robshaer

September 18, 2013

Catching Up – 2013 Crankworx Red Bull Joyride

Out for a Joyride!

It’s been a month since I left Whistler after 10 days on the mountain with Crankworx, and what a month. I’ve been back to Whistler for event shoots with 5 Peaks and the Meet Your Maker Ultra Marathon event as well as keeping busy in Vancouver with corporate, commercial and more event work. The busy season still has a lot of fight left in it. It was great to be in Whistler again for Crankworx but it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of some great folks including Patti Houston whose ‘sponsorship’ package made the week possible for me. Thanks to the gang at SUPERDROP for keeping me energized and alert with a week’s worth of buzz from their new energy product and to Ultra Runner, James Marshall, for the case of Cariboo which was a cool welcome home after a day in the dust, or rain, on the mountain.

In some ways Crankworx feels a bit like a working holiday, although I am certain no one on our team would describe the week in Whistler as a vacation. For me it feels a bit like a holiday because I was able to focus on one thing for the week at the expense of the day to day chores of life at home. Despite arriving in Whistler with a ton of work on my desktop, I greatly appreciated the opportunity to shoot every day. I believe and I have mentioned it before, there is no substitute for intensity and immersion when it comes to photography and honing your craft.

This year Crankworx was also a tremendous learning experience in adapting to challenges. Leading up to Whistler I was starting to notice that my camera, a Nikon D300s, was not performing quite as expected and my auto focus was starting to act erratically and unpredictably especially when using the otherwise exceptional Nikkor 14-24 f2.8. While I have since upgraded my camera body, more on this later, on event week my ‘gear frustration’ was at a high point and I ended up shooting on manual focus much of the week when using the wide glass. It is a testament to how talented and hard working sports photographers were prior to auto focus, power drives and long before the digital era.

Below are a few images from the Red Bull Joyride event int he Whistler Mountain bike park. There were plenty of spills, chills and thrills to go around.

September 17, 2013September 17, 2013

Video & Link – National Geographic Proof

Photography Can Change the World

Two days ago, National Geographic launched a new page dedicated to the photography and photographers who’ve shaped the magazine. In one of the first posts, this video, The Photographers on Photography, some of the best recognized names in photojournalism, and perhaps least recognized faces, speak to the power, capacity and responsibility of photography. If you’ve ever wondered why or how a photographer can put themselves in harm’s way, or continue to shoot when a scene turns to something less savory; this short video addresses many of those questions.

The Editors at Proof describe Proof as National Geographic’s new online photography experience. Launched to engage ongoing conversations about photography, art, and journalism. In addition to featuring selections from the magazine and other publications, books, and galleries, this site will offer new avenues for our audience to get a behind-the-scenes look at the National Geographic storytelling process.

The Video: The Photographers on Photography

The Web Site: National Geographic Proof

August 22, 2013

2013 Crankworx – Tales from the Whip

I am catching up with my inbox and a variety of to do lists since getting home from Whistler on Monday afternoon. It was a pretty intense week in Whistler and driving back into Vancouver was a challenge. After a week of walking, bikes and tall trees, the sheer scale of the city filled me with anxiety. The noise, the traffic and the expanses of concrete and asphalt left me looking over my shoulder toward Whistler wishing that it was easier to stay.

Today’s images are from the Whip Off contest on Crabapple Hits just below mid mountain. The Whip Off must be among the most exciting Crankworx events to photograph. The quarters are small, the airs huge and the crowds are very enthusiastic. There were no shortages of close calls for photographers and spectators alike, and I even managed to catch a tumbling bike and rider.

The challenge with events like the Whip Off is that the action directly in front of the camera is generally so exciting that I found it difficult to pull back and consider not just the individual components, but the event as a whole including riders, the terrain, spectators and the scores of photographers on hand. I’ve been looking at the work of other photographers that were on site last Friday with envy and humility. What I see in the photography of others is often what I have missed in my own approach to a scene.

Crankworx produces such great photography every year, in part because it attracts so many of the most recognized names in the industry, but also because of the sheer numbers of photographers who descend on Whistler every year. You can’t swing a GoPro at the end of a pole without poking a guy in his 300 f2.8. Crankworx is a glass fest and the competition is fierce.

This is what the Whip Off looked like to me, but you should also check out the action at Pink Bike:

Pink Bike’s look at the Whip Off Worlds.

August 17, 2013August 17, 2013

2013 Crankworx – Ultimate Pump Track

Thursday Night at the Pump Track

Yesterday was a tough day. As I shot, I saw little in the camera that excited me, rather, a lot that filled me with anxiety and doubt. Early on I had a mentor who said “I’d rather be lucky than good.” I never understood that. I always thought that if you were good enough you’d never need luck. I never wanted to rely on luck, to leave certain things to chance; when I got it right, I wanted to get it right not because I was lucky, but because I am good.

When I wrapped last night at the Rockshox Pump Track in Whistler’s Olympic Plaza I was feeling neither good nor lucky. I wasn’t looking forward to the arduous task of choosing my least bad images to share with the Crankworx photo team. It turns out being lucky isn’t so bad. I came away with a few images from last night that I am happy with. Not to say there aren’t a lot of images bound for the bin, because there are, but rather, I am grateful for having something to show that I am reasonably happy with.

But maybe luck is a outcome of experience, maybe it’s true that the harder one works, the luckier one gets.

August 15, 2013August 15, 2013

2013 Crankworx – Over the Hump

There are many quotes about doing what you love, many of them, in the context of career, suggest to pursue your passion and the money will follow. I don’t believe it’s this easy; I like what Henry David Thoreau has to say about passion.

“Do what you love. Know your own bone, gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw at it still.” -Henry David Thoreau

It’s contrite and simplistic to believe that one will follow the other just because. It is more likely that through sweat, effort, failure and exhaustion that success will follow for some, but likely not all. I have been pursuing my passion now for 12 years with some significant ups and downs. I have been in a staff position at three newspapers, I have shot commercial product in more than 20 countries and for every piece of paid work I do now there is another that is done as personal work, as portfolio development, as an exercise in honing my craft.

I didn’t wake up one morning with the thought “Today will be the day I become a photographer.” I have always loved photography and over a number of years in my 20’s it came to have a greater and greater significance in my life. I was a member of the UVic photo club, I took a job at a camera store, I went back to school to study photojournalism and for time when my father and I seemed to argue every choice I made about life, school, etc, photography was the one point we could see and communicate eye to eye about.

My father, at the age of 49, lost his fight with Cancer 15 years ago this morning, and I suspect I will spend the rest of my life struggling with this at some level. A few days later, we held a service attended by more than 300 people, it was standing room only, in the hours that followed the service friends and family gathered to celebrate his life. I was lost, I was no where and this is when two dear friends sat me down with a bottle of Oban and mapped a course forward. It was another year before I finished my BA and two more before two more before I had the clarity and capacity to return to school and the following spring I was working at a daily paper with some of the best mentors in the business.
I am doing what I love, but it is not without sacrifice and to sure, I can’t say that I would be here, doing this, had my father survived. When looking forward it helps to consider how far you’ve come.Now that I have laid my somber self before you, here are a few pictures from yesterday on Whistler Mountain, yesterday was hump day and the best is yet to come.

August 14, 2013

2013 Crankworx – The Dust and the Glory

“Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.”

-Benjamin Franklin

This morning, between editing photos and sips of coffee, I have been fighting a losing battle. It is dry in Whistler, the fire hazard is listed as extreme, the dust is everywhere and it is saturating. My hair feels like straw and every sip from my water bottle includes what feels like a mouth full of grit. Cleaning myself is one thing, but dust is especially hard on camera equipment. It gets into everything and glass can act like a magnet for dust looking for a surface to land on. Dust requires constant maintenance; gotta keep your gear clear to get the best from it, and I think we can all agree that the challenges that come with trying to capture a mountain biker 20-30 feet in the air or another deep in a berm at 50km/hr are enough without battling the elements as well. But dust is also beautiful, it captures light and creates an aura of place and experience. These are a few shots from Tuesday on Whistler shot in and around the Garbanzo DH course and through the dust.

“Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.”

-John Webster

August 13, 2013

Event Week – Crankworx 2013

I’ll be posting a few pics through my week at Crankworx starting with this past Sunday. Yesterday, Monday, was a down day and I took the opportunity to get caught up with some of the work I shot last week. I arrived in Whistler with a mountain of editing and post production to work through and I was grateful for the time to make some headway on it.

On Sunday my day started at the top of A Line with the Giant Bicycles Liv/Giant event which closed A Line for the morning to provide coaching and training for women downhillers. Watching the best in the world huck these jumps belies how difficult some of this terrain can be for some one starting out.

Women’s Only Liv/Giant A Line event:

I closed out the day in Skiers Plaza at the bottom of the Whistler Bike Park shooting the finish line of the Canadian Open Enduro. It was great to connect with so many familiar faces, many off course, and a few as they crossed the line. It was exciting to watch riders charge the finish line after an exhausting day, some throwing arms in the air in celebration and others at near collapse.

Stage 5 Finish – Canadian Open Enduro:

BC Bike Race’s own Andreas Hestler:

August 12, 2013

Recent Work: Sqaumish Arc’teryx 50

I had to pull the plug last night, late last night, after two days that felt like four and several hours of editing that included photos for SUPERDROP, Burgoo, Crankworx and the 2013 Squamish Arc’teryx 50 Ultra Marathon. It’s been a busy week, but work is like dinner; better to be looking at it than for it. I arrived in Whistler late Sunday night after a truly epic day on course in Squamish where more than 500 runners challenged one of three events, 23 km, 50 km and 50 Mile courses, all of which pushed runners to their limits and sometimes beyond. I got to see first hand runners pushing through their walls in the last 6 km of course, some in tears and others cursing Race Director Gary Robbins for being, sick, sadistic and evil for his trail choices.

At some point last night, close to 1 am, the world around me went black as the power went out turning my iMac lit room absolute black; it was time to pack it in for the day, I had hit my productivity wall. Working through photos late at night is often necessary to meet deadlines, especially when the calendar is full. The tough thing, however, is that it’s also the time of day when I see more errors than successes, and my frustration starts to grow exponentially. It is a humbling experience to distill, edit and reevaluate images that live up to no reasonable expectation. Saturday started so early that by the time I sat down for dinner at 10 pm that night, Saturday morning felt like the day before. Sunday had a similar quality.

I have been working through these projects but felt like it was time to share a few pictures from my Saturday with the Squamish Arc’teryx 50. Thanks to Race Directors Gary Robbins and Geoff Langford for having me along for their first season of the Coast Mountain Trail Series and the second year of the Arc’teryx 50.

August 9, 2013September 18, 2013

Project Update: Let’s Cooking

What must be close to two years ago, I contributed several days of photography, totaling more than 2000 images shot over six or seven individual shoots for Hana Dethlefsen’s ‘Let’s Cooking’ cookbook project. Hana’s book is now on Indiegogo where she’s seeking crowd funding to finance a limited publication run.

The project can be found here: Let’s Cooking on Indiegogo

But check out what Hana, and others, have to say about her book:

Here are a couple of images featured in the book; a $25 contribution gets you your own copy, plus all the great photos seen inside! <wink, wink, nudge, nudge>

June 27, 2013

Personal Work – North Shore Trail Portraits: Run Shanny Run!

I have a pretty clear memory of the morning I met trail runner Shannon Penway, it was as if her giant smile bounced up to me and said “Hi! I’m Shannon, did you get some good pictures?” Or so that’s how I remember meeting Shannon following the first 5 Peaks event of the year last May at Golden Ears Park, BC. Since then I’ve photographed Shannon a few times, at 5 Peaks Alice Lake in Squamish, BC, last weekend at the Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon, and a few weeks ago in the Lynn Headwaters region above North Vancouver. Shannon is relatively new to competitive trail running, but comes to it with the grace and athleticism of an experienced athlete. When Shannon runs, it is often with a grin stretched ear to ear and although I think that smile is a way to unsettle and intimidate her competition, Shannon says she smiles because running makes her happy. Since meeting her, Shannon has made the podium of a number of events and distances including placing 3rd in the National Mountain Running Championships recently held in Quebec where she ran despite a fall on a training run the day before.

Learning a lesson as a photographer is often humbling and can sometimes be quite expensive, especially humbling when things stop working the way they are supposed to while a subject waits patiently and with good humour for instructions to re run the same 15 meters of trail for 5th time. During our shoot my camera’s display took a nap, I don’t know how else to describe it. At one point I exclaimed, ‘I guess we’ll do this the old fashioned way’ and continued shooting without the digital play back and instant gratification (or horror) that comes from having instant access to review. What happens in situations like these? Well if you’re prepared, you pull your back up camera from your bag and keep shooting. If you are not, you turn the camera off and on for a bit, take out the batteries, groan under your breath and look to the tree tops for answers. After a few unsettling minutes everything was working as it should and we continued. In the end I think we got a few good pics and these are among my favourite.

You can read more about Shannon at her running blog Run Shanny Run, and if you’re a sponsor, you should reach out before someone else does first!