Merry Christmas

I've been deathly ill for the last week or so. Last Friday evening I shot an Arenacross event in Heber City and it was really fun, but the fumes gave me a monster headache, and made me pretty queasy, and then the next day I was in bed. I think my immune system must've been doing battle on several different fronts and the fumes were just enough to tip me over the edge. I have a plastic garbage can filled with mucous and hoard of empty water bottles, along with several empty boxes of Tylenol Cold/Flu. Was it swine flu? Bronchitis? Leukemia? AIDS? I don't know, and I don't plan to give the doctors the satisfaction of diagnosing me, but let's just say I've done nothing since Saturday that didn't actively involve resting. 

Regarding the picture above, it's my brother Mick. I have been shivering my butt off for the last several days, and although it's cold outside, I wanted an image that had a lot of warmth to it. I noticed the golden hour approaching, so I rigged up the ND .9 Gradient filter that my mommy got me for Christmas, and the three stops of extra darkness really helped keep the colors a lot more natural and keep that lens flare under control. My brother has a natural cool factor that he can kind of employ at will, and the fact that he drives a restored 1970 Baja certainly doesn't hurt the issue. Hope you guys like the photo.

Sancho

This is my new sidekick Danielle. Check out her blog right here. She assigned herself as my protoge, and has been wanting to get better at photography just for her personal use. She's probably going to hate me for posting these pictures, but I don't care...... She told me I need to come up with a rad sidekick nickname, but so far I've been at a loss so I just refer to her in my head as Sancho (Don Quixote's sidekick). She's brand new to photography and has been trying to wrap her head around the whole exposure thing (which, for those of you who don't shoot, can be totally maddening at first), and I've kind of been there to help her out a little bit. Anyway, last night we spent about an hour up at the U of U and took a couple of photos to show her a little bit about how shutter speed and aperture are interrelated. Here's two of the little shots I snapped while she wasn't paying attention. The lighting was totally disappointing because it has been gorgeous all day, then about 3 o'clock the clouds rolled in and it got super dark. I was hoping for some nice warm evening colors, but instead got some very cold looking images, but I think they actually turned out kind of nice. We were able to grab a little rim light from the football stadium lights and it added a nice little extra bit of depth to the images. Enjoy.

Captain's Blog...

So.........no snow in Utah was getting lame, so MN (Mother Nature) decided to bless us with some love, but before that happened, the Canyons Resort has been working hard with their limited resources to provide the best possible park, despite their lack of snow. This weekend's storm has allowed them to do a lot more, but this was before they had any additional terrain open. Pretty pumped to go out and shoot with some of the local kids. Still no skiers that have approached me and want to hike and get shots, so until that happens, looks like it's going to be a terrain park blog loaded with snowboard shots (and yes, that's a challenge to all you skier kids that totally slay it. I know you're out there)? These are the newest features in the terrain park, and we had a lot of fun getting some afternoon shots, and stoked that mini Milo shred Jonas was able to come out and kill it for a few shots. Snagged an edge on his frontside 270 and slammed pretty hard, unstrapped, jumped up, and ran back up the hill for a second run, and stuck a f/s 270 on, 270 out. Straight slaying it, son. Stoked on Simon and E-Long for sacrificing their bodies as well. Get pumped for new features this weekend!

The Real Jeremy Jones

Unless you grew up under a rock or are retarded, you've heard of Jeremy Jones. I can't think of another professional snowboarder who has been killing it consistently for longer than the big man on campus. I know that his riding has influenced my personal snowboarding more than any other professional snowboarder out there. His banger video parts are still next-level, despite the fact that he's been pro for longer than most shredder kids have been out of diapers, and he recently had the cover of Transworld Snowboarding. I remember watching The Resistance the first year I learned how to snowboard, and it was him and the rest of the Forum Eight that made me want to pursue this crazy lifestyle and make a career out of it. That being said, let me say that it was absolutely legendary to be able to sit down and have a photo shoot with Jeremy. We connected down at Milosport in Orem and he was totally pumped to be working with us. I was super nervous because I'm still really new to photography, and although I know how to get a good exposure, and I understand composition, it's still stressful because this guy has worked with some of the very best action sport and lifestyle photographers in the entire world. Talk about stepping into some large shoes! Now that it's all said and done, I'm stoked that I didn't faint or have a stroke or something, and I was able to get some good images despite the fact that my fingers were covered in sweat and were slipping off the shutter button. Enjoy.

Urban Legend: Seth Huot

If you've grown up in Utah, like me, and associated with anyone in the action sports industry, you've probably heard the name Seth Huot from time to time. One of the most influential snowboarders to ever grace the Wasatch Front, Seth has been slaying the SLC handrails for longer than most kids have been able to turn. We started out by driving up past the State Capitol kind of by This Is the Place Monument, and then went down underneath I-15 and shot by the railroad tracks, representing post-modernism and urban decay in America. It was totally epic.

Mr. Nyman

Blake Nyman is another one of those kids that I grew up with who've made it to the big leagues. With his laundry list of world class sponsors, and his pivotal role in Nimbus Independent's newest feature film "Contrast," he's quickly storming the beaches of the freeskiing hall of fame. Laying down consistent hammers all the time, and keeping it real with the most legit pros in all the industry, Blake is paving the way for his own future with hard work and a rad style that is unmatched along the Wasatch Front. I rolled up to Causewell SLC in Cottonwood Heights and we shot in the shop, and out in the parking lot, and came away with some images that I'm super stoked on. Check it out.

Tilt Shift Gen - Fake DSLR

So, in my never ending quest for better iPhone apps, I stumbled across this beauty earlier this week. It's call TiltShiftGen, and it's probably the greatest thing in the whole world ever ever. It generates fake Tilt Shift Effects for your iPhone pics, and has a super rad GUI and multi-touch control system. I dig it for sure, but don't take my word for it, check out the results!

Before:

And after:

Jon Kooley: Most Mellow Person Alive?

Shooting for SIEGE Audio has its perks, and one of those, especially for an aspiring new media producer like myself, is the opportunity to shoot with professional athletes, and have featured international content on their website. My first foray into the life of photographic professional snowboarders started with Jon Kooley, as we swung by his place in Salt Lake City. He was hanging out, playing Zelda on the Wii, chilling with his dogs and playing guitar and we were able to snap a few photos of his lifestyle. He was one of the most easy going guys to work with, and said that he was stoked on us wanting to capture super organic, candid looking portraits that didn't look like we sat him down and had a formal photo shoot. When it was all said and done, I was super stoked on the images that came from the session, and I feel like it captured his persona very well. Sometimes his video parts make him look like he has a lot of aggression and anger, but he's actually one of the most laid back, chilled out people I've ever hung out with. Props to him for keeping it real all these years. Plus his snowboarding is siiiiiiiiick. Here's some of my favorite images from the day.

Concise Kilgore

I'm not really into rap music. I'm not that into hip hop either, but you could definitely say that rap and Parker don't really exist well together. That being said, it's understandable why when Shane over at SIEGE was like, "Hey, now we're going to head over and shoot with Concise Kilgore," I was thinking to myself, "Concise Whodilly?" Apparently, he's kind of a big deal in the local underground hip hop scene, and he's definitely one of the most legit, and nice kids I've hung out with in a long time. We headed over to FICE SLC and shot in the store, as well as in the alley behind the shop on 2nd and 2nd in downtown. Some pretty rad graffiti art back there, if you've never checked it out. Definitely worth a detour. Kristopher and I both came away with some pretty compelling images, and Concise got rockstar treatment posing in front of the lenses. Peep the images.

Jeff Larson | The Hot Noise

One of the first shoots I did with SIEGE Audio was working with a long-time friend Hot Noise, one of the card carrying OG electro DJ's from SLC. Jeff and I went to high school together, and our parents actually live just a couple blocks away from each other down in Orem. It's been pretty awesome to see the transformation to next-level DJ status that he's made, because I remember back in the day when we used to throw electro dance parties in Provo, and when they started there were seriously like ten people that would show up, and the kids that were there were raging for five hours straight without a water break.

Times definitely change. From empty dance floors to waiting lists and standing room only, Hot Noise has become one of the quintessential acts of the Salt Lake City club scene, and his devotion to the genre, along with the support of a lot of other super rad kids in the downtown district has boosted electro dance parties to the forefront of the SLC night life. Electro has stirred the scene in a big way, and thanks to Hot Noise, it's not leaving anytime soon. Here's some photos from a basement mix-tape session, enjoy.