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.

Apr 10: Red Rocks

Forecast called for heaps of snow in southern Utah.

We chased it. Drove 5 hours through rain wind graupel ice...

Saw one car spin off I-15 @ ~70mph. Crazy!

Got there late, took a sunset lap, and returned through this sparkly boulevard.

Camped at 10,500'. Headed out at 5am. Made a good plan, but skinned in a huge %#$*-ing circle and ended up back at our original skin track, right at sunrise. Made a left instead of a right. Whoops.

Then we looked across and saw our line.

3..2..1..Dropping!

Oh, crap, we're still 2 miles away?

Much discouraged, we started over. We still found some really cool terrain.

Matt scouts a line.

Looking in from the top.

Nate works through the (unskiable) pepper entrance, as Matt lowers the skis.

We also found some simpler terrain that matched my photo style.

We returned to the car when it started getting warm.

The aspens were amazing, but the snow was too soggy to ski them.

5 hr drive. 2 hr sunset ski. 4 hrs sleep. 8 hr tour. 4 hr drive home. A handful of interesting photos, and 1 helluva good time.

It was my 4th sunrise tour in 7 days. And we're going out tomorrow for another one. It's been a good spring.

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.

Mar 7: Good Practice

I haven't put up images in a while. I've been working on some new ideas, pushing my creativity, and solving problems. I've had quite a few 'practice' days, but I've also nailed some sweet new shots.
The practice images are boring, and the good ones aren't yet ready for show'n'tell.

Today, though, I'll show you what I'm working on.

I want to set a nice image with a background skier in soft focus. This angle was good practice for the depth of field, but it doesn't show what I want.

A few frames later, the slope explodes and runs out in a whoosh. A little spooky.

After another scary moment in a narrow choke, we were happy to ski some gentle trees. The smile is as much an expression of enjoyment as it is of relief.

We put in a few good turns though.  This one is pretty standard, but you know, gettin' deep turns never gets old.

A few other frames turned out very nicely.

It's supposed to snow ~15" tonight. Should be some more deep turns tomorrow. Never gets old.

Feb 17: New Snow

Every ski town wants more snow, new snow, deeper snow, softer snow.
Alta finally got it last night: 11" in ~3 hours. Locals like to call that 'nuking.'

Knowing there was a very limited window for morning light, we headed up early. It was a beautiful morning. The kind of morning that makes skiers giddy. Photographers too.

However, many natural sluff slides had run full track on the slopes adjacent to where we wanted to ski. We kicked cornices, triggering fresh energetic sluffs.

We ski cut and rode some lower angle terrain, to get a better feel.
I've been trying to work more with shadows. This one didn't quite line up, but it does display the excellent riding conditions.

Although three turns later, amongst the trees, we found the magic angle. (not shown.)
Then we went back to ski our original line. It looked really good.

But, it all washed out before Kate could get into it. (I planned ahead and stood in a shadow zone, away from the washouts.)

It totally wrecked the line. And the sun disappeared. So, we returned to the white room.

We hit a few more little lines. I tried to embrace the flat light with a little motion blur. This one's a bit off, but still interesting.

I guess we'll settle for more fresh turns. Nice focus.

Thanks Kate, for your tireless effort and endless motivation.

PS. Kate finished 2nd in the Targhee Big Mountain Telemark Comp last week.

Feb 14: The Zoo

I've enjoyed zoos since I was a little kid, as I have a deep fascination with animals. Today, during a warm spell (58F), Vanessa and I visited the Hogle Zoo in SLC.
Vanessa has also taken an interest in learning more about photography. I'm trying to teach her a few things. Today was a great opportunity to practice.

I won't delve into how I currently feel about captive animals (or 'pets'), but I think some of our images say more than I ever could.

Here are 12 images, 6 from each of us.

Jeremy.

Jeremy.

Vanessa.

Vanessa.

Vanessa.

Vanessa.

Jeremy.

Vanessa.

Jeremy.

Jeremy.

Jeremy.

Vanessa.

Vanessa shot some amazing images. Wow.

Feb 10: Double Shift

I had big plans for today, but no athletes to accompany me.
Instead of giving up, I packed 2 Pocketwizards and a tripod.

I did double work today. I was the photographer and the athlete, simultaneously.

I tested out my system on a simple safe line. It worked perfectly on this first set. Nobody would guess that this is a pocketwizard self portrait. Prettly slick.

On another set, it didn't work so well. These are consecutive frames. It appears I missed something in the middle.

I figured out my mistakes and got the system to work better on the other lines. It actually worked so well that I dare not post the photos. One in particular might be my new favorite of this season.
I will give a teaser though.
My clothes are so bright that my lines turn yellow.

And, yes, I hauled a beer all the way up there. After working 7 hours simultaneously at two different jobs, it tasted mighty fine.