May 4: Over View

Sorting 3696 images from the Green. It's taking a while....
Here are a few that stand out so far. (Straight from camera, for quickness.)

It was no first descent, but it was an exploration.

The crew was mostly from Alta's GMD lodge. Bunch'a skiers in the desert.

There was much laughter...

A bit of hiking...

Some whitewater...

Fun around the fire...

And terrific star gazing.

Much more to come...
Stay tuned.

Apr 15: You Wish

You wish you got up at 3:45am.
You wish you skinned 90 minutes (1700') up an icy slope.
You wish you stood under this cliff (shivering) as the sun broke the horizon.

You wish you saw Sarah send this one (half a second earlier).

You wish you had snow like this.

You wish you had April faceshots.

You want to know where this is?

You wish. Ha!

(Hint: head to Alta, and look UP.)

Apr 14: Waiting Game

Great skiing at Alta today. Empty lines and a foot of creamy snow.
The lighting wasn't good though. We waited until after lunch to try photos. We stood around in a cloud before finally moving on.
Super flat and gray.

Even Sarah's bright colors can't save that one.
With some help in the computer, we can make the colors pop, but it still looks flat.

So we just made some turns instead. Afternoon faceshots, anyone?

Then, a break in the weather. Sunshine!

After all the waiting, we finally got to work. I climbed a tree to get the right angle.

It was marginally sketchy, climbing 15 feet into a frozen dead tree with ski boots, but I can cross another image off my shot list.

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.

April 4: Sun Rise

After a nice April storm, we tried for some golden sunrise light.

The twilight was incredible.

The sunrise was a bit too clear though, so the light wasn't dramatic enough.
And it was cold: 6 degrees?

The shots didn't turn out, but it was definitely worth the hike.

Mar 23: Big Jump

Justin and Hazen built the Pyramid booter, by themselves, in 2 days.

It looked rather beautiful as we approached it the next morning. (For scale, the vertical wall of the ramp is 12 feet tall.)

We worked from 9am until about 2pm, sculpting the ramp and smoothing the in-run. We had about a dozen guys shoveling, stomping and testing.

Finally, with a good crowd of supporters, Justin and Hazen enjoyed their moment.
Pete and Eric also put in a couple laps.

The real images are still processing.

Mar 22: Deep Storm

Alta reported 4" overnight. Ho hum.

As many would attest, however, it was one of the deepest days of the year.

I've been working on this image style: sharp foreground - soft skier.
Ashley Maxfield makes this one look nice.

And, yeah, 4" is pretty good at Alta.
Nat Segal coming up for air.

The storm/wind/fog limited our options, but we scored some nice shots in the woods.

Mar 13: Tele Tortoise

It's warm enough for tortoises to awake from hibernation.

After a few warmup laps, I tried to hit the woo-y booter. Everyone did backflips, but I didn't dare.

It rather threw me, even on a simple straight air. I didn't ski out of this one (obviously).

Another attempt started better.

But finished the same. Each bail smashed my face with the box. My mouth and neck are quite sore.

0-2, I quit. Dex gave it a go.

It didn't start too well.

But the second hit was cleaner.

But the landing proved tricky once again.

The highlight of the day was my last run. I pulled a Super-Mario turtle-shell belly-slide down the steep groomer under the chair, about 200 yards.
Sadly, no photos.
Worse yet, the costume is completely torn up. Oh well. I'll build another one for more spring skiing.

Mar 10: Spring Time

It feels like spring. Sunny and warm. Good time for a big ol' booter session.

That's some aggressive shoveling.

Watch out.

Gotcha!

The gallery.

My models.

Having a good time.

Ok, back to work. I had them pose like this for a couple hours.

Use your imagination to put some ski tricks into those reflections.

Mar 8: Double Deep

16" on Sunday. Another ~20" Monday night. Today was deep.
I hadn't hoped to shoot, but the sun came out and I was glad I brought my camera.

The early bird, gettin' his worm.

I met EJ and we took a few laps.

Mostly under Wildcat.

Then it started to feel tracked

So we headed for fresher lines.

If you hadn't noticed, EJ has only one leg, but he still gets after it, hard.

You can read more about him here.
After lunch, in variable light, Cascade and I went up again.

The sun popped in for a few more deep turns.

The sun affected the snow a bit, making it barely thicker. Take a closer look.

Helluva day.

More tomorrow.