robshaer

June 25, 2013

Flim – Photographer James Balog and Chasing Ice

I saw the trailer for Chasing Ice more than a year ago. I was immediately drawn in by how visually striking the imagery was and the innovative way in which cameras were tasked to document the remote places featured in this film. Chasing Ice documents photographer James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey project which, with great objectivity, turns the lens on glacial recession across the far north.

This is a documentary that demonstrates my first covenant of photography; you have to be passionate not only for the medium of photography but also what you turn your lens to. James Balog describes photographing ice as an experience close to that of a portraitist like Irving Pen or Richard Avedon finding infinite differences in familiar subjects. Clearly Balog maintains a fierce passion for what he does and for what this project represents. After a career spent documenting the natural world, Balog sought out a way to document environmental change that had few visual references beyond the nightly news video loop of drought, fire and the growing phenomena of extreme weather. The Extreme Ice Survey Project created a visual metric for climate change that is indisputable.

Chasing Ice is really two stories, that of Balog and his team and that of the profound rate at which these glaciers are changing. My blog is about photography, and I try to keep it at that, but whatever your position on global warming, it is impossible to deny that change on a global scale is happening. Whether or not you believe that the endeavors of human kind are at fault for this change are immaterial to the fact that glaciers are receding at an unprecedented rate and all that water has to go somewhere.

I believe that documentaries are portraits, they are revealing, suggestive and sometimes inspiring. Chasing Ice is no less a portrait of Balog than it is a position on climate change. We are invited into Balog’s home, family and hospital room where he is prepped for one of a series of knee surgeries that the photographer hopes will see him through his project. For those of us with 9-5 jobs, it might be difficult to understand this kind of drive or resolve; it can appear selfish, obsessive, even insane to those of us who maintain very narrow zones of comfort. This is the nature of photography at it’s best, it takes us places that we might otherwise fear to go and it takes people like Balog and his team to take us there. Photographers take risks so that others don’t have to so we can all better understand the world we live in.

Chasing Ice is available on NetFlix and on iTunes, but if it comes to a theatre near you check it out on the big screen, it’s worth it.

Chasing Ice

Check out the trailer here:

James Balog’s Ted Talk presentation:

June 21, 2013June 21, 2013

Today’s Archive Image – Steve Smith at Crankworx 2012

There are daily reminders that Crankworx is less than two months away. Crankworx turns Whistler into a gong show and it was the most fun I’ve had shooting almost anything in a long, long time. There are more than a few photographers in town over this ten day period and competition for access is intense. I hope to return in 2013, and have submitted an application, while in the mean time reaching out for any assignment that will get me on the mountain.

I am excited that this image in particular, of Canadian Steve Smith coming over Heckler’s Rock during his winning run at the Canadian Open Downhill, has had so much traction, but it has also been a bit of a lesson for me. When you are contributing to a pool of images it is difficult to track where your images end up and whether they have been used with appropriate attribution. These are things that you learn with either a vanity search or with Google’s reverse image search where you can upload an image and Google will locate any number of pages on which your image has appeared.

In the days that followed Smith’s winning run, this image appeared on Facebook, in print and on a dozen different web outlets, some are included below. The exciting thing for me is though my week in Whistler for Crankworx had been a total gamble I saw my photos sent out to the Mountain Bike community world wide, especially cool since is Mountain Biking is among my favourite things to shoot, but also something I consider to be a weak link in my portfolio of experience. Now, almost a year later, this image still has legs and has recently appeared a travel magazine, with permission and attribution, destined for thousands of hotel rooms in Whistler.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The Whistler Question:

MTB Review:

Pedal Magazine:

Sick Lines:

Where Whistler:

Ten Years of Crankworx

June 13, 2013June 14, 2013

Recent Work – 5 Peaks Alice Lake Provincial Park

I’d like to think that I am at the mid point between two event weekends, but I’m not. My head is spinning because it’s already Thursday and last weekend feels like it was a month ago, which is about how old my last post is. In my defense, May and June have been busy months and though I have had to withdraw myself from some events I was keen to participate in due to injury we now we are into the dark heart of summer event season. It’s on.

I’ve taken on a greater role with 5 Peaks Trail Series and I am super excited to see where it takes me and while I continue to shoot the 5 Peaks BC events I now get to help guide the look and feel of the photography from our other events across Canada. This really kicked off last weekend and while I was shooting the 5 Peaks BC event at Alice Lake Provincial Park in Squamish, BC other photographers were shooting in Alberta and Ontario.

It’s also been a busy period in the Photography community. Recently The Chicago Tribune let go of it’s whole photo staff electing to outfit reporters with iPhones and employing freelancers as necessary. I want to address this issue, but I am still processing what this means, and how I feel about it. This is an issue for another post, or a year’s worth of posts, but for now, I have to let it go. After ‘retiring’ myself from photography late in 2008, I have obviously come back to it but I have come back to an industry deep in transition and very much reflective of Chris Anderson’s Long Tail model. Social media has created a voracious market place for content and the event community is being forced to reevaluate how to use photography and how to pay for it. Photography is no longer a value add, it can no longer be simply a revenue stream, it has to be more. Event photography has to interesting, creative and engaging because, in the era of Social Media, every photo has become a tool of outreach and branding. At it’s best photography should be sharing an experience that others want want in on.

Saturday in Squamish was a little wetter and a little colder than I had anticipated or prepared for. I definitely failed my Boy Scout training as I left the house in Vancouver unprepared for the conditions in Squamish but somehow I managed through. I even left my shoes on the roof of the car, finding them still there at a stop en route. Squamish is an ideal venue for trail running and Squamish trails are heavily used but also built and maintained by their users. In humping my gear down part of the course known as Credit Line, I came across a trail builder working on a couple of ladders to clean up a section of climbing. I was just as surprised to find out he had no idea that there was an event that morning as he was to look up and see almost 400 runners descend on him and his section of trail repair. Squamish offers an awesome variety of technical trails for runners and mountain bikers, lots of ups and downs under 300 foot trees, this is West Coast trail running at it’s finest, all that’s missing is a salmon bbq and a keg of west coast pale ale!

May 19, 2013May 19, 2013

Recent Work – Coast Mountain Trail Series: Buckin’ Hell.

It is impossible to overstate how challenging fog, rain and darkness can be to capturing a solid trail running photo. Cold hands and wet feet conspire with less than watertight outerwear to make waiting for the next runner to appear on trail truly an endeavour. Yesterday morning on Mount Seymour, on Vancouver’s North Shore runners were hammered by aforementioned rain and fog while I stood waiting and wondering if this is the shoot that exceeds the weather proofing of my camera gear.

I did my best, and though the response has been supper positive as photos have hit the social media feeds, I scroll through the images in lightroom and see more examples of where I can improve than not.

Evey shoot is an opportunity to learn something, how to better prepare, to try new techniques to deal with challenging shooting environments and to think of new uses for zip lock freezer bags. Which I was wishing for as my speed light took a drenching even under the thick canopy of trees. I will stash a few in my still damp camera bag when I am hone again in about ten days.

I’m at an airport this morning, thousands of kilometres away from where my day started yesterday on Mt Seymour’s Old Buck trail for the Coast Mountain Trail Series event Buckin’ Hell and I am trying, for the first time, to publish a post from my phone. Fingers Crossed.

A huge thanks to Gary Robbins and Geoff Langford for inviting me along on their inaugural CMTS season as race photographer, to the scores of volunteers who make events like this possible and to our runners who make challenge look easy and inspire the rest of us.

May 16, 2013May 16, 2013

Recent Work – 5 Peaks Trail Run at Golden Ears Park

It’s been a few days since I last made any photos. I would never describe what I do as glamorous, few photographers I know would, though I have been to some cool places. The less glamorous side of photography, however, are the hours of desk sitting, of editing through hundreds or even thousands of event photos, or hours spent spot correcting dust, dandruff or out of place hairs. There are hours of email inquiries, of research, of looking for inspiring content to refresh the batteries. I monitor social media feeds, twitter, facebook, linkedin and flickr and consume my self with site visits, views, retweets and likes. When the weather turns and I have to spend a few more days at my desk than I like, this gets worse and I start to grow restless, anxious and uncomfortable with my own company. It is in the days between shoots that I snack too much, drink too much coffee and tend to forget household chores and leave email unresponded.

These are just a few of the images I shot for Salomon 5 Peaks Trail series last weekend at Golden Ears Park in BC. It was a great way to get the season started in BC for 5 Peaks, new kid’s events, sunshine, and the support of an enthusiastic community of trail runners. I’ve now only been to Golden Ears Park twice, once last year for the same event and again last Saturday. I would like to think that I am more of an outdoors person than I am, so I appreciate that it’s photography that gets me out to places I wouldn’t necessarily consider going just because. Golden Ears Park is gorgeous and is worth a visit.

What’s awesome is that this work doesn’t feel so much like work, especially as I have become friends with so many people involved with the event. I don’t always see everyone on course, but I often hear people yell “Rob!” as they approach me on the trail hoping to get caught in a frame by my camera and a quick hand. We are getting to know one another and I look forward to spending time each weekend in this community even though I am not a runner myself. The impact of social media on events and photography can not be over stated, but for most of us this is a self evident abstraction, but for me, it is a way to generate interest and buzz for my photos. Social media is an instant feedback machine, and I know pretty quickly whether I’ve done well or I botched it, especially with clients who use content driven social media to engage with their communities. Likes, Retweets, views and visits have taken on a cruel meaning in my life and the lives of other photographers producing work destined for the web.

I’m getting ready for another weekend event and look forward to getting back into the trees. I look forward to seeing some of the same faces this Saturday that I saw last Saturday and I look forward to another opportunity to photograph people engaged in something they love.

Check out what a couple of friends have said in their race reports:

Mike Murphy

Solana Klassen

Shannon Penway

You can see the complete set at the 5 Peaks Flickr page here: 5 Peaks Photos

May 13, 2013

Recent Work – 2013 Wheel2Heal Fundraiser

Summer seemed to arrive on the South West Coast of BC over night. I feel like one day I was trying to figure out what jacket I would need to fend off the weather and the next I was in shorts and short of sunscreen as evidenced by the impressive sun burn received a week ago. With the sun and summer-like weather event season landed with the intensity of a crashing car and I couldn’t be happier. At some level I will be involved with nearly 100 events this year and I am pretty excited because I love working in the event community. A week ago I was back at the start/finish line and event village of the Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation’s Wheel2Heal cycling fundraiser with close to 500 riders taking on one of three distances and raising an impressive amount of money for the local hospital foundation.

This is a short post to share a few images from last weekend and a good break for me while I work my way through images shot yesterday at BC’s Golden Ears Provincial Park of the first 5 Peaks Trail Running event of the season. I should probably write a little about event photography in general, but for now I will keep it short and sweet.

May 5, 2013

Video – A Talk With AP Photographer David Guttenfelder

The International Center for Photography recently honoured Associated Press Photojournalist David Guttenfelder as an Infinity Award recipient for his work in North Korea. With all the recent news of North Korea’s posturing, it is easy to think that the hermited nation might have more in common with the land Oz than it does with it’s neighbours or others in the international community, but Guttenfelder’s photos reveal a degree of what passes as day to day normalcy. This is the revealing power of photography, showing us not only the things that divide and horrify us, but the similarities we share that may be otherwise hidden by fear, bureaucracy or secrecy. This is 12 minutes worth watching. This video was produced by Media Storm and was found at Alan Taylor’s In Focus blog at The Atlantic. Click either the image above, or the link below to watch the video.

Beyond the images of North Korea, Guttenfelder speaks a little of his career and time spent in Africa and Afghanistan as a photojournalist with the Associated Press. Guttenfelder comes across as humble, thoughtful and unphased by the intensity of his experiences. He talks about thinking of himself in a certain way after a decade of photographing conflict and violence and how that changed with an assignment to cover a three day reunion of families divided for 50 years by the Korean Conflict and how that pushed and drove his interest to look deeper into the North. This is another great power of photography, it is transformative. Photography changes us, our perspective, our understanding, and how we see others. It has an indelible affect on not only the audience but also the subject and the photographer forever changed by the events seen through the lens.

A Talk With AP Photographer David Guttenfelder – In Focus – The Atlantic.

Links:

Media Storm

In Focus

International Center For Photography

More about the ICP Infinity awards including videos:

ICP Infinity Awards 2013

May 2, 2013

Personal Work – North Shore Trail Portraits

James

Last weekend I was back on the North Shore with trail runners James Marshall and Tom Craik. Saturday and Sunday couldn’t have been more different. Saturday was dark and wet and by Sunday morning the spring sun was overhead creating an ethereal feel on the forest floor. Tom and James are experienced and active members of the local trail running community and seem quite at home at the feet of towering trees. It is as a surprise to me, as it must be to anyone who knows me, that I am finding a home in the running community, at least as a photographer. I’m not much of a runner, or really at all for that matter but it has been a gratifying and exciting experience getting to work with trail runners and their events.

Through the duration of each shoot we spoke about favourite trails, and the experience of being on these mountains. Tom described trail running in a way that suggested an experience akin to meditation, an experience I think shared by the mountain bikers we saw on the trails on Sunday. I’ve been hearing a term in radio ads for the past couple of months, Biophilia; it is the idea that humans are instinctively connected to their living environments. Tom said something about trail running on Sunday morning which resonated with my experience as a photographer. While I am paraphrasing here, he suggested that trail running was a way to interact with this environment, a way to experience this forest and geography so identified with the south west coast of British Columbia. When people ask me about photography, I sometimes describe it as the way I interact with the world, it is the conduit through which I can create unique experiences for myself and others.

James

Tom

April 21, 2013

Trailer – Who Shot Rock and Roll

It’s been a heavy news week. So much happening in the world and with this week’s news in North America focused on Boston I was happy to come across this piece via Rob Haggart. While I seek to be topical, the macabre doesn’t always need the contribution of my two cents. There has been an amazing volume of photography out of Boston in the past week, and if you are keen to get a sense of what it might feel like to be the most wanted man in America, check out Alan Taylor’s In Focus Gallery at the Atlantic. Like many of my friends and colleagues I have been glued to the news out of Boston because so much of my life is spent in and around running events. In fact, one of my colleagues and his wife, were at the finish line in Boston about an hour before the event and for what felt like hours I was among many waiting for a text message or status update to let us know they were OK.

Today I hope you’ll make time to have a look at something a little lighter. When I try to remember the first photography that captivated my interest I think back to a number of icons of the medium. I was drawn to the drama and adventure of conflict photography, the outstanding work produced by the staff and contributing photographers of Powder Magazine who took crazy risks sharing the world of big mountain skiing, and the body of work shot by Annie Leibovitz from her time at Rolling Stone. I used to keep and hoard magazines for the content, retrospectives, anniversary issues and photo issues in piles on any flat surface in my room. Leibovitz wasn’t the only photographer shooting Rock and Roll, there were dozens, maybe hundreds, even thousands of photographers who have made iconic contributions to this archive of popular culture. Who Shot Rock And Roll is an exhibit featuring work from this medium. Produced by guest Curator Gail Buckland for the the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2009, the exhibit has made a four year tour around the United States and a stop at the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand.

Who Shot Rock And Roll started off as a book project for Buckland and later spawned the Exhibit featuring nearly 200 works by 100 different photographers from 1955 onward and has since been made into a short documentary film produced by the Anneberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles released in 2012. Above is the trailer for the film and what was my initial point of interest. This is really an examination of how photography contributed to the our understanding of Rock and Roll. In it there is a wiff of suggestion that these photographers, much less well known than their subjects, were legend makers. Listen for Henry Rollins as he suggests that “The right photograph can say so much, as much as maybe as the band’s best record.”

I’ve always wanted to go on tour with a band, at least for a few weeks, to document that experience. With time my collection of magazines have become a library of books, and until I get the chance to go on tour, I will have to content myself in these pages.

Anneberg Space For Photography

Who Shot Rock and Roll on Facebook

Gail Buckland

April 18, 2013

Inspiration – Ian Ruhter: When Dreams Collide

I sometimes get nostalgic for places that I’ve traveled to or worked in, even places that I didn’t particularly like or connect with. I find myself nostalgic for work that I used to do because time and memory have conspired to help me forget the challenges, the disappointments, the mental, emotional or physical costs of doing the work I once did. At some point time has kind and I have been able to let go of less favourable memories and experiences instead remembering the explorations or the absurdity of certain experiences. Even though there is a body of work behind me that I can’t imagine I would ever go back to, I sometimes catch my self wondering how I could have done things better, or differently, or thinking about that time I found the coolest coffee house Las Vegas, New Mexico.

I had the chance to hear Ian Ruhter speak at two events in Vancouver last week, even getting the opportunity to shoot a few frames of him myself and it was with this in mind that I asked Ian if he ever missed shooting Snowboarding. Ian was quick to answer and it without hesitation, he said no. There was no contemplation and he went on to explain how heavily invested he is in what he is doing now. I connected with the first video he and his team produced a year ago, but their new video, When Dreams Collide, feels so much more.

When Dreams Collide is a very personal document and very revealing of it’s subjects, not only Ian, but of Photographer Chase Jarvis, Snowboarder Peter Line and Hip Hop artist Ishmael Butler. One thing I found so compelling was the sharing of such intimate details of each of their struggles to pursue their individual passions. Somehow in describing how he had to rely on his wife’s tip money to process film humanized Jarvis in a way that was truly refreshing. Struggle is humanizing, it’s humbling and I believe that it makes us stronger. Ian was asked a question at one of the discussions last week by a young photographer, just out of school, about how to make it work when you feel like you can’t afford to move forward. He was very pragmatic in his response and while others on the panel reached for pretentious answers, he talked about shooting by moon light when he first started in photography, because that’s what was available to him. Be creative, his message read to the audience, persevere, work with what you have and have access to.

The above is an image from Ian’s presentation at CreativeMornings/Vancouver.

When Dream Collide

Watch When Dreams Collide: