I’ve been sitting on this for a few weeks, but the issue just hit the news stands so I’m psyched to share it here. If you’ve seen it in person I’d love to hear how it looks, as its the first cover I’ve shot with the 25 megapixel Sony A900 and I’m interested to see if there’s a discernible difference over past covers.
Read on for the background on the shoot and more:
The story goes like this,
Last month Kevin Jorgeson, a Santa Rosa CA based climber, did the first ascent of a 50 foot tall boulder problem on the East Face of Grandfather Peabody Boulder in Bishop, CA. He named the route Ambrosia. The ascent is groundbreaking in how it takes the pure difficulty that’s usually associated with climbs close to the ground and applies it to the ropeless no fall zone some 30-40 feet off the deck. Kevin and I had looked at the route together a couple years back and told him I would love to shoot him on it, so when I got the call from him it was a good excuse to race across the desert and get out of the cold and clouds of Salt Lake.
I hadn’t shot much climbing in the 4 months prior to working with Kevin in Bishop (I’ve been shooting other outdoor sports [running mainly] and urban inspired lifestyles) but his psych and the energy from the Big Up Productions film crew had the whole team amped. Besides shooting the historic First with Kevin we banged out several other shots, even a few under the fullest of moons… something I’ve always wanted to do out in the Eastside desert.
The general rule on these shoots (action sport shoots) is that unless you’ve hired the film crew they have the trump card. We do the best to work together so that my stills and and their video look as best they can, but I can crop people out, shoot vertically, and move way faster then they can so I guess its only fair that I make sure they have their shots before I steal an athlete for still only setups. Luckily Kevin is uber pro and had no problem climbing until we all had the shots we needed.
As I mentioned in the opening of this post, I shot this image (and the entire ten day shoot for that matter) with the new Sony A900 (check out the 100% crop above). I’ve been super super psyched with the system for two reasons:
1) The Resolution: Sharp Files that open up at 70mb just can’t be beat.
2) The Glass: The Zeiss glass and other fixed primes available blow away anything else I’ve shot with on a 35mm system.
Although the camera doesn’t claim to be waterproof by any means, I held it in some full on waterfalls during a warm spell in Montana last week just to see what would happen and it kept clicking away. I think this will be my main system (maybe only system) on the upcoming Patagonia and Brazil expeditions.
That’s all I’ve got for now, if you get a chance to see the cover in person, drop aline and let me know what you think. tk
congrats on the cover, it’s not only the cover, it’s the MONSTER cover! the 100% crop looks very good compared to my D200 ;-( might have a look at sony myself.
The thing that struck me about the picture was how small the boulder seems when it is obviously quite huge. Not sure why that is, but overall the image is really really cool.
Saw the print version yesterday. PIMP!!! Very goo image! And the other image of the route (the one shot with the lights) that they published inside was kick ass too! Good stuff Tim!
I can’t get into Sony. I’m not claiming to be a professional shooter, I don’t make my living at it. I actually work at a camera shop in Cali and use everything from Nikon, Canon to the latest greatest Hassy digital. I’ve used it all. I can’t get behind the Sony. The lenses are okay. Then sensor is good… But I wan’t pimp optics. They just don’t have it. There is better stuff out there.
But… for a cover it looks good. It’s small. I’m not bashing you, you do good shit. Just dropping my… $2
Get some Patagonia photos online.
Best Regards
The cover looks great. Sharp, detailed, and great color. And the shot itself is nice too!
Awesome cover. You rock — your stuff continues to be the best out there. Nice work.
Great shots. I can’t wait to check out the issue in person.
Kyle, sorry man, but you’re highly unaware of the Sony system if you don’t think the FF Zeiss’ and most of the G lenses are “pimp.” You must work at Samys LOL
Thanks for the early reports. Finally saw the cover in person today, super psyched! I can see the difference in the fine details especially (like the bushes). Sharp and Crisp! tk
this may be old news but, when I saw this cover it was the first one in a while I’d seen that didn’t look over-sharpened to make up for lack of data. So yeah, I’d say the a900 is looking good.
tk. great cover! looking at sony myself (currently shooting with a canon, but in serious need of an upgrade). Will have to start with a700 though. how did the a900 hold up to the abuse, cold, etc of patagonia?
@rob — I’d say ‘hold up’ is somewhere between the airtight Canon 1 series and the known to be flakey 5d. Water was the biggest issue, I got the a700 soaked, really bad in one rain storm and it put up with it for 20 minutes before the water was messing with the electrical contacts. Dried out and works fine now. tk