Author: robshaer

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Event Season Sneaks Up on You

2012 MYM 50 Shaer-26

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Winter is here. While the snow is blowing and falling in delicious inches in Whistler, Vancouver is wrapped in a shroud of grey. It’s wet, cold and unappealing to be outside, which is difficult for a city like Vancouver which relishes the outside spaces that surround it. It’s the second week of January and I am already thinking and planning for the spring/summer and fall event seasons. I photograph events, although if you pin me down I will tell you that I don’t really see myself as an event photographer, rather a sports photographer who happens to shoot events and I am lucky to have a few clients who invite me to shoot their events the way I see them.

While summer hung around the south coast long into October, it’s cold comfort now. Every few weeks I sneak away into the archive to look at photos from last summer, to imagine the summer sun and being outside in shorts and tshirts. I started September in Whistler with the inaugural Meet Your Maker 50, a 50 Mile Trail Ultra & Relay. I’m looking forward to being back in Whistler soon which may involve snowshoeing and getting out into the cold, but in the back of my head I will be thinking about summer, just as in summer there is always a part of me that waits anxiously for the first snow in the mountains. Here are a few pictures from Labour Day weekend on Blackcomb Mountain and the Meet Your Maker 50.

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Link: The NY Times – Snow Fall

From the parking lot of Stevens Pass on the night before the avalanche at Tunnel Creek. Several of those with plans to ski Tunnel Creek the next day huddled around a fire in front of Tim Wangen’s trailer. Among the assembled were Jim Jack, in red pants, and Tiffany Abraham, in red jacket. Keith Carlsen

On Christmas day there were presents in the living room of the rented cottage on Cox Bay, BC wrapped in well read pages of the New York Times. They were pages from this story, a story I had heard about, but had not yet been able to bring myself to read beyond a brief scan of the on line multimedia piece. Every so often I post a link to a gallery or a short video because I want to share something I’ve found which interests or inspires me creatively as a photographer. This morning I knew that I had to return to something that I have been putting off for weeks, the New York Times’ Snow Fall – The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek.

I’ve spent much of this morning with this piece, with the galleries and the interviews, reviewing the graphics and, at times, clearing the tears from under my glasses. This is a story about tragedy and heartbreak the details of which I will leave for you to discover. When I was young, I spent every moment I could on Whistler or Blackcomb Mountains. If I wasn’t skiing I was thinking about skiing and conspiring with a few close friends of our next weekend on the hill. By the time I left for University I had been trained as an instructor and had volunteered with the Ski Patrol. The only future self I imagined was much closer to the men and women featured in this story than who I have eventually become.

I can’t imagine there are many multimedia pieces as well crafted as this, and this is the real reason for this post. It isn’t about specific images, videos, interviews or subjects, it is about how these elements have been brought together by reporters, editors, producers and photographers. Snow Fall is an unbelievably good piece of reporting and story telling that will affect you even if you’ve never spent a day in the mountains or have taken a single turn on skis. Be prepared, however, this is not a quick read, take your time and follow every link and finish by watching the 10 minute documentary at the end.

Snow Fall – The Avalanche At Tunnel Creek

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Personal Travel: Cox Bay, BC at Dawn

Dawn Patrol at Cox Bay

Something which feels rare, for this time of year, is happening in my apartment this morning; the sun is casting shadows on interior walls. It’s also quiet this morning which also feels rare when you live above a commercial space. Together the quiet and the sunlight have conspired to create a little serenity for me, all that’s missing is a cup of coffee and that’s an easy fix. Fixed; coffee now in hand. Yesterday I photographed a small, intimate wedding, and the day prior I returned from a five day Christmas vacation on Cox Bay, perched between Tofino a few minutes to the north and Long Beach a few minutes south on the West Coast of Vancouver Island.

Dawn and early morning has always seemed to me a perfect metaphor for the new year, and with 2013 less than 48 hours out, and what may be my last post of 2012, Dawn seems like a good way to close the year. Dawn is filled with optimism, hope and fresh light. More and more I am becoming a morning person and there are a lot of early mornings when you work in events, in news or as a photographer working in either. I remember reading, years ago, that great photographers are not born, they just get out of bed earlier in the morning. This idea has largely informed my life in photography, perhaps not literally, although certainly true on occasion, because for me it’s been about working harder. I have to work harder; although I was naturally drawn to photography, photography did not naturally come to me.

I believe that photography can be fine art, but I do not identify as an artist. I want to make good looking images, but more importantly I want to tell a story, articulate a client’s vision or capture a moment of energy or exchange, and these images don’t often find homes in frames or on walls. I don’t often look to make photographs as a purely aesthetic exercise, but every now and then, however, I reach out to make a photograph for myself. Last week, on Cox Bay, I found myself in pre-dawn light, using a tripod and dragging the shutter to create something without meaning or governed by pragmatism, but simply reflective of a set of conditions on a remote beach shaped by winter waves.

Happy New Year,
Rob

Check out Photographer Derek Shapton’s piece on Art vs. Craft at Peta Pixel

Art vs. Craft: The Nature of Professional Assignment Photography

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The Best of the Season to You and Yours

VanDusen Xmas 2011-5

My Christmas Card to you. Thank you for visiting over the last several months while I explore my relationship with photography and my profession and share these explorations with you. I wish you the very best of the season regardless of how you celebrate. I will be celebrating with family on the far West Coast of Canada with good company, good wine, good cheers and hopefully a good winter storm.

This is an image from last year, shot at VanDusen Gardens during their annual Christmas light show. I hope you are, as I am, in good company, good health and good cheer. Will look forward to catching up with you in 2013!

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Today’s Archive Image – 2011 Stanley Park Triathlon

2011 YVR Tri Beach fb

Just a quick pic from a very early morning in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Triathlon competitors getting acclimatized to the water and clearing out their swim goggles in an early morning silhouette from September of 2011. This was shot from the hip on my back up camera that has become somewhat unreliable with it’s advanced shutter actuations (130K+) so I felt a little lucky when I discovered this on my cf card. Have a good weekend.

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Personal Work – The Potrait Project: Jane

Portraits Jane V King-1

A few weeks ago my friend Jane stopped by for a portrait session; looking to update some of her web presence it was also time to update her profile photos. Jane arrived in full cycling gear and carried her bike up to my second floor apartment (and makeshift studio) and after a quick change we started to make some frames. Some photographers excel at making people comfortable in their view finders, I have to work at it. This is one of my favourite images from our 90 minutes and is Jane’s response to “Jane, tell me a dirty joke!” She claims she doesn’t know any, but her expression suggests she does. Her spontaneous and unguarded response also suggests that in that instant we broke the ice better than any good handshake or cocktail could

When I googled “How do you relax a portrait subject?” more than 3 million results came back and topping the list on three or four of the sites that I looked at were, engage the subject, relax yourself, no touching and show your work. I like to show my work, but I think I will try asking the subject to tell me a dirty joke a few more times before I rule it out.

Phillipe Halsman (1906-1979) was a master portraitist and had a bag of tools to “unmask” his subjects from their characters or public personae. Photography Critic Owen Edwards, in a 2006 article about Halsman for the Smithsonian Magazine described portraiture as “one of the greatest challenges in photography, because the human face is elusive and often mask-like, with practiced expressions for the standard range of emotions.”

While Halsman was an accomplished photographer and photojournalist with more than 100 Life Magazine covers to his credit, he may be best remembered for asking his subjects to Jump. Starting in 1952 and continuing for six years, Halsman closed his portrait sessions by getting his subjects, including Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, to jump and in that moment reveal their true selves. It would be difficult to overstate Halsman’s gift of revealing his subjects, and I can only imaging what a difficult ask it was to make with some of the more conservative or self conscious personalities he photographed. Photographers today owe something to Halsman even if they have never heard of him. We owe him for being innovative and inspiring spontaneity in what could be a rather stayed exercise and I think we could all try a little harder to do the same.

Read Owen Edwards article here:

The Smithsonian

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Link: The Atantic’s In Focus Gallery – In The Congo

A few weeks ago a North Africa-based friend and former newspaper colleague shared a story about developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the rise of the M23 Movement reputedly funded by Rwanda. This is a rebel militia group waging attacks on government forces and sending civilians into chaos. This post isn’t to report this story only to share some photos. Suffice to say this is a continuation of a conflict that goes back at least 16 years with an immeasurable impact on local populations while involving neighbouring countries and very well funded yet ineffectual UN Peace Keepers.

One of the great crimes, given the experiences of the 20th century, is that in the 21st century this type of conflict persists while millions of civilians are displaced, made refugee or fall victim as collateral damage. Why is it important to share these images collected by Allan Taylor in his In Focus Gallery at the Atlantic? It is because photography can save lives, change minds and direct into action those capable of making the difference. Have a look at the images in this gallery and imagine that it’s your neighbourhood under siege, and your neighbours on the move. Those that direct these acts may be less brazen if they know the world is watching. Photojournalists around the globe take huge risks sharing stories from places of chaos to ensure the story is told and to ensure those lives victim to indiscriminate or malicious violence continue to have meaning.

The Atlantic In Focus Gallery

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Today’s Archive Image – The Whistle Pig 2007

Rocky MTN Whistle Pig-1

Sometimes you make photos just for fun. On a day of driving through Colorado in the summer of 2007 I chose a route from one client location to another that would take me through Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a rare opportunity to see some of the park even though I didn’t have time for anything other than the drive. Edward Abbey would be disappointed, I know, but Colorado in June of 2007 was a work trip and there was a budget motel waiting for me to turn my camera to it somewhere west of Steamboat.

On these trips, where projects were scheduled daily for 30 days or so, getting a whole day to travel from one location to another seemed like a luxury and a license to explore a little and shoot some personal pictures. I am sure my colleagues from that period and I shot tens of thousands of images of our meals, accommodations, our rental cars, ourselves and the roads, like rivers, taking us from one town to another across the United States. We shot roadside monuments, famous grave sites, long forgotten churches and everything else you can image finding at the roadside of American Highways. This day, however, was different because I got to meander through Rocky Mountain National Park, a place of true and spectacular natural beauty and home to a variety of wildlife.

This little guy, Marmota flaviventris, goes by many names, The Yellow Belly Marmot, Whistle Pig and Rock Chuck among them and made a great subject to focus my camera on while I stretched my legs after pulling off one of the highest altitude roadways in the Americas. It was stunning and I felt lucky to be up there. Sometimes it’s fun to shoot without intention or purpose, to shoot just because. I enjoy looking through my archive for images like this to remind myself that even when I am shooting daily for clients, I need to snap a few frames just for me.