Check out this video montage of Forum Snowboard Pro Jake Welch and his phone antics.
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February 2009
February 25, 2009
February 24, 2009
Classic Tahoe Sunrise
So, Kurt Heine and I woke up around 4:30am in Reno and headed up to North Lake Tahoe. I don't really like waking up that early, however, when you are rewarded with a sunrise like this one, it makes it all worth while.
I miss Tahoe a lot when I'm on the road, and for the past three or four years, I haven't been in Tahoe during the winters due to traveling, and while other places are also beautiful, Tahoe holds a special place in my heart. It's really good to see you baby.
February 23, 2009
February 20, 2009
LOW avalanche forecast
(Forum Pro John Jackson looking at a huge Avalanche slide path)
This photo was taken yesterday, Thursday, February 19th. What's interesting about this photo is that the avalanche report had changed from moderate to low. Most crews take this as a signal to go for it and just shred wherever, whenever. The fine print is that it can still happen and when it does it could be deadly. We came up on this slide path with the two snowboard tracks leading into it and made a precautionary tranciever search, just in case anyone was in there. Fortunately we came up with nothing and continued our day, with many reservations about the slopes we were going to tred upon.
February 17, 2009
The office has been busy as of late
So I've been up to my neck in work, and when I say work, I'm talking about powder. It's been snowing like crazy, and I wanted to share with you a couple photos from the office today.
(Some peoples get buried in paperwork, I on the other hand...get buried)
(and again x 14)
It is literally the deepest I have ever been in snow snowmobiling. Both John Jackson and myself had tremendous troubles staying afloat. John told me that I was completely submerging to non-visible status then reappearing like a dolphin. All in all it was a completely non-productive day, that is, unless you count digging holes in the snow productive. On the way home I decided to make the day more interesting by sliding off the road and crashing into a snow bank. The really exciting part of this was that if I had went ten feet more, I would have died. The embankment dropped steep approximately 200 feet with trees everywhere. I'm glad that didn't happen. John came back with his truck and a tow chain and yanked me out. It was a good day, and most days are similar to this. I love my job and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
February 08, 2009
Self Portrait
This is a self portrait I took using a Santa Barbara 4x5 pinhole camera with Polaroid type 54 4x5 instant peel apart pack film rated ISO 100. The Technique: I set up a an Elinchrom Ranger kit approximately 1 foot away from my face (looker's right) with a high powered reflector attached to focus the flash directly onto me. The pinhole camera was placed on a tripod directly in front, also within a foot's distance. I then positioned myself with camera in hand and triggered the flash by actuating the shutter on the camera I'm holding in the photo via a Pocket Wizard. What makes the photo for me is that the light fall of is intensely strong and makes it appear that I am emerging from the darkness, in the same way a black & white print in the darkroom would appear during the development process and lends to a bit of mystery. The reason for this is that this pinhole camera in particular has an f/stop value of of f/154. What this means is that the aperture (hole) is very tiny and is the very reason the camera is called a pinhole. The smaller the aperture, the less light is allowed to enter the camera and generally makes for very long exposures. In this case, by having an intense light source (the Elinchrom provides 1100 watt seconds of power) as well as placing the light source within a foot from the subject, me, I am recorded onto the film in a significantly shorter time. As light travels, it loses it's intensity rapidly an appears that I am coming out of the darkness. In reality, I'm in a cluttered house with the lights on. In case you want to try this, I only have warning. Flashes are intense and should not be pointed directly into someone's eyes at close range. It could blind them and lead to permenant eye damage. Below is a lighting diagram.
February 05, 2009
February 02, 2009
Check out the Feburary issue of Snowboard Mag!
Congrats! Also in this issue, I am fortunate to have a spot on the family page as well as a major contribution to the Argentina article. These guys at Snowboard Mag are super rad and I am backing them HARD! Larry Nuñez, the editor, accompanied me on this trip along with a group from the Vans team and SASS photographer extraordinaire Ashley Barker and we all had a great life experience. The funny thing was I kept asking Larry for direction and he was so stoked to be there that he was like "you guys work that out, I came to ride." That's rad to me. So, if you don't subscribe, do so, or pick up the issue on newsstands now.
