Mountain Bike Shoot in San Francisco & Santa Cruz

Just got back from a great weekend of shooting in the bay area. I packed up my camera gear last Friday and headed to San Francisco to shoot dirt jumping for the folks over at Contour POV Cameras. I've been working with Contour for a while now and it's always awesome shooting for them because I never know what I'll be shooting next. One day it's skiing, the next it's kayaking or mountain biking or... well, you name it. It's fun getting to shoot so many different sports with the best athletes from every discipline.

So, when I got the call to head to SF, I was stoked!!! Two days of shooting with two of the best mountain bikers on the planet, Cameron Zink and Cameron McCaul.

The first day found us at the AT Showdown dirt jumping demo at the San Francisco Bike Expo. Massively large jumps situated all over the place. What ensued was a four hour huck fest. I was absolutely blown away by the tricks and amplitude of all the athletes... insane.

With day one a wrap, we headed down to Santa Cruz, away from the competition venues, to a secluded, private track. It had rained the night before causing some puddling and mud holes in the transitions of the jumps. But after a couple hours of raking and shoveling, the jumps shaped up and we were good to go.

The day went great. We were able to shoot some really creative/ unique angles that I've been dying to try. After some of the experimental stuff, we moved back to the dirt jumps and sessioned those until the sun dipped below the horizon.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Really happy with how things turned out. Can't wait to get out and shoot with the Contour guys again. I'm already formulating some new ideas for some more unique/ outside the box camera angles.

PDN Self Promo Awards

Every year, Photo District News has it's "Self Promotion Awards" to highlight the extraordinary efforts people go to promote their photography. And today they just released their list of winners for 2010. No, I didn't win anything in this contest... in fact I didn't enter this year. However, it's worth taking a quick look at if you're at all interested in the art of self promotion.

If you'd like to see a gallery of all the winners, check out the LINK and click on "View the Winners". There's some really impressive work in there. Enjoy!

Snowshoeing... in October !?!?!?

This was a fun shoot I got to do a couple weeks ago... and am just now getting a chance to post about it. I got a phone call a little while back from one of my favorite clients, Atlas Snowshoes. They needed to get some new shots to round out their upcoming catalog. I'm always stoked to work with Atlas and was excited to get out and shoot some more for them. Only one small problem... it was October and there really wasn't any snow to speak of... anywhere.

So, where can you find snow year-round, glaciers.

With that, myself, two athletes and the marketing director from Atlas headed up to the mountains and the glacial fields to get the shots we needed. In order to get the look we were going for, we met up at midnight in the parking lot and started hiking in under the moonlight of a clear night. After 4 hours of trekking, we finally got to the snowline. A quick scout of the area and we found where we wanted to shoot. From there, it was a 2 hour waiting game for the sun to rise.

After a couple of cold hours spent shivering in the wind, the sun finally broke the horizon and we were able to start shooting. The weather was perfect and the light of the rising sun played well against the sun cupped glacial fields.

The shoot ended up being an incredibly long 21 straight hours by the time I returned home. Covered in sweat and dirt and absolutely exhausted, I think I passed out as soon as I set foot at home. But that said, the shoot was incredible. I love how the images turned out, and it was one of the more memorable shoots I've had in recent years. There's something fun about pouring so much physical energy into a shoot. It can take you to some incredible locations when you're willing to put the effort in. And it's definitely a shoot I won't soon forget. A huge thanks to the folks at Atlas for turning to me for this shoot. What an awesome experience!

Hawaii

So, after a little bit of time spent catching up on work, I thought I'd post a handful of my favorite images from my recent trip in Kauai. Bear in mind, this was not a work trip... by any stretch of the imagination. This trip was all about the wedding to my beautiful bride, Karlee (pictured below).

With that said, these images are more of a quick look into some of the fun shots I felt like taking while on vacation. Even though I may not have been at work, I still love taking photos for the sheer joy of creating art and documenting the beauty around us.

That's all the disclaimer I have here. Enjoy!

My wife Karlee on the on the Kalalau trail on the Nepali Coast

A view of the North Island, just outside of Hanalei.

Snorkeling shot taken with a Canon G9 with an underwater housing.

Sunset in Poipu the day of our wedding. A huge thanks to the folks at the Beach House restaurant for catering our reception and for providing such an awesome place to watch the sunset.