Paul and Karen's wedding - June 19, 2010

Another beautiful Alaskan wedding this time up at the Crow Creek Mine in Girdwood. I was a little nervous since the weather forcast called for rain all day and I knew the ceremony was going to be outside. Luckily it only amounted to a slight drizzle. The extra moisture hardly even phased the bride and groom or any of the guests and the various umbrellas only added more vibrant colors to the ceremony. I had a hard time changing any of these pictures to black and white with so many shades of green popping out everywhere.

Lee and Colleen's wedding - June 12, 2010

Its wedding season! Once again I've found myself behind the lens of yet another fun Alaskan wedding. Although I never would have pictured myself as a wedding photographer I'm starting to enjoy the challenges of improvising and composing on the spot. Its definitely pushing my photographic skills. Family portrait time feels a little like survival skiing... there's no turning back at this point, only you, your camera, and about a hundred different combinations of family members to go. Its a pretty good feeling when its all over.

It was nice to have a little help from Krystal, an APU student and photo club member. I invited her along as a second shooter and to help me keep an eye on the whole party. She did a great job and and seemed right at home. A second shooter is the way to go.

Colleen and Lee were awesome - such an easy couple to work with. I love it when folks have ideas for pictures and just like to have fun- not to mention what an incredible family and group of friends.

Congratulations Lee and Colleen!

Pushing My Comfort Zone

This spring I had the opportunity to take a Magazine Writing class from Rosanne Pagano, an Alaskan Journalist and Liberal arts professor at Alaska Pacific University. Writing has always been a difficult process for me, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to broaden my photographic skills by learning how to develop a story accompanied by my photographs. One of my assignments was to write a profile story which highlighted a local person with an interesting life. I chose to interview Cindy Shake, a metal artist, known for her popular Alaskan themed garden art and sculptures.

I met Cindy a few years ago when I rented the downstairs apartment of her weekend home in Girdwood. Inspired by her creative drive and ability to make a living off her artwork, I wanted to learn how she got to where she is now. I then photographed her at her home and studio in Anchorage and submitted the piece to the Anchorage Press. Just last week they decided to run it as a feature story.



Check it out here: http://www.anchoragepress.com/articles/2010/05/26/news/doc4bfdc5c1e8b86620694975.txt



Cindy Shake

Cindy using an arc welder

Cindy using a plasma cutter to cut up her sheet metal

One of Cindy's famous Garden Ravens with her grasshopper hanging on her shed in the background

A fun clay sculpture of a garden monster in Cindy's front yard

Alaska Girls Kick Ass...and show a little too.

May just made up for all of the powder days I missed in April. With school and work finally winding down I've been able to make the most of my weekends including an unexpected trip to the Ruth Glacier, a beautiful day with my good friend Sherrie to climb and ski Ptarmigan Peak, and fun spring day trip up Pastoral with some kick ass Alaskan ladies. Thank goodness for the plentiful snowpack this season and some beautiful May weather.

K2 Otter

Denali on the left and Mount Dan Beard on the right

A tour into the Great Gorge with the Mooses Tooth hiding behind a cloud

Gwenie with Denali hiding behind the clouds

Big Avalanche off of Barille

Rachel skiing up for a few turn with the Don Sheldon mountain House in the background

The wear and tear of being a bush pilot

Kellie flying out

Too hot for Gortex!

Five chicks on top of Pastoral

Gretchen

Jen Mac

Sherrie booting up the last few hundred feet to the upper ridge of Ptarmigan Peak

Beautiful view of Ptarmigan Peak and the Suicide Peaks to the right

Sherrie making her first jump turn on the ice crust at the top of the S Couloir

Oh great! 2000 more feet of ice chattering roller balls.

Sherrie making it look more fun than survival skiing.

Back in the sun.

Grass touring... denial that winter is over.

Ski Patrol Pictures for the Sitzmark

"Gordy" and "Zug" at Gun 2, Alyeska Ski Resort

This was taken in April 2008, of Gordon Scott and Peter Zug at the old Gun 2 mount. They are both vetrens of Alyeska, working on Ski Patrol for over 30 years. Summer of 2009 Alyeska rebuild this gun mount and covered it with a small building. I feel lucky to have captured this picture when I did.

ISO 160, 1/200 at f4.5.

"Gordy" sighting Gun 2

Gordon Scott, artillary expert, sighting Gun 2. Its really common for most of the gun missions to happen in the dark or in storm conditions. All shot points are determined by pre-existing numbers calculated from previous missions. The coolest part of this picture getting blown up so large, is that you can read the Tube number and 105 Howitizer and its completely sharp. I didn't even realize it was there and luckily had my camera focused on it.

ISO 160, 1/200 at f5

"Pad" hunkered down at an LZ ontop of the headwall

Scott Pattison, longtime Ski Patroller and Girdwood local, hunkered down after getting dropped off ontop of the headwall.

I just finished matting and framing three large prints, 18" x 24" that will soon be hanging in the Sitzmark Bar at the base of Alyeska. John Byrne, owner of Alyeska, contacted me last week and picked out his favorite three Ski Patrol pictures. He had seen one of these at a show I had last winter at the Java House, all taken in 2008, my last year of full-time season of ski patrol. I'm excited to see them hanging the next time I stop by for a drink.

Paul and Whitney's Wedding

I was honored to be asked to take photos of Whitney and Paul's special day. The ceremony was at Dr. Harmon's beautifully handcrafted home/office with all kinds of interesting worldly artifacts everywhere. It snowed the entire weekend or should I say it dumped, which didn't help the already dim tungsten lighting. I must admit it was one of the more challenging lighting experiences I've encountered in awhile. It definitely makes me want one of those new fancy D3s or a D700 for the ISO quality and more importantly the full frame sensor to eliminate the wide angle digital distortion... and of course some faster glass. I did however rely on my flash for some of the more important moments, but I'm just not a big fan of this kind of hard light even with a little diffuser.

Recently Published in The Ski Journal

November 2006

Fuji Provia 100
Nikon N80
Months before I switched to digital

Check out the latest issue of The Ski Journal. They published my photo in their Special Edition Photo Book Vol. 3, N. 4, 2010. You can order it from http://www.theskijournal.com/


In November 2006, Ryan Hokanson, Jason Kwiatkowski, Karen Hilton, and I left the small town of El Chalten in southern Patagonia with a broad objective: Our primary focus was to kite ski and possibly climb some smaller peaks on the Southern Patagonia Ice Field. We planned for 18 days with a few extar days of food and spent our first four days battling crazy winds and sideways rain and snow; a preview of more to come. We were fortunate to enjoy one of only three nice days ski kiting around the western side of 10,000-foot Cerro Torre in an area known as Circo de Los Atlares-this ended up being the highlight our whole trip.

Two Strokes to Freedom

Seattle Creek Headwall

Jeff about to navigate a cornice hazard along the Headwall

Rob ripping it up in Resort Bowl

Rob

Kris

Nick

View from Resort Bowl

Big Chief

Luke skiing on the bottom left ridge in the foreground

Lauren and Cassie

Lauren with Turnagain Pass in the Background

Cassie

Jeff and Nick

The poor mans helicopter... Once again I've found myself wanting one more toy I can not afford.

These are all pictures from early February in Turnagain Pass Snow machine skiing with some of my favorite Girdwood locals. This is the end of a two week high pressure, super stable snow pack, and all kinds of people getting after it. I was thrilled to see the Girdwood women pushing this terrain with their own snow machines and ripping lines. It's nice to see the red neck side of the highway gaining a little more gender balance.