Over the weekend we went to outdoor climbing. This was my second time going outdoors for sport but my first time for outdoor bouldering. This was also the first trip I had done with my boyfriend and I was overall excited about what was to come. The one thing that at the top of my list was to get pictures of people as they were bouldering and doing sport climbing. I have never taken professional pictures of people doing this sport before so I figured that it would be fun to give it a try. Luckily I have some amazing friends who were more than happy to let me take pictures of them. 

For those of you who are not familiar with climbing, I will give a short explanation of each. Bouldering is a sport with no ropes and no harnesses. If you are in a gym then you have to follow the color that you choose and each one has a different level of difficulty to it. For bouldering they use a V scale so if you are doing bouldering inside or outside the scale is as follows. VB, V0, V1, V2, and so on. The higher the number then the harder the route will be. If you go outdoors there is no color to follow, just chalk. The chalk will let you know where the holds are, which route to take and it will even tell you which holds are bad. When you are doing Bouldering it literally is solving a puzzle with your own body. Its all strength, technique, and will. 

When it comes to sport climbing (or lead) you are in a harness and you have a rope attached. As you climb you have what is called Quick Draws. They have carabiners which allow you to clip into a bolt in the wall on one end and then clip your rope into the other. Down below you have what is called a belayer which is someone who literally is responsible for keeping you safe as you climb up the route. Doing Sport climbing is much harder and requires more strength, technique, will, and of course wits. Instead of going up to 10 or 16 feet you are climbing up to 30 feet to 100 ft depending on the route itself. It's dangerous and if you are not paying attention then it can result in death. For me personally, I love it more. I think there is more involved and I really enjoy the idea of going up higher than before and just enjoying the climb. Sure it's more dangerous but there is so much more you can do while you are doing sport. 

These pictures were my first attempt at taking climbing photography and I really enjoyed every second of it. I can't wait for the next trip so I can take more photos and I can practice getting more clarity. If you haven't done climbing before or even knew it was a sport you should check it out. It's really cool to watch and it's going to be in the 2020 Olympics. So get ready to see some amazing climbs and climbers compete for the top prize.