aries 2010 capsule build from Heather Hanrahan on Vimeo.

Vancouver shop The Boardroom is hosting Aries 2010, helping to launch it alongside the 2010 Winter Olympics with events this past Saturday, 13 February 2010 and next Friday, 19 February 2010, which will both feature presentations by snowboarding legends Terry Kidwell, Dano Pendygrass, Ken Achenbach and Barrett Christy.

Trevor came in this morning with this classic Grant Brittian print of Chris Miller. Immediately it caught my eye, I went over to TG and asked what was up with the shot. “This photo changed my life.” is what he says to me. ” You know when you draw an image over and over? It’s like an album cover you really like or something, I must have drawn this image over 100 times.”  I was a bit stunned staring at this photo while listening to TG go on like like a schoolgirl about this photo. This image inspired Trevor graves to pick up a camera, which in turn TG created images that inspired a myriad of shred photogs to do the same (raises hand). It kind of blew my mind for a split second knowing that if Grant never took this photo or if TG never saw this, I and many other photographers may not be doing what we’re doing now. Which makes me realize that inspiring creativity is much more rewarding than dollars and cents, make sense? Heavy stuff, right? Go check out Grants site, see if you can catch the inspiration bug yourself.

Snowboarding legend Laura Hadar approached about the idea of showing some of the old work at here new high end boutique in Salt Lake City while we are on a photo shoot in Russia for Nike Snowboarding. Salt Lakes finest photog, Andy Wright showed up to share some stories and a beer. 

If you remember a few weeks ago, Trevor Graves posted his thoughts about Canon’s new Powershot G10. I know I know, you can’t believe someone would ruin such a new camera blah blah. Before you get all in a twist about Trevor’s smash happy video again, remember we put  the smashed cam up for auction?  Well, it sold! We actually donated 100% of the proceeds directly to Boarding for Breast Cancer. We were surprised to even see people bidding on the thing, so we were blown away when 10 bids were placed. It topped out at $300.00. So here is to you anonymous bidder, you will receive your framed hunk of scrap art in a few days to remind you, you rule because you love boobs, and so do we!

Revarie is a short film by NYC photographer Vincent Laforet. What makes this film Unique is that it was filmed entirely with Canon’s new EOS 5D Mark II. Which up until recently had just been a DSLR. Now they have added the capabilities of 1080p HD video to its feature list. I think we’ll be seeing more of this crossover of mediums. Which is pretty exciting to think of what is next to come. Who knows any of us photographers could be a closet videographer and we just don’t know it yet! Check out the video on Vincent’s site here.

Maybe you can’t make money doing what you love. Is that really the right question to ask yourself?

Today, it is so much easier to get your images out there for the world to see. That hidden talent may find a long tail fan willing to hire you or purchase a print. Awesome.

You have gotten your college degree.

You have done multiple internships.

You have paid your sweat equity assisting asshole shooters just to gain more experience.

When what you do is what you love, you’re able to invest more effort and care and time. That means you’re more likely to win, to gain share, to profit. Being a parent can be what you love in life but it doesn’t pay. Sometimes the price we pay to do the things we love has a price that might be too high to pay. Be careful what you wish for.

The commitment it takes to be a professional photographer is all consuming. Artisans in many ways are selfish little beings. The paycheck as a shooters comes with some strings attached.

The pitfalls:

1. In order to monetize your work, you’ll probably corrupt it, taking out the magic in search of dollars. Eating cake is great; eating cake everyday can be a drag.

2. Attention doesn’t always equal significant cash flow. Be sure you understand the market place in which you are working. Shooting for charitable causes feels right, but it’s hard to pay the rent with a hug.

3. Life will pass you by. That 80^th birthday for grandma, a close friends sudden death and even opportunities for a relationship are samples of emotional parts of life that will miss because you are location in a remote place or on a plane going to the remote location. Are you ready and willing to let part of life go by?

Along the way to being that professional, take time to look around you and embrace other ideas that can pay the bills.

Maybe you can’t make money doing what you love (at least what you love right now). But I bet you can figure out how to love what you do to make money (if you choose wisely).

Shoot everything. But don’t wreck your art if it doesn’t lend itself to paying the bills. That would be a tragedy.

Many cultures long viewed photographs with fear, worrying that a piece of the soul disappeared when a photo was taken. Never mess with a man’s religion.

Those cultures that retain a belief in ‘sympathetic’ magic (where something that was a part of the person, like nail clippings, hair, blood or even an article of clothing) could be used to cast a spell or curse. A part of the ‘victim’ is essential in creating a ‘voodoo doll’. As a courtesy, it might be nice to let these people own their souls. There are plenty of celebrities giving away their souls as paparazzi “Canon fauder”, get it? Canon….the cameras, forget it, I digress.

Some museums forbid all photography, even without a flash, for no other reason than fear. Clearly a famous painting is worth more than an unknown one–and just as clearly, the artist who painted the image probably wanted other people to see it. There is some evidence that over time the camera flash will degrade the properties of the art work. They may want to protect the right of children is the background of your selfsih shot as illustrated in the post from PhotoShelter. ” If you are on private property and are asked not to take pictures, you are obligated to honor that request. This includes posted signs.”

What a missed oppritunity to have the visitors shooting images of the art work to spread the word of the amazing work. 

Even worse is the hypocrisy of serikotik1970’s on Flickr. It is obvious he broke the rules of the museum and poached a few shots because he felt entitled. He posts them to the Flickr site and locks them down so no one can “steal” them with out his consent. Oh like that is going to work, if someone wants something online it is way to easy to lift it. Wouldn’t it make more sense to properly tag the jpeg and like pollen on a bee, use the audience to spread your creative? You obviously have a need to be acknowledged or you would have gone so far as to put up a PRO Flickr account. I had to do a lot of extra work to get the image I lifted from your Flickr account, to link back to you so you can benefit from anyone in our studionemo audience that may want to work with you at some level.

Back to why I started this post. 

The inspiration for this piece was a photo student inquiring about being “ripped” off by a website that used his photo with out his consent. He felt he was due compensation and maybe rightfully and legal so. If the same situation was looked at differently could it be a positive marketing situation, no money needs to exchange hands let’s face it the fee is so small and by the time Uncle Sam gets his 40%, it wasn’t worth the conversation). Could there be lessons in other industries that would could look at and adapt to photo to help our Fear of being ripped off?

Head into the food court of any mall and the Chinese place will be handing out free sample so of the Orange chicken on a tooth pick. They could charge a quarter for a bite size snack like the candy bar world does, however, they know that once you have the customer in your “web” then the stats go up that they are ready to purchase. With may other choice right there; a lot of energy is used to reel them in for the final sale. Could a web photo usage e considered similar to the Chinese free give away model?

Lets look at another similar industry, the music industry. With the MP3 the traditional business model of selling a physical CD has tanked. My friend and business partner at Pamplemoose, Dave Allen has this to say in a post on the Moose, A Five Point Plan to Save the Music Business.

“Free doesn’t mean no money: The music industry should not fear free. It needs to embrace it. The culture of the net is free or at least feeling free. But money can still be made from other sources: everything from advertising supported services, to brands paying for an association with the artists to newspapers paying for giveaway CDs”.

Back to the original situation. Can we look at this web usage as a form of “free” marketing that “reels” a potential customer in for a larger, smarter, business opportunity? The world is a changing market and if we as shooters don’t keep up and leverage new outlets then we get left behind and Darwin-ism puts in our place, out of business.

Here is a short tail to the long tail answer of do I give a photo usage away for free? Any photo posted to any website anywhere should be considered a marketing seed for your photography business. The old cliché goes, you need to spend money to make money, posting a jpeg is nearly free marketing dollars. The jpeg is out there with a hotlink to your website, meta data with your copyright that leads to your website and as a seed, it will populate across the web and lead potential customers to your website, your Chinese food stand. The big sales can be with custom prints, day shoots, and license fees for advertisement needs. The “free” sample actual can be considered as “free” promotions for your photo businesses. It makes sense to kiss the hand that feeds you and not bite it.

YoBeat recently took a keen eye to StudioNemo, and put up the video from our last art show on their site. We love YoBeat and so should you. They are full of content making fun of a world that takes it’s self too seriously at times, I’m talking of the “action sports” world. Some of you know what I mean. Anyways, Holler at YoBeat!

Powder & Rails is a new video series on VBS.TV. It covers snowboarding’s early days, day-glo and all! With interviews from Pat Bridges of Snowboarder Magazine, Kevin English of HCSC, Nemo’s own Trevor Graves and many more legends in the game! They give the low down on those days of tindy’s, grassers, eggplants and stiffy mute’s! TUNE IN!

Here are a few photos of students of the HCSC Photo Workshop in action capturing the action!

Click the jump for MORE!

I grabbed the Canon G9 and headed to Brooklyn Projects opening and launch of the Nemo produced book FREESTYLIN’. Nike SB’s, John Martin asked Nemo creative director Mark Lewman if he could do anything for BMX what would he do. Lewman brought the old band together from the Freestylin’ days and put together an amazing historical outline of the pioneering days of freestyle BMX. Spike Jones and Andy Jenkins collaborated in their original roles and put together the book.

BMX racing will debut in China at the Olympics next month and Nike SB has been doing promotions to bring focus to the new event. Michael Lau designed special limited edition Blazers for the promotion and if you were at the party in LA the he also design two special edition toys and a show box that is so unique and original!

Do you think money exchanges hands between Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson) and Nikon on this product placement?

Has the celebrity obsessions have gone too far? It used to be the National Inquire with run out and shoot celebrities sun bathing in the nude, it was understood that the celebrity would sue the publication and the media feeding frenzy that would ensue would propel the actress’ career into high gear! To keep up and contribute the frenzy coolspotters.com has launched the BETA site.

The coolspotters.com site is full of celebrity profiles, product profiles, movie profiles, and so much more. These Profiles are where you can learn about the associations between your favorite celebrities, entertainment, products, events, and places.

Be the first in your neighborhood to be the ultimate consumer of useless information and gossip!

The 2008 Teva Mountain Games photography competition has evolved into a new and challenging format to truly test a Photographer’s skills. Competitors will have 80 hours to take photos during the Games.

At the conclusion of the Games, photographers will submit their top three photos online to a jury. The photos will be judged on the subject of “Iconic Teva Mountain Games”. The person compiling the top “portfolio” will be awarded the winner. The top three Photographers will be awarded cash and their final work will be displayed on the Teva Mountain Games website and in Outside Magazine!

Don’t miss your chance to shoot some epic mountain scenary and compete for a heft cash purse!

PRIZES:
1st – $2500
2nd – $1500
3rd – $1000

More info CLICK HERE

Today’s inspiration was sparked by the travel plans of Nemo Design’s Creative Director, Mark Lewman. He is on a plane today to China to be part of a pre Olympic art show. The “Lightning Bolt” show is supporting Nike’s sponsorship of BMX racing at the 2008 games. The venue is a converted oil tank located in downtown. The curiosity leads me to the work of Li Wei.

SHOCKING
As the world gets cluttered with images after image it really does become difficult to stand out and have a signature to work. Li Wei work is a cross between performance art and suicide. In action sports we had an underlying mantra of shut up and put up. Don’t tell me what you are going to do, show me. Li puts himself into the work, literally. He has suspended himself above the Beijing skyline to illustrate his vision. I can’t help but wonder if the adrenaline is a key part of the art.

PROGRESSION
It is hard to also progress a body of work and continue to re invent your vision. Sally Mann had a difficult transition after her inspiration, her family, grew up. Li seems to have let his thirst for adreline move his work. The simple magicians mirror trick of 2000 has grown into high wire production. For example, the performance/photograph titled Free Degree Over 29th Story (2003), in which Li Wei’s body appears to float from a window on the 29th floor of Beijing’s Jianwai SOHO office complex. In the image, his body is held in gravity-defying suspension. Arms outstretched, body rigidly horizontal, Li appears on the threshold of either soaring miraculously among the skyscrapers of Beijing’s Central Business District, or plummeting gloriously like Evel Knievel.

Li has gone on to exhibit his work internationally, including recent solo exhibitions in Hong Kong, Madrid, Beijing, and Milan.
http://www.liweiart.com

www.vincentskoglund.com

“The superficial” ran a piece that came across Jeff’s desk here at Nemo. There is a coming of age story in here. When I was at BIKINI magazine/ Ray Gun (1992) we photographed Alyssa Milano nude in the desert and it was a huge deal. She was a child actor trying to avoid the child actor syndrome and striped for the magazine. It was mild. Her mother was there and knew about the entire shoot and I even wondered if she staged the shoot. Janet Jackson, Lindsay Lohan have all signed deals with the devil to continue their careers. Here we have Hanna Montana aka Miley Cyrus needing to make the transition as well. This is how Hollywood does it people. Her audience is growing and it is sad but true. Jodi Foster made the leap from child star to Oscar winner based on her reputation as an incredible actress. She did it.

Annie Leibovitz issued the following statement to People: “I’m sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted. Miley and I looked at fashion photographs together and we discussed the picture in that context before we shot it. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful.”

Apparently Disney, who owns Hannah Montana, was not aware of the photos until they appeared on Entertainment Tonight. You know how Disney cares about that wholesome image. They don’t want their young starlets flashing their goods until they’re good and insane. Right, Britney Spears? Now get that kitten out of your mouth. For the last time, putting hot fudge on it doesn’t make it food. You gotta use ketchup.

The Story

It wasn’t an intentional test drive for either system… The harsh reality of shooting professionally,  is that ability overcomes harsh situations. This story outlines just such an event. Neither the Nikon D3 vs. Canon EOS3 is my primary system, my main “gun” is the Nikon D2X. Keep in mind, I am an old film guy who has taken on the learning curve of the digital world.

In all fairness to the tech geeks seeking out technical reviews on the camera systems, this story isn’t going to go there. It is more of an emotional walk with the camera systems just as a creative working a brush on their canvas.

Let me set the stage. I will qualify my shooting style to help set what features are important to me and why. I grew up shooting action sports and more specifically snowboarding. I was a senior shooter for SNOWBOARDER magazine for 13 years and traveled the globe chasing the snow. Powerful motor drives, reliability, access to rental gear in foreign cities, fast auto focusing, accurate metering and lens quality and selection are all key to needs in a camera rig. The funny part of brand loyalty is it starts with that first camera. I started on a Nikon FE 2 back in the day and have sequentially gone thru each new model, F3, F4 and so on to my current body the D2X. In my pier group, my buddies are on the Canon systems and they love them. There were points along the way I felt the need to convert but the financial hit to do it kept me from leaping over to the Canon side of the fence. I swear the companies talk and decide who is going to have which special features first to keep everyone buying. That is another story.

Jump ahead to the week of April 17th, 2008. I had an assignment thru my friends over at JDK, to shoot active lifestyle here in Oregon. Mountain, biking, kayaking, running and bungee jumping. April is hit or miss for weather so I wanted to rent a back up body in case the trusty D2X went down in the rain. Greg over at CLUTCH rents Canon systems so I grabbed the Canon EOS3 as a back up. I was nervous about not knowing it intimately and excited to actually field test the Canon to see what the hype around Canon was all about.

Back Focusing is a four-letter word
The drama and the test of being a professional started on the first shot. It is 5:50 am under the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland. The story is to capture a group of friends on an early morning run. The weather was misty, at best, and cold. To add to the confusion in analyzing the camera problem later, John Siddel the Art Director on the shoot, wanted some pan blurring to capture the speed and honesty of the morning run. We started with simple stretching all yoga style. I am locked down on a tripod and using some fill light to separate the subject from the background. It was a basic 101 shot and as Jonah Sutherland, our digital tech for the shoot was “souping” the images he reported some focus problems. I blamed myself as the eyes are going soft in my ripe old age and the low light tends to cause motion blur. I kept shooting. As the afternoon rolled around I noticed the problem didn’t get any better, I became even more frustrated and my confidence started to dwindle. I finally did a test to prove to myself it wasn’t me and it had to be the camera. I locked in on a street sign and had the speed and F-Stop at more than generous numbers to insure a sharp focus on the text. Bam, there it was! Jonah processed the shots and we noticed the top of the sign was in focus and the bottom was soft. Troubleshooting, I tried a different lens and it happened again. The body on the D2X was messing up; it had a symptom called BACK FOCUSING. I had never had this problem and don’t really want to go to deep into it for this story. 

Deliver the D3
In the pandemonium of the D2X shitting the bed, I had Kari Rowe, my assistant that day, scrounge up another back up body for the Canon as the weather forecast was for rain and snow and we had kayaking in the river, yet to go. In these remote location there was no way I wanted to be left with one camera body. She was all amped on the Nikon D3 and jumped at the chance to run to the local shop to rent it. It was in the quiver but the spot lot for now was on the Canon.

Canon EOS 1 Mark 3 back up to the rescue.
In a weird way I was stoked to try the Canon in a real shooting situation and really put it thru its paces. I huge relief was lifted from my shoulders knowing it wasn’t it and me was the camera. The creative mojo was on the mend. The first thing I noticed was focus was opposite of Nikon. Other dials are also opposite of Nikon so the challenge was to try to think backwards to get the flow of the focus going again. The grip with the motor drive on the Canon was very mechanical feeling for me. The rounded handgrip was less ergonomic than the Nikon. The Canon glass was excellent. They had plenty of lenses to play with. The shutter made an OK noise, not as cool as the Nikon motor drive noise. The image quality at 1600 ISO was good. What came up short for me was the processing speed. I would click off a sequence of action and the drive would stop, as the camera needed more time to process the images. The large RAW images I understand take a little longer to process but this was unacceptable for me. I slowed my shooting down to compensate for the camera. No one wins in that situation. The first negative feedback on the Canon. I had heard the Canon had an amazing auto focus. When it was tracking it was Ok. What I found out was how clunky the button placement was on the body and how it wasn’t laid out intuitively to the users experience. You can pick an auto mode and it picks a point to focus on. To switch the areas of focus to match your composition you needed to pull your finger off the shutter, reach for the button for focus on the right side of the camera and roll the dial on the left side to move the points of focus. Clunky at best. I did like the auto sensor cleaning as I inserted a new card. Reviewing images was excellent, as well. The histos came up and you only need to push the INFO button to gather information and zooming in to check the focus was easy.

Enter the D3
The rumor on the street was the D3 had a full sensor and was able to shoot in dark situations and hold the quality of the digital image. I stuck the 14mm on with the on camera strobe to get running action in the parking lot of a Shilo inn. We had been shooting for 14 hours already and the talent was ready to relax. I promised a 10-minute session and we did it. The Nikon felt great in my hand and because I am a “Nikon guy” it was good to be back behind the Nikon. We popped off some action and headed to the motor home to process the images to see the results. Amazing!  I was blow away with how sharp and noiseless the night shots were. The Nikon D3 was bumped from the bench to playing in the game. I had decided to keep the Nikon close at hand for the rest of the shoot.

The Nikon D3 is the best camera ever made by Nikon. It was announced on August 23rd, 2007. And as of the beginning of 2008 it’s just starting to trickle into the hands of photographers.

The Nikon D3 excels for news, sports and event photography where you need it to work under any condition. If you get knocked over and knocked out, you’ll come up shooting with the D3 even if you’re still seeing stars. The D3 just works as an extension of your imagination.

D3 really can crank at 9FPS

The D3 works in more crazy lighting conditions than any previous camera. I can shoot at ISO 6,400 without any excuses. I can get good color rendition in any crappy lighting, even in low light action situations, due to the astoundingly large range of accommodation of the manual PREset (gray card) white balance. This is HUGE. For the first time, I wasn’t making creative excuse for difficult lighting situations. On this shoot I was in a rubber raft drifting in a shady canyon. The kayaker was dropping a small waterfall and I was able to choose a high speed with a large F-Stop to cover both crisp action and depth of field. Normally I would drag a ProFoto lighting kit into stop the action and whatever F-Stop I got was what I had to live with. The D3 opened up so many more creative solutions. The idea that I am not handcuffed to the heavy, 1200-watt portable lighting kits is liberating! The 2-mile hikes into location with all this gear could kill a camel.

Auto Focus
The AF system just works. Set to the All Areas dummy mode (the big white rectangle), it really just finds the correct sensors and uses them without you or I having to jack any switches around for each shot. This opens up the number of compositions I can get in a situation. During the kayaking, the park ranger showed up to kick us out of the area. She granted us one shot at the waterfall drop. I had a vertical composition with the action but wanted a horizontal shot as he paddled toward me. The thumb toggle made it easy to flip back and forth. With the Canon, too many steps and buttons are in non-intuitive places.

From a convenience aspect, the larger 3″ LCD screen is nice, but far nicer is how much faster playback responds to button presses. I can scroll around a magnified image much faster, and RGB histograms come up instantly.

In a head to head real life test, the D3 was the winner in my mind!

Schlieren photography was invented in 1864 to detect flaws in glass

‘schliere’ being German for ‘streak’. It is familiar today as a way of visualising shock waves in wind tunnels. The technique relies on the change of refractive index (ability to ‘bend’ light) with density. At its simplest, a parallel beam of light passes through the test area and is focussed onto a knife edge. Any change in air density causes part of the beam to be refracted and to fall above or below the knife edge. This makes that part of the image to appear brighter or darker than the background. Modern systems may use filters in place of the knife edge to make a coloured image.

www.colebarash.com

The Canon G9 went to work Friday night covering the action around the Big Giant Beard Bake off event. The 20 or so contestants all grew our their facial hair to win unique cataogries like “most Pubic Like.” Gary Franz the Nemo Design IT guy dominated the event! Jason Maranda of Big Giant, thanks for being the host with the most!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0PVUB3hKB4&hl=en]

The site is a clever way to mix sex and hot sauce. With a viewfinder on the screen you can actually snap shots of Daniella as she poses in tropical settings. It is fun and Taco Bell pays you off by letting you download the shots from your session. A+.

Here is my shot.

I had a chance to catch up with my buddy Vincent Skoglund. He recently reworked his website and you can see it here.

I see in your “BIO” section of your website you have entered your bio as “When not traveling, Vincent Skoglund lives in Stockholm, Sweden” I was hoping to get more of a background story about you. Where you grew up, things you were interested in as a kid, the first time you got busted by the cops, the first time you picked up a camera and decided in that moment you wanted to be a photographer.

I grew up in Falun about 2 hrs north of Stockholm on the countryside. I was, as a kid really interesting in drawing and painting. I also remeber that I wanted to be a boss or an artist when I grew up. I guess that being a self-employed photographer that is as close as I can get. I got busted by the cops when I did my first graffiti on a wall in a parking garage. There was only one window of a flat that could see us. That one flat hosed the chief of police in falun. So 3 cop cars busted us. That was pretty much it for my short-lived graffiti career.

Snowboarding has been a big part of your career. Could you make a connection to how snowboarding has help you evolve as a photographer?

Most of all Snowboarding has been a fantastic way of learning about people, the world and life in general. All the travels and new discoveries. This is what has had the biggest impact on me. Photography-wise, shooting as much as I did when I did snowboarding full time was really what made me evolve. I started young so it was like a life school. Also the commisions from snowboarding companies was so loose there was so much room to be creative. The brief would be like “Vincent, we love your photography just keep doing it”. It was also open for any type of photography, portraits, landscapes, action, life…

In the past 10 years, what would you say has been your most memorable snowboard trip/ shoot?

2 years ago I had a funny and hectic schedule. It was a trip around the world with back to back commitments of very different kinds. Something like this:

1. Paris opening of the Adicolor exhibition. 2 days.

2. Vermont. Shooting, read hunting, Shaun White at the US open. During the pipe contest. For Burton snowboards. 3 days.

3. Whistler, Shooting with Jussi Oksanen and Tadashi Fuse in the Backcountry. A really heavy sled mission since we got a few feet of fresh pow. 6 days.

4. Miami, Shooting tennis with Boris Becker. 2 days.

5. Hong kong, Opening of the adicolor exhibition and press. 3 days.

Adicolor- is an amazing body of work, can you give me a brief explanation of the assignment?

23 different artists around the world got invited to do a shoe and a tracksuit each based on a color. On a 6 week trip around the world I went to meet most of the artists involved in the adicolor project. It turned out to be a fantastic trip of inspiration and great people. Meeting the artists in the places were they work and were they get their inspiration. Since they all have different backgrounds, they have very different ways of being creative, that was great to see. Creativity is the red line that ties everyone together.

The comission from Adidas, was to make my own creative interpretation of the artists, places and the adicolor project in general. Very much a dream job that resulted in little bit more than 100 prints, that got exhibited around the world.

On the WeSC headphone campaign (girls plugged into a pineapple) you are listed as Photographer/ Art Direction. Could explain the new role of Art Director and what it means to you?

It is interesting for me to shoot ideas I am interested in.

The Burton Un-Inc portraits are amazing, the set looks very art directed and I am sure there are some stories here. Can you share a story about the Un – Inc work. (Romain and Gigi with puppies)

Thanks, I worked together with Lance Violette on that shoot. Really fun. We bounced some ideas back an forth a few weeks ahead of the shoot and came up with the night / day concept which is inspired by 60′s music covers and 80′s heavy metal covers. Then all the puppies and kittens shows up as well, with their owners. It was a fun shoot!

I get a feeling there is nothing in the world that scares you physically, mentally or creatively. The Svenska spel work has some amazing post production work, the JC work is a challenge in the lighting and action and Nike and Burton have you on top of a mountain, that I am sure is sketchy. How do you keep focus and creativity? Maybe a comparison between these very different shoots and how they are similar and different.

Lots of times on commercial shoots it is about improving what I got in front of me as much as possible. Making sure the angle, light, composition etc is as good as possible. Of course there is also a thought process before that is very important, to make sure that I do it the right way. I like to get to meet with the art director ahead of the shoot to take the ideas the extra mile and be as good as possible. JC and Svenska spel was well planned ahead of the shoot. With the Nike work we got locations that looked good, then it’s about making it something special. The Burton latest campaign I did for them was with a very snap / reportage approach. That was so much fun. Being in the right place at the right time. Try to get moments that convey the great and fun things about snowboarding.

It is funny how Art Buyers may put a shooter into a category. Categories may include Portrait, Lifestyle, Fashion and Editorial. In a good way I have no way of stereotyping your work, you pull it all off so well! When you think of your work and where you are heading, can you categorize yourself? What interests you in all these types of photography?

I am not really interested in categorizing myself. I like the idea that it is not so much about what you shoot as to how you approach it and how it feels when you look at it.

I hate to do the cliché question but I think it is still a good one for you, when you think of the future, 5 years, 10 years down the road, where do you see yourself going?

I am currently working on a few different personal projects. Having the first of the second solo exhibition with the series “Lightyears” in a few weeks. This exhibition will go from there on some kind of tour. A group show at the Art Basel in NYC as well, with prints from the “Lightyears” series. I am in also putting together a book about the snowboarding life and the people around it. Looking at what interests me at the moment I think I will be doing lots more series that will evolve from the “Lightyears” series. I will become more personal with my work as well.

Thanks Vincent for your insight! I hope to connect soon!  

Peace.

tg 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imy2V52P8Ao&hl=en]

Fairmont Chateau Whistler- Sat. Jan 5th at 7pm Event at 8pm

Inspired by the awesome storms that rage through the Coast Mountains each January, dumping feet upon feet of perfect powder onto Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, the 2nd Annual Deep Winter Photo Challenge has blown into the village again. This grass-roots celebration of the storm season and the photographers who capture it will see Paul Morrison, last season’s “King of Storms” come back to defend his crown against: Dano Pendygrasse, Ian Coble, Bryan Ralph, Jordan Manley and Phil Tifo. Watch as these photographers present their slideshows capturing epic powder days, dramatic skies, inspiring scenery, stormy conditions, deep tree skiing, and the lifestyles characterized at Whistler Blackcomb.

We are cheering for our boy Dano Pendygrasse!!

Any conversation about photographers in Whistler quickly includes Dano Pendygrasse. In the 15 or so years since Dano started documenting the birth of the snowboard scene in Whistler, his name has become synonymous with excellence in snowboard photography.

Dano has been published around the world in dozens of publications, spent time as a staff shooter for both Transworld Snowboarding Magazine and Snowboarder Magazine before spending the last few years launching the successful Future Snowboarding Magazine in Southern California.

Now back in Whistler (after a three month detour in Honduras), Dano has refocused on his love of mountain photography and continues to challenge himself creatively to bring unique and timeless images into the world. He is currently digging deep into the vaults to bring selected works to the public for the first time.

Nemo traditional takes time off at the end of the year to let all the team players go snowboarding and do what they do. With the studio empty, it is a great time to take on the big project of updating the space. As most projects at Nemo this one also has a theme of inspiration. Voyeurism. The spark of inspiration was” Dirty Old Men”. However, voyeurism seems to cover that and then some. The nature of photography is voyeuristic as is invades our personal space and gives an outsider a look into the subject. The doors will have two way mirrored windows so on lookers can see what is going on in the studio but the crew in to the studio won’t know they are being observed. There is an obtrusive side to photography and instead of denying we choose to celebrate it. As the space is decked out, we will share more images.

WEDNESDAY
Seems as if a huge storm ripped thru the island in the middle of the night, knocking out the power in all the North Shore. You would have thought Armageddon had hit! People were lined up outside Foodland (the only grocery store for miles) stocking up on beer. They were only letting people in 1 at a time and the line went thru the entire parking lot. We, being on a mission to shoot 4 athletes in one day, were not afraid! Coffee would have been nice, but nonetheless, we headed back to Panchos to keep shooting. Luckily the lights had plenty of battery power to get us thru the day. Like clockwork we shot Bobby, Kai, Pancho, and CJ and by the time we were done, we it was 6pm. We headed back to the hotel, and the only thing open for dinner was the buffet and it was quite crowded since most of the locals were there getting food as well. The power was finally restored, but it was late and we all headed for bed.

THURSDAY
The weather seems to be getting better, but because the waves are also getting better, its hard tracking down the athletes. With most of the studio shots in the can, we are waiting to meet up with CJ and Pacho to shoot some lifestyle. Stay tuned!

My buddy, wake shooter and the STANDARD wake quarterly magazine editor, Josh Letchworth hit me up with an email the other day asking about some insight to shooting in the snow. In the spirit of knowledge sharing I have attached the context of the email in this post.

Josh: ok, TG….need some help from the master.

I have a shoot coming up in montana to shoot some snow mobile / lifestyle stuff. I have done minimal shooting in the snow. just some fun snowboarding stuff on trips in the past.

If you could think of all things that have discovered over the years that have made what you do at least a bit more tolerable in those conditions, I would appreciate the lecture.

I am mainly thinking in the vein of CLOTHING, GLOVES, KEEPING EQUIPMENT DRY, BATTERIES DIEING, SETTING EQUIPMENT DOWN, WORKSPACE, GLARE, REALISTIC AMOUNT OF GEAR TO CARRY, GOOD BACKPACK…

I”m sure you have run into many of the pitfalls….

Just thought I would check with you and see if you had any advice to offer.

Thanks so much…I really appreciate anything you’ve got to offer….

hope all is well.

talk soon

Josh

TG:
Hey there!!

I read your email and get that WARM Florida contact high. Its freezing in Portland this week!

Speaking of freezing…going to Montana is COLD!!

Here are the quick tips on snow stuff:

GLOVES:
I little windstopper fleece gloves to use that have rubber grips on the fingers. They are enough to keep you warm and not too bulky you can feel the camera. If your riding a snow machine most have hand warmers and the thinner gloves rule for that too. $20 to $60 for gloves.
See attached
http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&partNumber=759948&preferredSku=7599480022&cm_mmc=cse_froogle-_-datafeed-_-product-_-na&mr:trackingCode=A3705D40-549C-DC11-BE2A-001422107090&mr:referralID=NA

CLOTHING:
Gore-Tex is key. The Burton AK stuff is awesome. I like to wear BLACK in case I am working with a film crew I can get in closer and squat down and look like a rock so I don’t clutter up the filmers shot with a loud yellow jacket. The Burton AK 2l is in the medium price range and function: $300to $500 for a decent jacket. I like lots of pockets to store stuff like a light meter, food, walkie talkie, a leatherman tool to fix bindings. Get pants to match and side cargo pockets are also a must. Gore-Tex breaths and allows the moisture to get out of the jacket and prevents you from freezing later when you are setting up a shot. Snowboard boots rule for snowmobiling. (on the east coast they call it SNOWMOBILE on the west coast the call it SNOWMACHINE)

http://store.burton.com/MensGender/Jackets.jsp?bmUID=1196269575475

KEEP IT DRY
When coming in from the cold it is critical to let the camera come up to temp. as it does, water will form on the outer chasse of the camera. As you know water kills a camera. I carry an extra body just in case. I have silica gel pack in my camera backpack. When it changes color ya put it in the oven to dry it out. I keep the camera in the camera backpack and let the heat from the room warm it up. After a few hours

http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/11481

BACKPACK
Critical gear! I like the backpacks that load from the strap area. The reason being is when you get to a spot you take the backpack off and flop it in the snow, if you have a regular opening bag the part that goes up against your back gets all snowy and get your back wet and cold. Im not sure if that make sense. Se the links. The Dakine MISSION bag is REGULAR entry, the Dakine SEQUENCE bag is smaller but has the back entry system. Price is $100 to $200. Be careful overloading your backpack too. Your a burly guy and all but if you need to manage a lot of gear an assistant makes sense if the budget allows. Don’t blow your spine out on carrying 100 lbs of gear. The Burton camera back is dope too. A manageable weight is 40lbs to 50 lbs.

http://www.climbinggear.com/products/listing/item10359.asp

http://www.nextag.com/DAKINE/camera-backpack/brand-html

BATTERIES
Alkaline slow down and hibernate in bitter cold conditions 20 degrees and below. The rechargeable NiCad do fine in cold weather. I am sure your run spares and keep them charged. Same deal in the cold. The Lithium batteries for pocket wizards. I carry a bulk amount of batteries, like 10 on any outing.

SAFTY GEAR
The harsh reality of SNOW is getting stuck on an overnight emergency mission. Hypothermia sets in pretty quick if not prepared. In my back pack and in my coat and cargo pockets I carry:

Toilet paper in a zip lock bag- obvious emergency here and a fire starter if needed. Pine needles and leaves to clean the poo after that.
Lighters
The chemical hand warmers heat packs. http://www.nextag.com/handwarmer-heat-packs/search-html
Beef jerky enough to share
Spare goggles and lenses
Spare pair of windstopper fleece gloves
Leatherman tool
Compass
I also have an avalanche shovel on my backpack to dig out sleds or make a cave. http://www.rei.com/product/704823
Head lamp in case it gets dark too quick. http://www.rei.com/product/736937

WORKSPACE
I carry a bunch of media cards to shoot the RAW images and transfer at night. I am sure you do to. I have never work my laptop in the snow.

Stoke to see what ya come back with! Send some eye candy and stoke me out as my sorry ass sits here and responds to 100 emails!!

Werd!
Tg

Herb Ritts is dead.
I stared across the table at Dona and I scrambled through my head to remember where and if I had even heard that. My first reaction was “No Way”. The 90s was filled with his imagery and I never remember him being an old guy per say. Tragically in 2002 on Dec 26th he passed on.

The conversation was about classy sexy imagery. Nude photography as an art form and differentiating plastic boobs and low budget porn was critical to the thinking. This brainstorm about photographers and their unique approaches to the subject lead to Herb’s “Wicked Game” video with Helena Christensen. He had clean lines and was able to keep the subject strong in all the work he presented. The film and the camera nor any technical wizardry was Herb’s signature to the work. You could feel that all his subjects were somehow emotional connected to Herb and in this creation process a trust was built. This sincerity became part of the strong lines and clean lighting to be a signature.

The memory of his work today was a testament to the work he created, His untimely death in many ways has immortalized the work.

In the 1970s there wasn’t a character bigger than EVEL KNIEVEL! The news of his passing on Nov 30th will be like asking me where I was on 9/11. Where do I begin? He has been called the God Father of Action Sports! Evel shut up and put up even when he knew he would get hurt or killed! In the end, inspired a whole generation to live in the warmth of the sun and never compromise your dreams and goals! As a 7-year-old kid on a BMX bike, I tried stunts I never would have thought about on my own. Landed some, came up short on many. Evel got up ever time. The quote that comes to mind after the jump in Wimbly was “a man is never a failure unless he refuses to get back up”. This guy was all broken and still had the guts to belt out words to live by. That was the mojo that made Evel headline news today, not the pills and rap video. The country was coming out of the Vietnam era and the national pride was bruised. Evel’s inspiration reminded the nation what made it great. I remember this interview with Evel where he had this amazing quote, Teddy Roosevelt said it originally and Evel put his spin on it:

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” – Evel Knievel/ Teddy Roosevelt

It’s funny how the reporters missed the real spark/ inspiration that made EVEL a legend. They talked about the recent stuff like Kanye West and the medication for the injuries. It was the showman ship ladies and gentleman. Before Tony Roberts did his motivational speeches it was EVEL, before Tony Hawk boosted his 900, it was EVEL, before rock stars knew how to party, it was EVEL, before the WWE had a stage, and again, it was EVEL!

Why is it that when we find a mentor or inspiration person they let us down in the end? Power corrupts and EVEL was no angel. I’ve hear first hand stories of how rude, mean and scitzo the guy really was. I scratch my head and wonder how we as a society reward these mean spirited, hypocritical people. A conclusion is that guys like Evel did what ever they pleased and had no apologies or remorse. They showed us how we could live the life we dream. Do you want to live in the grey twilight?

There is a tipping point in a young person’s life where they get asked by their uncle “what do you want to do when you grow up”? What a retarded question to ask a 10 year old. At 10 I would challenge you to remember if you even knew what you ones own father did for a living let alone what I was going to be.

As an amateur anthropologist, my mind wanders and wonders about what it is in our brains that makes us be unique individuals. Today I sit here and add an entry to this journal and at the same time there were so many forks in the road that molded my life path. In the states we open up social introduction with the standard, what do you do for a living question and doing so limit what we get to know about this person. This job title follows us and somehow defines us. Today I sit before you and say that I am a photographer. I also wonder why that happens?

In those “Wonder Years” (ages 10 -14_ when we have learned 80% of what we will need and use in our adult life and how we channel that knowledge to a career path is the secret to happiness.

David Graves. In 1970s this man went to work on a factory line at Bristol Meyers and support his young family. I was the oldest of three. In those days it wasn’t that children were seen and not heard, it was more that my father was seen and seldom spoke. Of course he spoke when he needed to discipline but the Mr. Mom fuzziness of the modern father were not crafted into my father’s skills. Mom would remind us how hard my Dad would work to support the family. I must have been about twelve or so and somehow in the context of what I was doing with my Dad he gave me some advise. What ever you do in life be sure you like what do. You’re committed to working 8 hours for a company each day, a minimum of 40 hours a week and your going to spend more time working than being with your family, then you had better like what you’re doing. Don’t worry about the money because even if you have the money you’re going to be miserable. The Rockefellers put their pants on one leg at a time and I cant say they are any happier than you or I. It stuck and it wasn’t till many years later when I worked the line with my Dad, did I understand that he was trying to save me from the fate that his life had taken. Did he really like fixing the bottlenecks on this pill bottler that his advise was to be like him or was he helping steer me not to be like him and just punch a clock to pay the bills?

The schools at the time would test students to see if there were career paths that made sense. I wasn’t a slouch student and had good grades. They tested me and advised me that I would be a good architect or engineer. The career planner got me into a job-shadowing program at Crouse Hines; if you have seen a traffic signal then you have seen one of their products. For the times it was an advance idea, job shadowing. However, by the second day I was ready to put a gun to my head. These guys were so boring and the work was so mechanical I knew the engineer life wasn’t for me. In hindsight the experience was life changing in that at the rip age of 15 I knew what I didn’t want to do in life!

The fork in the road had me down a new path. College plans were being made and in y immediate family no one had ever gone to college. I was to be the first one. I had some engineering option is the city (NYC) and then I dawned on me. I wanted to go into commercial arts. The program at the time was advertising arts and production and it wasn’t al liberal artsy and hard to see a career path. It had real world jobs that were tied to the craft of the arts. Perfect. Dad, I am going to college to get a degree in design. To my Fathers credit, the first big fork in the road was taken. College introduced me to the world of typography, photography, design, illustration and a new field, computer arts. The use of my brain to fore sees images manifested into photography quickly. I had no real intentions of having the job description of photographer but as the photography chemicals pickled my senses, the transition happened.