A few more things on CR Johnson out on the interweb.

Check out CR’s film segments in some of the ski movies posted on Freeskier’s website. Watch them, remember him, remember what he’s done for our sport.

Also a recent photo gallery from a trip to Retallack early this season on Powder Magazine’s website.

Some great words by Jeff Schmuck, one of the editors of Newschoolers.com here.

As I was driving home from a recent trip to Montana, I got a call from my roomate telling me the news of CR Johnson’s untimely death while skiing at Squaw Valley, his home resort.  Just like last year when news of Shane McConkey’s death came through, I immediately got on the phone with some other industry friends to confirm this, and it was true.  It was pretty shocking news as this is the second ski icon in as many years to succumb to the extremes of the mountains we work, live and play in, both of which calling Squaw Valley their home.  For those of you that don’t know, CR was one of the pioneers of the park and pipe scene and then, bringing freestyle into the backcountry.  He was one of the few people that have had a massive impact to the sport,one that contributed to the growth and transformation of the sport and helped make a place for someone like me to have a job taking photos of skiing.  Let me say that again, I likely wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for guys like CR and Shane McConkey.

I’ve just arrived home from the drive from Montana so I don’t know much in the way of details, but there are some at www.freeskier.com which is a temporary shrine to CR right now, A Eulogy written by Chris Jerrard (Publisher of Freeskier Magazine) and also a story by Micha Abrams (Former editor of Freeze Magazine) on espn.com

Most people will say, at least he died doing what he loved doing.  However he not only died doing what he loved, but he died, skiing for himself and no other reason.  No cameras, just friends and the mountains.

CR was one of those guys I had never gotten a chance to shoot with until last Spring at a park shoot with Poor Boyz Productions at Mt. Hood Ski Bowl.  It was the first really big park jump he had hit since his previous head injury and it was really a great thing to see him eye up the jump the day before he started hitting that thing.  It was really great to see him back.  I was really looking forward to getting out in the backcountry and shooting with him this season since the opportunity looked like it was going to come up.  It was going to be so sick to see him back in the pre-injury form and sending it.

CR Johnson was a pioneer, prodigy, and one tough dude to come back from his head injury to again ski at the level he was back to.

Condolences to his family, rest in peace CR.  You da man.

“Live your life, love your life. Don’t regret… Live, learn, and move forward positively.” -CR Johnson

Go ski for CR.

I’ve been a customer of Pictureline in Salt Lake City for 10 years now.  It’s really the only camera shop in Utah worth going to if you need any camera gear and need to speak to a sales person that knows anything.  So, need to get camera gear in Utah?  Go there.

Anyways in the four or so years they have been in the new location on 305 West 700 South in Salt Lake City they have had photos up on the walls changing out every month.  I finally got my shit together and got a few of my photos in to them to put up, and it’s really awesome seeing your work that big.  The three prints are HUGE.

So, if you are in Salt Lake City go check the prints out.  There are also four prints over in their second location in Draper, UT at177 West 12300 South.

The photos are ski action shots of Tanner Hall, Kyler Cooley, Julian Carr and Derek Spong and will be up until February 28th.

I got a rare chance a few weeks ago to shoot some snowboarding.  It was pretty sick to be at the Snowboard Grand Prix at Park City Mountain Resort since it was the last event for the US Snowboard Olympic team selection.  It was a really big deal, and it was really nuking all through the comp.  Now, although the heavy snowfall isn’t so good for the athletes, it’s something I’ve grown to love while shooting at night.  The heavy snowfall just adds so much to the shots, I just love it.  I went pretty basic on lighting at this event, as the hot lights they brought in for this event were actually pretty good.  Just had an Alien Bee 800 and Alien Bee 400 with me.  I got to leave the big Elinchrom Ranger at home for the contest, I was pretty pumped about not hauling the big daddy up for this one!  I was pretty amazed as to how well my D300 did during this event.  At a pipe event I usually bring two camera bodies up with me, one with a wide or short zoom and one with the 70-200 on it.  With the event hot lights I wasn’t sure if the D300 was going to do as well at the high ISO ranges of 1600-3200 that I was shooting at, but it did really well.  I knew my D3 was going to do great but how well the D300 did was a pretty nice surprise.

I haven’t blogged much lately, I’ve been trying to get after it so here’s a post with just some photos I liked from the event.  I hope you dig.

I’m also spending some time shootng the USSA Snowboard Gran Prix at Park City Mountain Resort which will keep me out of the Sundance scene for a few days and get me on-mountain a bit.  I usually don’t get to spend any time on-mountain during the festival so this unusual Sundance for me should be the best one I’ve been a part of in the seven years I’ve covered it.

For those of us photographers that travel internationally a lot, things could change drastically soon.  With the recent failed terrorist attack on December 25, 2009 there is a lot of chatter on the internet about TSA potentially banning all electronics usage in-flight on American bound flights from outside the USA.  This is pretty lame but if it happens it could mean for a lot of boring long distance flights.  Check out some of the chatter here and here.

About this time last year, things changed for those of us using lithium batteries.  Although the rules are counter intuitive to actual potential dangers, it’s another poorly thought out knee-jerk reaction to some previous problems with some lithium batteries catching fire.   For more information about the lithium battery restrictions check out http://safetravel.dot.gov There is a fair amount of information there regarding lithium batteries on domestic flights.

So, although this is old news…a year old in fact I’m still posting this for a pretty good reason.  My power packs for my Elinchrom Ranger RX AS Speed and my Alien Bees strobes use SLA and NiMH batteries.  NiMH, Alkaline and SLA (Sealed Lead-Acid) batteries are still fine to put in your carry-on luggage.  Sure, you know this.  But do you have a pdf proving to the TSA village idiot you can to include in your Pelican case your strobe pack is in to make sure you don’t have a problem?  I just spent the last half hour looking for mine, and fortunately I found it.  So I thought I’d share it.  Download it, print it, put it in your case/bag.

View the document here

It’s a good idea to read all of this.  Know the rules, have a copy of them.  Chances are if you get an idiot asshole TSA agent none of the guidelines matter and you’ll be stuck waiting for a manager that knows what the rules actually are, but sometimes you can actually convince the TSA village idiots that you are obeying the rules and that you aren’t a terrorist.  Just a photographer with a bunch of gear.

However, all of this being said, if you are someone that happens to have a Hensel Porty strobe kit then you are in for it.  Your Li-ion battery for your power pack is too big and not allowed on the plane at all.  You’ll have to ship it.  Funny since it would be shipped, in a 747 just like you’d be flying in.

It’s again that time of year for me, the season is ramping up and time to replace old broken and lost gear.  In an effort to pack lighter for trips on the unfriendly skies I recently looked at my pile of light stands looking for a way to cut some weight and to get things in smaller bags.  In the past I’ve been packing my rolling ski bag in order to get my older 9 foot Bogen light stand in the mix.  The nine foot basic stand sits at 36″ long folded up and weighs in at three pounds.  While it’s a pretty good sturdy stand, packing my rolling ski bag around the airport and small rental cars really sucks.

My new solution hopefully is a good one.  After staring at specs for about an hour I ran across the Lowel 0133 Omni Light Stand.  This compact light stand packs down at 29 inches folded up and weighs in at 2.9 pounds.  It isn’t as sturdy as your standard, basic tubular legged light stand however I’m hoping it’s compact size will make up for that.  The legs are 1/8 thick, 9/16″ wide solid strip aluminum as opposed to the typical tubular aluminum legs that most light stands these days have.  This makes for a bit less stability however it’s made up for in it’s compact size, especially when folded up.

The 9′ Lowel 0133 Omni Stand seems to be built very well, using solid aluminum collar clamps as opposed to most of the lightweight stands out there that use plastic collar clamps.

Being a bit ambitious, I also ordered the Lowel KPH Half Pole 3′ Extension.  Carrying around an extra pound in my luggage can get me an extra three feet on top of my nine foot stand.  It isn’t the sturdiest combination, however with some weight holding down the base of the stand, it should work ok in light winds with a small head or speedlights on top of the stand/extension combo.  I’ll let you know how that works out later though.

More about the extension though, it’s a 2-section extension pole with the same solid aluminum collar clamps as the 0133 Omni Stand and the same gray anodized finish.   The base of the extension is a bit on the wide side compared to the 0133 Omni Stand but it gets the job done.  I think it will.

(Left) Lowell 0133 Omni Stand fully extended at 9 feet
(Right) Lowel 0133 Omni Stand fully extended with Lowel KPH Half Pole at 12 feet

What the hell is 4Bi9?  They are a local ski film crew out of SLC.  Most of which all live together in one house at the University of Utah.  I’ve been shooting some portraits and lifestyles of Tom Wallisch,  one of the crew a bit this summer and they wanted to do a Christmas card to send out so I went over for some of the usual entertainment there.  The crew of Tom Wallisch, AJ Dakoulas, Ryan Wyble, Steve Stepp, Rich Fahey, Dave Euler, and Tim Maney.  They also recently had a bunch of pretty funny 4Bi9 branded shirts made so I shot some stuff with those as well.  Pretty fun.  Good people makes for good photos.

Posting outtakes is something here I usually don’t get a chance to do.  This time around though the shoot was for espn.com and with the instant turnaround time with web, I get to post these while they are still fresh!  This few days of shooting was mainly about one thing.  Fun.  It most certainly was.  These photos were shot at Alta, Deer Valley and Brighton Resorts in Utah after a few early season storms in October and early November.  My lighting was pretty simple in these, some just ambient, but those that weren’t, 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.

Check out the full gallery here

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