if you asked me to!

I’ve spent the spring gradually accumulating the various pieces of equipment I’ll need for my film this summer, making lists, paring them down, getting worried, adding things back to them, paring down again and eventually just committing to a system. I’m taking two cameras, one Olympus Mirrorless EM-10 and one Canon EOS 6D. I chose to use DSLRs instead of proper video cameras in order to save weight and space in the mountains. I’ll also have two mics, a tripod, and lots of backup batteries and storage. A true minimalist’s set-up.

I’ll post again just before I head out with some neat pictures of all my gear, mountaineering, filmmaking and otherwise! Thanks for reading and I hope you keep with me for my whole adventure.