I walk at a pretty fast pace. I grew up with a father that only operates in one gear: Go! But I’m in the Rocky Mountain National Park to go ice climbing with Matt Lloyd and Colin Coulson, both of whom are quite a bit taller than me. And Colin has the same gear as my father, only with longer legs. He charges up the inclined trail. My lungs are still getting used to operating at high elevations, coming from a lowly altitude of only 900 feet for the last 26 years. Every step takes much more effort than it should. Every step Matt and Colin take puts more space between us. I try to charge faster but that only causes the fire in my chest to overpower my breathing. To make it worse, the knee deep snow forces me to expend so much more energy.

The snow is nicely packed on the trail for about the first mile, but as more variants split off the number of hikers and snowshoers that have gone before us dwindle until the trail becomes much less obvious. And difficult: we sink into at least our knees with every step (Makes me wish for some snow shoes, or I’ll take my skis and skins next time).

Glacier Gorge

Matt and Colin lean into the high winds sweeping across The Loch, a frozen lake in the Glacier Gorge area of RMNP

It’s shorter than it looked from the lake – only about 35ft tall – but as I have found in my little experience ice climbing, climbs tend to be more technical and challenging than they look.

Matt jumping on “The Crypt”.

Matt Lloyd leads “the Crypt” in the midst of a snow storm

And the exit through Glacier Gorge

We trek out the way we came in. Thankfully a few more snowshoers had come up this trail making the hiking a bit easier. We tried check out another area, but the there was not tracked trail and we were all too tired to give it any real effort. I’m thankful to reach the car. Exhausted.

I’m pretty new to ice climbing. I started in January. I’ve found, in general, the approaches are the most exhausting part of the day. I feel comfortable, and probably blissfully & ignorantly confident, on the ice. I just recently did my first lead climb on a WI3+ in Vail. And I’m psyched. But unless you’re at a park like Ouray, the approaches tend to be the hardest part of the day for me. In RMNP 3 miles of hard hiking through deep snow has been the pinnacle so far. But there are so many climbs I want to do now, and the approaches seem to be the most daunting.

I am definitely missing climbing in Red River Gorge, Kentucky: the overhanging, juggy, sandpaper pockets; the easy approaches; Miguel’s Pizza. But I have to say, I love having a view. I feel locked into a tunnel of deciduous trees; you can’t see more than a few feet from you. There’s something relaxing about open spaces. I love being on the peaks of mountains or looking out into the emptiness of the ocean.  Shelf Road provides some great sport climbing (even the cracks are bolted, which is weird to me) with some amazing views.

We climbed at an area called Cactus Cliffs. Matt had been talking about a route up a blank face that you could see from across the valley, Lats Don’t Have Feelings. It’s a very aesthetic and crimpy 5.11d, which is fitting to my new found style. (Somehow my style has switched recently from powerful and overhanging to crimpy and technical, which is great for Colorado. I’m not sure when this transition happened, but I am enjoying it.)

I am excited about discovering more of Colorado’s climbing, and shooting with some great climbers. Shelf Road will definitely offer me some great times in the future.

Matt working through the crux of a fun 5.12a

Matt makes some great faces when he’s “trying hard”

Nick almost at the top of Peak 6

Without much a plan, we just started going up. We took the T-bar lift to the top of Peak 8 and decided to traverse Peak 7 to the ski area boundary line. Everything we passed was super chopped up, and off in the distance we could see fresh, untouched lines coming from Peak 6. Eh, why not? We duck under the boundary line and make our way around the mid section of Peak 7. We find a path where a few others have ventured off with the same plan and start the trek up the south face of Peak 6. Where the wind has blown off the loose snow and it’s rocky the walking is easy, but as soon as you step away from the rocks you find yourself almost chest deep in powder.

Another skier makes the trek to the top of Peak 6

The last little bit before the summit

Nick modeling my pack and skis

Going down takes a lot less effort than the approach, but we stop and make the most of it. I drop in first so I can get in position to photograph Nick coming off the cornice. The first turn is on super hard pack, but the further down we go the better the snow gets. We’re floating in powder; jumping off small clifflines into pillowy soft landings. By the time we reach to bottom of the bowl we’re not ready to quit.

We decide to take a second lap. The conditions are just too good to only get one run in. So, off come the skis and we start the push up the north east face of Peak 6. There is a trail here as we are not the only ones doing laps.  Two snowboarders pass me, one on a split board with climbing skins and the other using snowshoes. A split board is a snowboard that separates into two boards you can wear like skis for ascending and traversing. Climbing skins attach to the bottom of your skis or split board and allow you to glide forward to prevent you from sliding backwards, which makes ascending much much easier. I need to buy skins for my set up, making my life a lot easier.

Speaking of…both guys mentioned to Nick and I that we shouldn’t be in the side country without avalanche safety gear. This is true. Things I need to get: a beacon, a shovel, and a probe.

Climbing the northeast slope almost destroys me. Climbing at almost 13,000 feet: I am not accustomed to this. Nick gets to the top in what seems like an hour before I do. Each step up my boot sinks into the snow making each step even harder. I take five or six steps and have to stop to catch my breath. At times, when I’m sinking up to my waist, I just start crawling. I think this probably looks pathetic, and I start thinking to myself, “I am the tortoise. I can win this race. Take each step slow.” And with one step at a time I slowly make my way to the summit. After a few minutes laying on my back, staring up at the blue sky, my body forgets the pain that it’s in.

We take our victory lap slicing through the thick powder, jumping off of small clifflines and enjoying the soft landings. It’s time to head back in-bounds in Breckenridge. We can see where we need to go. Just head as far right as you can. We traverse right but reach the tree line before the boundary. Once in the trees Nick has trouble keeping his short snowboard above the powder, but we keep moving down the mountain. We’re making our way to the right while still pointed down hill – apparently not far enough south. We come out on a cross-country ski path that shoots us out into a residential area. Skiing on the snow-packed road we figure we will pop out at the resort sooner or later. After a couple of miles we finally come across a lady walking her dog who informs us, “You’re still over a mile from the base of the resort and it’s all up hill from here.” Thankfully, a young guy in a Jeep stops and gives us a ride the rest of the way. We get to the base of Peak 8 at 3:50pm, just in time for one last run, which means we technically got 3 runs in on this great great day! It was Nick’s first time at Breck and he still really hasn’t ridden Breck.  

I like to browse Craigslist regularly and I came across a post asking for a ride-share to the festival. I’d never heard of it, but when I looked it up I knew I had to go.  A six hour car ride later we arrive in Ouray.

Main Street in Ouray

Click here to continue reading and see more photos.

Moon Halo

My craigslist friend and I decided to brave the cold and car camp in a small park above the city. It was a beautifully clear night with an almost moon acting as our night light. In the morning we prepared to watch the highlight of the festival, the climbing competition. I talked the editor of Rock and Ice into getting me access to the base of the gorge so I could shoot the competition.

Emily Harrington working on her first place womens finish during the competition on Saturday

Emily Harrington shows off her “figure of nine” technique

From down inside the gorge

Nathan Kutcher crossing the ice bridge for his first place finish.

Andres Marin starting off his second place run

Rob Cordey-Cotter reaching the ice-bridge right before he timed out

Rob Cordey-Cotter free soloing a WI5 out of the gorge instead of taking the “walk of shame”

Dawn Glanc working her way across the ice bridge

Rob Cordey-Cotter topside after free soloing out of the gorge

The view down the gorge

The spectacular mountains that surround Ouray

The Bastille Wall

A few weeks ago climber, Matt Lloyd, took me out to Eldorado Canyon. It’s a beautiful canyon about 20 minutes from Boulder, Colorado that you reach by a driving through the quaint town of Eldorado Springs. Most of the climbs here are trad (traditional – meaning you have to place your own protection), and the ratings are pretty stout. But it’s someplace I want to explore a lot more.

Enjoy a few selects from the shoot.

I’m just getting settled in here in Boulder. It’s pretty quiet here since all the students are gone for the holidays. My drive out here last week was pretty eventful. I left St. Louis on Monday morning expecting to reach Boulder by about 10pm. About an hour and half outside of Kansas City I hit the massive blizzard that cut through the Central US. It was quite sudden. It went from rain to dangerously snow covered roads in what seemed like a matter of seconds. Cars were off the road everywhere. I ended up spending the night in Hays, Kansas to wait out the blizzard. The mountains were shining beautifully by the time I was driving through Denver, welcoming me in. I’m glad to be here now, I can’t wait to find out what is in front of me. Whenever Fed Ex finds my skis that they lost, I will head up to Keystone or Breckenridge and get my season started.

A few days before I left I took photos of my friend, Jared, who’s a performance pianist in the beautiful Auer Hall at Indiana University. We got to the hall after midnight thinking it would be empty, but an organist was about to record for her class. She allowed us half an hour to get our shots done. Working without an assistant meant it went slower than it could have.

The last shot we hurriedly set up the lights as the organist was rushing us out. I switched to my 70-200mm for this shot and got low on the stage. We quickly got our stuff out of the concert hall so the organist could record.

I would rather work having more time and options, but I like knowing that I can work with so little.

I tend to move fast and light. Discussing our approaches to photography a while back, Casey Brooks and couldn’t be more different when it comes to equipment. I carry everything in a backpack, using what I can for light stands, light modifiers, and scrims. Casey said, “I like to work out of a truck.” She has a lot of equipment, and it’s awesome! I wish I had all everything she has. But we made very different choices after we graduated school. She has worked to establish herself in the fashion photography world, and she’s killing it! She continues to pump out amazing project after amazing project; continually getting better. I moved myself all the way across the world, working mostly on my own and on the fly.

In college we were not really taught anything about lighting with off-camera speedlite flashes; so I spent a lot of time playing and figuring out how it works. Messing around is the best way for me to learn new ways of doing things, but also reading blogs like David Hobby’s The Strobist helped to inspire me.

Sikkim, India (December 2009)

I started traveling with the Orbis Ring Flash, and it became an invaluable part of my photography set up. By using it as an off camera diffused light and holding it away from the camera it helped me create these travel portraits.

In the past year, maybe two, I have done the great majority of my photoshoots using only off-camera speedlites. They are easily modified and easily moved. It’s quick set up and take down. With proper modifiers you can make the quality of light almost anything you want. There are of course down sides, but you learn to work around them.

My former professor of photography, friend, and (for a brief time) former boss, Rob Curfman asked me to come do a presentation for his Photo Illustration class at Indiana Wesleyan University. I always love an opportunity to meet up with Curfman.

He asked me to give a presentation on off-camera lighting to his class that has been experimenting with these techniques. I am really glad he has added this to his course, it will prepare his students much better for working in real life situations. That being said, the world of “strobist” photography has changed drastically in the three years since I’ve been in school.

The class steps out into the cold yet beautiful late afternoon light to experiment with a few different lighting techniques. I start with the built-in Canon E-TTL wireless system (Nikon CLS equivalent) which uses a Canon Speedlite 580EXII as a master commander unit and 430EXII’s as slave units. From the 580EXII you can control different groups of slave flashes through the infrared signal. I point the 580’s flash head directly at the 430’s receiver to maximize the reliability (especially since we’re shooting outside in direct sunlight). If you have gaffer’s tape it’s a great idea to use it to block the sun from hitting the infrared sensor by taping a “flag” on the sun side.

With a student acting as my light stand I have him hold the flash high on camera left. When hand-holding off-camera flashes, people have a tendency to hold it at chest level. This casts very unnatural shadows on the subject, as most light comes from above. Start with the safe position of 45º to the side and 45º above the subject. From there you can experiment and change the light as much as you can imagine.

f/2.8, 1/800th, ISO 100. Bare Speedlite 430exII in E-TTL mode off camera left, fired as a slave to the Speedlite 580exII on my camera pointed directly at the 430exII and not striking the subject at all.

Here we are experimenting with light position. Mixing flash with a good ambient exposure works in this example. The ambient light on the model’s face still shows enough details, and the sun’s highlight along with the flash fired from behind the model’s position highlight the structure of his face. Also, keep in mind to keep the flash high or you’ll get a very distracting shadow cast from the model’s shoulder.

f/2.8, 1/800th, ISO 100. Bare Speedlite 430exII in E-TTL mode off camera right.

Multiple flashes can be expensive with 580’s running $425 and 430’s running $270. There are cheaper options for quick and easy lighting solutions. One of the best multi-use tools is a 5-1 collapsible reflector. For under $50 you have a lightweight tool that you can carry with you easily that is extremely powerful in the variety of what it can accomplish.

f/2.8, 1/320th, ISO 100

This example shows the difference between using a reflector and not. I used the silver side and brought it in close to the model. The reflector reflecting sunlight back onto the model acts like any other light source. The closer to the subject the softer the light and the brighter the light (the inverse square law is still in effect). You can use the reflector in any number of positions to create different light effects. Here I use it as the key light. I keep it high, to emulate natural light. Again, with reflectors people have a tendency to keep them at chest level which gives an unnatural light, lighting under the nose and casting strange shadows. If you’re using the reflector as a fill light, though, it is perfectly fine to come in from below to fill in the dark shadows. 

Another way to use the 5-in-1 reflector is stripping off the outer cover to reveal the white, translucent center. Again using Canon E-TTL wireless system I trigger the 430EXII, but this time I have the reflector between the flash and the subject. The reflector spreads out the harsh light coming from the tiny flash head and enlarges it to the size of the reflector, in this case 42 inches. This softens the light and gives it a really nice quality (a very cheap softbox). Remember to keep the flash head far enough away from the reflector that the light is hitting the entire surface of the reflector. If the flash is too close, you are only enlarging the source of light by a few inches. 

f/2.8, 1/320th, ISO 100

The last demonstration I did was to show how to use radio slaves. I use the Paul C Buff CyberSync system, which I have talked about before. I shot these with bare speedlites just in the name of time. The light is a bit harsher than I wanted for these shots, but we were losing the sunlight. In the shot below, a negative of the speedlite can be seen in the photo below…the nose casting a harsh shadow across the model’s cheek. This shot says to me, it was shot with a speedlite. I did not use any fill to minimize that effect either. To camera left and behind the subject is a second flash showing some details on the shadow side. 

In the last photo I changed the position of the keylight, added a fill on camera left to minimize the harsh shadows, and sent my accent light as far away as he could go. The purpose of this shot is to show one of the key advantages of radio slaves over the E-TTL wireless system: distance. the E-TTL system is limited to about 30 feet. It is difficult to get a reliable result any further than that. With the CyberSyncs I was able to get the flash to fire from 150 yards (the student holding the light was standing next to the building in the background, shown in the red circle below.

I had a blast showing the students the different techniques, and stayed and talked for a couple of hours. It’s always encouraging when students are engaged and asking questions. This relatively new form of photography is only going to continue to grow. I’m glad to see the students latching onto it. 

Chuck jumping a barrel. f/5, 1/400th of a second (not fast enough to prevent motion blur). Speedlite 580EXII on camera acting as a master unit controlling the Speedlite 430EXII camera right set at 1/2 power.

On a Saturday about a month back I had spent the day scouting locations for the running shoot I published of two runners. After finding the suitable locations for the running shoot I had wanted to go back to Major Taylors Skate Park,  near Marian College in Indianapolis. I had photographed this skate park about a year and half before in the post titled, “Drive By Shooting“, and I wanted to catch some more skaters in action.

I like to be an active person and I want my photographs to reflect that. I love shooting rock climbing and skiing because I’m an active member of those communities, but I just want to cover everything active. I am not a skate boarder, or a runner for that matter, but I definitely respect those communities.

f/5, 1/500th @ ISO 320

f/5, 1/500th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera right.

Making Art. f/5, 1/500th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera right.

f/5, 1/500th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera right.

Add caption Miles Jones ripping it up. f/5, 1/320th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera right. Lesson in motion: Catch the subject at the apex of the flight; here is when they are traveling the slowest. If they were purely going straight up then down then at the Apex velocity = 0. f/5, 1/320th @ ISO 320. f/5, 1/320th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera left.  Jordan Mouning inaugurating the new graffiti. f/5, 1/200th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera left. Yongnou Speedlite YN-560 set on the ramp. Because this flash operates as an optical slave and will not high-speed sync, I had to lower my shutter speed to 1/200th.

If you want to find climbers in the Red you head to Miguel’s Pizza. You’ll find them camping out, eating delicious pizza or cooking on a camp stove, and slacklining to pass the time between climbs. In the morning at Miguel’s I had met a group of climbers from Spain that appeared to be super strong. Turns out that two of them, Pablo Barbero and Pablo Beltran, are firefighters that climb 5.14’s regularly. They tell me to meet them at Drive-By Crag in the afternoon. Despite it being October the temperatures are in the 80’s, and they do not want to climb in the sun. With the heat and humidity, the friction of the rock is not ideal for climbing hard routes. Ideally you’d want it about 20º cooler.

By the time I get off my perch at Purgatory and hike to Drive-By, there is not a lot of light left. Pablo Barbero is just jumping on Kaleidoscope 5.13c, so I don’t have time to get a position off of the ground. I was really hoping to shoot more, especially in some different areas other than Purgatory.

Saturday at Rocktoberfest is the main event. Hundreds of climbers compete in an outdoor climbing competition at the Motherlode and other areas off of the Sore-Heel parking lot. It would have made sense for me to be there to photograph as much as possible, but of course, I got sidetracked. Neal was attempting God’s Own Stone at the Gold Coast on the other side of PMRP (Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve) and I went to capture his efforts.

The sun goes down over the red rocks and the autumn leafed trees. Everyone filters into the Rocktoberfest campgrounds for the festivities. You can use a sling shot to shoot water balloons at corporate sponsors’ signs for prizes, or try and hit “Idiot Boy” to win $100. You can try to stack milk crates while sitting on top of them for bragging rights.

Then comes the dyno competition, the highlight of the evening. On a wall made from plywood climbers launch themselves from start holds near the ground and try to reach a range of finishing holds at the top. Not all make it, and others make it look easy.

A bouldering comp competitor fails to grab the finishing hold

Overall Rocktoberfest was a good time, but I didn’t really shoot as much as I would have liked. And honestly, I don’t know when I will be able to spend more time in Red River Gorge. But soon I will have all of Colorado before me.