Tag: lifestyle

Yosemite with Genevive and Carey

Last spring, Genevive was hit up by her friend, Carey de Victoria-Michel, inviting her to go to Yosemite Valley to try and send her long-term project, Separate Reality, a beautiful roof crack high up on the road to Tuolumne that overlooks the entrance to Yosemite Valley. Genevive was excited to go play on the crack and support her friend, and she would get to experience the magic of Yosemite for the first time!

Our plans hit a minor hiccup when Yosemite temporarily closed due to flooding. We were concerned that the climb might not dry in time for us, but when Yosemite reopened, we decided to take a chance on the still-moist conditions.

If you’ve never approached Yosemite from the west, you’re missing out on the awe-inspiring sight of El Capitan presiding majestically over the valley. Genevive’s wide-eyed wonder captured that feeling perfectly. It’s the kind of place that can turn even the most seasoned traveler into a wide-eyed child, utterly captivated by the sheer grandeur of the surroundings.

On the drive into the valley, we made the mandatory stop at the Fern Spring, a freshwater spring that flows into the Merced River. You can fill your water bottles, or just splash some cold water on your face.

During our time in Yosemite, I focused on capturing lifestyle & climbing photos for Genevive and Carey’s sponsors, Title Nine, Mountain Hardwear, Evolv, and DMM. But in between, I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots of the stunning landscapes around us.

Both Genevive and Carey put in the hard work on climbing Separate Reality, and both proudly sent this iconic test piece in great style! I had the opportunity to give it a couple of tries and I figured out some great beta that would work for me but I was focused more on capturing their experience than climbing it myself.

A friend from the Bay Area paid us a visit during our Yosemite adventure, proudly showing off his new Ford Bronco. I managed to convince him to drive back and forth in front of me while we were on Big Oak Flat Road.

Our Yosemite excursion was a success for both Genevive and Carey’s climbing objective and capturing some great lifestyle photography. The magic of Yosemite definitely sticks with you after you leave, and we can’t wait to come back soon to experience more of what the National Park has to offer.

Mountain Hardwear Stretchdown Campaign

This fall I was asked to work on a project I was very excited to do: shoot a campaign for outdoor apparel brand Mountain Hardwear (click to see the photos on their site). The client selected Utah’s Uinta mountains for the location and used their ambassadors for the talent. This was a 4-day shoot, two days in the mountains and two in the studio. We shot in three different locations in the mountains over the two days, waking up at 3:30 to get the summit photos from Bald Mountain. The collaboration with Mountain Hardwear’s creative team was super fun, and I’m looking forward to more shoots with this great client!

Interesting Aside:
We were shooting in an alpine environment, especially on the first day of the shoot, and anything can happen at high elevation. We had to wake up at 3:30am to get to the summit of Bald Mountain before sunrise. When we were a couple hundred feet short of the summit, a storm squall rolled in, spitting lightning and hail, and we decided to call that part of the shoot for everyone’s safety before a frame was captured. But the squall passed after 15 minutes and before we’d gotten too far back down the trail, leaving us with amazing, tumultuous light. We watched as other squalls passed within a few miles of us, but we were in the clear for the rest of the day. Stormy weather can be a blessing in disguise because you get much more interesting photos than on a bluebird day.

Lifestyle for Centura Health Hospitals

In March of last year, I got the opportunity to shoot a project for the Colorado and Kansas based hospital group, Centura Health. For the first project, I had to pull together a small team to work fast and light while shooting lifestyle of providers interacting with patients in two hospitals for internal HR materials. Later in the summer, I was to shoot several more lifestyle projects for Centura advertisements in 5 more hospitals. These projects included shooting in a T-10 trauma room during a simulation and getting taken up in a Flight for Life helicopter in Durango, CO. I loved working with the whole team. Looking forward to more!

I always like to give my clients added value and when we had downtime on the shoots, I tried to find textures and architectural elements that they could use for text backgrounds.

Laura and her horse, Sam

I’ve been wanting to add some composite work to my portfolio, and when I got the opportunity to shoot Laura Suslavich jumping her horse Sam, I knew it was going to be great. When we got to the horse barns, the sun was far too hot, so we shot some lifestyle work first.





Laura took Sam on a few warm up laps, kept asking her fiance to lift the barrier higher. After only a few jumps we got exactly the shot I was imagining!

It’s always great working with passionate people! Thank you, Laura and Joel, for spending a Friday with the Scotts (Scott Homan with the assist). Oh! Can’t forget to thank Joel for finding my keys I dropped in the field. Would have made for a long walk home!