Digital Masters: Adventure Photography

I haven't been posting too much lately because I've been busy with some non-climbing related stuff (trying to buy a Subaru hatchback!), and also because I have been busy wrapping up my editing work on a very exciting book: Digital Masters: Adventure Photography by Michael Clark.

I realized there was a market need for this book last year when I started getting more into climbing photography and couldn't find any books on the subject. Luckily, I work for Lark Photography Books, a division of Sterling Publishing, and I decided to get one made! I did a lot of research on who was out there creating killer images of outdoor sports and contacted Michael, a 15-year veteran of the industry (Michael has shot for almost everyone, from the climbing mags and National Geo Adventure to ads for Patagonia, Nike, Adobe, and more). Luckily, he was game to jump into the book when I contacted him and he did a really great job cranking it out over the last 5 or 6 months. Micheal's images are great, and luckily for me, his writing is top-notch, too! He was also a great guy to work with during the process. I think we're both very proud of the book, which will be available towards the end of 2009 or early 2010, and can be preordered from Amazon here.

The book covers tons of general information about shooting action in the outdoors, then gets into specifics about how to shoot the top sports like kayaking, climbing, surfing, mountain biking, and more. And yep, that's Chris Sharma deep water soloing on the cover. Great stuff! I can't wait for this book to hit the shelves.

The Last Two Weeks

I haven't been shooting any photos or videos the last few weekends, instead trying to focus on wrapping up some of my projects before things get too warm. I was at the Bald on the last weekend in March and had a great day sending a bunch of V5s and V6s, and then sending a V8 slab monster called Momma Lick A Boo Boo Day (Or something like that. Sorry for butchering the Bald names, Chris!). If you've been at the Bald in the last few weeks, you know it's been pretty amazing. Sure, it's getting warm, but the Trillium and tons of flowering trees are blooming, and the after all of the rain, there are little creeks running through parts of the field and Hickory Nut Falls is running strong. Very nice.

This past weekend I tried to finish Purgatory (5.13a) in Hickory Nut Gorge, but got shut down hard. Why? Because I broke off a key hold in the crux! Oops. (Time for Weight Watchers.) Luckily, there are 2 ways to go through the crux with left and right sequences, so the climb isn't any harder. I was going with the right trending sequence...until now. I worked the left sequence and got through most of it after a couple of attempts. Maybe with this recent drop in temps I'll have one more go at it before things get too hot.

The picture below is of Robert Holcomb climbing a 5.10 crack in Hickory Nut Gorge recently.