It's Summertime... Release the Ski Movie Teasers

It might be 80 degrees here in Seattle today, but it's already starting to feel a lot like winter again. Why? Because Matchstick Productions (MSP) just released their official trailer for this Fall's movie, Attack of La Nina.

I've had the privilege of working with MSP for 5 years now and it's always awesome collaborating with them. This year was no exception as I teamed up with them on 2 separate park shoots, 1 in Breckenridge and 1 at Stevens Pass. Both shoots went incredibly well and you can see a couple preview shots from those trips below.

So, while winter still might be 5 months away, it's feeling a little bit closer now.

Cheers!

Location Scouting: Weather

With wrapping up my winter work from the ski, snowboard and outdoor industry, I've been spending countless hours in front of the monitor editing and retouching. Unfortunately, that doesn't make for a lot of great blog posts.

However, this doesn't occupy all of our time. When we're not sorting through the work we've already shot, we're currently planning a series of new shoots in the coming weeks. So, in the name of getting some new info up, I've decided to do a series of posts on our photoshoot production. For this installment, we'll take a quick look at what we do regarding weather forecasting as well as share some of our favorite weather websites.

Nothing can ruin a shoot like bad weather. Be it rain, sun, heat, cold, wind... whatever you're hoping the weather gods will bring you on the day of your shoot, chances are, they'll bring the opposite.

Unfortunately, there's no magic bullet that will take care of everything. In the end it boils down to a lot of work and a little bit of luck. We usually spend several hours a day checking the different forecasts before a big shoot. You can't change the weather once you get a location, but it can help in your planning (wether that be the day you plan the shoot, or how you budget your time over the course of the day once you're already there). By keeping an obsessive vigil on the weather maps and taking an average of what you see, you can usually do a pretty good job of predicting what will be in store for the day of your next big shoot.

Following is a list of our favorite weather sites with a quick description of what each is good for.

Weather.com I know this site seems cliche given its popularity, but it's really pretty accurate

Weather Underground More detailed forecast than weather.com with some useful almanac info

NOAA If you're a weather dork, this is your holy grail. However, I've noticed their forecasts have been pretty inaccurate lately... not sure why.

Snow-Forecast For forecasting weather in the mountains, this is one of the best, by far. Great for predicting the strength of storms during the winter months.

Weather Spark This is a new site to me, but so far I'm really enjoying the graphing features and the overall layout. Time will tell how accurate it is though.

New Google Image Search Options

In case you hadn't heard, Google just launched a new image searching tool. This was just brought to my attention a couple of days ago and I finally had a chance to dig into and run a few tests. In short, google users can now upload a photo and search the web to see where it's being used. For photographers, this is a great way to see if your photos are being pirated, stolen or otherwise mis-used. Getty Images has had this technology for a few years, but it's now available to everyone... finally.


I did a couple of tests with photos of mine that have been heavily used and was amazed at how quickly it came up with results. In some cases it even came up with the names of people pictured in the photos.



Similar search engines such as Tin Eye offer similar search engines (and have been around for much longer). However, I tested numerous images on both platforms, and Google won hands down every time.

It's definitely worth looking into if you're a photographer. Policing your images just got a lot easier.

A big thanks to Erik Seo for giving me the heads up about this. Much appreciated buddy.

Behind the Scenes Article in Jack Magazine: Italy

This is something that I've been working on for the past couple of months, and alas, now I can finally talk about. I went to my mailbox yesterday and opened it to find a box full of the newest Jack Magazine from Italy.

After my 3D Kayak shoot with Tao Berman last summer for Red Bull, I was contacted by the editors of Jack. They wanted to run an article on the technology and behind the scenes details of the shoot.

Jack Magazine is Italy's largest popular technology magazine. (Think Maxim blended with Popular Mechanics). And while I might not be able to read Italian, I'm super stoked on the tremendous exposure from this. If you'd like to read the general logistics of the article, visist the write up on the Red Bull Illume website HERE.

(Cover of Jack Magazine that the article appears in)

Thanks to everyone at Jack Magazine and Red Bull for working with me on this. I'm tremendously honored.

Kip Garre 1973-2011

The ski world was rocked again this past week with the tragic passing of Kip Garre and his girlfriend Allison Kreutzen. I unfortunately never got the chance to meet Allison. However, I was blessed to be able to hang out, travel and ski with Kip over the years. He was an incredible person who's stoke for life was contagious and will be greatly missed.

To take a line from the blog of fellow ski photographer Alex O'Brien, "I'm starting to feel like this blog is an obituary page to friends that I have lost." As I look at my own blog now, I have to say that mine is starting to resemble the same. While that's not what I was hoping to acomplish when I first stated this blog, I still feel it necessary to pay tribute to my friends that have passed while chasing their dreams.

Rather than post a blog entry about what happened to Kip and Allison or my feelings on the subject, I'm going to keep this simple. Here are some of my favorite photos I got to take of Kip over the years.

If you'd like to read a more detailed account of things, please check out the link to the article by Powder Magazine HERE.

Kip, I'm gonna miss you buddy.

Sorry, I've Been Busy! But Here's a Sneak Peak at What I've Been Up To

Sorry for the lack of correspondence recently on the blog. I've been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest lately. Lot's of shooting and time spent in production mode over the last two and a half weeks. But these are great things and I'm excited with the work that we've been working on and what we've got slated for the very near future.

While I can't yet share the final images from these shoots, I can share some of the out-takes from this past Saturday's shoot of the AMA SuperCross at Qwest Field. A nice and muddy shoot to say the least. I'll be chipping dirt out of my camera for some time to come.

Photos above are of Red Bull athlete James Stewart exiting a corner during qualifiers and a discarded goggle tear off laying on the muddy track.

Enjoy!

Backcountry Ski Shoot in the Cascades

A few weeks ago I went out to do a shoot with skiers Bryce Phillips in the North Cascade Backcountry. I've worked with Bryce for years and it was great getting a chance to go shooting with him again. On this occasion, we were headed out into a zone I've grown to love recently. Beautiful scenery, steep terrain, lots of features... it's perfect. And things looked great on this day. It had snowed about a foot the night before, we had a few great friends along with us for the day and it was completely clear and blue as we left the car.

However, three things that we hadn't counted.

1: the snow was far deeper than we had anticipated. It took us a full two hours to get to the zone, when under normal conditions, it's about a half hour.

2: the snowpack was a little on the unstable size. The spines would be relatively safe, but anything in the open was going to be out of the question. We'd triggered a couple of sympathetic slides (avalanches that occur at a point away from your location, but that are caused by your weight on the snowpack) on the hike out. So, we'd have to be extra careful.

And 3: as we continued our trudge out to the zone, the clouds were beginning to roll in... fast.

However, after all the work, it totally paid off. The resulting shot of Bryce dropping in on spine is one of my favorite shots of the year. While I can't currently share that image with you, I am at liberty to share the video clip from Bryce's Contour POV camera that he was wearing. I'll post the image on the blog as soon as the embargo has lapsed... but I'm sure you'll like it.

A side note, you may ask why we were skiing on a day where we knew the avalanche conditions were less than favorable. To answer that question... because you occasionally have to deal with less than favorable conditions when shooting. That's not to say we were being reckless or taking unnecessary risks. Far from it. On this day, we checked the avy forecast, we hiked along ridge lines and along tree groves, we had all of our backcountry gear with us and we stationed 2 people running safety from protected vantage points to watch over the others at any time skiing was taking place. While you can't take all the risk out of traveling in the backcountry, there are steps you can take to minimize that risk. Be safe out there.