Middle Earth Ranger Forum

honestly, most people on this forum will agree that a cloak worn over a backpack is very practical, and I can speak from experience that it does work

Tom_Ranger wrote: ↑Mon Jul 11, 2022 6:08 am ... From a practical sense, I say it's better to have it UNDER the cloak. What does everybody else think?

I think it depends entirely on who one is, what one is doing, and what the conditions are.

A traveler going cross country might not even be wearing his or her cloak except in inclement weather. Or if the cloak's worn to cut the wind, under's nice because the pack keeps the cloak from going everywhere. In pouring weather one can't get out of, over makes perfect sense.

... and a ranger looking for trouble might be wearing a cloak more to break up his silhouette than to hold off the weather, and so might not even be wearing a pack - the better to keep light and fast.

Different circumstances, different answers.

It depends on how you want to wear your cloak. A backpack with two shoulder straps cannot be worn comfortably over the top of a cloak.
Then you have the dilemma if you wear the cloak over the pack that the cloak rides high and you get no warmth or wind protection from it.

In this picture I was wearing my feldur over the top of a gokstad pack (you can see how high the cloak is sitting) but had to ditch the pack when I realised that a blizzard was looming as I needed the full length protection of the cloak more than the contents of the pack at that time.



Later when retreating off the mountain and off the heights I retrieved the pack and chose to stow my feldur and switch to a woolen cloak worn sash style around the body. It provides a lot of warmth while keeping the arms free and is my recommendation for anything but the most inclement weather.

Eofor wrote: ↑Wed Jul 13, 2022 11:00 am It depends on how you want to wear your cloak. A backpack with two shoulder straps cannot be worn comfortably over the top of a cloak.
Then you have the dilemma if you wear the cloak over the pack that the cloak rides high and you get no warmth or wind protection from it.

In this picture I was wearing my feldur over the top of a gokstad pack (you can see how high the cloak is sitting) but had to ditch the pack when I realised that a blizzard was looming as I needed the full length protection of the cloak more than the contents of the pack at that time.



Later when retreating off the mountain and off the heights I retrieved the pack and chose to stow my feldur and switch to a woolen cloak worn sash style around the body. It provides a lot of warmth while keeping the arms free and is my recommendation for anything but the most inclement weather.

How do you take such great pictures? They always are full of detail.

I wonder if the ruana cloak would be better for wearing over a pack since you could wear the front tails like a tunic. I'll try it during the winter with my wool ruana

Togon wrote: ↑Thu Jul 14, 2022 3:34 am How do you take such great pictures? They always are full of detail.

Well neither of those are my shots but there are a few factors at play

Equipment - It goes without saying that a good camera or phone is the biggest contributor. I use a Samsung S22 Ultra which is actually amazing out of the box but to make the most of it I carry a small tripod, clip on lenses and it comes with it's own bluetooth shutter. I tend to just use the built in app for most things but for astro photogrpahy you want a third party app that lets you dial in the settings better.

Here's a few examples of the macro lens I use (amazing for plants)

Antler inlaid seax handle


Anglo Saxon sword pommel cap


Volume - Take a lot of shots and take them in bursts, one of them is likely to be good this way. I keep my phone very handy and just snap away (mostly without looking)

Experience - The more you take the more you begin to recognize what will be a good shot and what wont. You start to learn about framing and angles and will find yourself laying on your face in the mud to get the right angle. If your subject is low to the ground for example your best bet is to shoot with your phone upside down.

Knowing your phone and how to use it - It sounds simple but how many of those little pre programmed options do you actually use? Panoramic? Portrait? Night mode? Have you tried the Panoramic mode moving up instead of side to side? Have you tried shifting the focus off what the phone thinks is best and manually focusing on a different feature of the sword? Or manually reducing the light to better show off the detail?


I did enter this one in a photo comp where it placed top ten, not my favourite photo of the trip but the judges liked it

that is a nice photo Eofor

you make me want to take my real photography kit out on a trek and actually try to get some good pictures for a change, instead of the tiny compact camera problem is, all that modern stuff kinda spoils the middle earth vibe

Thank you Iodo.

I get the immersion thing which is why all mine are shot on a phone but it can be well worth sacrificing a day for some top quality shots.

You have two options as far as taking bigger equipment goes
- Find a nice place you know the photos will be great and go along for a shoot day without any real ranger aims for the day (think Manveruons last photoshoot)
- Have someone come along for a patrol in modern kit with all the equipment just snapping you all day. Bonus points if they have a drone!

probably the first option, just go out some place and bring all the photography kit, it could be good
I don't know anyone who has a drone, I wish I did tho, that would be beyond cool