April 6: High Light

Product photography at high elevation.
Waiting for the sunrise to light up the product: new outerwear.

The sun came through with gorgeous light. We made the products look good!
Natural light at 9500'. Although the hours are tough (430am wakeup) it sure beats working in the studio.

Feb 9: Super Ior

Yesterday was 'one of those days.'

I shot this on my first lap, then didn't touch the camera again for the rest of the day. The skiing was just too good.

Today, the touring was amazing. We started at 5am, hit our lines and finished before 10. I'm sure there are 100s of people still out there, tearing it up.

The sun didn't cooperate, and it was cold up high, but we found some big lines, little jumps, and great turns.

Justin on a big line.

Nicole on a little jump.

Cascade on a great turn.

The light didn't turn out (although an hour later, it was perfect), but we had a grand time up there.

More tomorrow.

April 13: Moonrise Teaser

Moon Rise Over Superior from Jeremy Koons on Vimeo.

Nov 6: Super Panorama

This may not be too impressive at this scale, but here's another image from the Superior hike (Nov 3 post).

This composite incorporates 50 frames taken on a 10mp camera. I used 35 images to create the snow/mountain/sky background, then 15 images of the skier.

The full res image is 23000 x 7200 pixels, which is 10 times wider and 2 times taller than your standard single image.

For reference, the 7th skier from the bottom has recognizable facial features, and the ski logo is legible on the 9th skier (in shadow).

This image could be printed 100 inches wide and you wouldn't be able to detect any seams or transitions (hours and hours of photoshop blending). It would also be tack sharp and crisp, with no pixelation, since it would require no enlargement to print it at that size.

I'm very happy with the result of the process, as I successfully completed my gameplan for this shot. However, the image itself is not my favorite. I need to find a better location and shoot from a higher angle. I think this will provide a better perspective of the line. It's a good thing that the Wasatch has more than one big line. (It's going to be a great season.)

Nov 3: Earned Turns

Here's what you must do to ski big UT lines in early November.

1) You must... wake up early (4:45) so that you can watch the sunrise over the mountains, from 10,000', after a 2000' hike.

2) You must... choose a suitable range. Little Cottonwood Canyon has a host of nice lines.

3) You must... make it to the top, alive. Early season conditions include some mixed terrain. Dry rock, wet rock, frozen rock, ice, snow, etc. It takes most of 4 hours to summit Mt Superior, much longer than in mid-season.

4) You must... take a break at the top to survey your surroundings, hydrate, eat, recoup, and make funny faces.

5) You must... invent a harness for first-person action photos, carry it to the top, test it, and make funny faces.

6) You must... throw your gear everywhere and make tough-guy faces. Don't worry, nobody will see you up there, because nobody in their right mind would hike 4 hours to ski a pile of rocks.

7) You must... make tough-guys faces while looking down, to really show everybody how bad-A you are. Also, make sure your gear is color coordinated to impress all the ..... ... again, there's nobody up there, so you won't impress anybody.

8) You must... test the camera one last time before the drop, and make some more funny faces.

9) You must... get serious. A fall here would be bad. Look at all those rocks! Remember the 2000' climb? Well now it could be a 2000' fall. So, choose your turns carefully and don't hit any rocks.

10) You must... make it through the rocks unscathed, then gun it to mach speed on the exit.

11) You must... take off all your clothes for the hike down. Remember that it's November 3rd and there's no snow. It's also bloomin' hot up there. Strip off your color-coordinated clothes and waltz down in your shorts and tee, highsocks and glacier glasses.

12) You must... take a nap.

(photo not included.)

Have a great tour. See you at the top.