Crossroad Studios Old Blog

New Website!

2010-08-21T11:46:00.002-06:00

Well, everyone, it's finally happened. After years of saying I was going to finish a functional site, it has arrived. http://www.crossroadstudios.com. I'm currently migrating all the blog content over there, as well as photo and video stuff, so expect it to only get better and better over the course of the next month, but it is totally functioning as of right now. Andy and I are working super hard on a marketing redesign and branding mission to make the Wasatch Mountain Podcast (new working title, what do you think?) a huge success. We need your help though, so bookmark the new site, add it to your favorites, share it on facebook, etc. Heck, you could tweet about it everyday if you want, because we want everyone to know what we're up to.

The new blog looks almost exactly like the old one, and you'll be able to track down all your favorite blog posts using the handy archive tool found on the right hand site of the column navigation. Every post we've ever done will show up right there, regardless of whether it was only on the blogger blog.

In addition, Wasatch Mountain Podcast (still haven't decided what we're going to call it) has its own section of the site, featuring photos and videos from the production, as well as all 12 episodes that we've posted so far. You can watch all your favorite episodes from Seasons 1 and 2, as well as watch all the upcoming stuff for Season 3, and since it's going to be 2011, we thought it would be fitting if Andy and I, along with our trusted friends, climbed and shredded every peak in the Wasatch Mountains over 11,000 ft. Get it? 2011; 11,000? 11:11? It's catchy, right? Makes loads of sense? Either way, we're stoked to get some peak bagging in, as well as some gnarly lines that have been on our hitlist for a few years. Get stoked, and tell all your friends about it, will ya? We need your help!

Lost in the Woods

2010-08-11T11:44:00.001-06:00

There are some truly beautiful places in the world, and I personally think Utah kind of has a monopoly on scenery–the High Uintas, indeed, are no exception to this standard. I went to the Ashley National Forest with my backpacking class this past weekend, and had a marvelous time. I was, fortunately, able to finally field test my new hammock and mosquito net, as well as my new JetBoil Flash cooking system. All three performed wonderfully (just in case you were wondering).

(remember to click on any image for a larger view)

The Uintas aren't exactly what I'd call a "pristine" wilderness area, because there are fully established trails weaving all throughout over 450,000 acres of wilderness preserve, but the lush environment certainly establishes a real sense of wild wooded country. People do indeed get lost and die in the zone every season (most due to improper planning, and wilderness savvy), but all-in-all, it's a fabulous area to take your family, your pets, and loved ones. Or, in our case, your class.

Garth Tino was our instructor for the semester and shared a lot of insight with regard to gear and know-how when it comes to having an enjoyable time in the backcountry. One of the things that I thought was pretty awesome was Garth's dedication to the principles of Leave No Trace. It's something of a new experience for me, although a lot of the principles are not.

The Leave No Trace: Outdoor Ethics list is as follows:

Plan Ahead and Prepare

Know the regulations and special concerns for the area you'll visit.
Prepare for extreme weather, hazards, and emergencies.
Schedule your trip to avoid times of high use.
Visit in small groups. Split larger parties into groups of 4-6.
Repackage food to minimize waste.
Use a map and compass to eliminate the use of rock cairns, flagging or marking paint.

Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces

Durable surfaces include established trails and campsies, rock, gravel, dry grasses or snow.
Protect riparian areas by camping at least 200 feet from lakes, streams.
Good campsites are found, not made. Altering a site is not necessary.

In popular areas

Concentrate use on existing trails and campsites.
Walk single file in the middle of the trail, even when we or muddy.
Keep campsites small. Focus activity in areas where vegetation is absent.

In pristine areas

Disperse use to prevent the creation of campsites and trails.
Avoid places where impacts are just beginning.

Dispose of Waste Properly

Pack it in, pack it out. Inspect your campsite and rest areas for trash or spilled foods. Pack out all trash, leftover food, and litter.
Deposit solid human waste in catholes dug 6 to 8 inches deep at least 200 feet from water, camp, and trails. Cover and disguise the cathole when finished.
Pack out toilet paper and hygiene products.
To wash yourself or your dishes, carry water 200 feet away from streams or lakes and use small amounts of biodegradable soap. Scatter strained dishwater.

Leave What You Find

Preserve the past: observe, but do not touch, cultural or historic structures and artifacts.
Leave rocks, plants and other natural objects as you find them.
Avoid introducing or transporting non-native species.
Do not build structures, furniture, or dig trenches.

Minimize Campfire Impacts

Campfires can cause lasting impacts to the backcountry. use a light-weight stove for cooking and enjoy a candle lantern for light.
Where fires are permitted, use established fire rings, fire pans, or mound fires.
Keep fires small. Only use sticks from the ground that can be broken by hand.
Burn all wood and coals to ash, put out campfires completely, then scatter cool ashes.

Respect Wildlife

Observe wildlife from a distance. Do no follow or approach them.
never feed animals. Feeding wildlife damages their health, alters natural behaviors, and exposes them to predators and other dangers.
Protect wildlife and your food by storing rations and trash securely.
Control pets at all times, or leave them at home.
Avoid wildlife during sensitive times: mating, nesting, raising young, or winter.

Be Considerate of Other Visitors

Respect other visitors and protect the quality of their experience.
Be courteous. Yield to other users on the trail.
Step to the downhill side of the trail encountering pack stock.
Take breaks and camp away from trails and other visitors.
Let nature's sounds prevail. Avoid loud voices and noises.

If you're looking for some great cross-country backpacking, look no further than the High Uintas. Everything from forests, to lakes, to 13,000 ft summits. It's an outdoorsman's dream location, and it's right out our back door.

Timpanogos 7/18/2010

2010-08-01T13:13:00.000-06:00

This is one of the most memorable adventures I've had in recent years, and I think the video speaks completely for itself. I hope you enjoy it. For an additional writeup you can check out Andy Earl's blog.

Pelican Point

2010-07-16T23:49:00.001-06:00

Pelican Point is home to a quarry where contractors glean all their structural fill rock for use in marshy or high water-table areas. It's a busy, busy zone during the day, with trucks coming to and fro starting from about 6 am until dark. But at night, it's a ghost-town, and the perfect place to have some solitude and setup an overnight time-lapse session. I've been wanting to do an overnighter for awhile, and I've been waiting for the right moment. It's hard to nail it perfectly, and a lot of of the time, you can end up with a full night wasted, and a relatively boring series. I got to Pelican Point about 1 am, and setup my camera only to realize that I had left all my Compact Flash cards at home. Fernanda and I cruised over to the Wal-Mart in Saratoga Springs and grabbed a quick 4GB. On the settings I was using, I only had enough memory space for 241 images, so I did some math and decided that a six hour time-lapse could be condensed into roughly 216 images, if played back at 24 frames per second, and end up as 9 seconds of video. So I took a picture every 90 seconds to get the time lapse you see below. I don't think I could have hit it on a better day, and I had a very amazing morning watching as the sun crept above the horizon and bathed my bare feet in warmth as I lay in the back of my car with the back hatch open to the air. Couldn't ask for a more pleasant time. Here's a few more pictures and then the video. It turned out so sick. The song is by Love As Laughter, called Coconut Flakes, and it's from the movie 180º South, which is one of the best documentaries ever (in my humble opinion). Enjoy.

Happy Birthday, Chelsea!

2010-06-23T18:03:00.000-06:00

Chelsea and I have known each other since 2006, and dated for a large portion of the time period, and she has become, by far, my best friend in the time since our last break-up (yes, there were several). We always go all-out for each other's birthdays, and this year I thought it would be fun to go up to Park City and do some hiking. We had initially planned on going up Guardsman Pass from the BCC side, then hiking up to Scott's Bowl and then down to Shadow Lake, which sits by the bottom of the Jupiter chairlift at PCMR. That didn't work out, because Guardsman Pass is still closed to through traffic, which I thought was weird, because I was under the assumption that all the gates opened at about Memorial Day. I was wrong. Instead we drove to the top ridge of the Park City Ridgeline that separates Deer Valley from Wasatch State Park, and the above photo is an HDR Panorama looking toward point 10,420 above Great Western at Brighton, but from the northeast.

We joked that if I had told her four years ago that she'd spend her 26th (ahem, I mean 21st?) birthday climbing mountains, she probably would have laughed in my face. But it was cool because we ended up parking in a Deer Valley parking lot, then hiked all the way over to McKonkey's Bowl, just east of Jupiter Peak inside Park City Mountain Resort. We thought about doing the peak, which only would have been another 25 minutes, but our timing was poor, and the sun had set, and we were improperly dressed, so the temperature was starting to dive. So we headed back to the car, she opened her presents (two seasons of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a Star Wars poster, Muppet Wizard of Oz, a stretchy dragon, and a Big Hissy Fit). The best present is probably the Star Wars poster, and I told her that it's a celebration that she can finally admit that the geek lifestyle is superior to that of other media consumers.

Provo Peak and Mount Cascade from the north.

The Timber Lakes area east of Heber City, UT.

After hiking and presents, we had dinner at Maxwell's Fat Kid Pizza in Kimball Junction. I think the rest of the world should take a lesson from these guys with regard to portions. We started with an appetizer of french fries. The plate of fries was bigger than most of New Jersey, and the pizza was probably five times the size of the french fries. Approved.

Red Bull Manny Mania

2010-06-19T19:51:00.000-06:00

I recently stopped working directly with Red Bull Energy Drink as an employee, but have been kept on as a consultant and independent contractor with the brand to do photography and video work at key branding events, which is much more to my liking anyway. One of the biggest campaigns in the action sports community right now is the Manny Mania series, which is a skateboard competition that focuses on manuals (a trick where the skateboard rides on only two of his/her four wheels). There's a lot of different kinds of manuals (mannies) and a ton of variations that can lead into, or out from a manny, so the competition combinations are virtually limitless.

Utah has such a rich cultural heritage that ranges a broad spectrum of origins, and the Red Bull marketing folks in Utah always try to incorporate a sense of heritage into all the events that are thrown in the state, and it was really cool to have Manny Mania SLC taking place in the shadow of the old Union Pacific Train Depot. Such a cool building, if you haven't ever had a chance to check it out. It's on South Temple and 400 West in downtown right by the Gateway Mall, and directly across the street from the Energy Solutions Arena where the Utah Jazz have their home games (and coincidentally where we held the event).

Serious hammers were being thrown down all day, and there was even a dude with no legs who totally rips at skateboarding. He's way better than I am and I even have legs! Overall I'm pretty stoked to be involved with such a cool company like Red Bull, and count my blessings each time I'm able to participate in an event. Look for my photos in their upcoming press releases, and get stoked on some of these images here.

Home Sweet Home

2010-06-16T03:32:00.000-06:00

Home has varying definitions for different people. For some, it is where they were raised, for others it's where they settle. For others beyond that, it's wherever they rest their head. "Home is where the heart is," being the common idiom. The lovely above picture was taken in Easton, Pennsylvania while I was serving my mission. If memory serves, it was taken from the Smith Street bridge over the Lehigh River near its confluence into the Delaware, on the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I lived in Easton for nearly six months, and can't, for the life of me, figure out why someone would choose to live there, over living where I call home. Now I have to take one step backward and state that everyone has a different value system as to why their choice for "home" is great, so I can only measure based on my personal value system. But let's compare two pictures:

First, this one from Easton.

This picture was taken about 20 minutes from my apartment on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River looking back at the downtown area of Easton, and you can see the Lehigh River flowing into the Delaware. It's beautiful, and I can definitely appreciate how green and amazing the scenery is there. But when you stack it next to a picture like this:

This picture was taken about 20 minutes from my home in Utah. And about 5 minutes from where I lived when I was in high school, and the home that my family lived in while I was on my mission. Why anyone on earth would choose the east coast over the majesty of the mountains escapes my understanding. Granted, everyone has their preferences, and I'm not saying those preferences are wrong or bad in anyway, I just don't understand it. It doesn't makes the remotest sense in my simple mind.

Here's another fun contrast; while I lived in Easton, I baptized Jenni Fehr. This was six years ago. She'll probably hate me for posting this, but it's entertaining for me. Well, she came to visit last week so here's a few more pics, plus a rad foggy/cloudy shot of the western cliffs of Mount Cascade from approximately the Hope Campground region.

Jenni Fehr, Me, and Erin McMullin Wojcicki

Jenni six years later with a radical backdrop.

Epic shot of Mount Cascade.

Ultimately, the definition of home will come down to what the Lord has said, and there's a passage in 3 Nephi 21:28 that I really like, and I'll leave you with that:

Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance.

Learning Experience. Period.

2010-06-16T02:53:00.000-06:00

The next two and a half years, for me, at least, is going to be filled with triathalons. I'm going to be the principal cinematographer on a documentary featuring James Lawrence (shown above after finishing the Boise 70.3 Ironman race) who is planning to break the world record in 2012 by doing 20 full Ironman triathalons in order to raise money for Kenyan famine relief. We shot the Boise event and I learned quite a few things about shooting swimming, running, and biking. Things that I hadn't known before, and it's really interesting. Hopefully everything I do from now on will be better. Here's a few images from the race. Most are still frame grabs from the video I was shooting. I love my camera.

The Tri And Give a Dam folks

James rounding the loop of the halfway point of the run portion of the Ironman

Approaching the finish line and looking strong.

Showing off for the crowd and the cameras. My shutter speed on the video was a little bit slow, I'm coming to find out. I want it to look a little crispier.

Round One: Fight!

2010-06-12T08:19:00.000-06:00

Boise is gorgeous this time of year, and the 70.3 Iron Man Triathalon taking place on Saturday 6/12 couldn't have picked more gorgeous conditions. Primarily shooting video for this one, because it's a trial run for the project I'm working on in 2012. We're attempting to work out the kinks and figure out the best way to cover these events because we're going to be traveling the globe shooting James Lawrence doing 20 Iron Man races in one year. I'm pretty stoked. Boise is round one. Let the battle begin.

Kyle, James, Ryan, and Kyle after check-in.

Ryan Rudd is along for the ride, and ended up doing maintenance.

Rob Schopke just got his new 5D Mark II setup and is stoked.

We couldn't decide if he was flexing for this picture, but ultimately we decided that because he's a triathalete, he's always flexing.

1942 Ferrari Race Car

2010-06-11T09:01:00.001-06:00

"Hey, is that a race car? What kind is it?" shouts the man in a drunken near-stupor sitting on the bench outside ABG's bar in downtown Provo, UT.

"It's a Ferrari!" replies Ryan Rudd, sitting in the right-hand driver's seat of his olive green motorized vehicle.

"What year is it?"

"1942!"

"Wow!"

In reality it's not a 1942 Ferrari Race Car, but rather a 1972 Skyline 2000 GT that Ryan imported from Japan. It's a pretty good ride for getting double-takes because the steering column in on the right-hand side of the car instead of the left, so people always see us cruising down the street and realize that something weird is afoot. Ryan and I got together for about 35 minutes this morning to hammer out a couple detail shots of his car for a web article that's being put together later today, so here's some of those images.

War Machines

2010-06-03T02:30:00.001-06:00

You know, people sometimes get on my case about the fact that I don't like shooting weddings and senior portraits. But if they shot the same types of things that I shoot, they'd never want to shoot another wedding in their life. I mean, seriously, just think about this: given the choice between shooting an engagement session, or shooting at the top of a mountain, which is cooler? The mountain. Given the choice between a bridal shoot, and Apache freaking helicopters? Duh. Apache freaking attack helicopters.

I've worked with my friend Weston Critchfield on several projects over the last year, and he's DPing a music video which features some footage of US Army choppers taking off from the airfield, and I was brought on for the shoot for one day just to shoot some video of the helicopters with my telephoto lens. Yeah, it was awesome. I'm tempted to join the National Guard just so I can make $20,000 a year and fly helicopters. Ok, so that's a lie, but you get the idea. I shot a couple of photos while we were there, but my primary concern was shooting cool video.

I can proudly tout the fact that I was the first UVU student to purchase an HDDSLR for the primary purpose of shooting video. I got my Canon 5DMKII in December of 2008, and since that time, several of my peers have joined the ranks of proud owners of an HDDSLR. For those of you who don't know, I'm talking about a camera system that is a single-lens-reflex still photo camera, and also an HD video camera built into the same camera body with the same sensor. Canon and Nikon both have three different models of camera that do double duty, and I've been shooting then entire Wasatch Podcast on my HDDSLR. One of the major benefits is the fact that you can throw incredible lenses on these cameras and get depth-of-field effects that can't be duplicated by prosumer HD camcorders. The Panasonic HVX has been the industry standard for independent video for the past several years, and has been pushed aside by video systems that technically have inferior color and image data, but the depth of field just makes it look so much better that people are willing to sacrifice on the technical side for the benefits on the aesthetic side.

There were five of us on the shoot that had HDDSLRs and it was fun to bounce ideas off each other and share lenses. I had a fun time shooting with David's 200mm ƒ/2.8 prime lens. I couldn't tell a difference between that lens and my 70-200 ƒ/2.8L IS USM lens with regard to sharpness at 200mm, but it was nice to not have a million pounds of lens hanging off the end of my camera. Much more compact and a lot lighter.

All the people at the base were so much more helpful than I thought they were going to be. I should have known better, considering my good friend Ryan is in the National Guard, but for some reason I thought the environment was going to be a lot more rigid and stiff, but it turned out to be very laid back and fun. Utterly stress-free, and just a rad rush of watching these incredible war machines, and the soldiers that spend their time mastering them, do what they were intended to do.

Family

2010-06-02T01:26:00.000-06:00

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I saw Prince of Persia three times, each viewing accompanied by different groups of people. I really enjoyed the movie, and each successive time I felt a greater significance attached to the line spoken by the King to his adopted son Dastan:

"Family; the bond between brothers is the sword that defends the empire."

Pictured above is the eldest of my three brothers Mick, who is twenty-two years old. In recent years I've felt a distance grow between my brothers and myself, and whether it be just part of growing up, or something I've subconsciously help construct (or perhaps something they have individually constructed), this is a distance I'm trying to shorten of late. Mick's lifestyle doesn't always mesh well with mine, and as a result we spend a lot of time apart, but recently we've been able to find a lot of middle ground where we can spend time with each other and both have a really good time.

My second brother, Kory, just left last week for London to serve for two years as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, preaching the good news of the Gospel of Christ to the people of southern London. His passion for snowboarding over the past two seasons has allowed me to spend more time with him than the rest of my siblings during the time since returning from my full-time mission nearly five years ago. It is my hope that I can continue building a closer relationship with him while he's on the other side of the globe.

There is a large age-gap between Kyle and I, and as a result our schedules rarely work out, and we don't have a ton in common. He loves to spend his time exploring the limits of different video games and shooting pellet guns at his friend's farm, and hiking and snowboarding have little interest for him currently. In fact, nothing really interests him, including getting his driver license or a job, although he recently got hired on as an extra hand at his buddy's farm milking cows and doing odd jobs. It's tough to build a close relationship that is full of depth and meaning when you don't have a ton in common, but we've recently been able to have a lot of fun together and I feel like things are looking up across the board with my brothers.

Oh, what can I say? Elanor a spoiled attention seeker who loves to get her brothers in trouble by making a scene out of just about anything, but she still manages to put a smile on my face everytime I spend time around her. She's nine-years-old, and trying to grow up much too fast. Her recent obsession is text-messaging. When Kory left for his mission last Thursday, his cell-phone unwittingly fell into the groping hands of Elanor, and now almost daily I get a "How R U?" or a "Lol" from Elanor. She's definitely not satisfied with being nine, and I think nineteen can't come too soon in her eyes. Mick taught her to do a backflip on the trampoline a couple weeks ago, and now she's managed to do a backflip while holding the cell phone and probably texting with one hand at the same time.

I love my family, and although we're kind of mess, whose family isn't? I submit that the moment the perfect family appears, the world will end. Until then, I'll keep mine.

Lisa and Ben

2010-06-01T18:32:00.000-06:00

I know what you're thinking: "Wait a second. I say, hold on there, just a minute; Parker doesn't shoot weddings!"

Now, that's not fair. Yes, it's true that I loath how most weddings (particularly LDS weddings) are celebrated, and feel that the manner by which most people carry out the tradition is silly and antiquated, but there is something on this earth that can get me to step way way outside my comfort zone and shoot the occasional wedding: food. And I don't mean food as in exotic or luxurious food. I mean food in general. I mean survival, sustenance, fuel. That's what happens when you're a flat broke photographer trying to scrape by–you end up doing things that perhaps you otherwise wouldn't do. Yes, it's true that I think most weddings are silly, but that being said, I do get hungry, and weddings pay well, so don't judge me.

All joking aside, I had a fantastic time in Coto De Caza shooting Ben and Lisa's reception. It was nice and relatively stress free because it was round two, so to speak, in the series of receptions, because they were married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, UT, and had a big celebration in Utah the week before, then had an additional party in Mission Viejo, CA the following weekend for all of Lisa's friends back home. I've always been one of those guys that enjoys the occasional trip to California, but wouldn't want to live there. As the years go by, I find myself in Southern California more and more often, and my distaste for ever setting up shop there keeps growing, but it was a wonderful trip, regardless. Lisa and Ben threw a great party, and I made some friends that I hope will last a lifetime. Here's a bunch of photos from the reception. I'm not in the mood to give captions to them, so you'll just have to make up your own stories for each image. Feel free to click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.

Moustache May!

2010-05-30T13:44:00.000-06:00

I labeled it as the "Greatest Gathering of Moustaches the World Has Ever Known." Regardless of whether or not that's actually true, this year's Moustache May party, held on May 22, 2010, was a roaring success. The weather was not cooperating all day and I thought it was going to rain and ruin the adventures, but the clouds blew away, the sun came out, and people started showing up right on cue.

It was fun to see all the different moustaches that people came up with. Rob's wife made chocolate suckers that looked like moustaches, and Janna Mills definitely knew how to rock the chocolate. Men had moustaches, women had moustaches, children and pets had moustaches, and ultimately it was just an excuse for people to get together and have a cookout.

Todd, Rob, and Denny lookin' purdy.

Tanner Mills, ladies and gentlemen.

The happy couple. Sporting the 'staches well.

I set up a white backdrop in the garage and my studio lights and for the first two hours or so I made it a point to take pictures of the guests, but somewhere along the way I lost interest and put my camera away. Ultimately I'm really stoked with how the party turned out. A bunch of my friends drove down from Canada and Idaho, as well as quite a few making the short trek from Salt Lake City to come party like it was 1988. We gave out prizes for what we considered best 'staches:

1) Most Creative: My sister Elanor, with her "Grass 'Stache." She won some Pringles.

2) Best Artificial: Jade Magnum Thomason for his Curly Cue. A copy of Borat.

3) Best Authentic: K for the Win. His creation was absolutely unmatched. Mr. Potato Head Prize.

Next year should be even better, so we hope to see many many more people make the trek and the sacrifice to enjoy a Moustached America. We at the Moustache May party do recognize that the current system is a disincentive for the clean shaven to enjoy the Utopia that we dream of, but we just need to start small. One moustache at a time.

No caption necessary.

Jade and Marcus making it happen.

Ze German girls.

Erin and I. Her moustache is bigger than mine.

Check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=428023&id=737705555

May the 4th Be With You

2010-05-05T01:29:00.000-06:00

Here we are. The 4th is with us on Star Wars Day in Newport Beach, and Mick is found in his usual position, sleeping in, despite the noise and commotion four men can make in the same hotel room. I thought that for $46 a night we'd be staying in a dive, but it was actually pretty nice. The beds weren't the most comfortable, but it wasn't really that bad. Travelodge Newport Beach. Stay there. If you dare.

The mini-fridge took a typical look as well, filled with all the essentials of life when you're on a road trip. We spent Monday at Magic Mountain and managed to ride each of the roller coasters in the park, and many of them we rode several times. I had a really good time. I got sick part-way through the day and had to sit out a couple, but my brothers rode about 25 different times. Tuesday was spent at Huntington Beach doing some body boarding and throwing frisbees. But the highlight of the day was Roscoe's House of Chicken'n Waffles.

The syrup and the gravy both finer than wine. We went to Long Beach and made the magic happen. Then we went to the beach and took some sunset photos on Long Beach. It was lovely.

Ramakrishna

2010-05-02T09:53:00.001-06:00

HDRI has been incredibly fun lately. This dark hallways at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Monastery had an incredible amount of detail that I wanted to capture. 5 exposures later, and a little love from Photomatix, and we got some nice colors showing through on this piece.

The Vedanta society gleans their beliefs from the Vedas, which are the ancient scriptures of India, and this monastery was built in 1949, has been voted one of the most beautiful places in Orange County. We walked around for a bit, but it was actually kind of boring, and the "monks" or whatever those people were, weren't the most forthcoming or helpful people in the world. It was really old and cool though, so I enjoyed checking it out. Here's a few more pictures.

Mission Viejo

2010-04-30T10:13:00.000-06:00

About a month ago I was hanging out in Springville, UT with my buddy Ryan Hong. At the time, he was living with his sister Lisa who was engaged to be married. We somehow got on the subject of photography and I peeked at their engagement photos, which were done by Jonathan Canlas, one of the most highly sought after film photographers in the western states. I commented on them, and it came out in the course of the conversation that I am a photographer, and they asked me what I charge to do just a reception, since they had all their Utah stuff planned out, they were still on the prowl for a photog to cover the California reception, because Lisa and Ryan are both from Mission Viejo, in Orange County. I sent them a bid, and was hired. Crashing at the Hong home and eating delicious food, and visiting interesting places with the grandparents has been really fun. Here's a few photos that I took while we were at the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary in Modjeska Canyon.

Mordor

2010-04-28T09:37:00.001-06:00

That's how it started. The next morning Grant and I met up at the mouth of Little Rock Canyon in Springville, UT, just north of the Three Sisters, and started headed up the gulch. It's a pretty interesting hike because there haven't been too many people in there over the years, and the trail is pretty much a minimalistic game trail that has the occasional human footprint.

6 AM was looking especially beautiful with some high soaring clouds up over Loafer Mountain and Spanish Fork Peak. Grant slept through his alarm, and as a result was about 20 minutes late, but it was fine because the trail was really sketchy and I kind of wanted a partner and some more light before I started up into the "wilderness." I really enjoyed the area though. I was eating at a little restaurant in Springville called La Casita with my dad last week, and I was looking over at the mountains and realized that I had never been in Little Rock Canyon. In fact, I didn't even know what it was called until this morning when I pulled up a USGS Topographical map online. But from the valley it looks crazy and filled with spines and jagged rocks and stuff, and it reminded me of Mordor from the Lord of the Rings movies. It didn't disappoint once inside. I decided to shoot pretty much everything inside the canyon as an HDR image. Some images have three shots comprising the composite, but most have 5 or 7. Enjoy.

This one made me feel like Shelob, looking down into Cirith Ungol. Except I was looking down into Springville.

It's amazing to me the lengths to which living organisms will go in order to exist.

These two images of grant were composited using three exposures.

Grant took these portraits of me and I like them.

It's Not Over

2010-04-25T01:48:00.000-06:00

So, I know my last post was all about how the season is winding down, and everyone is in summer mode, etc etc etc. Fortunately for me (and maybe for all you?), Daryl is still in winter snowboarding mode, and it definitely stoked to be alive. We've been trying to get up to Grizzly Gulch the last few days but my schedule and the weather have been conspiring against all our efforts. Today we were lucky enough to make it to the feature for a sunset session, despite the fact that the rest of the crew was doing gay bike races and stuff (just kidding Andy, just had to rub it in).

I'm so stoked on how these images turned out. In addition to the photos, Daryl and I lugged my track/dolly up the mountain, and got some pretty amazing looking video footage. Big ups to D.Young for holding down the fort and stomping some heavy tricks. Even though it's winding down, the snow season is definitely not over yet.

Spring Is Here

2010-04-23T16:57:00.000-06:00

As the snow retreats further and further toward the sky, I am sadly resigned to the fact that the winter is over. Granted, there is still some excellent riding to be done in the mountains, and every little rain storm in the valley means good solid snow at 10,000 ft, but most of the resorts are closed (Snowbird being, to my knowledge, the only Utah resort still operating), and a lot of my friends that I normally film with have fled the state, or are in summer-mode, pulling out their longboards and their slack-lines and chomping at the bit to go backpacking and rock climbing in their Chacos.

When I was growing up, I did a ton of backpacking and bouldering with my family, and spent a lot of time in Southern Utah and the Wasatch exploring trails and ravines and various aspects of the wilderness lifestyle. I learned early on how to efficiently pack, how to set up a tent, how to choose non-perishable foods that are high in protein for camping, etc. When Jr. High and High School rolled around, however, my family kind of stopped doing these things together, and none of my friends were interested in doing things other than jumping on the trampoline and going to the public pool (which is rad, by the way. That's not meant to be derogatory).

My major regret is just that my social circle moved away from the mountains if it wasn't snowboarding, and I just didn't spend that much time doing outdoor activities in the summer, and busied myself with working and attempting to save money so my winters could be more enjoyable. I remember waiting for the 50% off sales at Milosport so I could buy all my gear for the next season.

With that rather long preface, you can understand why the diminishment of Spring, and the approach of Summer has always been something of anathema to me, and I usually spend my summers counting down the days until the snow starts to fly again. I hope to make an emotional transition this summer, though. I'd really like to have the same passion for the mountains in the Summer and Fall that I do in the Winter and Spring, and I've been taking steps in the appropriate direction to reignite that love I used to have.

Last Sunday I went for a walk with my friend Erin McMullin down by Utah Lake. She's been my friend for about a year and a half and she's always keen for a good adventure, so we went and watched and listened to the images and sounds of Spring pushing its way into summer. I've never taken pictures of the reeds down by the lake, and I'm super stoked with how these ones turned out. Enjoy, and get stoked because I hope to have my blog filled with impressive images of God's handiwork all Summer long.

Ahoy!

2010-04-23T01:07:00.001-06:00

"Ahoy! End of season in sight, cap'n!"

Seems like this has been the prevailing attitude among pretty much everyone (except me and Andy). As I've been trying to organize spring park shooting, it's been like pulling teeth to get people together to shoot stuff. Eventually we were able to gather at Park City Mountain Resort, but it was graybird, so we ended up sessioning the pole jam feature that they put in for the last couple days. Such an amazing piece of metal, and it gave you a lot of opportunities to send it. I hit it the next day while shredding with my friend Rob and I thought I was going to die because you could charge it super deep into the transition. Big ups to all the guys who sacrificed their bodies for the shot, even though we didn't really get very many shots.

Unpublished

2010-04-23T00:35:00.001-06:00

I feel terribly negligent, and just realized that when I made the post about going hiking with Andy Earl and Forrest Shearer I forgot to include any high resolution images that weren't taken with my iPhone. Whoops! Here's just a few of the zone around the cornice that we were sessioning. Super cool day. Video of Andy will be in the new podcast episode, and the video of Forrest.......who knows. But he's sending it to his sponsors and to the TGR folks, so that's pretty cool. He got some pretty good looking drops.

Andy and Forrest atop the cornice after hiking back up.

Forrest Shearer hiking up for another drop.

First Time

2010-04-23T00:14:00.002-06:00

You'd think that being in my family would entitle you to snowboard lessons very early on in life. You'd be wrong. I did, however, finally manage to take my sister Elanor, who just turned 9 this month, out for her first day of snowboarding at Park City Mountain Resort. My dad scored a super cheap complete setup for her, and the trouble was just dialing in some time when I wasn't coaching, shooting for the podcast, or traveling. I guess good things come to those that wait, because we had a killer time.

We got there and it was a bit firm, but after about 30 minutes of practicing one-foot stuff, the snow started to get really slushy. El was getting really bummed out because my mom has been telling her for months that she was just going to jump on a snowboard and be ripping up and down the mountain. Now, my mom has never snowboarded before, and doesn't really know that there's a very basic progression that needs to take place in order for a person to learn how to snowboard, and it's very different from strapping into your buddy's whip at the local city park. Elanor's expectations were somewhat different than the reality of snowboarding, and for a few minutes I thought maybe she was going to quit. She just couldn't figure out how to do a toe-side traverse. Finally, after quite a few tries, something clicked and we were able to do toe-side and heel-side, and then start linking those turns together.

We grabbed some lunch in the lodge and then rushed back out for some more ski-boardin' because she was so stoked to finally be able to go about 50 feet without falling down. The rest of the day was just working on gaining better edge control and ripping down the First Time slope. By the end of the day, she could ride the entire First Time area without falling once, and at a pretty decent speed making toe and heel-side turns. I was pretty proud.

Sadly it's the end of the season, and she'll have to wait until the '10/'11 season before she can get back on her board, but she was pumped and ready to keep doing some more. I got a few slashes in the slush, and did some 180's (for the awe and entertainment of those riding the chairlift), and El promptly fell asleep before we even got on the highway. Learning to snowboard is tiring!

Busy Week!

2010-04-11T20:33:00.003-06:00

Ten consecutive days on snow as its way of taking a toll on your body and your mind, especially when those ten consecutive days mostly involved hiking for fresh snow. This most recent storm cycle dropped over seven feet of snow in the Cottonwoods, according to some data charts, and my body can only handle so much dawn-to-dusk shredding before it decides it's had enough. Fortunately, the last ten days have certainly been the best powder days of the season. I've already posted some images from Brighton and Park City on Monday and Tuesday, and here's just a few more pics from my days at The Canyons on Wednesday, Snowbird on Thursday, Davenport Hill/Days Fork and Brighton on Friday for the Red Bull Buttercup Contest, then back to Park City on Saturday. I certainly love living in the Wasatch. The photo above is my friend Todd Stay and I driving through Heber City, UT on our way to The Canyons. Nearly 3 feet of fresh that day. I initially had intended to shoot a lot of video with the GoPro, but that didn't really happen. Too much fun.

Todd and I on the lift with Justin Olsen and his buddy at The Canyons

About 3/4 of the way to the top of Davenport Hill in LCC. 10,092 ft.

Looking down at the upper Alta Resort parking lot and the Albion Basin from the top of Davenport Hill.

Forest Shearer scoping a line for next time. I'm squishing his head.

I didn't sleep at all on Thursday night for some reason. Just tossed and turned the whole night. After climbing Davenport Hill with no sleep and no breakfast I needed a rest, so I crashed for a couple hours in the Park and Ride off 6200 South and Wasatch Blvd

The drop-in tent for the Red Bull Buttercup at Brighton.

My buddy Blake Stephenson nailing a super fast blunt slide.

The winners of the Open: 1st Parker Worthen, 2nd Ted Barland, 3rd Jason Heckle

Words to live by.

100th Post - Uncanny

2010-04-07T07:15:00.000-06:00

My 67th day on snow yesterday was one of the best powder days I've ever had, and it's ironic that it's in April, and Park City was scheduled to close this coming Sunday. It was one of those fantastic days where you talk about it for years to come. It's a funny thing, because it seems like I have a lot of those days when I'm riding with my brother Kory. Maybe it's the fact that he doesn't get very many powder days, so I'm extra stoked to see him get some freshies, but he's just a good dude to ride with, as a general rule. He loves snowboarding and just wants to get out there on his board. Granted, he's a park rat, and I've been doing my best to break him of his evil ways, but, to be fair, everyone goes through their insane park rat stage. Some people just break out of it sooner than others. Anyway, I took the GoPro and through together a little edit to a Belle & Sebastian song that I really like. Hopefully you enjoy the deep snow, and Episode 5 of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast will be coming very soon.

All-Time @ Brighton

2010-04-06T19:15:00.000-06:00

It's funny to me how spring storms operate in Utah. Most of the time it'll be calm and peaceful in the valley, and raging up at the resorts, less than nine miles away. I understand the science (at least, I understand it as much as I plan to understand it, or care to investigate it), but it's just really interesting to me how I can meet Blake Nyman as Causwell at 8:30 with partly cloudy skies, and a temperature around 45º, and within 25 minutes be wrapped in the core a wild blizzard, with howling winds and lighting (yes, I said lighting). It wasn't anything unexpected though, because I read the storm forecast, so we went to work. J. Eichhorst and Hayden Price accompanied us and we headed out to the slackcountry. Some of us a lot more slowly than the others. It took me like 25 minutes to boot pack across Millicent Bowl due to the fact that I was post-holing every step up to my knees and often to my thighs. All in all, it was worth it. We were able to get three solid shots, and then take a couple laps on one of the most epic pow days of the season. The snow pack was really sketchy, and I honestly felt like I was tiptoeing around up there to keep slabs from breaking off onto my friends. No wonder Tuesday morning's avalanche forecast was HIGH. Anyway, enjoy these images. Most are screenshots from the video, and I recommend clicking on the images to see larger versions.

Blake looking very satisfied after stomping a decent sized drop.

Before

And after. Fully buried.

Hayden sending it into oblivion.

Blake; half-cab on the fun gap.

Red Bull 1976 Games

2010-04-06T18:34:00.000-06:00

Working for Red Bull Energy Drink has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and occasionally I get to participate in really fun events, like last Saturday's Red Bull 1976 Games, held at The Canyons Resort in Park City, UT. I showed up early to help my boss and the infrastructure team get the gates and the venue fully setup, then took a few turns with my longtime friend Blake Stephenson. The event started at about noon, and 863 images later, it was over. The premise of the contest is to wear retro gear to celebrate the Olympics that should have been. In 1976, Denver, CO was awarded the winter Olympic games, but due to political maneuvering, the games were shifted to Austria, so we at Red Bull decided that it was high time that 1976 got the glory it deserves. The contest consisted of a Snowbladecross race, and an old school air contest, where teams were judged based on skill, showmanship, and overall team mojo. I had so much fun taking pictures, the time just flew by, and I came away with about 80 really solid images. Here's a few of my favorites of the bunch. Enjoy.

This guy was on point the whole time

Airing through the gap

Jason Hindman on an all out sprint to the finish line

Lindsay Jacobellis should take some pointers from this homie

I think the X-Games would be better-off if it were like this.

In high-speed races like this, milliseconds count, so diving across the finish line was a commonly utilized tactic in order to shave a little time off your score.

Those of us who ride the terrain parks at either Park City or The Canyons are familiar with ski trains hitting jumps, but never quite like this.

Third place. The Shred Dogs of War

2nd place. Masterbladers? I think?

The defending champs: The Cream Team

Podium placement is something to truly be proud of.

Two Days in Big Fork

2010-04-04T13:57:00.001-06:00

Many of you who have followed my blog for some time know that from time to time I go out shredding with professional skier Blake Nyman, to try to get shots for the Nimbus Independent productions. One of the shots we got when we went out to Dry Fork in February or March ended up in their first En Route feature called Departure. Last Friday he and I went out to Big Fork of Snake Creek on his sled, and tried to get a shot of this little trench drop to cliff feature that he'd scoped about three weeks back, and get a little rebate and a better shot. One of the promotional tools that the Nimbus crew is doing is called Point and Shoot, and it's rider shot and edited features that are being posted daily on their website. We got some shots for that, but while we were out, and I was hiking out on the rock band, I slipped and slid down through some trees and branches and the was tossed off a small cliff, and landed on rocks. It was really scary, because as I started to slide, I reached for Blake's leg to try and hang onto something, but I failed. I couldn't really tell what was going on because there was just too much snow moving around with me and I just remember being bounced around and the sound of trees and branches breaking, then a long fall, and coming to rest face down on some rocks that had about 15 inches of coverage. I popped up to my feet, and yelled to Blake that I was ok, and then started surveying the damage. There were a lot of broken branches and rocks in the debris pile, but all my camera equipment and my body was totally fine. My wrist was a little sore from landing on it, but everything was great. Scary though.

'Twas An Adventure

2010-03-27T21:02:00.001-06:00

Andy Earl and I have been discussing the prospects of doing an overnighter just to iron out any kinks we had in our gear/packing habits/oral hygiene, etc. We plan to do quite a bit of multi-day touring next season, so we wanted to get a feel for how things would go; a trial run, if you will. We opted to go up to Wolverine Cirque because the forecast was predicting that steep, north facing terrain would be the best for early saturday morning skiing and riding, and Twin Lakes pass is fairly sheltered from the wind, and totally sheltered from avalanche danger if you camp just near the pass.

Click on the photo to view a larger version, it looks neat. Taken about 1:30 am

Technically it's illegal to camp anywhere in Little Cottonwood Canyon because of Watershed restrictions, and you're also not allowed to do any overnight parking in the town of Alta without a permit (I'm not sure why. I would assume because of a lack of space). We pulled into the Grizzly Gulch trailhead parking lot and I thought we were sunk when an Alta police officer came over and rolled down his window. He asked us if we were going touring, and when we replied in the affirmative, he just reminded us that there was a scheduled UDOT canyon closure for avalanche control in the morning, and didn't harass us at all about parking in the "No Overnight Parking" zone.

My snowshoes and Andy's splitboard on the way up.

Both my pack and Andy's pack together must've weighed in at about seven million kilograms, and by the time we reached the pass I was totally beat, but it was super cool to be able to get some rad photos along the way, and the just have the experience.

My buddy David Kaplan met us up near the pass early the next morning and we went up and over Patsey Marley and did one drop on Mt. Wolverine. The snow was pretty variable, and lots of wind loading. Andy popped a decent size wind pocket that sluffed out pretty dramatically (albeit it wasn't very big or dangerous), but it was just an indicator that our chosen location wasn't the safest zone to be shredding in, so we called it a day. Epic knee deep turns down through the north facing slope of Grizzly Gulch ended the day with a bang. I definitely can't complain, and I also learned quite a bit about camping overnight in the backcountry, and expecting to shred the next day. I'll be doing it again very soon.

Twin Lakes Pass, with the BCC cabins and Guardsman Pass glaring in the background

The infamous Wolverine Cirque. Andy and David atop Mt. Wolverine at left.

Getting to the zone is certainly not for the faint at heart.

Portrait Time

2010-03-23T07:45:00.000-06:00

For some reason, lately I've just been in the mood to photograph people. Doing portraits is really intersting to me, mostly due to the post-production aspect. Don't get me wrong, I love working with the subject, and that's extremely rewarding, especially when I'm working with my friends, like the stunning Erin McMullin featured in this post. Yeah, that's great, and I enjoy it and all that, but I really get stoked when I pull each image into Photoshop for some minor retouching. Now, although I do mention Photoshop, the caveat is that I really don't use that much. I do a teeny tiny little bit of skin smoothing and eye enhancements, then I dodge and burn sometimes, it just depends on the image and the look I'm going for, but it's been nice as I've gained more experience to learn how to accomplish certain looks with the camera exposure settings so I have less work to do when it comes down to Photoshop. To me, it always seems like it takes a lot less time to tweak a camera setup or exposure setting than it does to tweak something in Photoshop. Anyway, I love taking pictures of people. Thanks, Erin, for coming over and having a quick little shoot. These were all shot with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II and EF 24-70 ƒ/2.8L USM lens, and two Promaster 160A studio flashes with diffusion and reflector umbrellas used. Enjoy.

My personal favorite of the session.

She wanted to show off her curves.

Dan4Sheriff

2010-03-18T21:08:00.001-06:00

My buddy Luke Beachley called me earlier today while I was on my way to Park City to snowboard, and asked if I had time to shoot some photos of his brother-in-law Dan Burton. Mr. Burton is running for public office against a sixteen year incumbent and will be launching his website very soon. Luke wanted to take pictures of him with blood dripping from his mouth and a gun in his hand, showcasing how he'll defend American interests tooth and nail, but I didn't think it was the best way to approach a first time run at public office. I'm not sure which one would have been more effective... I'll update this post as soon as the website goes live. If you live in Utah County, check him out, and watch for flyers and posters and such, because they have images taken by yours truly.

***UPDATE***

Here's Dan's website: www.dan4sheriff.com

204 Determination + Giveaway

2010-03-18T01:14:00.005-06:00

204 Determination - Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast from Parker Alec Cross on Vimeo.

In response to what viewers like you have asked for, the Wasatch Team put a whole lot of miles on their boots, snowmobiles, and chairlifts to generate the hardest hitting episode yet. With locations varying from the streets of Ogden, to the 11,000 foot faces, Episode Four will leave you wishing the season were longer.

Principle Cinematography shot on Canon 5D Mark II by Parker Alec Cross

Colorist: Parker Alec Cross

Featuring the talents of Parker Cross, Andy Earl, Daryl Young, JP Sokolowski, Uriel Ruvalcaba, Derek Olthuis, Stain Reichman, Cooper Hoffmeister, Ben Millsaps, Jason Hindman and Stosh Lemberes.

Well, it's time for another episode. Check it out above, and make sure to watch it in fullscreen mode for full effect. In order to qualify for the giveaway, you need to become a fan of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast on Facebook. Since winter is winding down, we need to show the world how much we love the snow. Post a picture of yourself skiing or snowboarding on the wall of the Facebook page, and we'll choose the picture that is the raddest as the winner of this week's Nomis hoody giveaway. Thanks to John at Board of Provo for hooking up the giveaway.

Turning Up the Volume

2010-03-13T16:26:00.001-07:00

In my screenwriting class, my teacher is always talking about ways for us as writers to "turn up the volume." My goal as a new media producer is to generate content that gets people stoked and makes them want to come back for more–in essence, my goal is to turn up the volume. The better my stuff is, and the cooler the content, the more hits we get and the better we look to potential sponsors, and the better my peanut butter sandwiches taste because I know that I can actually kind of afford it, instead of pilfering it from my mom's pantry when she's not home.

That being said, it is very tough being the sole camera man/director/producer/creative genius/editor/distributor to get super rad stuff. It's a lot of the supplementary stuff that really makes an episode cool, and it's very very tough to do it solo. We've been trying though, even if it means waking up at 3:30 in the morning to catch a sunrise session, or staying out all night and dodging the police to get a shot on an urban feature, and I think that this next episode will show just how far we've actually come with our progression. Below is a link to the new teaser, and you'll see just how much we've improved in a very short amount of time. I hope you like it.

Ep. 4 Teaser 2 - Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast from Parker Alec Cross on Vimeo.
You asked for it, we delivered. Due to all the feedback we've received on the blog, we decided to make our episodes even more rad than they've ever been. And we're doing it all for your enjoyment. Episode Four is coming at you in a matter of days, so tell all your friends and get rad.

Cameras:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
GoPro HD Hero

Lenses:
EF 24-70 ƒ/2.8L USM
EF 70-200 ƒ/2.8 IS USM
Sigma 15mm ƒ/2.8 Fisheye

Cinematography and Post-production by Parker Alec Cross
Additional camera operation by Andy Earl

http://crossroadstudios.com

Getting Deeper

2010-03-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

I'm just now starting to go to the places I've been aching for all season, because we're starting to get a decent base in the Wasatch, and it's filling in all the bony scary sections that were too exposed to ski. I'm also pretty excited of the GoPro HD Hero helmet camera that Andy and I purchased last week. Took her on her maiden voyage today, and she performed wonderfully. The workflow is identical to the 5D Mark II, so it makes things pretty simple for me to work with. Anyway, check out the teaser trailer for the newest episode, which I haven't started editing yet, but I've been compiling the footage and I think it's going to be really good.

Episode Four Trailer - Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast from Parker Alec Cross on Vimeo.
Episode Four is ready to deliver on what everyone has been asking for. More of.......everything. More shredding, more rails, more jumps, more powder, and more intensity. Get pumped because it's coming at you in the next few days. Filmed on a GoPro HD Hero.

One Plus One Equals One

2010-03-10T01:21:00.000-07:00

In terms of splitboarding, one plus one really does equal one. You take each half of your sliced-in-two board, put them together and get one snowboard. It's a pretty amazing process, and It's even more amazing that the bulk of the dudes out there on splitboards probably did it in their garage, just like Andy and I did a couple hours ago. Voile is probably considered the industry leader when it comes to backcountry accessories for snowboarders, and their DIY Split-Kit is a handy dandy little friend for any of you wanting to go deeper than the average snowboarder. Splitboarding is the ultimate way to get into the backcountry on those zones where you can't take a snowmobile (which is most of the Central Wasatch), and although it's not cheap to do it yourself, it's a whole lot cheaper than buying a splitboard from, say, Burton. The other thing that's rad is the fact that Voile-USA is located right in Salt Lake City, so you're getting homegrown products.

If backcountry touring is your cup of tea, or you'd like it to be, make a stop at Wasatch Touring, a shop in SLC. It's definitely your destination location for everything backcountry, and then some.

Featured Write-Up

2010-03-09T04:12:00.000-07:00

I got an email on Vimeo yesterday from Denver Riddle, who runs the Digital Cinema Foundry blog, and he asked me a few questions and if I'd be willing to be featured on the site. Of course, this is right up my alley, so jump on over to the website by clicking here, and check out the little write-up about Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast and what it takes to shoot in the backcountry.

Day 50 - Dry Fork (AKA Heaven)

2010-03-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

My 50th day on snow this season was incredible. I got a phone call Friday night from my longtime friend Blake Nyman, and the conversation went a little something like this:

Me: "Hello?"
Blake: "Hey Parker, how you doin'?"
Me: "Doing well, sir. What's up?"
Blake: "What are you doing tomorrow?"
Me: "Ok, you talked me into it."

Every time I go out skiing with Blake it's hammers. You may remember episode three from last year (click here), so he didn't even have to tell me what was going down for me to say yes. But ultimately it turned into one of the most fun days I've had all year, and certainly the best consistent turns I've had all year.

We ended up heading out to the Tibble Fork trailhead in American Fork Canyon and tandem sledding out to Dry Fork to meet up with J. Eichhorst, Eliel Hindert, Adam Clark, and a couple other homies to sessions some lines and little jumps. It's always good times to come out and hang out with good people and super talented photographers and athletes, and I'm just stoked that Blake brought me along for the ride.

It was like a billion degrees at the base of Tibble Fork, and Blake's sled was getting a little grumpy so we had to take a couple brief breaks to make sure she didn't overheat on us, but we finally made it up by Point Supreme and the snow was incredible. A little zipper-crust at first, but quickly vanished as the temperatures rose just slightly.

Blake scoped a rad natty rock jump feature, sent a huge first tracks 360, and stomped it super hard, followed by a few more massive hits by the homies. The action shot above is actually a freeze frame from the video that I was shooting. The light quickly vanished and Blake couldn't quite pull off his zero spin, but we relocated to meet up with a snowboard crew that was filming in a similar area and I snapped a few lifestyle shots of those guys. Thanks, Blake, for the invite, and I'm stoked to do it again anytime. Also mad props to all the talent that showed up. Big ups all around and I'm pumped to work with any of you guys anytime. The best part of the day, however, was the fact that I got to ski the nearly 2,000 ft decent down into Dry Fork while Blake took his sled back down. Creamy east/north-east facing pow all the way to the bottom. Amazing turns. Thanks again, everyone.

HDRI of the cliffs above the jump. So epic.

Parker Duke strapping in.

Blake camping out on his sled enjoying the views.

Another epic shot of the face below the cliffs. Parker Duke ready to drop.

Blake was a hero and carried my tripod.

Guardsman

2010-03-05T23:17:00.000-07:00

It was my first day out on sleds for 2010, and it turned into a pretty amazing day. Daryl Young called me the night before and asked if I wanted to join him and Dallin and Tyson for a little trek out to Claytons and the backside of Pioneer peak. I said yes. We started with a quick small cliff drop and let the boys do a little warm up, then went and poached a jump that was built earlier in the season. Dallin and Daryl both landed shots, and the stuff looks good. Thanks to Tyson for the snowmobile, and let's do it again soon!

Daryl packing up all his avalanche gear

Daryl hiking up for another drop on the cliff

Freeze frame from the video of Daryl's drop

Mighty Mount Timpanogos

2010-03-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

It taunts me. The vast majority of my life has been spent in the looming shadow of Utah's mightiest massif. The enormous west face of Timp is over four miles across the ridge, and rises 4,000 feet of exposed skiable terrain from the valley floor. The 11,749 ft summit beckons to every rider interested in big mountain descents (like myself).

It's gnarly. Timp is one of the most avalanche prone mountains in the lower 48, and as such it's rarely sessioned. Add to the complication that there's no helicopter operations that are permitted to set down on the summit, making your only option the hike, and hike for at long time. One drop on Mount Timpanogos is a full day mission, leaving before the sun comes up, and quite possibly doing your decent near sunset. A trail that takes me 1:45 to reach the saddle in the summer time, will more than likely take 6 in the winter on a split board. But I'm up for the challenge. Andy and I are on the prowl for people who have experience with doing a winter summit on the peak, and plan to do it this season as long as the snow conditions permit.

It will be mine.

"And the Forecast Says...

2010-03-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

...Another scorcher, with mostly sunny skies, and a considerable danger of wet slab avalanches toward the afternoon with rising temperatures." Mt. Baldy staring down at us from the Davenport/Honeycomb cliffs area, after we hiked up Grizzly Gulch in search of a jump spot. We knew that most southfacing stuff was going to be suncrusted from yesterday's immense heat, but the forecast was saying that it was going to turn into soup by about noon, so it was going to be a fun jump session into slushy, heavy, west coast style powder. At least that's what the forecast said. It lied.

High hopes certainly abounded, despite the crust and high cloudy skies, especially when we bumped into a bunch of pro skiers and a huge media crew heading up to the infamous Chad's gap to shoot with Mike Wilson and Tim Durtschi as well as Bjorn Leines and his mad group of Celtek rippers. Needless to say we were pretty pumped.

Despite the graybird skies, we were confident that the forecast would hold up and we'd get enough sun to make the jump worth while, and indeed while we were hiking the sun popped out a little bit and made things look pretty nice. As a matter-of-fact, there were a couple times after the jump was fully built that JP Sokolowski, Derek Olthuis, Stain Reichman, and James Stewart were able to see the run-in well enough to actually hit the feature, and we got come pretty cool video footage. Nothing mind-blowing or life-changing, but some solid tricks on a decent sized kicker in the backcountry, which is always cool.

It wasn't mean to last, however. About 2:30 PM the light completely vanished. Each of the kids tried one last drop, and when you really can't see anything because the light is so flat, it's super difficult to reach the end of the jump, and if you're lucky enough to do that, then it's nearly impossible to land on solid suncrusted bomb holes because it never warmed up enough for the snow to soften in the least bit. The Poor Boyz productions filmers had to go home empty handed without any footage of Chad's Gap because the sun was never consistently glaring down long enough to soften the landing.

Once the light went to poop I opted to take the camera off the tripod and shoot a few photos and see if I could pull out a little bit more contrast and color in the images than we were bound to see in the video. Somehow Derek put his big-boy pants on and dropped in one last time to do a massive 360 double grab with his eyes closed. Well, I'm not sure if his eyes were closed, but it wouldn't have made a difference because the lighting was so flat the result would have been the same. Big ups to the boys for hiking tons and brutalizing their bodies. It was a really fun day.

The Heavy Pack

2010-03-02T20:54:00.001-07:00

"Dude, Parker, your pack is so freaking heavy!" Being a fairly common phrase uttered, I get nervous anytime one of my friends goes to pick up my pack because I don't want to be liable for future lumbar problems, or a separated shoulder or something. In all seriousness though, my pack is seriously ridiculous. Spending 5 out of the last 8 days in the backcountry without a snowmobile, it's starting to become more of a reality than a bother, but it's interesting to me exactly what it takes to really get it done. I just count my blessings that I don't have to carry all my gear in a toboggan behind me. I'll probably need to hire an assistant at some point just to help carry camera gear. But first I need to make enough money to survive for myself (you hear that, sponsors? Starving photographer over here!). But since we were on the topic of packs, I thought I'd give a list of what accompanies me on any given shoot in the backcountry:

Snowboard

Boots

Bindings (duh)

Avalanche Shovel

Avalanche Probe

Avalanche Transceiver

Gloves (x3)

Goggles (x2)

Sunglasses

Beanie/facemask (x2)

Sunscreen

Extra dry firstlayer

Snowshoes

Collapsable touring poles

Water

Red Bull

Peanut butter sandwiches

Manfrotto Tripod

Canon 5D Mark II

EF 70-200 ƒ/2.8 IS USM

EF 24-70 ƒ/2.8 IS USM

Sigma 15mm ƒ/2.8 Fishey

Sigma 20mm ƒ/1.8 Wide Angle

Rode Stereo Video Mic

Radios

Extra Compact Flash cards

Extra batteries

Screwdriver

Knife

Gaffer's Tape

Plus whatever I'm wearing on my person (like a jacket or something)

iPhone + Stealth Ear Bud headphones by SIEGE Audio for some hiking tunes

This is what I'm currently carrying in my sweet Ogio Patroller pack that I picked up last year. It's pretty amazing how much crap you can fit into one of those, but it definitely is ridiculously heavy when it's all said and done. But hey, it's worth it, right?

And since I mentioned my iPhone and music, I guess it's fitting to talk about music just a little bit. I'm sure you guys have noticed on the podcast episodes that there tends to be a lot of folk influenced Rock music, and that's just the stuff that definitely makes me tick. I pulled up my iPhone and checked the top five most played songs, and they are as follows:

5. "Rock and Roll All Nite" by Kiss

4. "Night On the Sun" by Modest Mouse

3. "Reckoner (The Twelves Remix)" by Radiohead

2. "The Crane Wife 3" by The Decemberists

1. "Things Fall Apart" by Built To Spill

Cardiff Revisisted

2010-03-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

5:00 am. The sky was still dark, and the stars bright when we pulled out of my driveway this morning. Jon Van Wagoner, Andy Earl, and Uriel Ruvalcaba riding passenger as we made our way to Little Cottonwood Canyon to meet up with Mo, Tanner, Daryl, JP, Whitney, Eric, and Tony Loco. The plan was to session Little Superior Buttress before the snow got too warm, resulting in wet slab avalanches, making it pretty dangerous. Unfortunately for our original plans, and for Andy's new splitboard, we didn't go to Little Superior because someone forgot his beacon, and we had to turn around, thereby not making it to Little Superior in time to ride it. I'm not going to name any names, but you can check out his blog right here.

As a result, we sessioned Cardiff Peak again, and it was really really fun. Thanks to everyone for coming out and having a good time with us. Check out a couple fun mini pics. Video will more than likely be in the next podcast episode, but if you haven't seen episode three yet, check it out by clicking here! Definitely have a greater appreciation for the big mountain riders out there, and hoping to keep pushing our personal limits and getting a lot gnarlier. Thanks for stopping by!

Andy and Uri atop the ridge

Zoomed version of the last photo

Daryl loves snowboarding, and it makes him smile.

203 Down To Earth

2010-02-27T13:56:00.001-07:00

203 Down To Earth - Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast from Parker Alec Cross on Vimeo.
Parker and the boys venture into the backcountry for the first time this season and do some man-boarding. Venturing into the relative safe zones of Cardiff Peak, Flagstaff Mountain, and Grizzly Gulch, the team gets a small sample of just how good the deep stuff is in the Central Wasatch. Jonesing for deeper and steeper lines, come watch as Andy Earl, Uriel Ruvalcaba, Derek Olthuis, Daryl Young, Stain Reichman, and Parker Alec Cross hunt for the goods and warm up their hiking legs for future episodes. Filmed entirely on the Canon 5D Mark II system, episode three is guaranteed to induce a hunger for the powder that can only be satisfied by staying tuned for future episodes.

For product giveaway information, visit http://parkercrossroadstudios.blogspot.com/2010/02/episode-three-give-away.html

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Episode Three Give-Away!

2010-02-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to our sponsors SIEGE Audio and Milosport for participating in the give-away for Episode Three. If you don't have a Google account, you're just going to have to suck it up and make one if you want to participate in the contest. Also, at this time we're only able to extend the contest to people who are currently residing in the United States. So all you Canadians and crazy Kiwis, sorry, you are ineligible to win.

This time we're giving away a pair of Division Headphones from SIEGE Audio, as well as a skateboard deck from Milosport. All you have to do in order to enter the contest is leave a comment on this post stating your favorite Wasatch Podcast episode thusfar, and what you'd like to see in future episodes. One winner will be chosen at random and contacted before the release of Episode Four in two to three weeks. Good luck, and May the Force Be With You.

Too Much Fun

2010-02-25T12:49:00.001-07:00

I definitely feel like I have a very privileged life. I got lucky enough to connect with super good people from various walks of life who all share a similar passion for the raw energy associated with the mountain lifestyle. Skiers and snowboarders share this crazy bond with each other and with the environment that translates into an incredible amount of fun, no matter whether we're riding in the terrain park, or hiking to the top of an 11,000 ft summit, or camping out waiting for the clouds to burn off, or sessioning an urban feature, that fun tends to bleed through the canvas of our lives and leave its footprint in everything we do.

I've found that the more time I spend with different types of people, the more appreciative I am of the fact that everyone is so unique, and brings certain attributes to the table. I won't bore you by giving too many examples, but one that comes to mind specifically was the other day when we hiked up Cardiff Peak, a 10,277 ft peak in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The hike starts at the Central Alta Trailhead at 8,650 ft, and switches its way back to the summit nestled between the Little Superior Buttress and Flagstaff Mountain. We popped out on the southern tip of the Reed and Benson Ridge and my friend Uriel Ruvalcaba was nearly overcome by emotion. It was the first time he'd summited a peak of that nature, and all his prior freeriding experience was from riding at Snowbird (which is where you should be riding if you want to ride steep, technical terrain in Utah, but don't want to buy a splitboard or snowshoes), and when he looked over toward Monte Cristo and the Cardiac Ridge Bowl, he was completely moved by the absolute majesty of the surroundings. I can definitely relate with that. I remember the first time I hiked up Grizzly Gulch on a clear day, looking at toward Alta and Mt. Superior being absolutely taken aback because of how amazing it was, and wanting to spend as much time as possible in the mountains of my homeland.

I would wager that 80% of my experience with Utah backcountry touring is in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The ridge system that makes up Patsey Marley, Honeycomb Cliffs, Davenport Hill, Flagstaff Mountain, Cardiff Peak, and Mount Superior has enough terrain to keep a touring skier/rider busy for years. I honestly don't think you could ski every face in the zone in an entire season. There's just too much to do. Combine that with the easily accessed Cardiff, Mineral, and Mill B South forks, and you have yourself a lifetime of untouched powder skiing, with no more than a three hour ascent for the best turns of your whole life.

Riding with Andy Earl, Uri, Derek Olthuis, Stain Reichman, Sean Tucker, and Daryl Young over the last few days has been some of the best riding of my whole life. It was kind of sketchy at times. We had to bite our nails and watch while Uri made turns that sluffed to the rock, and then he pinned it out into the drainage, and then onto the safe zone. All in all, no avalanches other than riding sluff, and no injuries, so it was a good couple of days in the back country. Super stoked. Here's a few more pics from the adventures.

Epic

2010-02-22T18:21:00.003-07:00

epic |ˈepik|adjectiveof, relating to, or characteristic of an epic or epics : England's national epic poem Beowulf.• heroic or grand in scale or character : his epic journey around the world | a tragedy of epic proportions.• best snowboarding day of the whole season thusfar : Sessioning the southeast face of Cardiff Peak today was one of the most epic days I've ever had.
This is one of those situations where I'm prompted to ask, "Need I say more?" Peep the video screenshot of yours truly below to see exactly what I'm talking about, and yes, this is a still-frame from the video.

Bolts

2010-02-20T18:37:00.005-07:00

We are unstoppable. Everytime we strap on a snowboard, it's hammers left and right. People are amazed when we show up to a spot and there's seamless tricks being stomped time and time again.

Ok, that's total bull, and although there are some incredible athletes that come out and shoot with me, I think my camera must have some kind of crazy curse attached to it because whenever we're shooting something legit that is not the terrain park, nobody lands anything. Or maybe if we're lucky we'll get one or two shots. Speaking with a lot of other videographers and photographers, I've come to learn that this is actually pretty normal, and if you're doing a next level feature, the precision required to stomp hammers must also be next level, so it's understandable when it takes a rider a half-dozen attempts before they can put it down bolts. Nevertheless, when I'm sitting across the ridge, or at the bottom of a handrail, or perched in a tree, freezing my butt off waiting for a gap in the cloud cover so we can get a decent looking shot, it gets somewhat disappointing when everything looks good, until the tomahawk, or the upright snag, or the bomb-hole buck at the end.

Even though it's frustrating, and sometimes feels like a big waste of time, as soon as Uri landed his first F/S 360 yesterday, everyone in the crew was so pumped, it made all the slams, and the hike, and shoveling, and dealing with the blizzard, and waiting for visibility all worth it, and it also makes the ibuprofen go down just a little bit easier at the end of the day. That's one of the things that I like so much about action sports. For those involved, they understand that there's really nothing more satisfying than sticking a trick after a bunch of failed attempts. The Little Engine That Could had it right, and if you can beat that mental game that tries to keep you on the ground, pretty soon it's going to be another stomped landing, and your camera guy will probably pee his pants because he's so stoked to actually have recorded something where the person landed.

I'm just super stoked that Uriel Ruvalcaba, Mo Jennings, and Andy Earl were so pumped to come out and session the feature. And special thanks to Mr. Shelby Burton for coming up on Monday with Andy and getting the jump mostly built. A lot of people don't realize how much effort goes into building a jump in the backcountry. We don't have a $1 Million snowcat to push several thousand pounds of snow into a pile and then shape the lip to precision, so we resort to avalanche shovels and our boards/skis.

40 lbs of camera equipment, my snowboard, shovel, avalanche probe, extra layering, and lunch makes for a moderately heavy load, but it's cool because when you take the extra time to generate a quality product, people tend to be a little more stoked on your brand/content/project. In a society that is less focused on quality and more interested in quantity (especially with downloadable and web-based media content), a little extra love and attention goes a long way with setting your product apart from the competition. I hope you guys enjoy this post, and get ready for Episode Three of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast, dropping into iTunes sometime this coming week. Don't forget to become a fan on Facebook by clicking here, and also if you don't want to download each episode to your computer (what are you, a dinosaur?), then you can watch every new episode on the Wasatch Vimeo Channel. Enjoy these photos, and the fact that some of them are screenshots from some of the video outtakes.

Words to Live By

2010-02-20T01:49:00.001-07:00

Tonight was pretty crazy for me. I got home from snowboarding with Andy, Mo, and Uri and we went to the rec center for a sauna/hot tub/steam room session. It was actually really relaxing after a day of hiking and sessioning a fairly sizable jump in Little Cottonwood Canyon (more on that feature in my next post). We then went to my house and goofed off while watching Hot Rod and transcoding some footage on my computer. After I kicked Mo out of my house due to the fact that I was nodding off to sleep, I was sleep texting some friends when suddenly I snapped awake and had the craziest feeling that I needed to be in Salt Lake ASAP. I honestly have no idea what it was all about, but it was an unmistakable prompting that for whatever wiser purpose than I can currently grasp, my presence was required in SLC. I kind of disregarded it for a few minutes, but when it only exacerbated the feeling, I opted to act on it. I quickly packed up everything I thought maybe I'd need (i.e. snowboard and kit, camera bag, toiletries, blanket, extra jacket, Red Bull, etc.) and got on the road.

You may ask, "Parker, oh my! What happened when you got to Salt Lake? What was the big deal?" Well, I wasn't going to bring it up, but since you asked, the answer is this: Nothing. Nothing happened. At least nothing h happened yet. I'm still in Salt Lake as I'm writing this post. But the whole experience left me with a few moments to think about a neat line from the Book of Mormon. It's a little anecdote that Mormon throws in to kind of justify why he included a bunch of stuff in his abridgment of the records that ultimately made up the content of the work published in 1830, and it goes a little something like this,

"And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will (Words of Mormon 1:7)."

I honestly have no idea why I was prompted very strongly to go to Salt Lake City tonight, but I trust that it was something that the Lord wanted me to do, so I did it. It was kind of awkward, and I second guessed it a lot, but hey, what can you do, right? I know this departs from what I normally blog about, so forgive the seeming out-of-character nature of this post. Those of you who know me well understand that this isn't really out-of-character at all, but rather just a little more private most of the time.

Powder...Finally!

2010-02-19T00:38:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time coming, but finally after a long season so far, I was able to send a method into a powder landing. This was my first powder jump of the year, although a few of my friends and even some of the Wasatch crew have been out in the woods building features, due to avalanche danger I haven't really been able to get out on a nice creamy day and catch some sky, and the above picture is a screenshot of the video of yours truly doing just that. JP Sokolowski and I met up at about 9:00am and quickly jumped on the Crescent chairlift at Park City Mountain Resort, and after a quick recon of the conditions, opted to head over toward the McConkey's chair. What we found was delightful. Thanks to whomever built the jump before we got there, because it was primed for take-off, and it seriously took us all of 3 minutes to sweep off the transition and make a new run-in. Here's a couple more screen shots from episode three of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast, which will be coming at you sometime next week.

JP on the Crescent chairlift

Me dropping into the trees off Sunnyside, camera in hand. Terrifying.

Always business, all the time.

"Heroes get remembered..."

2010-02-16T19:53:00.001-07:00

"...But Legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you'll never go wrong." I was driving away from The Berrics after shooting with Guy Mariano for the first time in my life, and that line from The Sandlot kept echoing through my head, and it was one of those interesting experiences because I knew how big of a deal he was in the skate community, and I'd seen his part in Lakai's Fully Flared (embedded below. It's epic, trust me), but I didn't know the whole story behind how truly awesome it is to have him skating the streets of Los Angeles again–a story about someone whose heart led him back to the sport that he loved.

Guy Mariano basically took a hiatus from skateboarding to inadvertently pursue a career of self-destructive partying. As addiction took hold, his break from skating turned into a slump, and eventually he just faded from the scene completely. After finally deciding that he had hit rock-bottom, Guy sought help at Impact Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center, and after sobering up jumped straightaway onto his skateboard again. He's not a young buck anymore. He's been a professional skateboarder for almost twenty years, and to have him not film a video part for over eight years, taking a 5-year break from a skateboard, and coming out of retirement to have a part like he did in Fully Flared is just unreal. Guy is a man dedicated to giving back to the sport that gave him back his life. After treatment, it was only on his skateboard that he could kick all the demons of negativity that consistently get at you. When he was on his skateboard he wasn't worried if he was going to relapse or if he would be able to pay his bills or whatever, and he was happy for that moment, and that was the strength he needed to push through his addictions. I feel privileged to have been able to do photo and video work with someone to whom I will look up for a lifetime.

Pizza's Papa

2010-02-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

Shooting with Joey Brezinski was one of the funnest things I've ever done since getting behind the lens full-time. We were primarily interested in shooting his video bio for SIEGE Audio while wearing a Snuggie, mastering the Slap Chop, and utilizing the muscle building powers of the Shake Weight, however, we did take a break to shoot a couple portraits with Joey and his beloved pug pooch Pizza (say that ten times fast). They turned out hilarious and I had a killer time shooting an incredibly talented skateboarder that I've looked up to for a long time. Check out his part in the Cliche Skateboards video, embedded below. One of the cool things about shooting with Joey is it reminded me that this whole shindig is supposed to be fun. If you take life too seriously, it can really eat you up, so it's always good, in my opinion, not to have too high opinion of yourself. Obviously you don't want to adopt a false modesty, but rather just realize that you're a normal person, just like everyone else. A-list pro skateboarder Joey B has this mindset on lockdown. Feel free to follow him and Pizza on Twitter.

Ill...Dope...Nasty

2010-02-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Manny Santiago jumped in on a photoshoot a week ago Tuesday night in Los Angeles rocking a pair of The Eleven headphone by SIEGE Audio. He's a pretty smiley guy, but also one who can really get things done. It was pretty cool to meet him and take a couple photos while I was there. He also took us to get the best chicken quesadillas in all of LA (at least that's what Manny says). It's not often that I get to hang around with skateboarders, and it's a funny thing because they're totally different than hanging out with snowboarders. Don't get me wrong, that wasn't meant to be derogatory by any means, just indicative of the grand difference between the cultures of the two sports. Enjoy the photos, and at the bottom I've embedded one of his video parts from another production company. Ultimately, although indifferent to his skateboarding career prior to the meetup, I'm now a big fan. Check him out on Twitter. He's always jonesing for more followers.

Quick Round 2

2010-02-12T15:55:00.001-07:00

Here's a few more pics from our trip to Los Angeles. More to follow very soon. It's been a crazy couple of days, trying to catch up on schoolwork, then maintain the blog and the Twitter, as well as attempt to have a social life, and a family life, and get cracking on episode three for Wasatch. Realistically we won't have any content to publish until at least the 23rd, but possibly not a full episode until March rolls around. Sorry for all you folks who are chomping at the bit for more video content. I'm doing my best though. All these photos are from Shane's point and shoot and I took them into Photoshop and messed with them ever so slightly.

City of Lost Angels

2010-02-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

A day in Los Angeles is always an adventure. Aside from hundreds of homeless people, some straight laced prophets preaching the word of Jesus with a balloon and hypodermic needle in their back pocket, and the occasional professional skateboarder. SIEGE Audio athletes Guy Mariano and Joey Brezinski came out and made appearances with us, and we were also able to hang out with the CEO & President of Hudson Jeans, Peter Kim, as well as the dudes that run Silverback Artist Management, the muscle behind reggae bands Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, and the same people that launched Sublime and got them charging back in the day. Then we met up at dinner with all the Karma Kollective people and shot the breeze at 8oz Burger and The Snake Pit. Here's a few photos from the adventures, and an official shout-out to Danielle:

Val Surf, one of North Hollywood's biggest shops

This is how people usually see me

Breakfast at Mel's Drive-In, just like American Grafiti

Shane, Charlie and I chilling at The Berrics

Charlie and I shooting a bio interview with Guy Mariano

Chilling on the roof with Manny Santiago

Charlie and Shane with Peter Kim, of Hudson Jeans

Under the 7th Street Bridge. Tons of rad grafiti

Morning By the Pier

2010-02-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

I spent an evening in the Radisson Hotel in Costa Mesa, CA and woke up bright and early to get some video footage down by the pier at Newport Beach. Shane and Charlie were too tired to breath, so I ran down to the beach and shot some video. Here's a couple of screen shots from my morning's adventures. One of the highlights was meeting Dale Kobetich, a very eccentric photographer who is obsessed with his rad underwater housings that he builds for Canon SLR cameras. All these images here on the blog are still screenshots from my video camera, the Canon 5D Mark II. These images were all shot on the EF 70-200 ƒ/2.8L IS USM Lens, and a couple of them were with a Cokin Gradient Neutral Density Filter, to darken up the sky a little bit while allowing a good exposure on the pier and on the water. Fun Fun Fun.

Newport Beach

2010-02-07T02:17:00.001-07:00

Shane Kofoed with SIEGE Audio called me up last week and asked me to head down to southern California with him and Charlie Bessey to shoot with some pro athletes and different musicians. I'll be posting photos every evening documenting the adventures, and tonight's post are some snapshots from Shane's point-and-shoot. Let me just put it on record though, that Newport Beach probably has the rudest people I've ever met.

I volunteered to drive. For 11 hours.

Rolling up to the Radisson in style.

Yum

There were so many guidos, we were trying to fit in by puffing out our chests, but we didn't have Ed Hardy or Affliction wear with us, so we didn't really mesh with the locals. I did almost get to see the backseat of a Duramax, though.

The Man Behind the Curtain

2010-02-05T11:03:00.002-07:00

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

That timeless quote from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, in my opinion, typifies a good groomer. Tyson Goodrich is the man behind the curtain of Park City Mountain Resort's infamous terrain park. I say infamous, because not only was it the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics where USA swept the competition, gleaning Gold, Silver, and Bronze, but more recently was the site of Kevin Pearce's unfortunate scorpion to head-smash, which left him in a coma for several weeks, and took him completely out of the running for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. To track Kevin's progress, feel free to become a fan on Facebook of Well Wishes to our Frend Kevin Pearce.

In good competition venue, the masterminds behind the features are faceless, thankless, ethereal presences that only really get noticed if something sucks. If the features are good, everyone can focus on the next-level tricks being thrown down, just like Shawn White's double McTwist 1260 that he learned just prior to the US Snowboard Grand Prix. Tyson Goodrich spent weeks on end, pulling eighteen-hour days, pushing and shaping, and changing, and remastering until the pipe was 22 feet high, 550 feet long, and at an exact 18 degree slope. Andy Earl and I got a chance to ride along with the good chap and do a little interview. Here's some of the pics I took while sitting shotgun with an artist, and next time you're watching a half-pipe event on TV, or passing by at the resort, remember the dude working the graveyard shift, drinking Red Bull and Coffee, listening to Iron Maiden, and making the pipe the best it's ever been.

202 Serious Business

2010-02-02T22:50:00.002-07:00

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202 Serious Business - Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast from Parker Alec Cross on Vimeo.
Avalanche danger keeps the boys grounded, and they improvise in the best way they know how: With some bagels, some BK, and a good 'ole fashioned backflip jump. Filmed entirely on the Canon 5D Mark II in HD, Andy and JP take snowboarding back to their roots, and stomp a couple of backflips.

Teton Sno*Bots

2010-02-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember Jade Magnum Thomason from Season One of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast. He wasn't able to make it back to the Wasatch this season because of deferment bull-crap, so he and his friends have been putting together a little webisode series that's really fun to watch. Stoked that he's carrying the torch for us up in the Tetons. Click here to see the Teton Sno*Bots Epic*Sodes. Check it out!

Lately

2010-01-30T18:12:00.012-07:00

For those of you who don't know, Utah has had a crazy season so far. We're just a day out from February, and honesty, only the most arrogant and selfish shredders in the Wasatch have really had any legit turns in the backcountry. Those of you who know me understand that I seriously live for bottomless turns. In fact, it's really the only thing that'll get me off the couch for days on end–if the pow is good, I'll be up before the sun waiting in line for the LCC gates to go up, and I'll be running to the tram from my car. In fact, I'll probably get my boots and my goggles on while I'm still waiting in line in my car. This year, though, we haven't really had that option. We basically had a drought until two weeks ago, and then we suddenly received, in some places, as much as 80 inches of snow in a very short span, which drastically overloaded the weak pre-existing snowpack. Major avalanches have been occurring naturally, and as the result we haven't been able to go safely into the backcountry to session some of our most favorite terrain. So, instead, we've been doing this:

Now, don't get me wrong, I think urban snowboarding is seriously next-level. Nothing scares me more than a big street rail (except maybe a gnarly avalanche cycle), and the crew that I've been roaming around with has been killing it. Episode Two will definitely have some stuff that will turn heads, but it's just that time of year where I really would like to get some sweet nipple-deep turns on Cardiff or Flagstaff, or spend a night hiking in the Twin Lakes pass area so I can get some bottomless slashes at sunrise. I've included a few photos from the Utah Avalanche Center reporting just in case there's some crazy people out there who think they're smarter than MN (Mother Nature). She'll get ya if you don't have your guard up, and so the advice from me and the rest of the Wasatch boys, as well as the Utah Avalanche Center is to stay out of the backcountry. And that includes all you fools who think it's cool to hike up over Ninety-Nine 90 and go into Squaretop and various other aspects. Don't be a moron, and give it some time. That nipple-deep champaign is waiting for us, but for right now, we need to be patient. And in the meantime, enjoy some urban shots, and my little experiment from the GoPro.

Mary Ellen 1/28/2010 in American Fork Canyon

Rock Bowl and Big Cornice in Logan. Natural Avalanches.

West Monitor Bowl, triggered by a split boarder

That's how far the run-out was for the Monitor slide

Snowmobile track disappearing into a massive slide that left him in critical condition, but alive.

So, for those of you who need a blatant reminder, STAY OUT OF THE BACKCOUNTRY, at least for the time being. You're going to make yourself and your loved ones a lot happier, and you'll allow the current snowpack to settle down a bit and not exacerbate the situation. In the meantime, go ride the park, as shown in Episode One "Reestablishment" of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast, or get creative and go make your own park, like we did in the video below:

GoPro Wide Angle SD Hero from Parker Alec Cross on Vimeo.
Derek and I were desperately trying to make the rhythm section work, and we kept failing. Just couldn't make the speed work after the first jump, and since I was totally idiotic and left my HD camera at home (shoot me now), we threw on his helmet cam for a quickie.

The Little Run-In That Could

2010-01-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

Sometimes snowboarding is the most entertaining and rewarding experience you could ever ask for, and other times it's so unbelievably frustrating that you want to rip your head off and send it to your closest relatives so they can also experience the horror of what you just went through. Today was one of those days where you get a little taste of both. JP Sokolowski, Andy Earl, Keola and I went over to the Park City BMX park right by the firestation for a little mini back-flip session. What was supposed to be a quick build-and-destroy turned into a three hour try-to-get-to-the-end-of-the-run-in-without-dying extravaganza. After twenty-five thousand hits, several faceplants, a near double cork (in your face, Shawn White), and lots of uncontrollable laughter, JP laid out one of the sickest backies I've ever witnessed in person, and I actually managed to capture it on video. Here's a couple lifestyle photos of our little adventure, and stay tuned for the footage.

Project X Afterparty

2010-01-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Ah, Sundance Film Festival season. Not only do we get all the kooks from L.A., but we also get the LDS Film Festival, Slam Dance, and X-Dance all at the same time, so kooks and rad folks from all different walks of life, locations, and backgrounds. Monday night was the world premier of Red Bull Energy Drink's new film "Project X" starring Shawn White (the man, the myth, the legend), and it was actually really good. Saw the film, and I dig it. Shawn definitely has the right sponsors helping him stay on-top of the half-pipe shred scene. It was rad because it was Nick Hyne's last night in town, so we had an opportunity to go out. I was pretty hung-over sleepy the next morning because I had two whole Red Bulls, but I'm sure Nick was feeling a little worse than me, considering it was a private party with an open bar. Well done, sir. Stoked that Angel, Tyson?, Jordan, and Danielle were able to come out and hang out with me while I shot some photos, as well as the fact that I saw most of my friends that live in the SLC area at the party. Thanks for making it a blast.

My boss Jordan Schweizer and the Wiiings Team

Angel and Danielle showing some branded love

J-Dilla doing what he does best

Hyne doing what HE does best

Dani P and I cheesing it up

201 Reestablishment

2010-01-19T18:04:00.001-07:00

2-01 Reestablishment - Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast from Parker Alec Cross on Vimeo.

Check it out on iTunes by clicking on the following link:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=311875506

More Samples

2010-01-19T13:09:00.001-07:00

Later this afternoon will mark the launch of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast, but before the video goes live, check out some sample images from EPW in Bountiful, UT. This feature was gnarly and scary, and mad props to Daryl for nailing it first try. His knee is a little jacked up after knuckling on the top of the horribly scary gap second and third hit, but we still love him bunches. Thanks Daryl and EPW for making it happen.

Coming soon...

2010-01-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the start of Season Two of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast. Here are a couple of screenshots from the episode, as well as images of the iTunes store where you subscribe for the podcast. Don't forget to hit the "subscribe" button in iTunes, otherwise you won't get the automatic updates. I'm super stoked on this first episode, and I think everyone else will be as well. We have riding from Hamish Martin, Nick Hyne, Ozzy Henning, JP Sokolowski, Andy Earl, Jordan Rehrer, Brett Wilson, Chris Green, Benji Oppan, Daryl Young, Steven Grimes, Beau Day, Oakley Hill, Dallin Twilligear, Eric Long, and Elijah P. Whitney, as well as a cameo hug from Torah Bright. Less than 24 hours, people!!

Elijah P. Whitney's Black Sorcery

2010-01-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

This was probably one of the more fun sessions I've been a part of recently. Most of the shred kids in SLC know about the Rail Garden on 4500 South, and most of us have had several sessions on the many features there, so I thought it would be super fun to see how many tricks we could hammer out in sixty minutes. Eight riders, plus sixty minutes, plus ten stairs and a handrail equals about 35 different tricks. I'm pretty stoked on everyone that came out the shred with us. We had some new faces, as well as some classic Wasatch Podcast shred heads. Possibly my favorite part, however, was the wizardry of Elijah P. Whitney, whom I had never before met, but who was invited to the session to shoot some photos by my buddy Daryl. All these photos are property of that young man and his Nikon weapon. I'm pretty stoked on all these photos, so I hope you enjoy them as much as I. EPW doesn't have a website at present, but feel free to call him to shoot your wedding or family get-together anytime: 801-450-2432. Photos of Daryl, Oakley, and Chris. Video included in Episode 1, coming January 19.

Nick Hyne + Borrowed PW's = Magic

2010-01-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm the best person in the world to lend your stuff to. I'm super respectful, punctual, and responsible. Occasionally though, life finds a way to really put a wrench in my reputation by keeping me from returning borrowed items to my friends. Let me explain: Three weeks ago I borrowed a set of Pocket Wizard radio flash triggers and a speedlight from my buddy Blake. I had every intention of returning said items the next day, and hooking Blakey up with some mula for letting me borrow the equipment in a pinch. As of today, I still have the items, and don't know when I'm returning them. Hopefully today or tomorrow (just in case Blake reads this). So, my reputation it totally tarnished, but on the plus side, while we were setting up the basketball hoop two nights past (video to come very soon), Nick Hyne, my buddy from NZ, spotted a little park bench and thought it would be magical to slide the backrest and the seat simultaneously. I also thought this was a pretty good idea, and since I've been terribly irresponsible of late, I happened to have a handy set of Pocket Wizards and a flash just chilling safely in my camera bag. Five tries and several exposures later, we came away with some pretty cool photos. Thanks Blake. Sorry I'm a slacker.

Nick Cheesing it up for the camera

Sick frontside lipslide

Season Two Teaser

2010-01-05T23:42:00.000-07:00

We've started principal cinematography for Episode One of Season Two of Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast, and spirits are very high. We have a super legit group of kids that are consistently coming out to kill it everyday. Yesterday we shot at Park City Mountain Resort, and then at a basketball hoop in Silver Summit, then tonight we went back to the basketball hoop to get some additional shots. Everything turned out super sick and all the kids stomped hammers that will definitely make it into the first episode. Embedded below is a sample of what the first episode will contain, with professional snowboarder Nick Hyne from NZ showing better style on his first run of the day than most shreds do all season. Best of luck in China, Nick, and we'll catch you again in March. Check out Nick's blog by clicking here: nickhyne.blogspot.com. Get stoked!

Season Two Teaser - Wasatch: The Official Production Podcast from Parker Alec Cross on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T17:16:00.001-07:00

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

2009-12-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-12-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-12-13T17:54:00.001-07:00

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

2009-12-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-12-13T16:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-12-13T16:15:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-12-13T15:55:00.002-07:00

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

2009-12-13T15:40:00.001-07:00

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.