Point blank hiking

Bringing a camera along on a mountain hike can be a double-edged sword.  For me, the day will either be a 1). focused hike up a rocky, mountain trail with a breathtaking vista at an alpine lake as my reward and I may or may not remember to take a picture at the top, or 2.) a photographic safari that requires stopping every five feet along the trail to get low to the ground to notice something unusual at point blank range with the lens of my camera.  They are both great reasons to get up into the mountains, to be sure.  But I can’t do both at the same time.  So yesterday, I went point blank hiking.