Pentax K-5 with DA* 16-50/2.8 @16mm - 1/125th at f/8, ISO 320. Elinchrom Quadra with 8 1/2" reflector from left behind rock.

This post was about to be brought to you by the letter S (The S is for Sucks.), but yoga had to go and mess things up. Sorry. Had to. Moving on…

Things have sure been warming up lately in The Colorado Front Range, and it’s sure starting to feel like summer. Right now, I’m on a plane headed for sunny San Diego, where I’m sure it’ll be even warmer. All this sunshine, heat and the soon-coming saltwater breeze of being near the ocean is reminding me of the time I spent this winter in Rincon, Puerto Rico. I was invited down by Adi Carter, of the YogaSlackers, who was spending the winter down there to get away from the cold of her New York home. It wasn’t a hard sell for her to convince me that I should come down for a week to shoot stills and video of surfing, slacklining and beachside yoga of her and some others that she was going to be with. Photos from San Diego will roll out in near-future post, but for now I’ll just share from PR.

We took it somewhat easy for the beginning of the week, since Adi was doing a lot of teaching and I was spending my time scouting and getting to know the area. But the end of the trip a photographic rampage, pulling off 7 photo/video shoots, in 5 different locations, of 4 different sports, in 2 days. Well, I guess portrait shoots aren’t a sport. So, 3 sports, but just go with it. Would have taken too long to explain in a non-awkward way. Crap. Did it anyways…

Now I’m on the plane home from San Diego. (It took me six days to write that???) It was an awesome trip and I can’t wait to share the results! But I’m glad I drew out the conclusion of this post, because the more I compare this past trip to California, with the trip to Rincon, PR, the more I notice another striking similarity, besides the sand and sun. Both trips were plagued with the bane of all adventure/travel photographers, and of people who like to travel with cameras, and of people who just like to travel, and also, of people who don’t like to travel, but have to anyways. It’s… Travel Drama!

I’ll let this post end before it turns into a marathon, but right behind it will be a post with the best I can offer up in photography travel tips. For now, enjoy these images from PR.

Stay tuned!

Pentax K-5 with DA* 200/2.8 - 1/180th at f/5.6, ISO 125.Elunchrom Quadra with 8 1/2" reflector sraight on.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 300/4 - 1/1600th at f/4, ISO 100.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 200/2.8 - 1/180th at f/2.8, ISO 80. Elinchrom Quadra in 53" OctaBox from close left.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 16-50 @16mm - 1/180th at f/5.6, ISO 160. Elinchrom Quadra with 8 1/2" reflector far away from tight left.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 16-50/2.8 @16mm - 1/180th at f/4, ISO 80. Elinchrom Quadra with 8 1/2" reflector from right.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 16-50/2.8 @16mm - 1/250th at f/4, ISO 80.

Pentax K-5 with DA 18-135 WR @18mm - 1/320th at f/5.6, ISO 80.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 50-135/2.8 - 1/180th at f/10, ISO 80. Elinchrom Quadra with 8 1/2" Reflector from right, Pentax 540 flash from back left, sun from back right.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 200/2.8 - 1/125th at f/5.6, ISO 200. Elinchrom Quadra with 8 1/2" reflector straight on.

Pentax K-5 with DA 18-135 WR @18mm - 1/320th at f/5.6, ISO 80.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 16-50/2.8 @16mm, 1/180th at f/8, ISO 80. Elinchrom Quadra in 53" OctaBox.

Pentax K-5 with DA* 16-50/2.8 @16mm - 1/125th at f/5.6, ISO 200. Elinchrom Quadra with 8 1/2" reflector from left.

                          

This past weekend was the 12th annual American Bouldering Series National Championship. And as such, the climbing elite descended upon Boulder, CO to crush anything they can get their hands on. Children and small pets beware.

I love climbing comps. They’re tons of fun to watch, have tons of energy, and you get to watch some of the strongest climbers out there tear down the walls. But as fun as they are as a spectator, they’re twice as much fun as a photographer. All of the same stuff applies, but you’re closer because you get to be down in the trenches with the climbers, where you can almost taste the energy and emotion. One of my favorite parts of having that kind of access and proximity, is getting to observe the way they interact with each other in the face of competition.

Hit the jump for more images and for what I love most about climbing comps.

I think the best sportsmanship and camaraderie I’ve ever seen has been at climbing comps. My favorite image from the night is the one above. And it’s not because it’s anything mind blowing from a photography stand point. In fact, it’s somewhat soft, and a bit noisy, since it was crazy dark where they were sitting. But I love what is happening in it. In this photo from left to right are Alex Puccio, Angie Payne, Francesca Metcalf, Tiffany Hensley, Sasha DiGiulian, and Kasia Pietras, with Alex Johnson out of the frame, up on the wall. For those unfamiliar with climbing comps, the reason they are in in chairs facing away from the wall is that the competitors have to face away from the wall until it is their turn to climb. That way they can’t watch how the previous climbers as they attempt to solve the problems. So, what you’ve got in this photo is that the girls who have already gone are watching and supporting their competition who is on the wall, and the two girls waiting to go are friendly as can be, talking about staying clam and what they think the route sounds like. It’s not too many sports that you find this kind of decorum among athletes who are in direct competition with each other. By the way they act, you would think they are all on the one team. But of course, when things get global at the World Cup in Vail every year, many of them are.

Alex Puccio took the night for the ladies, and Sean McColl took it home for the guys; both with very strong flashes of their final problems. For much better info than that, check out the write up on the Climbing Magazine site, with photos from yours truly.

                          

Holy crap, where have I been?!? Sorry to be silent for so long, bloggies. The last 4 months have been some of the busiest of my life, and unfortunately the blog got thrown under the bus. But enough apologizing. Tons of great stuff was going on, and lots more is on the horizon. Among my favorites from the last few months are:

-Doing an art gallery of climbing images at the prAna store in Boulder to benefit the Access Fund.
-Taking a trip with Genny and our friends Travis and Laura in a VW bus to the Black Hills, SD.
-Attending the ever-crazy, always-tiring and mostly fun Outdoor Retailer trade show in SLC.
-Teaching an intro to Adventure Photography Workshop, here in Boulder, with Julia Vandenoever, Photo Editor of Backpacker.
-Spending two days at the gorgeous YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park with Yoga Journal, shooting their annual Yoga Conference.
-And as always, doing lots more shooting with those rambunctious YogaSlackers.

Ok ok. Enough about the past, Ben. What’s this about the Aspen Lodge CycloCross?

One of my favorite bunch of images I’ve taken in recent weeks was just the other day, and was entirely serendipitous. After spending a few days in the mountains at an awesome place called Camp Timberline, hanging out with a bunch of high schoolers and gettin’ wild with some ziplines and epic nighttime games of capture the flag, Genny and I were on the way to Estes Park to get some pie, and drove by what appeared to be a pretty rockin’ CX event. With my gear in the car, a very patient, awesome wife, and a complete inability to pass by something like that without stopping to shoot, I pulled into the event and started firing away.

Cycling, of any sort, isn’t something that I’ve shot much of; and I always love the opportunity to try my hand at shooting a new sport. There’s a certain freedom you have when approaching a sport that you don’t typically cover. Especially when no one is relying on you to bring home the goods. You get to approach the action with a clean slate, an open mind, and no preconceived ideas of what that sort of photography ought to look like. I had never even seen a CX race go down before, so I wasn’t even sure what to expect; which just makes it all the more enjoyable for me as a shooter. The unexpected and the unknown are very often, the most enjoyable. Everything you see is for the first time, as you take it all in through the lens. Then you just react, and try to capture all the action, energy and emotion as it unfolds before you. Just like an athlete who cross-trains, I always find shooting that things besides my usual sports are excellent at honing and sharpening skills for when I’m back on the usual beat.

I had a super great time taking in the Aspen Lodge CycloCross event, and big thanks go out to the people at DBC Events, for putting it on. And head over to 303Cycling for an event wrap up and race results.

All images shot with the Pentax K-7, DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 and DA* 200mm f/2.8

Lastly… Mad props to the kid above for riding the hardest part of the course on his sister’s pink Strider bike.

                          

So, I’m about to head out for the second full day of running around shooting, downloading, editing, crying, cursing and cheering; all the while trying to capture, and also enjoy, the insane amounts of super sweet action going on here at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO. Yesterday, things kicked off the the whitewater kayak event, the Steep Creek Championship. Top competitors were were running a section of Class 5 rapids about a half hour outside of Vail. I was getting down and dirty, wild and wet trying to capture as much of the action as I could. I spent a little bit of time shooting with longer lenses, but I really wanted to get up close and make it feel like you’re there. I scrambled around to a few different locations, getting as close as I could to the water and some of the major obstacle, also trying to keep in check with the fact that if I fell in I would at best end up in the hospital.

Hit the jump for the rest of the images!

It got brutal. Homeboy at the top of the page almost took me out. I was really putting the Pentax weather-sealing that they are always bragging about to the test. And it held up. Unfortunately, I wish my cameras had more Lens-hood-getting-knocked-off-and-floating-down-the-rapids-Sealing and Knocking-your-camera-into-rocks-repeatedly-and-eventually-cracking-the-screen-Sealing. Actually, it only cracked the screen protector, so I guess it had the protection already. But it was a close one. I can for sure say, that after a full day of clamoring around on the edge of Class 5 rapids, with multiple K-7′s and K20d’s swinging around my neck, because I sure needed my hands to scramble, and them getting repeatedly slammed into rocks and splashed with frothy whitewater… These things are beastly tough. A+, Pentax. A+.

Here’s what I got, besides a really sunburned neck and mild hypothermia.

                          

So, as I eluded to a couple posts ago, my trip to the Northeast was significantly hampered by poor weather and a nearly total lack of ice. However, after a hilariously unsuccessful Presidential Traverse attempt, we were blessed with a uncannily gorgeous day trip up and down Mt. Washington. On a mountain that claims the ‘worst weather in the world’, has 100+ mph winds 1 out of every 4 days during the winter months, and can offer below freezing, total whiteout conditions in August; days like we had are truly a handful a year. I’ve been on top of Washington 7 times, 5 in the summer and 2 in the winter, and this was by far the best summit conditions I’ve ever seen. With summit temperatures in the 20′s and a standing wind around 15mph, also known as picnic weather on Washington, it was little more than a steep, snowy hike. When climbing Washington in the Winter, you have to be prepared for hurricane force winds and arctic temperature regardless of the forecast; and you can’t help feeling somewhat robbed when you carry all of necessary outerwear and then get such a beautiful day. But it’s great for photos, enjoy!

See, just like I promised in the other post! Short on words. Crap. I’m typing again, aren’t I? Well, it’s for good cause. I’ve been using the click-through image gallery format for a while, but I’m not entirely satisfied with it. So I’m going to use the tried and true method of just posting them all and letting you scroll through. I would love to get feed back in the comments about how you all prefer to view the images. Thanks! Here they are. For real this time!

                          

During Outdoor Retailer I got to spend some time with my good friends from Team YogaSlackers.  I only briefly met them about 8 months ago at the 2009 Teva Mountain Games, but then I ran into them again at the Summer OR show.  After talking at various times throughout the show we decided to head up into Little Cottonwood Canyon the day after for an acro-yoga photo shoot and some climbing, and that began a great friendship and working relationship.  This time around, on the last night of the OR show, we got together for something a little different… pizza and a movie.  We had thought about trying to get out and shoot something together, but it never really came together.  So we were plenty content to just hang out.

More story after the jump, and a link for an interview of me by Inner Passage’s Matt Walker.

We headed over to Sandi and Bob’s place, who were kindly putting up with the Team while they were in SLC.  We should have known better than to think that cameras wouldn’t eventually come out and that everything wouldn’t evolve into a acro session.  What started out as a basic acro-yoga lesson for us noobs, turned into a lot of goofing off, which yielded a holy-crap-that-might-just-work moment and two hours of further experimentation.  Late in the night, with the cameras rolling, the new move dubbed “Lev”itation was born.  It was super great to spend time with the YogaSlackers, and to meet Sandi, Bob and Lev.  And it was great to be a part of the playful experimentation that yielded a new trick… even if my part was just to yell bad advice and awkward support straight into the microphone that was ten inches from my face.  This was also the first piece of worthwhile video footage that I’ve captured with my new Pentax K-7 DSLR, although it was edited by someone else (Chip Fieberg, if I’m not mistaken), and I’m excited to begin exploring the ways the video can synergize into what I already do.

The relationship I’ve built with Team YogaSlackers has really helped me understand the personal and professional benefits of taking things into the realm of friendship instead of just leaving them in the acquaintance column.  Not only is it so much more enjoyable to work with friends, but it usually ends up yielding more professional gains for both parties.  When you have a lot of respect for the quality of what someone does, and you really like them as a person, you’re going to want to work with them and promote them so much more than if you only had one of those sentiments towards them.  That’s how I feel about the YogaSlackers.  Not only are they all amazing athletes, but they’re also some of the coolest people I know.  And thanks to them, I’ve made some great images over the last 8 months, and have two exciting things in store for the next 6 months.

Another great example of being intentional about building a relationship with is my friend Matt Walker who recently did an interview of me on his website.  Matt is a climbing guide from Tucson, AZ and is also the principal leader at Inner Passage, where he leads adventure outings designed to help people build and develop their leadership skills and potential.  I met Matt during my first trip to Joshua Tree, and only for about 45 minutes.  We swapped info, because I snapped a few shot of him working with his clients, but also because I liked what he did and knew he would be a great guy to stay in contact with.  That 45 minutes was actually the only time we’ve ever seen each other.  We almost got together at last summer’s Outdoor Retailer show, and I was supposed to go visit Tucson, but that fell through.  So our contact for the last year has been made up entirely of Twitter and Facebook conversations and a handful of emails, but we’ve been able to stay in touch and build a friendship none the less.  If things play out well, I’ll be heading to Tucson in the next month or two to work on a project with him.

About a month and a half ago, Matt found out I was building a new website. He messaged me and said that when it was done he would love to ask me a few interview questions and do a profile about me and Fullerton Images on his website. I, of course, said yes. So be sure to check out the interview, where I get entirely to visceral and touchy-feely about my approach to photography.  And a big thanks to Matt, for pulling that together and wanting to help me promote the new website.  Hopefully I’ll actually get to hang out with him again someday soon.

Above is Matt working with a client during our first and only meeting in Joshua Tree NP.