Posts tagged ‘Whistler’
Last Weekend – The Yeti Snowshoe Series at Whistler Olympic Park
Yesterday morning I polished off the edit from Saturday’s Yeti Snowshoe Series event at Whistler Olympic Park. My clothes are still drying out. It was that wet, and although I will try almost anything, I am a rookie on snowshoes and found myself waist deep in wet snow with my lens bags quickly filling with the white stuff. It was so wet that I feared that I might have to hang dry my jpgs!
Saturday was really the beginning of my photography event season and this year looks very busy. Over the past 5 years I’ve made some truly great friendships in the event world so working waist deep in wet snow doesn’t feel so much like work as it could, and for this I am grateful. There were a lot of familiar faces at the start line on Saturday morning, and by the count of the happy faces that stuck around for prizing, few were held from having a good time by the rain.
Crankworx 2012 (60 Images)
I can’t believe four months have passed since Crankworx, and I can’t believe it’s nearly Christmas and I am only now, finally, uploading a gallery of images from my six days on the mountain. Since Crankworx I have traveled, worked, and shot a variety of projects that have little resemblance to anything in these 60 or so images. I am going to spare you the blow by blow recap of the week and instead simply invite you to have a look at my gallery of images and the few clips that I have included.
I owe a few people some thanks for making Crankworx work for me and I have done my best to spread the love. Suffice to say that it was an amazing, intense and exhausting week and I am looking forward to next year.
Events: 2012 Crankworx – Redbull Joyride
A few more from last night’s Redbull Joyride at Crankworx. It feels like it’s been a pretty long week, but we are back at it for one more day. Last night was the crown jewel of Crankworx, it’s the big money event and the winner, Thomas Genon, suggested that he might buy an ‘ippy van’ with with $25,000 prize money when he gets back to Belgium. Clearly I have no fear in dating myself, but I can remember summers in Whistler being pretty quiet, those summers have long since passed; 25,000 people watched yesterday’s event, which has to rival almost any winter event held in Whistler barring the 2010 Games. The scene on the ground in Skier’s Plaza was only eclipsed by the scene in the air above us. With high winds and broken clouds athletes were pushing 60 foot airs and dipping deep into their bag of tricks. It has occurred to me that it isn’t that these athletes pull these stunts, it is the casual way in which they appear to approach them. For Genon and others there must be some pretty serious things going through their heads as they prepare to hit ramps and drops with blind landings, but as a spectator it can be a little bewildering to see riders hit jump after jump after jump holding little back. I’ve always understood that it’s more than just talent or nerve, or um, Prairie Oysters; as young as they are, Genon and his competitors are professional athletes and their evaluation of a stunt goes far beyond how we might consider a line, trail or obstacle. Today is the Canadian Open Down Hill, time to grab a coffee and clean my lenses.
Events: 2012 Crankworx – Giant Dual Slalom
Three hits from last night at the Giant Dual Slalom from Crankworx. Despite the serious glass fest that is Crankworx (lots of photographers) it’s a pretty good crowd, at least among the professionals. Everyone is pretty respectful of each other’s sight lines and is happy to share a few words between the moments of frenzied movement when a rider appears on course or sets up a trick. I’m new to this world, though I have shot road cycling, and some mountain biking, I am the slightly aging, soft around the middle rookie but I am pretty excited to be on the mountain and I’m pretty happy with the work that I’ve been coming home with at the end of each day. It actually feels a lot like the summer I interned; it’s been getting easier each day to get out of bed in the morning in anticipation of the day ahead. Today is Cheese Rolling and Slope Style. I have to draw up a wedding contract, make coffee and get back to the village before all the free spots in lots 4 & 5 are taken. Cheers!
Events: 2012 Crankworx Teva Best Trick II
Enjoying the quiet in Whistler this morning with a cup of coffee while I pull a few ad photos for a client. I couldn’t resist post a couple more images from yesterday’s Teva Best Trick contest at Crankworx. Though it remains true what I wrote last night about the work of others, I am pretty happy with some of the shots I made, not bad for a rookie.
Events: 2012 Crankworx Teva Best Trick
It was so tough to pick one image of the 30 or so edits from today’s Teva Best Trick event at Crankworx but I hope you’ll like this one and that it will keep you interested in coming back and ultimately interested in my post event Crankworx gallery. This is one of those events in which the photographers outnumber the competitors, and today it felt like 3-1, the RedBull Joyride event this weekend is sure to be a glass fest. It is interesting to see so many pros in one place, everyone seeking out their unique vantage point, but ultimately turning their lenses to the same subject. One of the most interesting experiences I have had in photography is how different photographers see and approach the same subject. It hits me every time I look at the work of others who have been at the same event as I have. This is one of those things that makes photography so compelling but also humbling. It can be difficult to look at the work of others and see so clearly the elements of my own work that needs something more.
Events: 2012 Crankworx
The seeds were planted months ago. I wanted to come to Whistler to shoot as much of the 2012 Crankworx as I was able. I missed the first few days, but there are some pretty gnarly events left to come and I am excited to be here. I am a volunteer. If you’ve read previous posts you might know that I do that, I volunteer for events but rarely as photographer. Photography is my profession, or has been, and I am working at bringing photography back to my primary source of income, it’s about half right now, which isn’t bad for a photographer who has retired a couple of times. Along with photography, I have a great love for cycling and if you’ve read my blog before you might also know that. I volunteered for Crankworx because I want to create some portfolio quality mountain biking images and after tonight, at the Deep Summer Photo Challenge, I can tell you that not all portfolios are created equal.
It was humbling, to say the least, to see the quality of images and slide shows shot and edited in three days. There isn’t a month of Sunday’s in which I could do the same. That said mountain bike photography is relatively new to me and I don’t spend the time in the mountains that I did when I was young. I don’t mean to demean the work that I do, only to elevate the work of tonight’s presenting photographers. Simply, tonight’s photographers shot the kind of work that first made me interested in photography. You should have a look.
This is what Bike Magazine had to say about Reuben Krabbe’s winning slide show; actually, they were a bit speechless. Have a look:
http://www.bikemag.com/news/reuben-krabbe-wins-deep-summer-photo-challenge/
Events: 2012 Crankworx
Wow, it’s been a long time since I last posted, but in my defense, I’ve been super busy with both business and personal travel; but excitedly I can say that I am now in Whistler to spend several days shooting Crankworx, the largest Mountain Bike event of it’s kind in the world. I arrived late last night and spent too much of the morning just getting myself sorted, there have been some amazing images coming out of the Whip Competition today and I think I am going to find myself challenged to keep up with some of the work being produced.
Early this afternoon I did a course tour with Redbull of the Joy Ride course and I can safely say that to most, it is simply shocking, just wait till you see pics at the end of the week. I did manage to snap a couple frames before the tour and this is my favourite. A sweet little drop over looking the patio at the Garibaldi Lift Co. Can’t wait for more!
Whistler Jump Park
Turning the camera is good advice. Advice that was often heard in the halls and classrooms of the Photojournalism program I completed ten years ago. Wow, ten years. There has been a lot of mileage racked up in that time and a lot of turning of cameras. Perhaps there is no coincidence that within a year of graduating I was shooting 360 degree panoramic images for hospitality and tourism clients, and in traveling the globe for a lot of that work, the world continued to turn under me. Somehow I don’t think my instructors meant their advice so literally. It was also a huge turn from working at a newspaper and though I no longer do that kind of work there are days when I miss both experiences; telling stories and capturing moments to be shared on newsprint and looked at by perhaps hundreds of thousands of readers and producing images capturing elements of style, design and far off places of luxury.
If you’ve been looking at my photos, or have looked through a few of my galleries, you may have already guessed that I have a strong interest in cycling, it goes back to childhood. One of the lessons that wasn’t taught when I was at school was that it wasn’t enough to be interested in photography alone. Photographers need to be interested and curious about the world they live in whether surrounded by family, food, design, heartbreak or even cycling. Start by photographing what you love and what you are passionate about and let the rest unfold. If you don’t like what you see try changing your perspective, try turning your camera. I shot this image in Whistler, BC on a sunny Saturday in May, and to capture this frame I had to take that advice from so many years ago. I turned the camera. In this case I turned it straight up.
Personal Work – The Portrait Project: Christopher
So far this personal work, The Portrait Project, has already proved to be a learning experience. While I am still working on the parameters that will guide this work over the next few years, or it’s duration, I am trying new ways of presenting work both here and on my Facebook page. Years ago while I was an intern at a daily paper in Washington state, an item in the entertainment section popped out at me, it was a quote from actor Edward Norton in which he suggested that as a photographer I can do what I do in my room, but as an actor he required an audience. In no way am I comparing myself to Norton but in truth I haven’t thought as highly of him since. Photographers make images to be seen and shared and spoke about, debated and critiqued beyond measure and praised beyond reason. Photographers seek to share the world. We have forgotten that before the internet the way we imagined the world was informed by photographers and writers traveling and reporting back what they saw and experienced. What if Mark Twain had never left his room, or Steve McCurry had never left his? Could McCurry’s elegant Afghan Girl have been shot in a studio? Would the image and story be as iconic had it not been seen on the cover of National Geographic or through the thousands of times it’s been reprinted or the story retold since it was shot in 1984?
I am not McCurry, Norton or Twain, but these ideas inform my approach to sharing the work that I do. I have been giving some pretty serious thought to keeping everything but “snap shots” from Facebook but in the last few weeks, after posting images from shoots with subjects self conscious about their image, the feedback has been fantastic. As a portrait subject it feels great to hear from your friends and family how great you look, or how much you are missed. So this is the learning process and I will keep posting work to Facebook to share my experiences and I will work to find a template to continue posting here. Photography is meant to be seen and if you can bear with me, I will show you as much as I can. My shoot with Christopher started over coffee pretty early for a Sunday morning in Whistler in the shoulder season. It turns out, surprise or not, early mornings are something that photographers and event managers have in common. Do you like the way I have presented these three images? If so, let me know.
