Trips archive at Erik Seo Photography Blog

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The Gathering – Day 2 – Red Mountain, Rossland, BC

08Apr10

Day 2 of The Gathering was a pretty good one. We started out early skiing powder at Red Mountain in Rossland, BC doing laps on the Motherload chair. It had been about 10 years since I’d skied at Red and man I forgot how good that place is. Such fun, steep terrain. Some of the best tree skiing anywhere, you don’t get steep tree skiing in Utah, especially with 2,000+ feet of continuous vert. It’s such fun bouncy terrain, I miss skiing in the Northwest so much. Anyways it was a great day skiing with the OG photographers and finally getting some runs in with people I’ve known for a while but never had a chance to ski with like Jordan Manley and Christian Pondella as well. The OG’s still rip, it was super fun to ski with them, especially on such a good powder day at a great mountain. Paul Morrison joined the crew that day to help round out the crew of the old gaurd.

The skiing was so good we ended up blowing off the rehearsal meeting for our photo presentations and instead a few of us worked on our presentations back at the condo. The above shot is Wade McKoy (who speaks very well, a lot like Tom Brokaw) had a late dinner meeting to discuss that and the future of The Gathering. I’m stoked at the idea of this event growing in the years to come. It was so much fun, I hope to have the opportunity to do it every year!

Finally it was time for the big show. We all got up there in front of a crowd of about 200 people and presented our work. Wade McKoy started off with some tales of a few epic trips and of course some epic photos spanning the length of his career. It was pretty sick to see the old and the new and finishing with the imfamous sequence of Jamie Pierre jumping the 230+ foot cliff on the back side of Grand Targhee resort.

I was up next, starting off with my entry slideshow to the World Ski and Snowboard Festival Pro Photographer Search, followed by 7 of the shots I’ve taken that I’m most stoked on. It was good to be up there, but a bit nerve racking speaking in front of a good crowd. It was the first time I’ve spoken in front of a crowd since college! That was a long time ago!

Following me was Christian Pondella, one of the most versatile of the ski photographers out there. Pondella is a guy that can go shoot a crazy mountaineering expedition in Nepal, then the next week go shoot wakeboarding on a massive iceberg. Pondella’s show consisted of of course some of his most epic shots but like Wade some epic stories of trips, near death, and some great people.

After Pondella it was Hank DeVre’s turn. Hank showed some classic photos from way back in the day. Some OG gems that was really good to see, I’m sure I’ve seen most of them but just when I was 10 so I probably didn’t remember. Haha! One of the shots that was pretty memorable was the cover shot from the 1994 Powder Magazine Photo Annual. What was so great for me is to see that not only is that the oldest issue of Powder Magazine that I own, that I distinctly remember buying cause the cover shot was so awesome, but that it originally was a color shot and Powder turned it to a black and white for the cover. Following Hank was Jordan Manley. Jordan is the youngest of the photographers attending the gathering and one of the most creative minds in snow sports photography right now. Jordan’s presentation was full of very unique angles and compositions with some damn good processing making for some really epic shots.

Closing the show was Dave Heath. Dave is one creative dude. Dave’s presentation was a 2-week project shooting locals in the Kootenay’s skiing on ancient ski equipment. Not only were these skiers skiing on old leather boots and bear trap bindings on 210+ cm skis, but the were CHARGING and sending it off of jumps and cliffs. Mixed in with the action was some real funny lifestyle shots along with some humorous people skiing with some dated accessories. Dave processed the photos meticulously with effects making the look of the photos match the age of the equipment. It was one damn good show.

Check it out Here

Schuss from dave heath on Vimeo.

Following the show, it was party time. In the end, party time followed me back to my condo as the old timers, and of course, Dave Heath kept going till about 5am. I only took a few of these photos, I managed to leave my Canon Powershot G9 out and I have no clue who took most of these, but I’m glad they did!

Finally at about 5am the night ended. A few hours later it was up and at em and time to hit the road. We all got a few more photos for good measure, loaded up in the limo and headed down for the Spokane Airport to head home and end the fun weekend.

Filed under Personal work, The Gathering and Trips. |2 Comments

The Gathering – Day 1 – Red Mountain, Rossland, BC

08Apr10

The Gathering started last season as an even put on by Powder Magazine and Red Mountain Resort in Rossland, BC to bring back together the group of people that started the way of life I get to live as a professional ski photographer. This was one of those things I got to go to that was quite an honor for me. I was picked by Powder Magazine to rep the new generation of ski photographers along with Jordan Manley and Christian Pondella. It was quite the motley crew there ranging from the OG crew of photographers, the younger photographers, mountain guides, writers and of course some of the crew from Powder.

Powder got us together to meet with the OG’s, ski with them, party with them and present our work along side them. It was a great time and I’m really stoked I got to be a part of it. The first generation of ski photographers there presenting were Mark Shapiro, Ace Kvale, Hank DeVre, Wade McKoy. Also with them was John Falkiner, one of the skiers and now mountain guide who was a part of the movement started along with Ace Kavale who was one of the other guys skiing for Mark Shapiro behind the lens. The other presenters were writer Mitchell Scott, professional skier /traveller Kasha Rigby, photographers Dave Heath , Steve Ogle and previously mentioned Jordan Manley, Christian Pondella and myself.

The Gathering for me started off with slideshows being presented by people I’ve known about and then some that I didn’t. Mark Shapiro presented an epic trip from the middle eastern deserts followed by a great show by Steve Ogle. Following that was an amazing show by Ace Kavale and finally an very creativly shot and edited film teaser for the mountain bike film “Life Cycles” by Derek Frankowski. It’s not live anywhere yet on the web but when it is, you are going to be really stoked. Derek has spent a few years on this project and it shows. Really unique imagery here. Ace Kavale’s show was one of those I wasn’t expecting. Even though Ace was one of the original generations of ski photographers, my youth showed as I simply hadn’t seen any of his work before, or at least knew who’s work I was seeing. Ace’s show was very very well done and the images were amazing. Capturing the images of the epic mountaineering expeditions, skiing, mountain lifestyle and just great portraits, Ace’s first name pretty much sums it up. He kills it.

After the shows from day 1 we had a little party at the Rafter’s bar upstairs at the Red Mountain lodge. It was a good time, as I got to spend some time talking with Marko, Ace, John, Wade, Hank and Christian Pondella. I also got to find out that Christian Pondella has a lot of emails to answer. I called it a pretty early night as it was snowing pretty good that night, and wanted to get a powder day in with everyone, not hungover!

Filed under Personal work, The Gathering and Trips. |0 Comments

The big show – Scott / Monster Weekend – Day 3

04Apr10

After all the activities and hype the day finally came to shoot on the giant Monster claw jump. A radio show, poster signings, shotgunning Monster Energy drinks, entertaining hammered drunk locals, redneck truck stop shopping and a urban handrail session later the time for the big show was finally upon us.

We started the day, again with a Monster shotgun. This time Ian Cosco was the unlucky recipient of a can full of jitters.

The day was pretty mellow as most of the morning was spent with the skiers sessioning the public park with the local crew. My day was spent trying to get the cherry picker all setup next to the jump. It was a pretty interesting experience as the cherry picker isn’t exactly designed to be stable in snow with flat discs at the end of the legs. Myself and one of the cat drivers spent a few hours trying to get things setup right with the cherry picker as it tried to slide down the mountain. Considering I was going to be about 35 feet off the ground in 25mph winds, I wanted that thing to be buried in snow! In the end the cat driver built a flat-ish pad of snow for the cherry picker to sit on and then buried the legs in snow and let it set for a few hours. That made me feel a LOT more at ease.

With the cherry picker dialed we were ready to go, as the sunset drew closer the show finally began.

With the jump shoot and the party night in the bag, Sunday fun day was to follow with a bunch of random and entertaining activities that were planned for us.

Filed under Monster Weekend and Winter Sports Photography. |0 Comments

The Hype – Scott / Monster shoot in Sun Valley – Day 2

25Mar10

Day 2 of the Scott / Monster weekend in Sun Valley has come and gone. Friday started with Tom Wallisch forgetting about the redneck flair factor and failed to wake up with his “Daddy’s Angel” bracelet on and the mandatory shotgun a 16 oz. Monster Energy drink happened. After a jittery start to the day for Tom the rest of Friday was a hype day for the big jump show the following day with radio shows, poster signings and an urban session with the 4Bi9 film crew would ensue. The radio show was pretty short lived but in true Chug Life fashion Ian Cosco belted out a “cheaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” while the rest of the boys took to the air waves.

With a bit of time to kill between the radio show and the poster signing we stopped by a local bar with $5 pitchers of beer where we were greeted by a few locals, a few with a few too many $5 pitchers down and providing a bit of entertainment.

After some local entertainment we headed out to the poster signing session at the Scott USA’s showroom at HQ in Ketchum, ID. A ton of local kids came out stoked to meet Wallisch, Dorey and Chug.

After all the signings and a great dinner we headed back out with Tom Wallisch and the 4Bi9 crew for an urban rail sesh in Ketchum. We were greeted by the local Ketchum Police. The officers seemed to care less as they had plenty of locals to chase down that took down too many $5 pitchers of beer.

Filed under Monster Weekend, Trips and Winter Sports Photography. |0 Comments

The truck stops here – Scott / Monster weekend day 1

19Mar10

The road to Idaho is full of stops. This one happened to be a redneck’s dream full of bad taste in Twin Falls, ID.

We left Salt Lake City, UT this afternoon in the Monster Energy RV to a Scott USA and Monster Energy park shoot at Sun Valley, Idaho. On the way, Gabe from Scott USA came up with the idea of having the skiers buy $30 each worth of the most ridiculous shit they could find. Thing is, one piece of their purchase has to stay on at all times through the Monster weekend. If not, shotgunning a Monster tall boy is the punishment. Let the jitters begin.

Filed under Monster Weekend and Trips. |1 Comment

Home, Spring park shoots are over!

27May09

7246 miles (4584 miles on the road), 47 days, and 7 terrain park shoots, and 43,225 dead bugs on my car later my season is finally over and I’m finally home back in Salt Lake City, Utah. This year’s Spring terrain park shoot season was shorter than last year, but the amount of travel between shoots really wore on me this Spring. It was nuts actually, and home never looked so good. My own bed, my own space, not working on my slow laptop, and having my golf clubs, being able to sneak out for some golf in the work day, everything, all the comforts of home…finally! However, it was all completely worth it. I got a lot of great action shots with a lot of the usual people but also some new faces. I got to spend some time with some good friends I don’t get to see a lot, visit new places, see family, oh and to find out that 4th gear in my Civic tops out at 130mph!

Also in this trip I did a lot of fun portraits, spent some time working more on capturing the lifestyle side of things and shot a lot with a Holga which was pretty fun. Shooting film, the mystery of wondering how things are going to turn out, especially with the thought of a very inprecise piece of camera equipment, adding in the mystery of how cross processing is going to turn out made for some fun stuff. I just sent it all out to Panda photo lab in Seattle, WA and I’m really excited to see how it turned out. I’m really anxious to see how it all plays out with the good ol film. It’s been at least 5 years since I shot any film.

Once I hit the road back home, I was all in, from Bend, OR to Hood River, OR to take a few portraits, then finally home to Salt Lake City, UT. Did it all straight through, starting at 10am in Bend, then arriving home in Salt Lake City, UT at 3am. I probably should have stayed the night in Boise but I was determined to sleep in my own bed ASAP, so 17 hours later I was there, at home, in my own bed and was worth every second on the road.

I’ll have a bit more later with some random photos from the spring in a few days.

Filed under Trips and Winter Sports Photography. |1 Comment

Spring Park Shoots, round 5 – Day 28

07May09

After 4 days off spent editing my season in Seattle, WA it’s time to finish up my season at Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Oregon. Unfortunately with a few days off, that means I’ve unpacked, meaning I have to re-pack all that gear into my tiny Honda Civic coupe. I’ve gone from not bringing enough gear on trips, to bringing EVERYTHING, to realzing I’ve brought too much. Maybe next year I will get this right!

Another thing I’ve learned along the way is that duct tape fixes everything. Of course, I already knew this but I didn’t think it would work in this case. A the Poor Boyz Productions shoot at Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, OR Ian Coble loaned me his Elinchrom Ranger to use for a few days after he had left the shoot to head back home to Seattle. For the last jump of the shoot, I needed another narrow beam reflector to really pump out the light in order to light up some trees in the background of the shot. I only had the wide and that just wasn’t cutting it. I did still have the 50 degree sports reflectors for my Alien Bees and a bit of tape went a long way to save my ass and work things out. I’d usually MacGyver this one up and make a reflector out of aluminium foil however the AB reflector and a few strips of tape were a hell of a lot easier.

Anyhoo, I’ll have a bit more from the road as I try to keep burnout from setting in. 2 and a half more weeks and my Winter will be over and I can relax for summer!

Filed under Trips and Winter Sports Photography. |3 Comments

Spring madness – Round 3

24Apr09

Round 3 of the spring park shoots is on. I just finished up with the Poor Boyz Production shoot at Mt Hood Ski Bowl in Government Camp, OR. Jossi Wells and Charles Gagnier rolled I’m late but was stoked to get out and shoot with them as it isn’t very often that I get to have them in front of the camera. We only had one more day on the big channel gap jump before heading over to Pete’s creation, what I like to refer to as the Chinerse death trap. This was the most difficult snow feature I’ve ever had to light up. I had planned to either go simple or rediculous. I opted for rediculous, and pulled out every piece of lighting equipment I had, including a borrowed Elimchrom Ranger from Ian Coble, who had left a few days earlier. Unfortunately my D3 went kaput and the shot I did get, was unusable due to camera malfunction. Fortunately I did just pick up a D300 as a backup so I have something until the D3 is repaired

After one night on that, it was finally time to move on to round 4 of 6 of the spring park shoots at Stevens Pass, WA for a shoot with Rage Films. I’m stoked for the Stevens Pass shoot as they have always been super good to work with and is always a fun shoot.

Photos to come soon

Filed under Trips and Winter Sports Photography. |1 Comment

The Spring Madness begins!

19Apr09

Nine days into my spring terrain park shoot season I’m finally updating my blog. I started my spring shoot season out at home at The Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah which is where I used to work in marketing before I moved on to photography as my full-time job. It was super sick to have big park features finally at my old stomping grounds, especially since my bros Andy Marston and John Hall (ex terrain park crew there) were the cat drivers that built most of the features.

John Symms tapping a log swing at The Canyons Resort in Park Cit Rage Films had piggy-backed this shoot after the Snowboarder Magazine Super Sessions and we had 3 days on the features that were there. It was definately a collection of pretty unique terrain park features, however we had didn’t luck out like the Snowboarder Magazine crew and had a bit of bad weather so we pretty well focused on 2 features, the log swing and the hip jump with the pine tree growing out of the deck! The crew was comprised of Kyler Cooley, Dylan Natale, Ian Cosco, Giray Dadali, John Symms, Tim Russell, Craig Coker, Angeli Vanlaanen and Macrae Williams.

Once the Rage shoot was finished with I got to head out the next day for an epic 16 hour drive to Seattle to go see my brother who was on leave for a bit from his tour in Iraq. The drive was pretty rough, was pretty tired and had to drive through 50 miles of black ice in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. I thank the Oregon Department of Transportation for doing nothing as usual to keep their roads in order as a simple layer of sand would have made the drive much faster.

So, 12 hours after arriving in Seattle, I packed the car back up and hit the road to Mt. Hood Ski Bowl in Goverment Camp, Oregon to hit stop number 2 in my Spring park shoot season with Poor Boyz Productions. The PBP crew was comprised of Matt Walker, Alexi Godbout, Nick Martini, Kaya Turski, Andrew Hathaway, Ben Moxham the Brit – Leigh Powis, along with Fimers Pete Alport, Jeff Thomas, Ross (sorry I can’t remember your last name), T-Rob (the intern) along with photographer Matt Stouble and myself.

The weather had still not left on day one of the shoot as we shot our first rail feature with a total of 10 minutes of sun breaks so the first day went down in the clouds. Day 2 brought us the sun that was supposed to go away, however we lucked out and at the end of the day after 2 different jib features the clouds had still not rolled in. We dodged a bullet for day 2. Day 3 brough us good old Pacific Northwest drizzle, rain and fog and a well needed off day for myself. I got to finally catch up on some editing and had a break from the long days. Day 4 was supposed to be the first jump day, however a mechanical problem with the snow cat pushed back the jump building an extra day and most of the day was spent chilling on the lodge deck relaxing and taking a few lifestyle shots here and there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow as it’s the first day on the jump and its coming together real well. It’s big, with a big landing, the skiers are stoked. Here’s to day 5 and the next 4 days of sun forecasted!

Filed under Trips and Winter Sports Photography. |3 Comments

Farellones, Chile

21Sep08

My Chilean trip continues as we have left Portillo down to Santiago for a day before heading back up to Farellones, home of the 3 Valleys of La Parva, El Colorado and Valle Nevado ski resorts. We were supposed to be heading to Las Lenas, however they decided to back out on the lift tickets they had promised us two and a half months ago so we had to go to plan B. Heh, we had no plan B! Soooo we ended up calling Mark Lassiter again over at www.southamericaski.com to organize a last minute plan B. We ended up with the 3 valleys with a slough of plans including being in Chile on Sept 18th, the Chilean independence day for some partying with the locals.

We arrived on a foggy and rainy morning that cleared out just in time for sunset. Farellones has some amazing sunsets, any day you can see the sun. The smog in Santiago is pretty gnarly but having a positive byproduct of making sick sunsets, just about every day up in the mountains. Farellones is a pretty small town at the base of El Colorado resort and below La Parva and Valle Nevado resorts. We’ve had quite the contrast of places we have been in Chile from the luxury of Portillo to more of a true South American experience in Farellones. We have been staying at a hostel called Refugio Aleman which has some really amazing views back towards Santiago and right into the sick daily sunsets through the smog of Santiago.

We will have a few more days here in Farellones with Anna’s friend Benny from Mammoth since Refugio Aleman is only a ski hostel and is closing for the season today! We have a sunset jump session planned as well as a few more jibs so the shooting should be pretty fun. After that we will be at La Parva for a day then the last day hopefully doing another road lap day on the Santa Teressa slope between El Colorado and Valle Nevado for fun without the camera on my back, then going straight to the airport and outbound back to Utah. Here’s a few photos of Farellones