SledLand days 7,8,9,10,11,12,13… I think

Posted on February 8, 2012 by cameronh

Ok so at the start of the season I thought it would be a great idea to blog about every opportunity I had to accompany snowboarders into the backcountry via snowmobile. Much to my surprise these days kind of started to stack together and I ran into a small problem of not enough hours in a day to find time to sit down and write a new post or two.  Being a snowboard photographer is amazing, I get to watch first hand these amazing athletes riding in some of the most incredible terrain around. Every now and again I catch myself kind of standing there in amazement, and have to quickly pull it back together as I am there to do a job. I have heard a handful of times from people envious of the path I have chosen, but want to make it very clear that as rewarding as it is to be up in the mountains taking these amazing photographs that it is extremely hard work.   Think about all the planning that goes into a studio shot, the time and effort to get you’re lighting just right, camera angle, your model to stand were you want, now add Freezing conditions, avalanches, ever changing weather, snowboarders flying thru the air, and sometimes you only get one or two chances to capture what is happening, there is often not an opportunity to re-shoot so you have to make every shot count.  I would not change the path I have chosen for anything. The handful of  people I have gotten to go and shoot with are incredible and are very good at what they do, which in turn is pushing me each time I go and shoot to be the best photographer I can. Here are some images from the last month or so of some trips to the backcountry! These are mostly just shots take through out the day not the real bangers!

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SledLand Day 05 and Day 06

Posted on December 16, 2011 by cameronh

Day 05

Last week I had the opportunity to join John Scarth and Shaun Oh Anderson  in the backcountry on a video shoot for K2 Splitboards. It just so happens that this involved a little bit of snowmobiling to speed things up for the shoot.  It was a day without a camera for me, which we all need once  in a while. So you will just have to take my word for it that it was a great time. I really enjoyed seeing some of the behind the scenes of shooting video, and the work that goes into it. I would have to say the best part of the day would be ripping around on  my sled, shuttling people back up to the top for another take!

Day 06

Another adventure on Sproatt….. This time I jumped on board with a bunch of guys heading up for a day in the Backcountry. Even though we ended up spending most of the day sitting around a fire, it was still amazing to be up in the snow.  We managed to navigate our way through some heavy cloud cover to the top of the mountain.  With in a few minutes of us arriving, the clouds started to part,  almost like magic, the whole zone we were sitting above was visible and covered with fresh snow (only 10-15 cm or so) from the night before.  Everyone went and ripped around on their sleds for a bit. Then as quickly as it cleared up, the clouds surrounded us again. Time for a fire, we made our way down to the treeline and started a fire, a few people did some socked in mini laps on their Snowboards and that was about it for the day.  Here are a few photos from the day !

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SledLand Day Four

Posted on December 14, 2011 by cameronh

December 09 2011 marked the first trip up rainbow on the snowmobile, I had been up to this zone once last season and had a great time. Funny it was pretty much the exact same crew last year and this year, Ty Weed, Andrew Jackson and Nick Antle. We had a great day out on the sleds and scouted a few things that we will shoot once there is a bunch more snow.  The whole face of rainbow let go a week or so before we got up there and produced a massive Avalanche, a great reminder to be careful out there this season!  We tried some slashes, but there wasn’t enough soft snow, tried a little jump out of the trees, but I didn’t have my flashes with me. I was stoked Andrew said he would 50-50 a tree at the end of the day to a huge drop, This gave me the opportunity to Set-up a second camera and shoot two angles at once. I have been waiting to try this out and am quite happy with the results, all you need to do it is a couple of pocket wizards, a second camera, tripod, and a cord to connect the camera to the pocket wizard. Being able to fire two cameras at 7 frames per second at the same time is going to be amazing this winter. After this little experimental photoshoot we  headed down the long winding trail back to the parking lot. Stoked to be up in the Mountains with a great group of guys this early in the season!

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SledLand Day Three

Posted on December 14, 2011 by cameronh

So After watching and shooting photos during an amazing sunset, I got to thinking that I really wanted to share this with my wife!  After a little planning we were all set for a super early morning mission back up to the top of Sproatt on the snowmobile.  We got to the parking lot a little after 7 am and were on the sled in no time. It was a pretty easy ride up with the two of us on the sled with it being groomed nearly to the top now.  The whole ride up the sky was changing from a dark blue to purple to a beautiful warm golden color. Just as we reached the top and parked the sled the sun started to peek over Whistler and Blackcomb, providing us with what is probably the most incredible sunrise we have ever had the pleasure of sharing together.  After enjoying this natural beauty for a while it was time to do a few laps on the snowboard. Now the snow hasn’t been the best, and there were only about 10 cm of soft snow on top of a rain crust from a week or so ago, but for my wife to get her first turns on a board in the backcountry it was just perfect.  I decided to just be her private ski lift for the day and think I had as much fun shuttling her back up to the top and watching her ride as she did riding. No kids learning to ski, no lift lines, no one at all actually, just the two of us enjoying one of the many reasons we choose to live on the west coast of Canada.

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SledLand Day Two

Posted on December 8, 2011 by cameronh

December 7th 2011- After lots of talk of sledding and shooting some early season photos, it finally worked out for Andrew Jackson and I to get out on our sleds and go explore a bit. Andrew, craig Tremblay, and Leah Winhold were the crew for the day.  Even though it ended up being cloudy and grey for most of the day  we all had a blast.

We started out with a quick little build of a little jump out of the tress for Andrew and Craig to hit.  Then after they each got a photo on this feature we headed up to top of Sproatt. Go figure it was sunny and nice about 100m above where we were messing around for most of the day! We all got a couple of laps in on our boards, even with the snow not being the greatest it was way more fun than being at a resort.

After watching and shredding during an amazing sunset. We enjoyed a cold drink and some some lunch/dinner which was supposed to be hotdogs on a fire, but ended up being muffler dogs instead.  It was a great day with awesome people and can’t wait to go back.

Here are few photos from the day !

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SledLand- Day one

Posted on December 5, 2011 by cameronh

Dec. 04 2011- Finally a nice sunny day that both my wife and I had free, to go up into the backcountry on our snowmobile.  Loaded up the camera bag, packed a lunch and off we went.

Enjoying the view.

Brandywine is about 30 minutes from our house and one of the easiest backcountry snowmobile zones to access. With a groomed trail right from the parking lot all the way up to the alpine.  Parking costs $20 a day or you can buy a Powder Mountain Snowmobile club membership for $75 and a seasons parking pass for $ 75 which we decided to do as it will be an easy place to take friends and family for rides when they come to visit.  We got up to the bowl and stopped to sight see for a bit, my wife having just come off a night shift decided to have a little nap in the sun well I tested out the new sled with a quick ride up a little further. Not wanting to get to adventurous on my own I headed back down to hang on the ridge.

Early season Method- Whistler backcountry.

We ran in to Nick Antle and crew who were out enjoying their first sled day as well…. After a quick scout we found a great little gap for him to hit on his board. Stoked that he was willing to send a nice method for my camera. I can’t wait for full on winter to hit and to start shooting regularly again.

Click on the images to see them full size.

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2011 Rome SDS Premature Jibulation

Posted on December 3, 2011 by cameronh

Well it is the beginning of December and the contest season is on its way on the west coast of Canada. Today Mt Seymour hosted the 8th annual Rome SDS Premature Jubilation.  As always Seymour park staff had the course in exceptional shape for this early season contest.  The pre-jib always brings out tons of  kids looking to take home a piece of the prize.  No big prize money here, just the essentials for a new season, boards, boots, bindings and outerwear.   It would not be a snowboard contest at Seymour without plenty of tasty hotdogs for everyone who competed in the jam.

The course started off with a close out rail that claimed more than its share of riders early on, with a couple being taken out by sled, and of course a corrugated pipe to stairs, a 40 foot down rail, a short box, and a rainbow rail that no one seemed to hit and a nice big wall ride at the end of the course, that Whistler local Aaron Pnut Johnson was giving a clinic on. He was throwing flawless front 270 to front board , 270 off, down with ease, P-Nut took a nasty spill on the stair set afterwards and ended up at the hospital, lets wish him a speedy recovery.  The main feature everyone was throwing down on was the pipe to stair gap.  We even saw a couple of back flips over this classic Seymour set-up

Rome had Colin D Watt on the Mic, Straight from the oil rigs of Alberta to the park on Seymour, and he did not disappoint with his colourful play-by-play of the day.

In the end 1st place went to Matt Munn, 2nd place to James Agostino, and 3rd place went to Joel Dalacker. On the womens side Maria Thompson took the first place novelty cheque.

check out some photos of the day below.

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Opening Day Whistler 2011

Posted on November 18, 2011 by cameronh

It is official, the 2011/2012 snowboard season has begun. Whistler Mountain opened early and today was a blast. It consisted of good riding with good people.  I made it through the day and  even managed to snap a few photos.

I think that there are going to be good times ahead this winter and can’t wait to get into high gear. As for right now I am off to the couch to rest my legs….

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Better than the night before Christmas……

Posted on November 17, 2011 by cameronh

So here we are, the night before opening day on Whistler Mountain.  One week early, the resort was planning on a November 24th opening day, but thanks to our amazing mountain range we are going to have an extra week to enjoy the sport that we all live for.  I am writing this preparing for my first turns of the year while killing time as wax sets and will soon be ready to be scraped from my board.

We just had our first winter storm of the season and it deposited snow all the way down to Squamish.  Being from Ontario and growing up outdoors, I tend to get really excited when I see the first flakes of the season. I have been hearing reports from friends in Whistler of snow in the valley, seen the snow line in Garibaldi provincial park, and of course seen plenty iphone photos on facebook, but yesterday was the first snow falling I had the pleasure to witness with my own eyes.  I finally feel like it is winter.  All the anticipation, nervousness, stress, and whatever mixed feelings that have grown over the short summer months have begun to subside and give way to pure excitement.

Going into a new snowboard season is especially exciting for me this year as I have been able to acquire my own snowmobile. Last winter I was lucky enough to catch a couple of rides into the  backcountry to shoot photos,  and as amazing as that was, I started to realize I was missing out on opportunities to  capture photos of some of Whistlers’ finest snowboarders by not having my own sled.  So here we are, the day before a new season, with a new sled, a head full of ideas for shooting photos in some of the most trying environments–and I can’t wait to get going.  For the last 4.5 months I have been dreaming of shooting photos standing waist deep in snow, in the cold, with chapped hands, frozen gear and it is finally here…..

Here some recent photos that have made it to print!

Be safe this winter and have fun!

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Canada Trip 2011

Posted on October 9, 2011 by cameronh

So as the title of my blog states “The All most up to date happenings” Even I feel I have left my blog un-attended for way to long,  even for that statement.  Alot has been happening over here at Cameron Hunter PHOTO as we wait for the snow to fall in the mountains.  Recently my wife and I made the amazing trip from the west coast to Ontario.  Most of this trip was to see family and attend a friends wedding( congrats Julia and Zane).  There was however a hidden agenda of shooting landscape photos along the way in order to stock up on potential prints for sale.  I will be doing a post with print options and selections in time for you to put in the Christmas order!

We had a blast and managed to get some great photos for both the business and for ourselves.   A few of my favorites are included in this post, please click on an image to see it larger! As always I love to hear feedback so feel free to leave some for me!

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