Back Home.

So it seems after reading countless other action sports and lifestyle photographer blogs whenever you travel you MUST take a few shots in the airport. So I snapped this one, I think in SLC.

After two and a half weeks traveling through Colorado and Utah I'm finally home. It took me 18+ hours to get here, but home nonetheless. After a hungover but smooth start at the SLC International airport, the stop in Chicago proved to be the killer. An hour and a half delay there started a chain reaction of events - late arrival in Boston and me missing my 4:55 and 6:55 bus ride to Vermont. Lucky for me there was one last bus at 8:55. With a little under two hours to kill I found the one last airport bar open and sucked down a couple of 24oz Harpoon IPA's and as a bonus, on the TV was an old 1976 Yankee game.

The two plus weeks on the road were hectic. Managed to work on three features, two for Backcountry Magazine as well as a spec piece on Colorado ski towns. Even pulled together a small side-country piece for Backcountry as well - and all that before I even hit Utah. Utah was a blast. Participating in the shootout was more fun and a little more stressful than expected. The snow, although great from an East coast perspective, didn't quite live up to the standards of "the greatest snow on earth" but myself, the other seven photographers and all the athlete/models made the best of it and came away with countless great images. In the end I didn't win any cash for my images but did manage to sneak in a couple of 3rd places in the air and mt lifestyle categories, which was nice.

When it was all said and done I managed to;

spend nights in 6 different hotel rooms and beds

in 5 different towns (Crested Butte, Breckenridge, Silverton, Telluride, back to Crested Butte, Salt Lake City)

skied 7 different resorts - Crested Butte, Breck, Silverton, Solitude, Brighton, Alta, Snowbird.

boarded 5 different planes.

drove 2 rental cars.

shelled out $80 in baggage fees along with a $70 upgrade to first class.

spent $100 in shipping boxes to and from the office.

drank 42 PBR's (guessing on that one, good chance more)

and snapped off 3,109 images.

In the next week I hope to report more on the shootout and maybe post some of my images, so check back from time to time.

Here are a few more airport shots. sorry if I broke protocol and didn't convert to B&W.

From Crested Butte to Salt Lake City.

Landed in SLC yesterday afternoon. I'm in town for the Ski Salt Lake Shootout. I managed to get this East coast boy into the mix out here competing for some cash but mostly to have a good time, see old friends and maybe make a few new ones as well. Cool contest, I get to ski each of the Cottonwood resorts one day with two athletes. I'll be competing and shooting images in 5 categories; powder, air, big mt, mountain lifestyle and city lifestyle. Heading up to Solitude for day one in a few minutes. I'll post a link to the shootout's website when I get it and give a rundown for the day.

here's a shot I grabbed of downtown Silverton on Thursday. The place is truly "old west". Shot with my Mark 2N and 70-200mm @ 2.8.

One word...SILVERTON.

Silverton is the shit.  If you've been there you know what I'm talking about.  If you don't know what Silverton is, you don't need to know.  If you have heard of Silverton and haven't had the opportunity to ski/ride there I'm here to tell you it's everything everyone has ever said and then times that by 10.

Here is a pic of our guide Travis enjoying the pow.

Shot with Canon mark 2N, 70-200 f2.8 and I shot it one handed.

One Hundred and One from Breckenridge, Colorado.

"It's only nine o'clock, we're really on it today Cash" -Mike Horn

Life on the road, sometimes it's a hectic fuck show - scrambling out the door to catch first light - or it's a laid back, drink bad hotel room coffee, catch up on the other work that has been let slide while making turns and shooting pic's. Today is one of those bad coffee days. After three great days in Crested Butte I find myself sitting here in Breckenridge, taking my time getting out the door. Winter here has been tough in Breck, no real snow to speak of, maybe some tonight? If writer Mike Horn and I ever do motivate to get outside, we're going to go check out the devastation the mountain pine beetle has done to all the lodgepole pines.

On another note, this would be my 101 post to this blog. Took over a year and a half. Moving forward I'm going to try to post more about the technical side of shooting lifestyle and action sports. What cameras I'm using, lenses, lights etc... So the image above, Canon 1D mark 2N, 17-35 f2.8, processed in Aperture, sharpened in PS.

Shit. I think Horn is starting to move.

Travel Day

Traveling today, in fact I'm traveling right now.  I'm on a bus sitting in traffic on my way to Boston's Logan airport for a flight to Crested Butte.  The crazy thing is the bus has wi-fi.  How is that possible?  Going to be running around Colorado working on 3 different stories for about ten days before I head up to Utah for another adventure - more on the Utah thing later.

Traffic is nasty, hope I get there in time??

Here is a quick shot I took from Magic Mountain this past Monday.  The mountain in the distance is Stratton.

End of an Era.

A lot of strange things and weird happenings have occurred over the last 10 years that have shaped my photography career.  Two of the more influential would be meeting Ben Kubas and the December, 2003 issue of Skiing Magazine.  You see, it was Ben who graced my first ever real published ski photo in that December issue of Skiing - full page and all!  I can say if it wasn't for that picture I'm not sure I would have continued shooting ski action and pursue the "getting published" game.

It's been five years since that image of Ben was published.  From there Ben and I have managed to get published in every ski magazine imaginable, from double page spreads in Powder, full pages in Ski, Skiing, Freeskier, Ski Journal, Outside and even this past December a spot in the New York Times.  And we did it all from right here on the East Coast.  I would dare anyone to find a more published or older athlete from New England - and I'm not talking about some name who gets a few sponsors and moves to Mammoth, but an athlete who was shot in New England!

The whole reason for this post is to give a huge THANKS to Ben for being the hardest working athlete I'll ever meet.  Ben's excitement to get out and get a few shots when I was glued to my couch, bringing ideas to the table when things were getting stale and always paying close attention to every detail.  It's that work ethic (yeah I said that, Ben and work ethic in the same sentence) that separates Ben from other wanna-be athletes.

Ben is moving today for the other coast, Oregon to be more specific.  I told him he needed to find a replacement before he left, but in typical Kubas fashion he didn't.  Maybe some young gun will drive up the access road - 20 min late - and take over for Ben, but I'm not holding my breath.  We've been through a lot my friend, that trip to the hospital which made shooting skiing not fun, to the better times, those trips to Utah, skinning a mountain in a thunder-snow storm, finishing tours in the dark and a temp of -5, to jumping off condo's after a few pitchers of Utah near-beer.  

Good times my friend, good times.

Drive safe and we'll see you in August.

The page that started it all.  Skiing Magazine, December 2003.

Powder Magazine Correction.

In an ongoing effort to supply my readers with shameless plugs about my work, I bring you this months installment of Powder Magazine. (Feb. 2009 issue)  Derek Taylor wrote an excellent piece on New England tree skiing.  I highly recommend reading it if you are at all interested in this kind of skiing.  This topic received a whole ton of press a few years back when the actions of two idiots caused quite a stir up at Jay Peak.  You can read about it HERE.  Anyway, the feature is a collaboration of not just my photography but the photography of two others, Nate Abbott and Lenny Christopher.

This is where I feel like I need to correct the fellas over at Powder.  My images are captioned "Killington Backcountry, Vermont".  This couldn't be farther from the truth.  I've been living in and around Killington for over 10+ years now and the only backcountry I know of is off the Rutland side of Pico in some low angle birch glades. (nothing special)  I've been out to Coopers cabin and scoped out the woods between Killington and Pico, but for the life of me, if there is any tree skiing, I sure don't know of it?  I know lots of people who have heard about some trails that were cut years ago and spit you out behind the Diamond Run Mall, but I've never seen this magical zone.  Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough?   

My image of the skin track (middle) was shot just north of Okemo in a little zone Dave Y., Kubas and I like to ski from time to time. The second photo (right) of Kubas was shot last February up at Sugarbush in the Slidebrook area. Sugarbush offers guided tours of the area, but the drainage is a no brainer and spits you out at a bus stop for an easy lift back to your rig.

Remember: If you need to flag it - you don't deserve it.

Really BIG Pictures.

Jim Kane, a good friend from Utah, sent me an email a few weeks ago.  He was driving down Fort Union Blvd, took a peak at a Solitude Resort billboard, and noticed a monster sized photo of himself that I took a few years ago.  Good to see Jay Burke and Solitude still using some of my images from years past.  This particular image was shot just past Twin Lakes Pass on the way up to Wolverine Cirque only a few hundred yards away from the Solitude gate.  Jim was nice enough to snap off a few of the billboard.

Really great backlight on Jim made the shot.  I had to check, but this image was shot with my EOS 3, 70-200mm, Fuji Velvia 50.

Interestingly enough, the billboard is right in front of the liquor store - hummm.