Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

Yesterday the professional free skier C.R. Johnson died in an accident on the slopes of Squaw Valley, California. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I first crossed paths with C.R. while shooting the 2005 Icer Air event in San Francisco. In 2005 Icer Air caught the attention of millions of people who were witness (in person or on TV) to the odd juxtaposition of extreme skiing and snowboarding against the backdrop of steep San Francisco hills, mansions and iconic landmarks such as Alcatraz. The scene was surreal, but the energy was intense. At this event C.R. Johnson won the skiing competition. His enthusiasm for the sport was palpable and his energy lit up those around him. I never knew C.R. other than this one time we crossed paths, but seeing how his influence in this sport grew and his incredibly positive energy impacted others it’s obvious now the sport has lost a great ambassador. More on C.R. Johnson can be read over at Chase Jarvis’ blog

C.R. Johnson being interviewed after winning the 2005 Icer Air skiing competition in San Francisco, California

Technorati Tags: C.R. Johnson, extreme sports, sports, skiing, Icer Air

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More Icer Air Photography

Continuing my thoughts from Lunar Impact, Get Ready for it!, one of the most fascinating things that I learned while watching IMAX: Magnificent Desolation was that astronauts had no sense of visual perspective on the moon.

Think about this for a second and then think about this in context to photography.

An astronaut on the moon could stand on the edge of a ridge and by visual assessment have no idea if it opened to a 20 foot gulch or 1 mile canyon. The stark lighting and contrast created by direct sunlight without an atmosphere to disperse light and the absense of recognizable forms left evaluating the most basic terrain characteristics difficult if not impossible.

Most of us realize in an instant that there is no plant life, structures, etc. on the moon, but few of us realize what importance the things around us provide our brains in assessing our surroundings. Perspective is learned as our brains wire themselves as infants and as we mature as children. Taking a leap to how we interact with our environment as adults and as photographers, perspective while we take it for granted, is a critical component to how we formulate our photographs.  Inclusion of a recognizable item provides not only a sense of setting, but scale. Positioning of people, animals and objects can also create optical illusions.

In PhotoNetCast #17 I referenced a blog post Pictures Taken At Just The Right Angle. My reference to this post was mostly focused on the entertainment value of the images with in it, but also to give people creative ideas. If you dissect why many of these images are entertaining it is because of our interpretation of scale, distance, and function/meaning of an object. Extract all of these elements from a scene and you’re left with what the astronauts faced… an uninterpretable scene. As a photographer I find that mind boggling because it is such a departure from the day to day experience we face in the world we live. Even in the most desolate of locations that I’ve visited there has always been something to provide a sense of scale and perspective.

I think of perspective constantly in my photography, but hearing what the Apollo astronauts faced in relation to a complete lack of perspective it has made me rethink and dissect what perspective means and adds to photography.

Visual perspective and lack of, while a mind bender, is but one type of perspective. Tomorrow I’ll touch on yet another type of perspective and bend your mind in a completely different direction. Stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: perspective, photography, astronaut, moon, landing, Apollo, Magnificent Desolation

I couldn’t help, but post these to photos from this past weekends Icer Air event. I thought these two photos were particularly cool. (I’ll forever resist using the term “sick”). Koji Kraft was really ripping it up on the vert ramp and at the end of Neil Hendrix’s run he flashed a great face.
More at my Icer Air 2007 Photo Archive

Koji Kraft getting big air on the vert ramp at Icer Air

Neil Hendrix all smiles at Icer Air on the Vert Ramp

Technorati Tags: Icer Air, big air, snowboard, ski, skiing, snowboarding, extreme sports, photos, photo, San Francisco, Neil Hendrix, Danny Mayer

Yesterday was a great day at Icer Air 2007. The ski and snowboard big-air competition was incredibly fun to watch and photograph. I spent my time getting photos of the ski and snowboard big-air competition as well as shooting the activities on the vert ramp. Below are a few samples of photos from Icer Air 2007 and another 64 photos are initially only available at my photo archive.
Icer Air 2007 Photo Archive

Jumping the Bay Bridge III – Icer Air 2007

More Icer Air 2007 photos…

Danny Mayer Catching Big Air on The Vert Ramp At Icer Air 2007

Jon Olsson Icer Air 2007 Big-Air Ski Champion Read more…

This weekend things kickoff at Icer Air 2007 here in San Francisco. World class skiers and snowboarders face off in an extreme sport competition at AT&T Park in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Yesterday I got a chance to take a quick look at the final stages of construction on the main ramp. I think this year the ramp might be even taller than last. Icer Air 2007 starts around 3pm today so if you’re in town you may want to stop by and check it out.

Check here for 2007 Icer Air photos as they become available

Past years highlights: 2006 Icer Air photos | 2005 Icer Air photos

Icer Air 2006 was incredibly fun to see and photograph this year. I posted a couple photo highlights from the event in my earlier blog post, Icer Air 2006 Highlights, on November 6th. In addition to that I also released my first podcast episode EXIF and Beyond highlighting the experience of photographing Icer Air 2006.

But what I’ve yet to post is a link to my Flickr photo set of the event. So here it is my Flickr photos set of Icer Air 2006. There are some semi-graphic photos of Kaya Turski’s wipeout so be warned. Fortunately she is doing well but after requiring some surgery. An update was posted here on Rollernews about her condition for those that are curious.

I’ve also read that the event is to be televised nationally on Fox Sports Network on Saturday December 9th at 4pm so look out for it. Read more…

Today I’ve released th first episode of “EXIF and Beyond”, an enhanced podcast with a behind the camera perspective. My hope is that on some of my photo assignments I’ll be able to share a little of my thinking, approach, technique and/or background to a particular photograph. As I like to say… speak to the fore-thought, after-thought and everything in between of a photograph.

Click here to download EXIF and Beyond: Icer Air 2006 and/or check iTunes in the very near future. Check back often as I hope to have updates on a fairly regular basis.

Read more…

This past weekend I had the opportunity to photograph Icer Air 2006. It was quite different than last years Icer Air, but still very entertaining! I took way too many photos, but already have a few favorites (see below). Later I’ll post more photos including some harrowing wipe outs.
Read more…