Didrik Johnck's photography concentrates on the adventure lifestyle, it has taken him from the Cascades to the Himalayas and everywhere in between. A reknown photographer, Johnck's photograph of blind climber Erik Weihenmayer ascending the bulletproof ice of Mt. Everest's Lhotse Face at 23,000 feet was chosen for a cover of Time in 2001.

In the Fall of 2004, Johnck returned to Tibet with Weihenmayer to lead a small group of six blind students from Braille Without Borders, a school for the blind based in Lhasa, Tibet, on a three-week expedition to the summit of Lhakpa Ri, just north of Mt. Everest. At more than 23,000 feet, Lhakpa Ri, is one of the most spectacular peaks in all of Tibet.

Web Photography & Journalism at 16,000 Feet
Johnck's primary role on the expedition was to document the 19-day trip in pictures. His shots ranged from capturing the arctic mountain landscape, to shooting the team and students trekking to the summit of Lhakpa Ri, to photographing the local Tibetan people and culture. Additionally, Johnck was charged with documenting his expedition via the web… at more than 16,000 feet. Johnck describes the web site update process, "I started each day looking for a story to capture the flavor of what we were doing on the expedition, while also providing an informative post on our activities. Each day I combined the post with the images I took that day's and transmitted it back to our servers back in the States using a satellite phone."

Digital Workflow Powered by the Sun at -25° Celsius
To make it all possible and capture 2,800 images in Tibet, Johnck used Lexar Professional CompactFlash memory cards, including four 1GB cards and a 4 GB card. Johnck also used two USB Lexar JumpDrives to swap files back and forth between his Canon EOS 20D camera, and his HP Rugged Notebook nr 3600. Johnck describes the time and power challenges he faced at the end of each day.

"My power supply was totally solar, so I basically had just enough time and power to pull the images off the cards, write up the dispatch and send it off. If I spent too much time doing one thing, then the other things I had to do that night suffered, it was a very delicate balance."

Despite High Altitude and Artic Conditions, Reliability Matters
Johnck describes the crucial role of Lexar's product on this assignment, "On this trip I was shooting with a brand new Canon 20D for the first time. It is two times as fast as the 10D in terms of write speed and not once did a card freeze on me. I was consistently shooting action at a couple frames a second over a few minutes, and Lexar's cards performed flawlessly, zero errors. As a photographer with a lot of experience in extreme conditions, I can tell you that errors are a killer. When that alert comes on you know that you are going to lose some images, but that didn't happen once on this trip, which was a real comfort for me."

A Commitment to Digital
Two years ago, Johnck sold all of his traditional film camera equipment and switched to all digital, a tremendous commitment for him, "When I first started shooting digital I found that having an extra film camera with me gave me an added sense of security. But one day I realized that I hadn't picked up any of my film cameras in almost two years. At that moment I came to the conclusion that the reliability of digital was there. I can't think of a single thing I can't do with digital that I could do with film."

Didrik Johnck Bio