Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Salt | Canadian Adventure Photographer

Chris Taggert, Derek Pauletto, Keith Smith, and myself - day two at Bonneville.

I just got back from a 4 day trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah where I was a part of a team doing research for next years BUB Motorcycle Speed trials. This place is amazing! The salt is pure white and with clear skies and temps reaching over 40 degrees it is like standing on a giant mirror. The speed trials this year were very cool and we got a good chance to see how things work and what our team needs for next years attempt.

At this point I will be working partly as photographer/publicist as well as have some small engineering/creative input on the build for next year. Derek Pauletto of Trillion Industries invited the four of us to come with him and we all have some kind of input into how this will play out for next year.

The salt flats are a strange place, perfectly flat dry sea bed with mountains shooting right up hundreds of meters along the perimeter. The salt is actual salt like you would find in your table shaker (maybe a little bitter) but is compact like wet sand. This makes a perfect surface with lots of room to go fast in any vehicle. I did take some shots of the racers as they came by the pits. There is no way to get out to the race run-way without previous cred, so I just cranked out some monochromatic images. I should have a few up in the next day or so, check back soon.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

One Hundred | Calgary Adventure Photographer



*At the belay above the third pitch.

Well it's been a few weeks since I last posted. At the beginning of August I took a work vacation for two weeks in Carsland and that took up all of my time with just enough hours in the day to sleep. Last week was just about spending time with the family and catching up on some prior commitments. One of those commitments was a climbing trip with Nathan. Just a day out on Yamnuska but Nathan has never been on a multi-pitch technical Trad climb so we made our way up another classic route. The route is called "Easy Street" and is named that for a reason; it is one of the best routes on Yam for taking up someone green or for introducing them to the gear-setting system of Trad climbing.

*Enjoying the view from the 'BBQ ledge'.

Nathan did a great job on 'second' and climbed well within the needed speed for the route. It was the first time out together since the crash and it was good to see that the situational trust was still there. Traumatic accidents between people can go either way and it is good to know that the trust and confidence is still there.

Coming down later in the day I felt pretty good and almost 100 percent recovered. The energy is back and I think I'm caught up with rest. Time to get back to the business of photography and ramping up for a busy fall.