Rocky Knob Promotional Video

From time to time, I'll get a project that just can't be finished, for whatever reason. Sometimes it's on my end, sometimes it's on others. This one was just a nightmare of an edit with 5 different versions, and a media library that could send an OCD guy to an asylum. I finally geared down, grunted through and finished off the project and can move onto more video out here in California. While this has been on Vimeo for a week or so and promoted elsewhere, I figured I'd go ahead and do a little update here with it as well for you non-followers elsewhere.

Stay tuned for some stills from the Lake Tahoe area!

More Spring Sporting

The weather over the past weeks here in Boone has been questionable at best for the minds of most--but for paddlers it's been great. Full size consecutive storms in the area have dumped enough water in the area to have some seldom seen areas run, including North Harper's Creek, a technical sloping 35 footer with a 10 foot lead in boof. A few friends and I hiked in for some shooting.

However, with a few breaks in the clouds, we managed to get up into the Linville Wilderness to get a little bit of trail running done with my marathon running friend Teagan Miller. It's hard to elaborate in words about what the photos convey already. Linville is beautiful. It might even make running fun for those that find it to be torture.

This past weekend I got the pleasure to check out a new scene for me--BMX. I was invited to a BMX dirt jump jam in Raleigh, North Carolina, and it was a pretty rowdy and exciting event. It had all the happenings of being a miniature Skatopia or something out of a mid-90s punk inspired movie. My background as a mountain biker proved to be worthless on tight-transitioned dirt jumps, and I've got the bruises to show it. But hey, can you really shoot anything without doing it?

I know this is a short post for now, but keep an eye out for some big stuff coming out later this month, including a move to California, a huge new client, and a lot of motion work!

Highlining Hebron

Over the past year I've become quite jaded on Boone from time to time. It's easy to get stuck in a rut here; being a small town with limited social circles, Boone can become a little monotonous. But Friday afternoon while Mike Holley was setting up his high line above Hebron Rock Colony, a Appalachian favorite outdoor chill spot, I had a rejuvenated sense of love for the area. Hebron already is a beautiful place, but just knowing that this is what my buddies do on a Friday afternoon after they get out of class is powerful. After talking with friends from other universities about the non-curricular recreation opportunities in their areas, I've once again remembered how lucky I am to get to do things like this on a regular basis.

Years ago when I met Mike for the first time, he instantly was put on my short list of people to photograph after hearing about his adventures. He is constantly bouncing around the world going on climbing and surfing adventures, and is truly inspirational. I'm glad we finally got together to shoot some of his athleticism.

It's Finally Here (Winter)

Winter, that is. Hopefully. Maybe it's just another tease of a cold front bringing an all too familiar "arctic blast". Our weather systems seem to be stuck in a rut, where anywhere between 1"-4" of rain will drop over the area in about 24 hours (leading to some great kayaking) followed by a short, intense blast of cold air. After two or three days of cold, the system mellows out, and repeats itself. This has led to an outstanding winter kayaking season, but a horrible and inconsistent ski season, leaving the area recreationally and economically crippled. So while watching the rain fall on Tuesday and watching the river gauges surge, I received a call from the Winston-Salem Journal asking if I can shoot a story about the less than successful ski season. No problem.

However after a few inches of fresh snow and a few inches of fresh gun snow, a thin facade was laid upon the area resorts. It couldn't have come at a better time as they gear up for MLK weekend.

Best of 2011

Seeing everyone's "Best of 2011" galleries this year made me even more reluctant to do the annual update, but after finding a yearly update I wrote to myself from 4 years ago, I remembered how gratifying it is to see progress, while it may not be evident on the surface. This year was great on a personal level, and shaky at best photographically. 2011 brought many transformations in my photography; mainly, the switch from a photojournalistic path to editorial and commercial. It still doesn't feel right at all telling someone to move, or changing anything whatsoever. I've had some cool opportunities such as working in Costa Rica, reconnecting on an old photo story, and hanging out with some pretty rad professional athletes, but I've had some downs too, such as getting all of my photo gear stolen, and my first budget-induced layoff.

So here it is. I'm not claiming this as my best year, but I hope to see it as a reinventing year. A rocky switch from one path to another, but I foresee this path heading to great places. Some big irons have been thrown in the fire in the past few weeks, I'm excited to see how they grow with time.

Sanford Portraits

I'm always referred to as the "sports" guy, or the "action" guy, and I don't see those as necessarily bad terms, but I don't like being a one dimensional (I guess that explains my insatiable thirst for random outdoor sports).

So when a class assignment came up that gave us the option between shooting pre-game tailgaiting, or "fall fashions", I decided to stir things up and side with the latter. I thought I'd bring my own light to fall fashions, and let the themes of my wardrobe be reiterated through the photos themselves; that being whatever works. I decided to go for more of a cross-section of Appalachian wear, rather than select the nicest dressed individuals that make me feel bad about wearing clipless shoes and shirts covered with mud to class.

It's also fun to walk around campus with a scrim, location pack, and softbox, and commanding people to pose for portraits.

Article in Free Hub Magazine

I've been working recently with mountain biker Daniel Sapp to put together a rider bio for Free Hub Magazine. We did two shoots last week in the High Country area with tons of hiking. Free Hub does two annual print issues of about 200 pages, with that nice thick paper, and then a monthly online magazine, with the identical lay out as print. Pretty cool idea, looks like they are doing it right too. This is currently the "article of the week" and come the turn of the month it will go in the online edition, and then in the print edition in the spring.

Thanks to D-Sapp for the hook up and the talented riding!

Technical Details:

1.) Canon 1D, Tamron 17-35, 2 SB-28's on Pocketwizards

2.) Canon 20D, Canon 50 1.4, 2 SB-28's on Pocketwizards

3.) Canon 20D, Tamron 17-35, Natural light