Selections from the taco bar at Su Casa Aspen

I live in the Aspen, CO economy.  When it doesn’t snow (which it hasn’t this year) our little economic bubble can really tighten up.  One of the smartest things that I’ve done to stay busy in a shitty economy is, stay open to all things photography. This week its food.

Selections from the taco bar at Su Casa Aspen

Photographing food can be fun and eating it tends to be one of the perks!

The Plate de Carne Asada at Su Casa Aspen

PLG at the ESPN Summer X Games 15

For 6 years now I’ve been climbing on a airplane, during the heat of the summer, and heading off to LA.  What is this mountain guy thinking?  LA in August….it’s flipping hot.  I can’t resist, the reason I go, year after year, is to participate in the ESPN Summer X Games.  Now I’m not one of those nut jobs backflipping motos or boosting that giant vert ramp, of course, I’m a photographer.  I’m lucky enough to be one of ESPN’s staff photographers.  That means I possess a credential that allows me to go anywhere and do anything I want (in order to get the photos) as long as I don’t get on TV.

The X Games, winter or summer, is an incredible explosion of the best athletes in the world, hordes of their fans and TV craziness all packed into four days of sheer mayhem.  I love it, capturing the amazing energy of such a beautiful disaster is one of my favorite assignments of the year.  But, I’ve done that now for years so this year I decided  to search for a quite moment, a shot that might express an athlete’s drive and determination without all of the hubbub.

I created this image at an evening practice for the Men’s Skateboard Vert competition.  There was one athlete (Pierre-Luc Gagnon) who continued  to practiced well after all the other competitors and fans all went home.  The moment was exactly what I was looking for.  Quiet, serene, yet intense.  Gagnon went on to win the Gold, in front of his fans and the TV and all of the beautiful disaster.

Montenegro is a tiny country on the Adriatic Sea that is nestled between Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia and Albania and despite its aggressive neighbors it managed to stay out of the Balkan wars.  I recently traveled there to shoot a story on spec with my buddy Simon Kelton author of the critically acclaimed The Rich Bastard’s Guide to Los Angeles.

Our intention was to scout the mountains of Montenegro for a spot to build a lodge and set up a helicopter skiing operation.  What? You thought I said some thing about a story…on spec?  Simon’s friend, a wealthy investor type, had a dream and……..you get it……Simon calls a few magazines, a photographer and a former champion slalom skier for the UK and next thing you know we’re in skiing Montenegro and writing/shooting a piece on spec for said magazines.  I love my life.

Shooting on spec is always a tricky concept for me to grasp.  As a general rule I believe that if you work your ass off you will create a strong body of work and come home with good, salable images and so you’ll do well in the end.  You’ll likely never match the multiple day rate, contract fees with the page rate sales but, let’s consider the flip side, you’ll be heli skiing in Montenegro and exploring a different part of the planet.  Shooting on spec can be a double edge sword.  If all photographers took all assignments “on spec,” we’d all be broke.    The last thing we need as photographers is for magazine to believe that they don’t need to pay creative fees and expenses.  It should be the magazines choice to take the risk on a piece and the photographer for that matter.  That’s why they have editors researching what type of stories will bring in the add revenue and that’s why photographers spend so much time learning there craft and promoting themselves.

That said, exploring new places inspires creativity in my work. I was particularly flat creatively at the time and I decided to use the Montenegro trip as a jump off point for a new perspective.  Hopefully.  And, oh yeah, did I mention the heli skiing part.

It worked!  Montenegro was an incredible place to visit and ski and upon my return to the States my mind was doing back flips full of new photo ideas. So, shooting on spec can be good but I suggest using sparingly.

Below is my favorite image from the Montenegro edit.  I shot tons of great skiing stuff but those images did nothing to really inspire my “new perspective.”  It was this image and the synchronistic flow of camera/universe blah blah blah that it took to create it that really opened my eyes.  While speeding up a canyon in a pair of military helicopters I noticed the reflection of the pilots shoulder patch (the Montenegrean crest) intersecting the second chopper outside.  The Montenegrean people are an extraordinarily proud people, it seemed a fitting image.

A Montenegrean military helicopter and the reflection of the Montenegrean crest.

Contemplative in the Hotel

My good friend and very favorite photo editor Julia Vandenoever is on the line with another assignment.  She’s got that tone in her voice like she’s hiding something from me as she explains the assignment to me.  She wants me to photograph the author, Jim Thornton a hiking newbie from Pennsyltucky, and his attempt to climb Colorado’s Mount Elbert.  Mount Elbert is Colorado’s highest peak and Jim has been “training”  and it “should be a breeze” Julia remarks.  We discussed some of the logistics, negotiated a day rate and I agreed to take the assignment.

A few months passed and I found myself again on the phone with Julia.  ”I think you might have to carry this guy up the mountain,” she says.  ”He’s been training by sleeping in a hypoxic chamber,” she continues.  ”Have you thought about a place to make base camp or what route you’ll take up?  And can you please do the shopping and cooking,” Julia finishes.

It’s at this point that I realize that I’m as much a guide for this trip as I am the photographer and I think to myself, how cool it is that a photo editor is depending on me to not only to create great images but to make sure the story goes off, as well perhaps drag some flatlander, broken off of Colorado’s biggest rock.  How hard can that be?

So all logistical bullshit aside, I’m stoked to shoot this assignment and I start thinking about how to tie the training (sleeping in a hypoxic chamber) and the triumph (summiting Mount Elbert) together with my photographs.  I decide on parallel portraits, one of the man in his chamber and one of the man on the peak’s summit.  Of course the body of images will be of this fool suffering his way up the peak but I really want at least two images to tie the two key elements of the story together.

The moment has finally come when I get talk to Jim, the author, the guy who thinks sleeping with a plastic bag over his head will make him stronger.  Now, I’ve done my research and this is not Jim’s first rodeo, his M.O. is to get himself in over his head and write about it.  Blow gun hunting for monkeys in the Amazon?  He’s lived through it all so far.  Needless to say I’m determined to give this guy a thorough exam of sorts to be sure I’m not in over MY head.

Our conversation goes about as I expect, Jim is terrified and unprepared, he has a great sense of humor and is really hoping that I won’t get HIM killed.  The first of the photo sessions will take place in his hotel room in Boulder, CO, the super mountain geek, capital of the world.  I suggest that Jim and I meet at the Boulder REI so that I can make sure that he has everything he’ll need for his summit attempt.  Jim assures me that “Backpacker is going to set me up with everything I need for the trip.”  Yup, the guy is planning to hike for 14 hours in a brand new pair of boots!  Our meeting at the magazine is hilarious.  Jim gets all set up with his new boots, and a bunch of the typical super light, hiker shit and a huge, 36 ounce camelback.  Everyone on the Backpacker staff pulls me aside, one by one, and whispers something like “good luck” or “better you than me.”

The hotel room shoot goes really well.  A bunch of artificial light and a guy in his chamber, sitting in the Lotus position….very contemplative.  I do nothing fancy with the photography.  I just want it to look real.  Easy.  I end up with a great portrait so off to the mountains we go.

A day earlier I had stashed my VW camper at the base of Mount Elbert.  The mountain was at the time, under a deluge from a quick moving, powerful fall storm. Sure enough when we (Jim, myself and my assistant Brian) returned to the camper the sun was setting on the snow covered summit of Colorado’s highest peak.  Jim quivered in his (brand new) boots and we fed him a fire broiled, organic, T-bone, a side mac and yak and a few of the states finest micro brews.  ”Okay boys 4:30am roll out, hiking by 5 , coffee and eggs and bacon for breakfast.” were the orders I issued before we retired.

To my surprise Jim was the first one out of bed.  As it turns out he didn’t sleep a wink, he dreamt all night that he couldn’t find his backpack.  The morning went really well and the first few hours of hiking were filled with Jim monitoring his heart rate and VO2max.  He was struggling, everything was normal.  It was at tree line, a full 2000 feet below a very snowy summit, that Jim informed us he had finished his water.  He had decided that everyone of those 36 ounces had to go.  ”They were to heavy,” was his reasoning.

I spent those first few hours getting a bunch of great photographs of the author suffering and our packs (mine and Brian’s) were laden with the flash equipment that I needed to complete the second half of my portrait pair.  I created the first portrait, “contemplative in the hotel,” using a very real, natural and believable lighting technique.  On the summit I wanted the partner portrait to be surreal and very unbelievable.  I wanted to create a portrait of Jim on the peak that would make the reader question weather this guy really made the summit or not.

I took a completely Prime Directive approach to the shots of Jim climbing to the summit.  I was determined not to help him in any way.  I figured that would make his quest all HIS own and I knew that it would make the photographs that I needed of this flatlander struggling to 14,443 feet that much easier to get.  After a painful 4 hours and two thousand feet, many author sliding backwards to his perceived death moments and a handful of pills (for Jim) we made it to the summit.

I let Jim enjoy his moment on top of the world for at least 60 seconds before I ushered him into position.  In an almost angry way he demanded just a few more minutes for him to eat enough snow to recover.  We gave him some water.  Jim signed the summit pole, took in the sights and devoured an energy bar while Brian prepared the lights for his triumphant portrait.

Sticky note

The clouds over Mount Elbert were a perfect ominous mix of puffy white to snarly black.  I knew that if I underexposed the the ambient light and punched some hard side light on the subject that he would look pasted on the peak like a sticky note.   We shot on the summit for about an hour.  I got the shot that I wanted, a truly satisfying feeling.  Now the 6 hours back to camp.

It was 2:00pm when we left the summit and the down climb went as I expected.  Jim floundered, out of energy, consuming all of our water, another handful of pills and all of the remaining food.  Brian laughed out loud at Jim’s predicament.  I kept shooting.  We made it back to the camper safely and celebrated with a few ales.  We reminisced about the nearly 15 hours it took us to complete our adventure and began to roll up camp.  As Jim closed the last of gear into his rental car, he turned to us and thanked Brian and I for helping through the “current best day of his life.”  That may have been more satisfying for me then shooting all the photos combined.  I had done what the photo editor expected out of me, created great images and brought the man home alive.  Job well done.

The story Jim wrote was published along with my photographs in the May 2008 issue of Backpacker.