Archive for November, 2009

espn.com pre-season gallery

24Nov09

Will Wesson sliding a handrail at Alta, Utah

The lovely people over at espn.com/action had me do a pre-season jib gallery back in late October working with some of the younger crew out here in Utah.  From lift terminal rails at Alta to backflip jumps on snowmaking piles at Deer Valley the pre-season mini-shred is on.  It was a ton of fun to go out and make some small features of no real consequence look cool.  It’s great to work in simply a fun environment, free of the gnar factor sometimes.  Add into the fact that my lighting was pretty simple in these, usually just a few Nikon SB80 DX’s, an Alien Bees 800 and a Elinchrom Ranger RX AS Speed with the ol A-Head.  Of course, add in a pile of Pocket Wizard Flex TT5’s

The photo above was real simple, just one Elinchrom Ranger RX AS Speed with a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 shot with a Nikon D3 and a Nikon 16mm f2.8 fisheye

Alex Schlopy, Will Wesson, Joss Christensen, Giray Dadali and Dave Euler

Check out the gallery over there:

http://espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/blog/_/post/4675777

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Skiing Magazine – Germany – December 2009 Cover

18Nov09

Skiing - Next Level Magazine Cover - December 2009 - Skier: Julan Carr - Location: Brighton Resort, Utah

This photo was one hell of a production to pull off.  Last April in the midst of the biggest storm cycle the Wasatch Mountains has EVER seen on record Julian Carr brought up the idea of shooting some cliffs at Brighton at night.  We were fortunate enough to get some help from Brighton Resort to get a last chair up so we could wait for the sun to go down in a nice and toasty lift shack.  I hadn’t shot night cliffs before.  I was super stoked to try it out but it was a bit of trial and error but fortunately I had Austin Holt out to assist me on the shoot.  There was no way I could have pulled this shot off without an assistant.  All three of us went out each with a pretty loaded backpack of photo gear and were out there for four and a half hours with help, we probably would have been out till 2AM without help and who knows how that would have gone either!

This is one of the more unique shots I’ve taken, and although I rolled with my style of using gels, I got to do it a bit differently this year and I hope everyone digs it as much as I do.

The gear I used to put this together was quite the laundry list.

Now I don’t normally talk about something like a headlamp used for a shoot, however in this situation with the night shots, they are pretty important.  The Black Diamond Icon is a really powerful headlamp that is very necessary out in this kind of situation.  A normal LED one just won’t do.  It’s really nuts how much light the Icon puts out.

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Skiing = Fat Knees

17Nov09

20091116_e_seo_gimpy_002

A few days ago, I got arthroscopic surgery done on both knees to clean them up a bit and make my rickety old joints work a little better and not hurt and pop all the time before the ski season gets going. Coming out of surgery I was told I had fatty tissue buildup in my knees from overuse and impact.  So I guess that means Skiing gives you fat knees! I just watched the video of my surgery, if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to take a dremel tool and a shop-vac into your knee, that’s what this video is about.   I wish I had one from my back surgery I had in high school with all the rods, clamps and chicken wire they put into my spine.  At least I have this one though.

Arthrosopic surgery on my knee from Erik Seo on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, my surgery got pushed back a few weeks and the ski season HAS begun and I’m on the couch, sitting around, losing my mind. Well, not really losing my mind but I’m sure bored. There’s only so much you can do from your laptop, lying on a couch and the work to do at my desktop computer is piling up. I thought I’d get a few photos of how I’ve been passing my time over the past four days since surgery, when my new roommate Austin Holt came home I had him take a few photos of my current couch surfing routine.  The routine has been furnished by the hospital to include couch, ice packs, compression stockings, purple slipper socks, and of course, pain killers.

Photo: Austin HoltPhoto: Austin HoltPhoto: Austin HoltPhoto: Austin Holt

Disclaimer: I hope you didn’t take these seriously.  Just something to shoot to try and keep myself a little sane while going nuts on the couch for a fun crackhead photo shoot since the hospital furnished me with so many props for a photo.

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Here it comes…Winter

09Nov09

The early snowfall at Alta, Utah

Winter is coming.  At home in Utah we had a early bout of winter but again, Fall has prevailed and it’s warmed up a bit before the next storm rolls through.  Hopefully that next storm will to flip the switch from fall to winter.  The seven months that lie ahead of me are full of snowy roads, planes, sharing two bed hotel rooms with four to ten smelly dudes, being stuffed into rental cars overloaded with gear, all so I get to shoot ski photos all winter.  Yes, I’m looking forward to this.

This time of year is always a mixed bag of feelings.  I’m excited to ski, shoot in the snow, spend a bunch of time with good friends and get my season going, but I’m dreading the long drives on sketchy, snowy, icy roads.  I’m pretty optimistic this season is going to be a good one for me though.  I’m coming off the best Winter I had with my photography so I’m really looking forward to see what this season holds for me.

I’ve already had a few super fun days out shooting some skiing this season, a bit of pre-season mini-shred with Alex Schlopy, Joss Christiansen, Giray Dadali and Will Wesson.  Unfortunately I didn’t get out to ski during the early October storms we had here but the mini-shred shooting in Park City, Alta and yesterday at Brighton.  We’ve done everything from backflip jumps on snowmaking piles, handrails, a pre-season jib park at Brighton and of course, we got kicked out of our first completely harmless urban jib already.

Joss Christiansen rodeo 540'ing a 10 foot backflip jump on a snowmaking pile in Deer Valley, UT

Lots of people did however get out and shred the early snow, and looking at the photos here that Teton Gravity Research cinemetographer Pete O’Brien got, I do wish I could have gone out and gotten some early turns in.  Check it out here.

Of course, in Colorado the snowguns have been pounding out the ribbon of death since September but this fall, Keystone Resort stepped it up huge and for whatever reason has been sending it with the snowmaking and the Area-51 terrain park opened with a top to bottom park complete with JUMPS!  Photographer Nate Abbott shot a bit of that and has a story about it here at www.espn.com/action website.

So here we go, Winter is coming.  Or, maybe it’s here already.  It just depends where  you call home.  My first shooting trip of the season is tentatively two weeks away.  It’s almost go time for me.  I leave you with a photo from my first shooting trip of last season to Grand Rapids, Michigan with Mike Hornbeck, Henrik Harlaut and Ahmet Dadali with Level 1 Productions about the same time as my upcoming trip in a few weeks.

Mike Hornbeck sliding a six kink handrail in Grand Rapids, Michi

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Halloween

03Nov09

Me as a Japanese master - Photo by Jordan Harper

This year I got lucky.  I was at the Halloween store on Halloween day looking for a costume and found the most epic wig ever.  I’m assuming every one of you has seen the Kill Bill movie series and remember the evil master, Pai Mae.  I was considering a few other mediocre costumes then I saw the “Japanese Sensi” wig.  Pretty easy choice, I then again got lucky at the thrift store and found a “Oriental” silk getup that completed the look.  I had never done Halloween as any sort of Asian character but at least I pulled it off well.  Needless to say I was pretty proud.  Here’s to the drinking holiday where everyone gets to forget who they are and have a shitload of fun!

Me as a Japanese master - Photo by Jordan Harper

Thanks to Jordan Harper over at Saga Outerwear for taking these photos of me in the new Saga video studio.  Check out his post on Saga’s website with a few more photos from the night.

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