I had a day out in the mountains last week with a friend, snowmobile accessed snowboarding. This is where we will double up on a snowmobile to get up a line, snowboard down, and then use the other snowmobile to get the first sled back, and repeat to ride line after line. It was both our first days out on the snowmobiles for the year. It was storming super hard, the visibility wasn’t great, but the snow was deep, and we did lap after lap through the trees, riding some of the deepest and lightest snow I’ve ridden in a few years.

Evo - The enjoyment of friends in the mountains.

Working as an adventure photographer the weather is a major factor when planning shoots, and executing concepts from clients. You can do all the preproduction you want but in the mountains you only have so much control and need to be ready for anything.

Zeal Optics - A global pursuit of winter and on a mission to capture the essence of adventure...

When a project with Zeal Optics lands on my desk, it’s a signal to pack for the extremes. Over the past five years, our collaboration has been a global pursuit of winter, a mission to capture the essence of adventure in the planet’s most challenging and breathtaking environments.

Jump Camp with the Canadian National Snowboard Team

Recently there was a jump camp in Whistler for the Canadian National Team. They do this every season around this time, and the goal is to sharpen those big tricks going into the contest season, this year in particular the Olympics.

Climate records in the ice with Talisker and Parley for the Oceans

This was an incredible project to be part of with Parley for the Oceans and Talisker. We were able to spend time on a glacier with ice core scientist Dr. Alison Criscitiello and learn as she shared her expertise about the ice and the records it can hold.

It rings very true for me, but we all tend to question our own abilities

Over the years there have been times (probably more than I can count) where I would get in my own way, preventing myself from moving forward. Usually there would be no better reason than I was just nervous or worried I was going to fail.

Set among the fractured columns of ancient basalt, in Whistler, Canada, this project – Echos in the Earth – was about more than just documenting trail running it was about the organic shape of the movement paired with the geometric shape of the landscape.

There’s something distinctly special about photographing a product in its natural environment — especially when the product is as purpose-built such as the Rocky Mountain Instinct Powerplay SL. This shoot was all about crafting a moody, premium look that matched the performance, attitude, and design of the bike itself to share as an announcement on social media to accompany the launch of the bike.

With winter fast approaching, the Pacific coast of British Columbia is generally rainy. The sky is usually overcast, and the clouds loom heavy. The pull to stay inside and out of the damp is strong, but the desire to get outside is still there. Usually there are enough breaks in the weather to get out between the rain, but being prepared is always key.

I have wanted to shoot something in the heavy rain for a while, but even though we get relatively consistent rain throughout the entire Fall, it’s still tricky to plan around this weather. Usually the rain comes and goes throughout the day, and when you’re actually shooting it might not be raining at all so capturing the images you want can prove to be difficult.

Often when I’m driving I spend a lot of time brainstorming. Thinking about ideas, anything from business developments to marketing plans to photo ideas. Lots of these ideas are just passing and I might think about them for the duration of my drive and thats it, but others I’ll write down when I stop and come back to them. This particular idea was the latter.

While this year was one of the worst winters I've ever seen in British Columbia, the challenges inspired me to find new ways to create images in the mountains. As an outdoor photographer, I can’t control the weather but I can play with light and shadow.

The Concept

I’ve always been drawn to sports images shot at night as they are not the most common. In the fall, my friend and skier, Mauri Cambilla, sent me a photo saying he had always wanted to do something like this. It was a night photo of skiing, and it started a conversation and an idea that eventually led to this project.

This idea built on a shoot I did early in the year. That shoot can be seen HERE. Skateboarding was my original idea and after we shot that I was stoked how it came out and decided to expand on the concept further. At first I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and brainstormed some ideas before randomly stumbling on flatland BMX. While scrolling through my phone I remember having seen someone post on a local Facebook group asking if anybody had built a BMX bike recently. I went back and tried to find this post and searched the group and ending up coming across a video of someone riding in Whistler. The rider in the video was good and that was when I thought flatland BMX would be a good option. I reached out to the rider, Mickael Loiodice, and after I explained my concept he was down to give it a go. 

This was a commercial shoot for the Scandinave Spa in Whistler. They were interested in featuring a new product, Duo Massage and the goal was to capture imagery that highlighted this experience. In my conversations leading up to this shoot I knew they wanted to create a warm welcoming feeling that gave an inviting feel to the experience.

Rain, high winds and overall bad weather led to a mountain closure and a down day this season in Bariloche, Argentina. Since I didn’t want to not shoot anything this day I made a plan to capture some portraits since we weren’t able to get out on the mountain. Behind the lodge we were staying in was a new construction project that was partially completed. I had poked my head in a few days before and liked the look and knew I wanted to get in here to shoot at some point. I knew who was doing the construction so I asked for permission and got the go ahead to head in.

I was excited going into this shoot! In the past Whistler Blackcomb has done lots of sunset park shoots, but they haven’t happened as often in recent years. This past two year filmmakers Ryan Regher and Jeff Thomas were working on a couple video projects for WB and had the right pull to be able make a few different sessions happen.

Prior to this year my opportunities to participate in a sunset park shoot like this had been limited, so I jumped at the chance when Ryan gave me a call. Photo assets weren’t specifically necessary for either of these shoots, but knowing how rare these sunset shoots are I still wanted to make it happen. Without the pressure of needing to deliver specific images it allowed for more creative freedom to capture the images I wanted to.

Over the years I’ve always been intrigued by the Red Bull Illume photo contest. The work that makes it to finals of this event is some of the greatest action sports photography from a laundry list of the best action sports and adventure photographers in the world. I always make a point of entering this contest and finding images in my collection to submit.

Like most people, I spend way more time than I should on social media just scrolling through imagery. I find myself visually attracted to images with a cinematic feel, that are dark and moody, with lots of deep blacks. While most of my work I shoot is on the brighter side I was inspired to create something that had this feel.

I first shot kayakers on this waterfall years ago but at the time just used natural light. We shot on a cloudy day, and at the time I was excited about the images, but looking back my excitement had faded and they weren’t super strong. They kayaking was still impressive, but the images were flat and weren’t anything special.

I had the idea towards the end of last summer to try and shoot the falls using a flash to create a more dynamic image that showcased the power of the water and the shape of the waterfall. At that time of year the water is to low to safely paddle so it needed to wait. I sat on the idea for the winter and waited until the spring when the water levels would be higher. 

This shoot came around last minute. Keon reached out to me looking to get some photos of his bike, but wanted to get them done before he started riding it. The original photographer he was going to work with fell through. We had never met, but a friend recommended me and when he asked I immediately had an idea of how I wanted to make it look so I said I’d be down to give it a go.

This idea lived in my head for a while. When I first thought about it I was hurt, on crutches, and spending most of my time on the couch. With all this time to brainstorm I was able to come up with ideas I was excited about but had no ability to actually execute them. Therefore I sat on this one for a while and figured out the logistics of making it work.