Serving Optics

"Sunseeker." V13 Mt. Evans, CO. Carlo Traversi. A voluminous alpine storm hit us only a moment later. Certainly, was of those cases where I am glad that we pushed our luck and made the long hike in, despite certain rain. It worked out that we got this shot just in time. Mount Evans is a very special place that always manages to capture my imagination and my heart. One of Colorado's finest.

New Work

I delivered a whoppin' 20 photos into this month's Urban Climber Magazine. Including: A 2 page spread "First Burn" at Mount Evans, a full page 411 News column about Jonathan Siegrist, Paige Claassen and Kyle Owen "Drive" columns, a 2 page gallery spread on "Psychedelia", 3 spot images in the "City Life" feature, the full length feature article "Climbing Giants, the making a Rocky Mountain Highball", a Mike Spaulding "Unearthed", and a Jon Glassberg "Reads UC" column. Totally stoked.


In this month's Climbing Magazine, you'll find the story and images of Matt Wilder's newest trad route, "Cheating Reality" 5.14R. A truly amazing accomplishment and I was amped to have been there to capture it! Pick up these issues.

So it goes, chuggin' along here in B-town, and preparing for some huge media projects this winter/spring. Full bore baby!!!! Thanks for following - A

Good 'ol Kentuck.

I've just returned from a nice 2 week trip down to the Red River Gorge. I worked on the house, shot some photos, and dedicated some time for myself to climbing and scampering around the southern woods. I'll tell ya folks, it feels good to be alive. Especially after the flight back, which ranks top 3 worst flights I've ever taken. Never again Northwest Airlines through Memphis!


I boarded a 2 row prop plane, on the tarmac, in the dark and pouring rain, with a bunch of young, drunk rednecks (read: hammered after a NASCAR race), who constantly joked about kicking out the emergency exit door to puke (one dude actually puked in their seat.) It sucked. Obviously the 65 year old stewardess and I couldn't do a damn thing about any of it, as I'm sure some kind of a fight would have broken out in this already old and rickety crop duster. Cool right? Yup.



On our last day in The Gorge, we had the Motherlode Cave to ourselves, which was a pleasure for shooting! On Dan Mirsky's first attempt, see photo above, I was shooting the climber, and the contour of the cave, as silhouettes, in order to expose the sunset behind him. Suddenly, Dan fell from the last move and he took about a 70 foot whipper!!! The biggest I have ever seen, surely.

So, with the 'shot in mind' in the bag, I decided to expose, on his next attempt, the texture of the cave I was sitting in. Pretty wicked place to hang out. Dan sent the route on this attempt. Sick.

Serving Optics

Mmmm...delicious. Jon Cardwell attempting a futuristic 8C(+) project a few hundred feet below "Slashface." Hueco Tanks season is officially in and I will be traveling to and from there as often as possible this winter. I can't wait! Enjoy.

Three years ago I began a journey...

And it started here. >>> The Earlier Blogs (06-08)

Onward.

Serving Optics

Here is Jen Goings, sending the Hueco Tank's classic boulder problem, "Lobster Claw" V5. I really dig this shot. I remember it being kind of a challenge shooting one North Mountain's most popular, and often photographed, classics in a new and different way. The boulder is also tucked away so tightly in a hole, that I had to try several different angles and lighting techniques to finally get what I wanted. This final image makes me feel like I am in the maze of stone. I'm off the The RRG in 2 days, and right as the snow arrives here in Boulder. RUN!

New Work

Nothing beats seeing your hard work in print media form. There is something very satisfying about "picking up" a hard copy of media, at a market or at home, and flipping through it. It almost seems old school. I gotta say, I just do not get the same feeling from the internet. I sure hope print media never dies entirely.

I'm proud to have donated to The Access Fund an image for use on their new Visa Platinum credit card. This is a new and interesting way to help raise money and protect our priceless climbing resources. You can read more about it here. Man, if only this image license was actually through Visa...


My good buddy and Eldorado local, Steve Levin, has published the long awaited full color guidebook to climbing in Eldorado Canyon (Sharp End Publishing 2009). I was stoked to have him use a large hand full of images for the book. Very cool. Did I mention I live here? You can pick up a copy here.

The new Urban Climber Mag is out and in this issue you'll find a lot of my photography. Being Senior Contributing Photographer at UC Mag is quite possibly my favorite gig and I really enjoy working closely with the team there. This issue you'll find of mine: The "Ear Candy" column, a Lauren Lee "Drive" column, a Rocklands gallery image, images to the cover feature article, "Future Gyms", an "Out of The Box" workshop, and a Kevin Jorgeson "Reads UC" portrait. Dang! Rad.



I'm psyched to have worked again with Asana Climbing and to shoot a portrait of Kevin Jorgeson for an ad in the upcoming Second Edition of the Bishop Bouldering Guide (Wolverine Publishing 2010). Its fun to work with designers to create a different kind of art with my images using graphics and design. Creative and fun.



This Maxim Rope ad has been in print for a while now. The image is of Ethan Pringle sending "Iron Monkey" 5.14 in Eldorado Canyon. I personally think that this style of strobe lighting works great for commercial marketing applications such as this one.



Cheers! Andy