Motivation can be difficult to find sometimes. On certain days I go out and the conditions aren’t ideal, and if I’m shooting work on spec I find myself leaving my camera in the bag and not shooting much. While I don’t think there is anything wrong with this, I’ve wanted to try and add some motivation to my shooting to make myself more engage and find the story in each day out. After something I recently heard I’ve been challenging myself to create a simple story before I even head out shooting to give myself a direction to shoot towards.

Josh and I had been trying to get out for a while. We kept throwing ideas around of places we wanted to go but never were able to make any of them happen. Finally, a day lined up, but the weather was looking rainy. We figured big vistas weren’t on the future agenda of our hike so we decided to go to a cabin. After some research, we realized the initial cabin we planned to go to was boarded up due to Covid. Another option we thought of was a cabin neither of us had ever been to before. I’ve heard it mentioned by friends in the past asking if I’d ever been there, but have never had the chance. We did some pre-trip research finding as much info as possible. I’m a pretty frequent user of Google Earth so once I had a general idea of where it was I was able to zoom in and find the exact spot of the cabin and plot a route. I’m not personally a huge fan of sharing locations, (I wrote about my thoughts on that here) so wasn’t surprised that I had to do a bit of leg work to find some info.

After originally shooting some trail running using myself as the model in a recent post I was able to arrange an athlete to come out and shoot. We were delayed by rainy weather delayed for a bit but we finally got a nice window of sunshine.

I first learned to skate when I was a little kid on a pond by my house. We would go a couple of times a winter when it was cold and frozen. I was an okay skater, but it never really took up much of my time. I then grew out of my skates and never replaced them and went years without skating. I moved to Utah, where it wasn't an option due to lack of nearby ponds and lakes, but it never crossed my mind as something to do.

Reputed to be brave, unruly and skilled horsemen the gaucho is a national symbol of Argentina, renowned in legends and folklore. However, the heyday of the gauchos has passed. But what does anybody do when their way of life starts to go the way of the dodo? They adapt, they change, they do what they can to remain relevant, and that is exactly what has happened at Mallin Alto.

Should we publicly tell people about locations that we love? Post about them online giving the exact directions and beta on where to park, how to get there, and exactly what to expect?

Weather can be fickle, mosquitoes atrocious, but time in the mountains can still be cherished. As mentioned in a previous post I’ve made a personal goal to push my work outside of the snow world. I feel winter is where my focus and strengths have always been, but as this is only a small portion of the year I’m striving to expand my skills.

I have made it a personal goal to branch out and focus on shooting other activities. Some I have regularly participated in, and some which are entirely new to me.

As the days lengthen and the snow starts to melt, I start looking forward to spring days spent in the mountains at alpine lakes. The green of the surrounding meadows, and the blue of the water is a photographers dream. In BC in particular we are spoiled with a plethora of lakes to explore.

Skiers and snowboarders are part of a nomadic tribe that can be found dreaming about the next turn, sometimes traveling to great lengths in search of pow. This summer as days were getting longer and temperatures higher, I found myself longing to get away from the scorching heat in Whistler, BC.