As you can see the blog is getting some updates, and it will continue to get buffed out over the next few weeks. I’ve got several shoots coming up that involve lots of traveling, cool places, fun people, etc. I want to do my travels better justice — bigger pictures, easier uploading from the field, more iPhone friendly… so bear with me.
I also wanted to share some knowledge I’ve gained over the years about how I prep from the base to shoot a mountain or big wall shoot. These tips work for shooting climbing, skiing, or anything else that involves hiking around to the top of your objective. It seems simple enough when you are standing at the base, but when you get around to the top and look down its a whole new world. So here’s a quick example from my recent shoot in NH.
One of my first corporate clients back in the day was Eastern Mountain Sports an outdoor retailer (similar to REI) with 80 stores up and down the East Coast (The Right Coast – they’d say). Our first shoot was a winter one atop Mt. Washington (the highest peak in the Northeast known for its wicked weather) for an idea they were working on called the ‘Catazine’ a half catalog / half magazine that place photography at the forefront. It was a transitional time for the brand (moving out of malls into bigger stand alone stores) and the idea, although it didn’t last long, was a progressive one aimed at changing the old classic — ‘The Catalog’.
Catalog shoots are unique beasts, especially in the outdoor marketplace. You have designers that want to see their new jackets, backpacks, gloves, pants, socks, or hats looking perfectly sexy… all those selling features up front and center. The problem is you also have the marketing department that want those big iconic images, a la Patagonia, that speak to the brand as a whole (they know Jacket X won’t be around in two years but the brand will be). Adding more pressure to the situation is the fact that you are shooting these new products 6 months ahead of time, which means you head to the opposite hemisphere to shoot them ‘in season’. Usually there’s a big team of people including, cast (models) and crew (stylist, hair, makeup, art director, scout, photographer and more) working hard to make the situation as real as possible as they whip through as many outfits as possible. And while this scenario works well for pure catalog (Orvis, Eddie Bauer, et al) you can’t fake it in the outdoor world — and those who do try it come off looking awkward and out of touch.
You can’t fake action, you can’t fake lifestyle, and you can’t fake knowledgeable talent. What makes a great outdoor shot great is that its not perfect; sometimes there’s snot, sometimes you are wearing a down jacket in the rain, and sometimes everyone in the frame isn’t wearing next years pack perfectly buckled.
So it was with excitement that EMS asked me back this winter to shoot in season in their backyard (my old backyard) of New Hampshire. They asked me to gather a small groups of talented outdoor athletes for 6 days of shooting climbing, hiking, and skiing for a series of short mini-adventures that I got to plan.
Watch the video of our freezing day up on Cannon and the click below to Read More.
Rumors have been floating around for a while, but while I was in NH shooting, it became official. Matt Samet, a good friend, and uber talented writer and experienced climber had stepped down from his position as Editor in Chief @ Climbing Magazine. I had alluded to how many hats the stripped down editorial staffs at publications wear these days and wondered how long they could remain sane.
Well Peter Beal’s great Blog has an interview with Ex-Editor In Chief at Climbing, Samet, and he talks at great length about what it was like in the trenches, speaking quite openly about everything from workload to online media to photography.
‘Basically, if you were the top editor on a feature or a department, it was also your job to call in the images; which meant it was mostly my job. We’d do our best, always having two people sit down and look at each batch of photographs together, so a consensus could emerge about the strongest images. But, I mean, I don’t have any formal training in photography, so the technical nuances a photo editor would pick up on I’m sure have eluded me at times.’
I’m still playing catch-up after getting back to the studio in SLC on Monday. If you haven’t seen it (I hadn’t) the new Rock and Ice photo annual is out and a shot of mine from the Czech Republic is on the cover, super stoked. The inside front cover shot is an Ad of mine as well, from the Alex Honnold shoot we did last summer, free soloing the Regular Route on HalfDome. The images show Alex ropeless thousands of feet off the ground… I can hear people grumbling already about how an ad like this wrongly promotes risky or death defying climbing. Not a debate I want to get into.
There are a couple cool new interviews out with me if you like reading that kind of stuff:
The first was with Rock and Ice and several leading outdoor photographers (for their Photo Annual) you can check that out HERE.
The second is an interview of me that the Boston Rock Gym blog put together. They asked a lot of great questions, at least a few that made me think for a minute or two. I also let a very cool announcement coming next week slip in there… You can check that one out HERE.
Behind the scenes from New Hampshire and some other vittles coming shortly. tk
I’ve wanted to resurrect an original part of this blog for a while, Shoot Quotes; if nothing else as a memento to all the characters that I meet along the way. Without their help the shoots I do would have no stories, and want fun are pictures without stories? It’s impossible to describe all the people, places, and things you meet, see, and experience on a long [a week +] shoot, but these are a fun insight.
I bring this up because we just wrapped up a ten-day adventure in New Hampshire, shooting catalog and in-store photos for Eastern Mountain Sports. The idea was simple but still progressive… give my crew and some badass athletes (skiers, climbers, runners) next seasons product and let us beat on it, on real trails, in real snow, during the ‘Snowicane’ on peaks that define the New England hiking/skiing/climbing culture. I’ve got more to share from the shoot (how many companies do you know that would give you artistic freedom and let you shoot athletes on overnights in -20 temperatures) but right now I want to bring it back to the beginning of this post because these are good… so without further ado -
Top 10 Shoot Quotes (in no particular order) — ‘White Lines & Red Noses’ – New England 2010
I’ve been summit hopping in the windy, cold, summits of the Northeast with my uber dedicated assistants and a posse of knowledgeable and talented models (we are in an alpine hut with nobody else around for miles)… Pictures to come. But for now, a poem from the region that applies not only to my life currently (and the choices we made today) but also to some of the most enjoyable experiences in my life.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
I just got back to the homestead (in NH) after speaking at the Eastern Mountain Sports sell strategy meeting today. It was a great honor to be asked to speak at this private event. Even though this stuff is supposed to be top secret I snapped a few shots with the iphone of some of my work from a shoot this past summer at Mt. Bigelow in Maine.
Okay off to bed, the madness really starts tomorrow:
