DanoLand - the blog.

Back in BC. Out of the frying pan...

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-07-15T20:11:18-07:00

Hi friends,

Well life certainly doesn’t pull any punches when it wants to get good and busy on you, does it? 2 weeks ago I was sneaking a quick last dive in on the Cordelia Banks in Roatan, a week later I was looking at a contract with Monster Energy Canada, and a few days later I’m on a plane to spend the week with some of the best wakeboarders in the world on a 100 foot long houseboat. Ok... Meanwhile I am still trying to catch up with all the interesting opportunities that have arisen from the Cordelia Banks photos, which has been surprising but fantastic.

Here are a couple highlights from the week. I don’t shoot wake on the regular so I was trying to bring something different to it than what I see in the magazines. I didn’t come close to trying all the things I had in mind. Next time. The wakeboarders sure know how to have a good time. There were lots of late nights and fun stories. Having your own Chef and Mixologist doesn’t hurt either...

Next, I’m catching up at home for a bit and then trying to sneak a day of flyfishing in before Crankworx and Monster Energy week at the Camp of Champions. Doesn’t look like life will be slowing down anytime soon...

Enjoy,

Dano.

supplies, part one.

supplies, part two.

das boat.

Gettin’ warmed up. Shane Bonifay.

Craven along for the ride, doin his best impression of Huck Finn.

Waterslide action.

Henshaw goes off the top rope.

Shane, method style.

Splashing about.

Mel and Tom watching Bob.

Mel getting some.

Bob spinnin’ and flyin’.

Tom.

Henshaw.

Shane.

Shawn Watson.

Parties are always better when Darryl is on board.

Henshaw again.

Balzer with a little balance beam over a creek.

Balzer on the wake skate at dusk.

wildlife

Sonni on the tow boat.

Shane staying warm.

Dusty air to body jar on the rail.

Shane’s method.

Nicest guy you ever wanna meet, Tom on the last morning.

Balzer watches Dusty’s pass.

Balzer sneaks one last run in on the wakeskate.

The man, the myth, James Balzer.

Cordelia Banks.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-07-04T21:40:50-07:00

Hello friends,

I’ve been back from Roatan for just a few days but life is moving incredibly quickly. It’s always like this when good things happen, they tend to happen in clusters and it’s all you can do just to keep up. I’m holding on for the ride!

When I was in the water waiting to shoot the shark release, I had some time with Ian Drysdale from healthyreefs.org and we spent it discussing the Cordelia Banks on the South side of Roatan. Recently discovered, the reef there is largely made up of staghorn coral which went through a disastrous decline due to disease in the 80’s. It’s in the crosshairs of the conservation movement because due to the healthy population of staghorn and its proximity to deep water currents, there is speculation that these reefs maybe be responsible for repopulating the staghorn population throughout the entire Caribbean. Impressive. The Cordelia Banks are a rich environment for fish as well. Grouper have been seen to use the area as a spawning aggregation site and the reef is an ideal nursery for juvenile fish.

Cordelia is also located less than a kilometre away from the Coxen Hole cruise ship dock, and about 7 kilometres from the new massive cruise ship facility at Mahogany Bay. 3 or 4 hundred times a year, thousand foot long cruise ships come within striking distance of this fragile ecosystem. There is evidence of boat strikes on the reef, but still they manage to flourish. Also, Coxen Hole is the largest population centre on the island and much of the pollution filters through the reef.

So Ian invited me to come dive Cordelia to get a sense of it for myself and shoot some photos. We’re going to try to get these out there and raise some awareness to help protect what could end up being a critical resource in the health of coral in the Caribbean. We had a small window one morning between high winds and conditions weren’t ideal, but I was lucky enough to get a look at this amazing ecosystem. Take a look.

D.

One windy boat ride. Ian smiles while Nic from the Roatan Marine Park prepares his kit.

Ian inspects a small growth of staghorn.

This coral may be as little as two or three years old.

Fields of the stuff. A rare sight these days.

And a nursery for many fish species.

Most of the healthiest parts of the reef are in less than 10 feet of water.

Sharks, crabs, divers and more.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-06-23T12:44:04-07:00

Hello friends,

Well I’m done leading dives and trying to focus on shooting photos for the rest of this trip. I have been trying out a variety of different techniques and getting more good results than bad, but admittedly, at this point in the trip, I’m not as far along as I’d like. Having said that, I always set pretty lofty goals and have high standards for myself and I probably wouldn’t be happy unless I came away from this trip with a cover shot.

We saw two different sharks today. I found the first one, just a little baby 3 foot nurse shark, and Mickey found a 5 footer or so on the next dive. Even though nurse sharks are pretty much completely non-threatening, it’s still cool to see them.

Enjoy the shots,

d.

Kat checks out some tube sponges

And here she is again.

An Ocellated Box Crab (Calappa ocellata) hides from me in the sand on a night dive.

Lil nudi at night.

Kat found this gaudy clown crab, Biggest one I’ve ever seen.

What is this scorpionfish thinking? Bad spot dude, bad spot.

Yes, I have a favourite coral. This is it.

Toady the toadfish in a different hole at last. So glad I could see his tail.

Mickey inspects a different scorpionfish.

These nassau grouper are following us around every dive hoping for lionfish kills.

Mickey’s nurse shark

Really like what is going on with this hungry fireworm.

Shooting the Honduran President

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-06-25T06:32:48-07:00

Hi friends,

A couple days ago I found out that the President of Honduras was coming to Roatan to participate in a shark release. It turns out that it was part of the PR push for the announcement that Honduras has declared all of its territorial waters a shark sanctuary. Nice stuff, hard to police in this country, but nice nonetheless.

So Nic from the Roatan Marine Park asked if I would shoot the release and of course I said yes. Members from the RMP and the Shark Legacy Project worked to put together the event and the sharks were transported from the pen where they have been captive for several years, onto a boat, and out to west bay.

There was surprisingly little security for the event considering the recent political climate in Honduras and after bobbing around waiting for an hour or so, a boat from AKR pulled up and there was President Porforio Lobo Sosa a few feet away. Next came the important task of waving to the press and talking to the researchers and conservationists. The President certainly seemed engaged by the process. Then it was time to release the sharks. The first one was lifted out of the holding pool with a cradle and released. He immediately swam to the wall and disappeared into the deep. The second, bigger shark did a couple laps of the reef crest before heading to deeper water.

It was all very interesting to watch and shoot photos of. I understand that there are several more captive nurse sharks on Roatan, and hopefully this will set some kind of precedent to release the rest of them. Coincidentally, we’ve been seeing a lot of nurse sharks on dives lately, several this past week. Not sure what that means but I hope it’s good.

One week till home friends. One week. tomorrow we’re trying to go to the Cordelia Banks, a reef of staghorn coral like nowhere else in the Caribbean, and a hot target for protection. Stay tuned.

Enjoy the photos from the release.

d.

Sharks awaiting release on the boat. Giacomo, Ian, Doug and Christy standing by.

The President waves to the press.

The press.

The first shark in the sling

The first shark is away. If Marine Park Nic’s back wasn’t so big, you’d see it.

Oh, there it is...

President Lobo supervises the second release.

The second shark is away!

Roatan update

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-06-21T07:20:16-07:00

Hi friends,

So I have passed the halfway mark of my trip. Now I start to try to cram in everything I haven’t done. This past week that has included no photos, hence no posting. Micky from Reef Gliders had the flu so I pitched in leading dives all week. Lots of diving, but no camera. I snuck in a day yesterday, I’ll lead a couple more today and then a night dive tonight. Looking forward to it.

Leading is a completely different dynamic than shooting. I’m more concerned with the divers in tow, navigation, air consumption and managing issues that come up, than I am with finding things. Still I managed to find a nurse shark and a couple eagle rays have graced us with their presence.

In any case, here are some shots that have come out of the last day, and a few from before.

Enjoy,

D.

Weird perspective green moray.

A crap shot, but at least it’s a NUDI! Black spotted nudibranch, whose spots are actually blue.

Found this guy yesterday. Red Ridged clinging crab. Mickey says he’s quite uncommon.

Come hither turtle.

coralscape

A pair of white spotted filefish let me hang out with them.

fighting male parrot fish. Grrrr.

Don't call it a comeback. I've been here for years.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-06-11T07:04:05-07:00

Hi friends,

Well last time we spoke, I had just finished a couple semi crap days and vented a bit. It has been pointed out the shots in the last blog were not terrible or out of focus, or whatever, and I guess that’s true. The thing is, when you shoot a bunch of shots, you tend to look at the group as a whole. “Was this day successful?” comes down to percentages. If 10% of my shots end up being A quality, then it’s a pretty good day. If 1% turn out, not so much. The previous blog just followed a couple of 1% days in a row. Still there are always standouts. But sometimes even they don’t match up to the picture I had in my mind, which is the only standard I ever really care about.

Yesterday I went back to the 10.5mm lens to see if I had been overhyping it in my mind, or if it really is that good. It really is. It’s also too wide for a lot of things. I saw a pipefish for instance (which happened to be beerfish on that dive) so I needed to get proof. The 10.5mm is not very well suited. It does, however, shoot fabulous reefscapes and divers, so that’s what I’ll be bringing you a lot of today.

After all this fisheye I’m ready for a good macro dive now, and it’s just started to rain so that’s probably going to happen.

Thanks to all the divers who put up with me underwater. Kraig, Colin, Mickey, Mel, Will, and even Kelly who doesn’t yet know what she’s in for. Especially Karen who is leaving and put up with many flashes.

Enjoy the shots.

dano.

dropping in.

Mickey in Kraig’s crack.

Suddenly a giant sponge lunged out and ate Kraig’s head.

Just a beautiful coral overhang.

Elkhorn coral in the shallows. Playing with Snell’s window.

This is ready for the cover of Lionfish Weekly magazine.

Mikey found a MASSIVE head of brain coral. Kelly swam by on her first dive here.

Will helps me get a shot. Thanks Will.

Setbacks

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-06-09T09:20:22-07:00

Hi Friends,

Well I guess we can’t always just charge forward. Sometimes you get caught in a soft spot and slide backwards. The last couple days have been that for me.

I’ve made some lens choice mistakes, which admittedly isn’t the biggest deal in the world, it’s the kind of thing that is hard to predict, how is the viz going to be? What will be available? Well for several dives in a row I simply took along a lens that was wrong for the job. Not wasted time, but not time well spent either.

Also, I overestimated the quality of the 12-24 and shot for 2 days without really checking the files. The result was that I have a lot of soft images. Also disappointing. I’ll be more careful now knowing the limitations of the lens. Those primes aren’t looking so bad now...

As with life, when it starts to suck, you gotta push through till the other side. Here are some highlights from some bad days.

d.

craziest tips I’ve ever seen on a giant anemone.

another spotted moray. i like shooting em and i will keep shooting em.

the tiniest starfish i’ve ever seen. wrapped around coral polyps!

star in a cup

whitenose pipefish with his creepy red eyes. this was one of the most disappointing encounters. I back focused the best shot and am left with this.

hunting. Mickey called this a “target rich environment.”

Love these. They look completely black underwater and then you hit em with a strobe. Boom.

tried to get some shots with my friend Kathryn.

still getting a feel for directing people and getting what I want.

...so I’m playing with different ideas.

working on the sunball too. this one is ok.

New lens, new options.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-06-05T14:05:45-07:00

WARNING: Photo geekery follows. Feel free to skip to the photos.

Hi friends,

A quick photo blog with some shots from the Nikon 12-24mm that I finally got underwater. I read bunch of stuff about it online and followed Dr. Mustard’s advice on the setup. The first thing I noticed was that out of the water I couldn’t get any sort of focus with the diopter so I took it out without it. It may be that it only focuses underwater so I’ll have to give that a try, I just don’t want to waste a dive on it right now. Especially because the results without it were quite good just with the 33mm extension. There is definitely some corner distortion at 12mm though.

It’s pretty nice to have the zoom. That’s my first impression. Having only used prime lenses on my new rig so far, the versatility was really nice. On the wide end it’s just slightly less wide than the 10.5 mm that I have (which to my eye is actually a more pleasing focal distance), and the 24 end allows me some chance to achieve good results with slightly smaller creatures. Turtles are a good size creature for it, but anything smaller would have to be sitting pretty still. The Grouper shot was about perfect in terms of size. I probably would have had to get too close with the 10.5mm or maybe even the 16mm and scared him off.

I also noticed that my strobes are probably not strong enough to get any real fill on a sunball shot, unless the subject is really, really close. Shooting at 1/250th and f16 or f22 seems to be crucial to beat the turquoise band and these Ikelite 160’s just don’t have the pop to make anything happen.

I don’t shoot divers enough, so I’m going to focus on that this trip. Luckily I have some willing (or at least convincible) victims to get in front of the camera. I need to work out more of the directions, but just having the chance to work with someone instead of trying to catch moments when a diver is in the right place, is really helpful. I would like some feedback.

I’ve also included some shots from another dive with some funny creatures for my critter nerd friends. All shot with the 60mm macro.

Enjoy,

d.

A turtle at 24mm.

Jen and a sea fan.

Jen and a barrel sponge.

Grouper getting a good cleaning. Must have been 30 gobies on him.

Me and Jen goofing around on the safety stop.

My, what blue rings and lovely lashes you have.

Just a tiny little Zebra Sole. Look at the grains of sand, they look like boulders! Well, maybe not.

Queer little critter, the goatee blennie. I’ve never seen one in Roatan before so this makes me happy. Look at the goatee on him!

Skoobing fotos.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-06-02T14:07:16-07:00

Hi friends,

A few more shots. Had some equipment problems and the boats have been full so I’m not shooting as much as I’d like, but here are a couple to look at. My friend Alex asked me to call diving “Skoobing” because it sounds funny. I think that should be no problem.

Enjoy,

d.

duh...

lil shrimp.

spotted drum

trunicate

pedersen’s cleaner shrimp

Scorpionfish

back in the water.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-05-31T10:15:34-07:00

Hello friends,

Made it to Roatan in one piece. It’s hot, the bugs are bad and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Reunions are good and it’s great to be around friends all day. Got the rig underwater yesterday and put it through its paces. Didn’t see too much but it’s nice to just be getting it dialled in. That’s the plan this month, to shoot as much as possible underwater until the big new rig is second nature to use. Thanks to the crew at Reef Gliders who are taking good care of me.

Here are a few. They should get better as the summer goes on.

d.

White wire coral shrimp. These guys are so hard to shoot.

Grouper gets a cleaning by some gobies.

Goldentail Moray eel.

Angelfish takes a turn.

Spotted Moray eel.

Giant hermit crab churning up a sandstorm.

Mantis shrimp peers out of a little crevice.

Free May wallpaper

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-05-10T10:41:17-07:00

Hi Friends,

My life is pretty much upside down over here so I apologize for the lateness of this wallpaper. Thanks to the loyal friends and fans who keep me on my toes.

Spring is time to get out on the water. This shot is from Halfmoon Bay in Roatan and features members of the Bay Islands Yacht club. I took it last May while sipping a drink at Sundowners and by the end of the month I’ll be right back there. I am very lucky to have such great friends. Thank you all.

d.

medium large

The lost shots. Part lucky 13.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-27T10:40:13-07:00

Hi Friends,

Back again for part 13 (!) of The Lost Shots series. Today I’m bringing you a lucky 13 double shot of Devun Walsh from 2002. This was a nice little milkbird day we spent on Rainbow. In the early days of sledding in the mid 90’s Rainbow was one of our go to spots. There are a lot of features packed into a relatively small area and we had it all to ourselves for the most part. Later on as more crews discovered it, the small size of the area started to be a problem as there was too much competition for the same jumps.

On this day I managed to snag a good shot of Dev rooping with Blackcomb in the background. I used to always love that feeling of having a mountain to ourselves right across from the crowds. Dev was always known to have a super solid cab 5, but on this day he was mixing it up and working really hard on making it a switch fs 5, with perfect switch style. This sequence ran somewhere; Transworld I think.

I’m taking a little break from the Lost Shots for a bit. There is plenty left to scan but I’m going through some life transitions and I’m not going to have time for scanning for a bit. Off to Lake Louise tomorrow for an event called Ruckus in the Rockies. If you’re out there, say hi.

D.

The lost shots. Part Twelve.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-22T14:56:08-07:00

Hi friends,

While I’m waiting for the next video from The Show, I thought I’d bring you another gem from The Lost Shots series. This one is from 2002 and it features Eddie Wall. I didn’t get to shoot with Eddie very much at all, but we did have a couple productive days in Whistler. There was a pretty good frontside boardslide that ran and then there is this. We went to a zone that used to get a lot of traffic and Eddie found a line that I’ve never seen done before or since. The light was kinda milky which is probably why this never ran, but it’s a pretty sweet backside one on a gap that didn’t give up any easy angles.

Enjoy.

-dano

The Show: a snowboarding event. Part one and two.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-20T10:22:33-07:00

Hi Friends.

Just finished up with “The Show: a snowboarding event” here in Whistler. As part of the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, The Show is the biggest event of the year for us at Monster Energy Canada. It’s been my baby since conception and it’s nice to get through it with some really good events and breaking some new ground.

Here are the first two parts of the Video Webisodes. In the past I’ve hired a crew of videographers and an editor to put together our videos, but this year we brought in a production company. Hope you like em.

Still a couple more to come so stay tuned.

-dano

episode one

episode two

The lost shots. Part Eleven.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-14T15:20:58-07:00

Hi friends,

Just arrived in Whistler where it is still very much winter. The mountain looks beautiful, as if it were mid-february.

Today I’m bringing you another great JP walker shot from Calgary, Alberta in 2002. Early season we got the jump on things and went out with Calgary native TJ Schneider who took us around to some of his favourite street terrain. This sucker is known as “Old rusty” and JP took it apart with frontboards while TJ was all about the 50/50. My favourite angle of it ran in Snowboarder mag as a full spread. It was shot from behind with the sick sunset in full effect and JP’s style was perfect. I have no idea where that slide is either. Huggy?

More soon. See you at The Show.

-dano

The lost shots. Part ten.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-13T09:31:29-07:00

Hi friends,

Well The Show is just days away and I’m busy as hell. I like being busy, keeps my mind off the bad things.

Here is another shot from the Lost Shots series. If you’re just tuning in, you can read about that here. Today I’m bringing you one of the best snowboarders I ever saw. I met Mikko Sjoblom when he was just a lil pipsqueak from Talma. Never ridden much more than a couple hundred vertical meters in his life. Next thing you know, he’s thrown in with the best riders in the world, dragged up into the backcountry on a sled, landing in POWDER for the first time. It was a whirlwind. He was so talented. I don’t speak any Finnish so our communication at first was a little slow, but I ended up spending a bunch of time with him and came to look froward to his goofy little smile.

Mikko had a big crash that shook a bunch of us and for awhile it wasn’t looking so good. I’m glad that he’s doing well now. With stories like Kevin Pearce’s getting so much media attention these days it’s shining a lot of light on the dangers of head injuries, but Kevin and Mikko are both great examples of overcoming them.

Here’s Mikko in 2000 at Mt. Hood with a huge truck driver Mctwist.

-dano

More lost shots.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-10T13:05:40-07:00

Hi friends.

Back from tour and digging back into the big box of lost slides. Watching Tiger charge the last 9 of the Masters right now so I’ll keep it short. (edit: wow, what a crazy back 9!)

Here is a nice portrait of Mike Page. Such a handsome young man. When he had his big accident I went to see him in the hospital and I wanted to bring him a really good gift. I knew he’d be spending a bunch of time in there and most of it lying in bed, so I wanted something he could do with his hands. I got in touch with all the team guys and asked if everyone would pitch in on a nice gift if I bought it and they all agreed, so I went and bought him an Epiphone Les Paul with a little practice amp that he could plug headphones into and not bug the whole hospital.

To this day not one of the guys on the team kicked in for the guitar. Jerks.

-dano

On tour with Korn

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-05T10:49:13-07:00

Hi friends,

One of the fun things about working with Monster Energy in Canada is that weird opportunities come up all the time. 6 weeks ago or so I was asked if I would come along on the Music as a Weapon tour for the Canadian leg. The tour is headlined by Korn and Disturbed with Stillwell opening. Now I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of Korn, I remember thinking “got the life?” was a pretty good track back in the day, but I never bought an album or anything. Disturbed isn’t even on my radar to be honest. The fans seem to love them but I’m not a fan. It’s like a campy version of the classic metal I like. Iron Maiden on broadway. Really nice guys though.

Korn however, have 100% won me over. I’m the kind of guy who prides himself on having an open mind so I was excited to shoot some photos of big time rock bands, live out of a bus for a week, and get a little insight into tour life but I didn’t expect to be so affected by the music. At this point I shoot my photos (photogs typically shoot the first three songs from the pit) and when I’m done, I’m there for the whole damn show. Munky is a totally engaging human on stage and Fieldy holds down stage right. And then there is Jonathan, a man who seems so totally possessed by the lyrics he sings, it’s like he’s reliving every torn heart and frayed nerve every time he sings. He holds nothing back and finishes the set ready to collapse every night. It’s as if he opens the sores to all his damage every single times he takes the stage, and that kind of energy is nothing to ignore. I’ve seen a lot of really good, really emotional shows, but his psychic bloodletting on a daily basis is almost beyond my comprehension.

Ok, enough about that. I’ll go see these guys anytime I’m in the same town as them. It’s real. And now I’m out of the closet.

Here are some of my favourite shots from tour. We finish up with Halifax tonight and then fly home tomorrow. “The Show” starts next. Are you ready?

-dano

(I’m watermarking all this crap because people tend to grab it a lot. Sorry if it annoys you.)

Jonathan Davis. Ottawa.

Munky. Ottawa.

Jonathan Davis at the Toronto show.

Fieldy and Spider from Stillwell.

Munky in Toronto

Wuv from Stillwell. Quebec City show.

Jonathan Davis in Quebec City.

Fieldy in Quebec City.

Jonathan Davis in St. John.

Munky. St. John.

Ray. St. John.

Fieldy. St. John.

The lost shots. Part Nine.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-02T11:11:49-07:00

Hi friends,

Today I thought I was bringing you another long lost cover shot but when I looked more closely I noticed that it’s slightly different than the cover of Bjorn Leines that ran on Snowboarder Magazine. It’s most likely the frame before.

This shot was at Mammoth Mountain and Bjorn was doing a tow-in behind a snowmobile, 50-50 up the far rail and air over to frontboard the down rail. It was pretty sick business. Now if I could only find the slide that was the cover image...

Enjoy.

-dano

Free April Snowboard Wallpaper

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-01T15:33:54-07:00

Hi friends,

Whoa, two posts in one day! And even while I’m on the road! If you count the tour blog and all the Monster stuff I’m posting, this might be the busiest internet day I’ve had in ages.

But you didn’t really think I’d leave you hanging on the first of the month did you? If you did, you’re the April fool. I know my duty to the faithful ones out there who use the wallpaper every single month.

Here is shot from April a couple seasons back taken at Mt. Seymour in Vancouver. It’s Eric Jackson and I shot it on a Standard Films shoot. We battled conditions and fog for a couple nights up there. It made for interesting photography but not as much film. Speed became an issue and it was hard to go as big as we’d hoped.

Anyway, it should be getting to park season this month. I’m working hard to make The Show a great event and things are lining up. I hope to see you all there.

Download the Large or Medium. Or grab this little one here if you just need 720 pixels.

-dano

The lost shots. Part eight.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-04-01T10:40:10-07:00

Hi friends.

Slept on the bus from Toronto to Quebec City last night. Getting used to road sleeping but I have sea legs today.

Part 8 in the Lost Shots series and if you’ve been paying attention there is really only one person left; Jeremy Jones. What can you say about a career like Jeremy has had? I met him when I worked with Rev snowboards so far back in the day, and he was good then. It’s like, a hundred years later and he’s still charging. he’s known for his rail charging aptitude, but he has always had it in the backcountry too.

In the year 2000 it seemed like everyone was pushing the frontside cork and Jeremy was at the front of the line. Here he is coming straight outta the sun in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia.

-dano

The lost shots. Part seven.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-03-31T11:42:09-07:00

Hi friends,

Just a quick one today. Tour is hectic.

Peter Line is the force behind Forum and during those years became a friend. I used to wake up some mornings and find him curled up on the couch having driven up to Whistler on a whim. Despite the credit he gets in snowboarding, I still think his impact is grossly underrated. He innovated more freestyle moves than anyone before or since. Always conscious of style, he could even make a fuck up look amazing. He got pitched on this alley oop back 5 and assumed the superman position. I call it the ooperman.

Pete is still riding and when he feels like it, he can bust out and school almost anyone.

Hi Pedro.

-dano

The lost shots. Part six.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-03-29T20:06:13-07:00

Hi friends,

I’m on tour for the next week or so but I’ll try to keep putting more shots from The Lost Shots series every day. Our bus has internet so it should be ok. If you want to follow the tour blog you can find it here.

Today I’m bringing you a shot of good ‘ol Mike Page from Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. This jump had so much pop on it, it was sending people so high. Still, with all the trees it was hard to separate the riders from the background. I think that this shot worked out well but I don’t think it ever ran anywhere.

Enjoy.

-dano

The lost shots. Part five.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-03-28T23:52:30-07:00

Hi friends,

Today I’m bringing you the first of many great shots of Bjorn Leines. Always the unsung hero of the Forum days, while many people on the crew spent as much time crafting their image as they did their riding, Bjorn never really bought into all that hype. He just kept doing the riding that challenged him, even when everyone around him thought he was crazy and out of step. (Ya, of course that was a Minor Threat reference.)

This is a belated birthday card to an old friend that I don’t see anymore, despite the fact that he is filming 2 hours away with my brother right now. Keep on bringing it BJ, you never stopped inspiring.

-dano

The lost shots. Part four.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-03-27T21:19:15-07:00

Hi friends,

Part four in the Lost Shots series. Today I’m stoked to bring you this shot of Joni Malmi from 2000. I didn’t do a ton of work with Malmi over the years, but when I did I knew he to be one of the most tenacious riders in the game. He literally would try a trick 50 times until he either nailed, got broken off, or ran out of time in the day. Most of the time we shot together was in the backcountry around Whistler, but this day found him in the pipe at Windell’s summer camp in Mount Hood.

Now matter how you slice it, this is a big assed air to fakie. I’ve been loving the crazy velvia colours going through these shots, but in the altitude at hood, the sky goes almost black with the rich saturation.

More to come.

-dano

The lost shots. Part three

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-03-27T07:55:51-07:00

Hi friends,

Part three of the lost shots is from Grouse Mountain here in Vancouver. This was from the Wildcat Challenge in the spring of 2001. On this day Duff shot his ender shot for True Life and we shot a bunch of other stuff as well. I always liked this sequence of his gap to frontboard but compared to the 450 on/off, it was a little overshadowed.

I had a beer or two with Duff a week or two ago. He’s finishing up his training to be a firefighter. Still as awesome as ever. Big grins for the win.

-dano

The lost shots. Part two.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-03-26T12:57:13-07:00

Hi friends,

Tough times over here in Danoland today. I’m raising my head for a second just to keep this series going. If you aren’t sure what series I’m talking about you can read about it here.

This shot of Devun Walsh was a cover of Snowboarder Magazine in September of 2002. At this point the Hurley gap has only been hit once before, by Devun and Chris Dufficy (more Duff stuff coming soon...), and only in the spring with less than ideal snowpack. The first time was just a guinea pig session, each one of the did a straight air and called it a day, but this time Devun came ready to charge. His Backside 3 took the size level up yet again. The next trip he did a cab 5.

I never thought I’d see this photo again.

The lost shots. Part one.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-03-25T09:24:43-07:00

Hi Friends,

As some of you know, I worked as a staff photographer for Four Star Distribution for a few years at the beginning of the 2000’s. My job was to shoot the Forum, Four Square and Special Blend teams in the era when the brands were at their pinnacle. The years that I worked there produced some classic snowboard films including Shakedown and True Life.

Around the time my contract ended, many of the people I worked with left the brand and because of some internal miscommunication, or possibly lack of communication, the status of my photos came into question. Nobody knew the extent of Forum’s usage rights and as a result, nobody wanted to be responsible for returning my images. This went on for quite some time and through a ton of company restructuring until finally Forum was sold to Burton.

Fast forward several more years and a bunch of failed attempts at getting my photos back and one day the right guy did the right thing and less than a week later three massive boxes of literally thousands of images shows up at my house. In those pages are some of the best shots from my snowboard career, and a significant part of snowboarding history.

I’m going to do some scanning and show you some of them as I get time. We’ll start with a frame from a sequence of JP Walker’s cab cork 5 over the Brandywine 1080 gap from True Life. This was heavy then and still holds up exactly 10 years later.

Free March Wallpaper

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-02-28T21:32:55-08:00

Hi friends,

Welcome to March. It’s wallpaper time again. This is a shot from March a couple years ago in Chamonix, France. I haven’t spent nearly enough time in this superstar winter town, but the times I have, have been deep and memorable. So this is the famous Aiguille du Midi with the Glacier des Bessons on the right. As the sun sets you can see this view from around town, the peaks rise like fierce teeth all around the little village. I’m in awe of that place.

Download Medium or Large sizes.

Free February Wallpaper

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-02-01T10:27:37-08:00

Hi Friends,

It’s wallpaper day again. After Photoshelter featured this shot in one of their blogs recently I decided it was a good idea to use it for this months wallpaper. It’s nice and simple and easy on the eyes and I like it a lot.

I didn’t take many good photos in January and that’s bumming me out a bit. I’ve been really busy with the work I do with Monster and shooting has suffered a bit. It’s interesting, whenever I go through a creatively dry period, how I have this unfulfilled need that weighs on me. It’s really tangible and until I shoot something that I’m happy with it continues to build. Right now it weighs a ton.

Download the Large or Medium size.

Snowboard photo blog again

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-01-28T09:49:39-08:00

Hi Friends,

Just a photo and a short story for you today. I had a bunch of simultaneous archive requests this week so I ended up digging in. As usual I pulled out about twice as much as was asked for because every time I start to open up the archive I get lost in it. I still can’t get over how much there is in there. Thousands of photos that I may spend the rest of my life slowly digitizing.

Since KY ran off to live in the tropics people seem to have forgotten how heavy a character he was in the snowboard world. Style for miles and power to spare. One of my all time favourites.

On this day in 1997 we were lucky enough to be doing some heli laps. I liked all the texture on the slope over there and asked him to just go as fast as possible and draw a big line across it. He was going about a million miles an hour at this point.

What is Technophobe Tuesday?

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-01-24T21:13:30-08:00

What is Technophobe Tuesday?

I didn’t invent unplugging from social media. I’m not trying to start a revolution but recently I’ve felt the need to take a social media break.

A little background: My involvement with social media all started with Snowboard.com (RIP), a website that, before Myspace, Facebook or Twitter, was a really big and vibrant community of snowboarders who interacted online. It was a really good prototype for what was to come but it was niche oriented and as a result everyone had something in common. (I kinda miss that model actually) I “met” people from around the world and it was a good way to promote my photography. Then Friendster showed up. You remember Friendster? No, I don’t really either, but I was on there for a couple years. At least until Myspace showed up. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin of Snowboard.com

When I worked for Future Network we were encouraged to have a big online presence for the good of the brand and that was when I started blogging, mostly just about the magazine, and spent time almost every workday on Myspace too. I learned right around then that some of the photographers I dealt with only communicated through their myspace, (and/or facebook) page. Weird.

Then I shifted gears and built my own website. Joined Facebook soon after. Transferred to a blogger account. Quit Myspace. Started Twitter. You see how it goes.

Even though I joined a long time ago I only really started using Flickr recently and it’s actually way more interesting that I thought it would be. And then there is Vimeo…

Ok, so at this point I’m simply too deep into “online” and it’s got me by the throat, I feel like I NEED to stay on top of it to stay productive and not to be left behind.* I’m the kind of person who gets a tiny bit of satisfaction from seeing my ideas get passed on, who likes when he is “liked” and who occasionally analyzes his self-worth with Google analytics. That’s how I know I’ve crossed a line. These are not real things.

I also spend time in places that aren’t particularly Internet friendly but are hugely interesting in the real world. I was in Roatan for six weeks this summer. How many blogs did I write? Zero. Did I survive? Of course I did.

So just to give myself a break the other week I started “Technophobe Tuesday” which simply means that I didn’t log into Flickr, Facebook or Twitter all day. Simple right?

Actually yes. It’s just that simple.** The logging off is the easy part. But if you work online all day you might find the next part more difficult because inevitably in the course of the day, you become bored, distracted or curious. If you are curious like I am, the Internet could be the worst thing that ever happened. And the best thing. I can become curious about anything and feel the need to know everything about it. This is bad. I can stay up till the sun comes up researching obscure punk bands or the physics behind lens optics, or nudibranchs, or…anything. The Internet has made me want to know everything.

It’s not working.

Cutting out the social media doesn’t solve all this, but what it does do is remind you how much it’s become a part of out day-to-day lives. How faux-connected we feel all the time despite the fact that we are spending hours alone. When you can’t share interesting and funny things with your online community, you find something else to do. So it’s a start.

The standard I set to decide if my Technophobe Tuesday was a success was whether I was more productive, (I was) and whether I felt like I missed out on important business (not so much). I also caught up on all the outstanding social media threads in about 30 minutes on Wednesday.

So I called it a success. The next week I changed and did it on Thursday, and I recruited a friend to try it out. He emailed me before noon to say, “This is hard”. And he was right, it is hard. It changes a routine we’ve become comfortable with and as humans we don’t really like to change our patterns.

But I’m doing it anyway. This week I’m doing it on Tuesday and Thursday. I’m not trying to change the world, but I’m changing mine.

Give it a try.

d.

*This is utter horseshit.

**If you are reading this thinking “well I go days without logging onto any of those things”, then you aren’t like me and this blog clearly doesn’t apply to you. Congratulations.

A quick lap of the Know? Show.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-01-21T11:36:10-08:00

Grabbed Dingo in the Monster Energy truck yesterday morning and headed over to the Know?Show at the Vancouver Convention Center. He woke up in New York and by the end of the day was in Utah. Jebus, that’s some travel day. Danny came in later, just as Dingo was heading back to the airport.

Lots of good stuff going on at the Know?Show. Jamie Lynn, Peter Line and Muska sightings were keeping people on their toes. I spent about 4 hours running into people and having some meetings. Here are some of the folks I had a chance to talk to.

Serfas, once again.

Andrew Hicks is one of my oldest friends, and I never see him anymore.

Jesse Fox. Thumbs up.

Jeff Keenan.

Keating.

Dingo takes a load off at the Grenade booth.

Endeavor’s Max Jenke was in a good mood.

and Rob Dow was excited to show off his new ideas in board design.

Sat down with Mikey Scott from DC. Cool things coming soon.

TJ Schneider is awesome.

Danny Kass releases some stress with a squishy grenade.

Jason “JD” Demers was in fine form. Had the Muska in the house signing stuff.

Daryl Trinidad is awesome.

Photographer Geoff Andruik wants to show you his package.

A brief Romain de Marchi encounter.

JF Pelchat has some cool things in the works these days.

Dustin Craven shows off his signature glove.

Benji Ritchie was also there.

The inimitable smile of Chris Dufficy.

Travis Williams in a reflective mood.

I think Danny just comes to Canada for the Ceasars. And to embarrass Libby.

Dickson Li hard at work. No seriously. Not at an event, at work. I know, I’m surprised too.

deep winter 2011

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-01-17T08:36:31-08:00

Congrats to everyone who competed in the Deep Winter contest this past weekend. I’ve been involved either competing or judging in this event every year until this one and I have to say, I’m super glad I didn’t have to judge this time. It was close. Really close. In the end Blake walked away with the win by the skin of his teeth, and in my opinion if Robin Oneill hadn’t relied so much on gimmicky slideshow effects, she may just have edged him out. Then again, it could have gone many different ways.

This is the most exhausting and taxing photo contest in the Action Sports world and just completing it is high honour. I was really impressed with the consistent high quality this year, way better than some of the past years. Congratulations go out to the organizers who have raised the bar on participants. Let’s keep it high next year.

D.

Blake has his John Montgomery moment.

Holy crap Serfas, my wife almost left me for a beard half that big!

Maui blog

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-01-07T13:47:20-08:00

Hi friends.

So as you who follow me on flickr, twitter or facebook know, I’m just back from Maui again. It gets harder to leave every time. Having said that, it was one of those trips where my priorities were pretty low on the list, lots of family and friends things on the schedule so I didn’t dive as much as I would have liked and didn’t shoot as much either. I did however, relax a lot and read a lot which are things that are sorely lacking in my day to day life. Favourite book of the trip was Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.

I’m continuing down a road in my travel photos that I’m finding deeply satisfying. Experiments that started in Sweden are developing into rules and themes that I feel very connected and sure about. I think that one of the things that hangs over the head of creative people sometimes is the “is this valid?” question. It’s hard to answer and if you need someone else to pat you on the head and tell you that it is, you can find yourself corrupted from your intentions by the desire to get more pats on the head. I’ve found that in the last couple years I’ve been liberated from a lot of habits born from shooting almost entirely with an editorial goal in mind. In the end, I’ve come to a place where personal satisfaction is then only validation I require.

I added to three different personal groups of work this trip as well as all the underwater stuff, which I’ll get to in a second. Until then, here are some impressions of Maui above water. If you click any of them they should open in my photoshelter gallery.

Baldwin Park in Paia. An outtake from my “fields of play” series.

People react to a dead sea turtle.

Big beach

Christmas day.

Private property. An outtake from my “semi-natural states/coast” project.

Who wants to go fishing?

Palm tree from the couch.

Beachgoers.

Makawao plant.

Ok, ok. One more stupid sunset.

Then we got underwater. We did some shore dives and also did some boat dives with Ed Robinson’s and B&B Scuba. If you’ve dived with either of them you know that they are both great operations. We did most of our dives at Molokini, which always provides the chance of great encounters and one dive on the St. Anthony’s wreck which I love. I should have spent more time on the surface though. It was a very short dive.

In terms of shooting, I was rusty which drives me bonkers, so hard to push yourself when you have to relearn things every time. In the end though it came together. I was shooting a single strobe, which, when it comes to balance (both underwater and in terms of lighting) was challenging. Eventually I did push my macro forward a bit, the wide angle suffered from the single strobe but I actually don’t buy into the school of thought - that is so prevalent - that says everything needs to be super evenly and completely lit. I actually think it’s a real cop out way to shoot.

So, lots of nudibranchs, no whale sharks this time. We saw a fair amount of white tip reef sharks, heard a lot of whales and saw a variety of new creatures. No boardshorts for me this time though. The water was 75 and I was in a 3/2 wetsuit. My Roatan friends have permission to laugh now.

Enjoy the set.

d.

Waves crash over Molokini back wall.

Blue dragon nudi.

And another one.

White mouth Moray.

These guys are called Guard crabs.

More back wall.

Trembling nudibranch at Mala boat ramp.

A pair of Imperial Nudibranchs

Fried egg nudi.

This is a painted frogfish at 5 graves.

White margin nudi

Gold lace Nudi. Ooooooo, pretty.

This is a coral. An oval mushroom coral actually.
I thought this was a dragon wrasse but it’s actually a juvenile razor wrasse.

These fellas are everywhere.

This was new to me. Scaly slipper lobster.

And then home...

It's a new year

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2011-01-03T22:23:42-08:00

Hi friends,

I know, I know, it’s already WAAAAY into January and you probably don’t even know what day of the week since I’m so late with my Free January Wallpaper!

Here you go. I made the Calendar blue so you can barely read it. I think this is probably a trend towards removing it altogether because let’s face it, everyone pretty much has some Calendar app that they already rely on.

This 2008 shot of Mark Landvik is one of my all time favourites. It came from my “lost season” where I was working for a magazine that folded and consequently much of my work went unpublished. This ran in Japan but I was always disappointed that it never did in North America.

I’ve removed the Ipad size due to the fact that I forgot to make it... If you you really want one, let me know. Click the links to download.

D.

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This week.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-12-09T13:58:41-08:00

Hi friends,

Here’s a little update of what’s going on in my world in the second week of December, 2010.

I’m back with Monster Energy Canada working on media and events for the winter season. The big event at the 2011 Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival will be all new this year and I’m pretty excited to be building up something that will stoke everyone out. Details to come in the new year.

In case you missed it, I’ve been the guest editor of VancouverIsAwesome.com’s Daily Flickr photo for the last 3 months. It’s been very cool to see some of the great photos that come out of Vancouver and taken as a whole, the collection is pretty amazing. It would make a great coffee table book actually. I’m coming to the end of my stint with them since winter work is getting busy, but the passing of the torch will bring a new set of eyes to the process, which is good. VIA is currently raising funds, they are a great organization and if you’ve enjoyed any of their city coverage it would be nice if you could donate. I’ll continue to be involved with them in any way I can so stay tuned for some new ideas in 2011.

I finally caved and made a “Dano Pendygrasse Photography” facebook page that is separate from my personal page. It will take awhile to migrate people across but I’m going to keep the photo stuff on the photo page and the personal stuff on the personal. Right now I have about 1500 friends on my personal page and 150 on the photo page which is about completely backwards, but hey...

We were in Whistler for Mat the Alien’s birthday this week. A bit of a bender at Sushi Village and then on to Maxx Fish. It’s been awhile since I went underground in Whis. It’s dangerous.

Work continues on the Paul Brunes Young Heart Foundation. After we lost Paul last spring there was much discussion about how to make a difference in the lives of people with heart rhythm disorders. This partnership with UBC and VGH is trying to put into place resources for professionals who work in the field. Precious little is done for young people with heart disorders and many go undiagnosed. For people like us, the first sign of a problem could be the last, and if you are young, you can easily slip through the cracks. Please consider a donation or join the Cause page.

I’ve done some reorganizing of my Photoshelter account. I still haven’t used this site up to its potential. It is an incredible resource and I wish I could have all my photos up there. I keep plugging away at it but for now it’s incomplete. It sneaks a little revenue into my life too, so that’s nice. Check it.

I’ve been throwing a lot of my day to day shots on Flickr lately. I like that I can only ever have 200 shots at a time up there so I’m always weeding out some of the least successful ones and the best ones stay. You can add me as a friend on there if that’s your thing. Here are a couple of my favourites from the last little while.

D.

Free December Wallpaper

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-12-01T13:52:08-08:00

Hi again friends,

As per new normal, it’s the beginning of the month so here is my offering to you. It’s a free wallpaper with a handy built in calendar! Amazing!

We’ve been pretty lucky to be blessed with a lot of early season snow around these parts so many of you have been up in the mountains seeing some winter landscapes. This photo has particular meaning for me as I took it on boxing day a couple years ago on a day with my brother-in-law Paul. It was our first day sledding together and we had an amazing time doing some avalanche drills, taking photos, and just goofing around on our snowmobiles.

After we lost Paul this year I really started to cherish the shots from that day. Now you can too. In fact, this would make a pretty nice print for Christmas. Drop me a line if you are interested.

Click the link to download Large Medium Ipad

2010 Whistler opening day

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-11-19T22:29:44-08:00

Hi friends,

Snuck up to Whistler for opening day today. Harps from Monster and a couple of his good friends grabbed me and Smiley before the sun rose and we trucked it up. Made good time, hit the hill and managed to find most of the best snow on the mountain. Ran into a bunch of friends along the way. Opening day always has such a great vibe.

Here are some people I saw.

D.

smiley before dawn

first view of the peak

the posse

looking back at Dave Murray rollers. They were good.

DCP was there.

So was Romain

Picard wears this sweatshirt every opening day. It’s an autographed photo of him shredding. Awesome.

Stubbs was up in it.

Mike D has been skiing all week so opening day is no big deal for him...

Rencz and J-Bone at Dusty’s

wings

Browner and Craven working on their mustaches.

Then Browner grabbed my camera and took this gem!

Never seen Craig Kelly photo.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-11-10T09:47:48-08:00

Hi friends,

Here is a photo of Craig Kelly that nobody has ever seen. It’s part of a sequence where he does one of his classic slash and drop laybacks. Awesome stuff. It never found a home in a magazine and I just found it in the archives while looking for some other stuff. Enjoy.

Dano

All about pacing.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-11-04T15:02:00-07:00

Warning: Lots of words about inspiration and creativity. Photo “gear geeks” may want to skip over to DP Review or something.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about process. Most of the photographer blogs I see are about really basic photo concepts or gear, and neither one of them are particularly interesting to me. It’s true that 98% of the photo questions I get relate to the basics, and gear, but I’ve answered most of those questions so many times that I barely even think before reciting the standard answers.

The thing that has been interesting to me lately is pacing. Pacing is rarely discussed by photographers but is one of the most important aspects to what we do. When I speak about pacing, I’m talking about the speed at which I take photos. It may be the least discussed things in photography because it isn’t gear, subject matter, lighting or any of the things we see as the prime considerations of image making. But it relates to everything.

When we first pick up a camera we tend to snap away at everything that is interesting. Occasionally something ends up looking good but mostly we’re left with throwaway photos because we haven’t put enough thought into our subject matter, composition or technique. Soon we learn about exposure, composition and maybe some aspects of style and our pace slows down. We consider our subject more. We think through our exposures. We might even try to capture some preconceived idea.

As our technique gets polished and exposure becomes second nature, we may be able to translate our vision into the frame more quickly, so at this point we’re more likely to spend more time with subjects, making more exposures, trying out all our little tricks on the same subject to see how many different looks we can get, what works and what doesn’t.

Up until now, the pace of our work has evolved organically. We shoot at the speed that is necessary. If something is happening quickly, we speed up. If we have time, we take as much as we need. This makes sense and works well. But I wanted to try something new.

Here is where I decided to insert something new into my process. I wanted to see how imposing a specific pace and sticking with it would affect my photography. In my work I try to convey an impression of whatever it is that I’m shooting that is honest, portrays the subject accurately, but brings something of myself to the scene and hopefully shows the viewer something they’ve never seen before, even if the subject is very familiar to them.

This blog is mostly about chasing my wife and dog around.

Sweden was the perfect place to start. I had a lot of time in the same place, without many obligations, and it was a good mix of familiar and foreign. I started slow, which is close to my normal speed. Early one morning I went out to the docks, set a boundary of where I wanted to shoot, and set out to take some pictures. To ensure that I slowed down, I deliberately saved the coffee until after I was done…

So I looked at things for longer than I otherwise might have. I shot things that initially seemed boring. After staring at them for long enough though, I started to see more to them. Shapes revealed themselves. I got closer - patterns emerged. I stuck to the slow pace. I shot. Then I went for breakfast.

The photos were ok. Some were good. I think that there were more throwaway shots in the mix than usual though. And maybe more cliché looking shots. I suspect that given the time to think, maybe I think too much.

So next I was going for a walk with my wife and her stepbrother. They weren’t taking photos. We didn’t have an agenda though, and they were patient with me. Still, I decided to keep the pace quick. Find a shot, make one or maybe two frames at the most and keep moving. Shoot quickly and don’t make them wait. If I couldn’t get the shot in two frames, so be it.

Late summer bathers. Kladeshölmen, Sweden.

Quickly I fell into a rhythm. I’d walk, scan, stop, shoot, and then hustle to catch up. Walk, scan, shoot, repeat. I spent less time looking at my LCD. I trusted my exposures. I went with my first impression of framing and composition, spent around 10 seconds total on every shot, and I kept up.

When I first went through the photos a couple interesting things happened. First, I threw out less than I expected to. There was more quality right off the bat, and there were less “practice frames”. Second, I saw a real “look” that sometimes my work can lack. There were repeated themes. There was cohesiveness. At the risk at sounding pretentious, there was honesty. Third, the shots grew on me as time went on. More and more frames started to feel like real winners, like very definite representations of the place and time. I felt like I was on to something.

This photo has nothing to do with the text. Or does it?!

I continued the experiment when I got home, again, on a walk with the wife and dog, this time speeding the pace even more. I walked quickly, scanned, shot and tried not to get left behind. In a few moments I realized that this end of the spectrum wasn’t working for me. Walking at a fast pace made me lose contact with the things I want to shoot and I lost the insight into the subject matter.

So what am I taking away from all this? Well I guess it’s simple. Whatever it takes to get my mind out of the mix when shooting is probably a good thing if I want to shoot honest photos. The lessons I learned from that one photowalk in Sweden have stuck with me and the results have triggered a focus and direction that I can easily access either through replicating the pace, or reviewing the original shots to find that “feeling” again.

This is big picture stuff. It’s much easier to write about gear or the rule of thirds, but vision and creativity can be far more intangible and valuable. As I was finishing up this little piece, I was reading my regular blog roundup and Rachel Hulin had a transcription of an interview with Edward Burtynsky whose work I admire. Interestingly he touched on some of the things I’ve been talking about, but I like his next step which is to return to the site and continue to shoot and experiment. If you’re working editorially on a limited timeframe there isn’t always time to go back and photograph scenes like he does, but it makes a ton of sense and I’m interested to revisit some of my shots with film and try out different formats at different times.

If you have something to add to the conversation, please do so in the comments.

D.

Frame one of two, taken in 12 seconds while walking quickly...

November Wallpaper

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-11-01T19:03:43-07:00

Hi friends,

Well it’s the first of November and here we go again with a free wallpaper to cover your desktop for the month. Skiers and snowboarders spend November frantically checking weather forecasts, watching the temperature drop and praying for snowfalls that will stick heavy and early and open up those hills as soon as possible. Every once in awhile the clouds part for and we get a peek at what’s to come.

Last year I woke to this view one fine day in November. I hope you see something like this early and often this month. Even if I’m still having tropical diving dreams...

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A week in Belize with Sun Dancer 2

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-10-19T11:46:44-07:00

Hello friends,

I’m just back from a week in Belize aboard a fantastic liveaboard dive boat called the Sun Dancer 2. The flagship of the Dancer fleet, the Sun Dancer 2 runs out of Belize City and spends the week hopping from site to site along the mesoamerican barrier reef and exploring some really pristine reef systems, much of them protected and part of a UNESCO world heritage site.

Close friends of mine will know that we’ve had a tragic year and this week away was very much what we needed at the end of an emotionally exhaustive stretch. This trip would have already been great, but that fact that the captain and hostess are Simon and Andrina, great old friends of T’s and new friends of mine, made it even better.

I spent a week diving these waters in 2006 and was looking forward to getting another look at the reef. It’s very similar to what I know in Roatan, but it gets less traffic and has some creatures that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. I can’t recommend these guys enough, they are so quick to take care of every need, the food is great, and some of the best diving in the Caribbean is right under your bunk.

I finally housed one of my Nikons after years of messing around with point and shoot cameras underwater. It’s bigger and heavier, but it does the job a hundred times better.

Here are some shots.

Captain Simon. Hold his nose and air comes out of his ear...

Some really nice staghorn coral.

The spotted toadfish is endemic and found nowhere else. It took me until the last night to see him though!

First time I’ve ever seen a Spanish Dancer.

This funny little guy is called a Goatee blennie. Another first time creature for me, they are extremely reclusive and rare to find.

Fringe backed nudibranch. T found this guy and I spent a bunch of time with him.

This is the second Viper Moray I’ve ever seen and the first I’ve ever got a shot of.

Gorgeous little filefish.

Andrina underwater...

Andrina waiting on the stern.

Tiny little brittle star.

Reef Squid at night.

Octopus at night.

Pushing the limit of my 60mm macro.

Pedersen’s cleaner shrimp.

Horse eye jacks lived under the boat all the time.

T.

T with an eagle ray.

Nice walls and fans.

Damn lionfish.

T and a stingray.

Cave full of silversides.

Sponges.

Horny.

Relaxed.

Night stingray.

I’m a fan of fans.

The housing gets a rest.

D.

near miss

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-10-04T15:22:01-07:00

Hello friends.

Here’s a diptych for you. I’m calling it “near miss”.

D.

Fishing trail

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-10-02T23:46:35-07:00

Went for a fish the other day. Didn’t do that well but it was a perfect day.

These are the two characters in one of the wallpapers this month.

Free October Wallpaper

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-10-01T14:55:41-07:00

Hi friends,

Well I was pleasantly overwhelmed by the response to the free wallpaper last month. You can never underestimate the power of something free I guess. So I turned it into canvas and it’s hanging on my wall. Everyone who has been by the house has been blown away by the depth of this print. I put it up for sale and was happy to share it with some of you.

So here we are again a month later. I liked so many pictures this month that I made two. One of them is nice and simple for cluttered desktops, the other is a little richer. They are still free and always will be. If you want to chuck a buck or 2 in the tip jar, that’s fine. If not, that’s fine too.

Again, they are available in small, medium, large and ipad. So here you go:

1ipad 1small 1medium 1large

2ipad 2small 2medium 2large

False Creek life.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-10-01T13:57:45-07:00

Guess the lighting on the last shot!

going back to the well

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-29T12:57:20-07:00

I’ve shot this building many, many times. Some days I find it just mesmerizing, like a giant bug eye.

The Cobalt at night

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-28T17:24:15-07:00

Hi friends,

The sky was crazy last night. Since the Cobalt is crazy every night, it seemed a natural subject.

D.

(buy a canvas)

September Wallpaper -Canvas

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-25T13:34:04-07:00

Hi friends,

I was so stoked on the response to the free wallpaper calendar that we did this month that I decided to go ahead and offer it up as a 36x24 inch canvas! First of all I had to order one myself to make sure that it was going to be up to a high enough standard for all of you all. It looks even better than I imagined so I’m very proud to bring it to you now.

I made a sales page up HERE so take a look and remember, Christmas is coming soon!

Here is how it looks on my wall:

And this is the original image.

Vancouver photo on canvas. Leaves, trees, fall, forest, autumn, north vancouver, north shore, sale,

Some more.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-24T16:13:31-07:00

When you get a new system you have to shoot a lot, just to get used to the ergonomics and functionality. Sometimes this creates crap, and sometimes it creates greatness.

Walkin around

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-20T16:16:36-07:00

Some photos from this morning. A really low tide in False Creek.

D.

flower water

break time

coast line

piling on.

lost at sea?

best looking dumpster in town.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-19T15:31:51-07:00

Busy weekend, not too much to say.

D.

On luck.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-13T14:34:10-07:00

Hi friends,

I think that if you are tall, naturally thin, or super handsome/pretty, then you are lucky. Also, being born in Vancouver is lucky, (of course, I’m biased). What these things have in common, is that you have absolutely no control over them. Good genes? Sure, but you don’t get to make that call in utero, it just happens, and you are lucky. Here are some things that are not lucky:

-Nailing a picture of a snowboarder in mid spin as he stomps a trick first try in fresh powder.

-Getting a job with a fearless company, doing something really unique and interesting.

-Spending time in a tropical destination doing things that you love.

These are all things that have been part of my life, and time and again I’ve been accused of being extremely lucky. I will concede this: I was lucky to be born where I was and I was very lucky to move to a mountain town just as snowboarding was gaining traction. But you know what? 2 thousand people moved to that town that year. Not to mention the hundred other ski towns that thousands of people moved to that season. And that many again the next. Were we all lucky then?

Good luck is when something positive happens TO you, and you have absolutely no control over it.

When something really positive happens in your life, and it is a result of planning, preparedness, and foresight, that isn’t luck. I think that “unlucky” people have often been right in the crosshairs of “luck”, but failed to be “lucky”. Why is that? Because “lucky” takes balls. Often times, six months before you become “lucky” you are presented with a decision that is “terrifying”. The difference between the people who find the luck and those who don’t then, is often intuition and courage. It takes a lot of nerve to take a chance on something instead of sticking with what is time tested and proven. It takes a different kind of thinking to drop everything to chase a dream for a while. You have to be prepared for the worst, have a good plan, and then work like your life depends on it. Just to be lucky.

People often remark to photographers “you must have a really good camera.” They have the best intention, but this is pretty insulting to us because it equates the quality and value of your work to a purchased item of equipment. Professional photographers have professional cameras, but often that is a function of durability and ease of use as much as anything else. These days there are hundreds of consumer cameras that take pictures as good as professional cameras, they just may not last as long.

That’s why I find the “lucky” tag to be insulting. I’ve taken so many chances in my life, and some of them have worked out spectacularly, but sometimes I’m unemployed, running out of money, and feeling creatively bankrupt. Nobody is calling me lucky then. I have been told time and again that I’m lucky to spend so much time in Roatan, diving several times a day in a tropical paradise. Well that luck has come with a price tag too, (try to maintain a normal career when you disappear for months at a time!) but I just nod and suggest that “you should try it, all it takes is to go there.”

With the exception of where I was born and a few other minor details, I’ve made my luck with risk taking, hard work, and a self reliance and intuition that I value more every day. Finally, a quote attributed to the American film producer Samuel Goldwyn:

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

Right time, right place? Sometimes you just have to be in the right place and hang around long enough for it to be the right time.

Fishing the Sakgit, again.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-12T11:12:11-07:00

When we made plans to go fish this Saturday, the forecast was for rain. I packed TWO rain jackets the night before.

The river had different plans for us. We awoke to a few clouds and as the day went on it got warm, the sun shone, and it was as nice a day as anyone could expect on the river. I went with a Jon, a John, and a Lisa, more people than I’m used to fishing with on a river, but we kept out of each others way for the most part, and had a perfect day fishing. I got another big Dolly, had another spit the fly, had a big rainbow spit the fly but managed to fool a half dozen or so of his brothers. I didn’t think there were any cutthroat left in the Skagit, but there were clearly orange marks on a fish I got later in the day.

One of the coolest things that happened all day was running into snorkelers doing a fish count. I’ve always heard of this happening on various rivers (in fact I’ve always wanted to do it) but this is the first time I’ve ever seen it. These guys cover 7 kms a day in water that is between 4 and 7 degrees! When they go through a pool, they make little “beep” noises through the snorkel every time they see a fish. They mark their slates and every so often dump the data to the other guy on shore. We talked to them for quite awhile and found out that they are contracted by the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission in partnership with the BC Ministry of the
Environment. What we learned was that the rainbows we are catching are the normal sized fish for the upper Skagit and that there are very few larger ones, but they are there. The population of Dollys is growing and the average size is too. There are huge char in that river and lots of them. In one run that is less than 100 yards long they counted 80 fish. Whoa.

As amazing as this river is, I can only imagine what it was like before they dammed it and it had runs of salmon and steelhead. It could have been one of the best Flyfishing rivers in the world. I hate dams. But i like cheap electricity.

At the end of the day, we were packed up and driving home, the sun was setting and it was starting to get cloudy. Just as we left the gravel and hit the pavement the first drops hit the windshield. By the time we hit Highway 1 West, it was pouring rain. We got lucky today.

Ok, enough words, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

D.

We drove out under an amazing sunrise.
John, hittin’ the water

Nice drift.

Lisa working out the rust.

Frogmen!

Thanks for the info guys!

Signs of Fall are showing up.

One Jon.

And a John.

Jon gets stealthy.

Lisa casts into the deep pool.

John puts a nice tight cast where he wants it.

Lisa brings a nice bow in.

This was a BIG dolly. Smart too, wrapped her around some roots and broke off.

Jon gets into one.

Cutbow?

Look at the big ugly stonefly nymph!

Too bad about the crappy scenery

A SERIOUSLY beautiful river.

Jon plays one more.

Location is everything...

random shots

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-10T11:31:36-07:00

Hello friends,

Just going through some shots from the last few days and thought I should share. There was a super crazy sky here two nights ago and after looking at this shot I pulled out a couple of mine. I came outside a little later and watched as the neon tones faded, there was so much crazy tone in the sky after.

viaduct

the park

alley

I took the Zeiss Sonnar 90mm out on a walk yesterday. Not much was going on so I was just trying to get really good focus, handheld. It worked out pretty well. I guess I’m getting more used to it. I think the EVF would help a lot because you aren’t holding the camera steady 20 cms from your face in mid air. But then, you have a bigger system.

splat.

Finally, the Cirque left my hood this week. This one is from a lil ways back, some workers up on the top of the tent, taking a break. My wife pointed out this shot. She has a good eye.

Have a good day.

D.

Switch: Canon G9 to Panasonic GF1

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-09T12:31:44-07:00

From Canon G9 to Panasonic GF1

warning: this blog contains photo geekery, pictures of flowers and real opinions.

I loved my Canon g9. I shot the hell out of that camera. In fact, I bought a spare, that’s how much I loved it. I walked around with it all the time, bought an underwater housing for it and found myself falling in love with photography again, largely as a result of having a very versatile and capable camera with me at all times.

After a couple years of non-stop use though, I started to see some of its limitations and when I started to see the reviews of the micro four thirds cameras, with their relatively large sensor and ability to use high quality lenses, I felt the very real pangs of camera envy growing.

I read review after review, dug out my old Contax G2 with its 45mm f2 and 90mm f2.8, read reviews of all the adapters, looked at shots and video clips and opinions on message boards…I obsessed. Then after I got home from Sweden this year, I pulled the trigger. I ordered the GF1 with the 20mm f1.7 and the 7-14 f4 from “The Camera Store” in Calgary. I like supporting a small non-chain camera shop, and the fact that they support my friend Mark Gallup clinched it for me. The price was as good as I could find in Canada and from the time I hit the “buy” button until the time it was in my hands was about 4 days. My review of “The Camera Shop” is 10 out of 10.

So you get a new camera…what next? Charge the battery, read just enough of the manual to take a picture, and shoot the first thing you come across. I walked out on the deck, cranked the 20mm wide open and shot the garden. Then I shot the dog. Then I took some video. I’m sure you know this story. I worked my way through the ISO settings, shot inside and out, checked the close focus distance and started to download the shots to take a peek.

The 20mm, wide open at 1.7, 1/1600th ISO 100. Looks pretty good eh?

100% crop of the above image with no sharpening, noise reduction or whatever. Hmmm. Nice.

This is what my patio looks like with the 7-14 on 7mm, f4, 1/2000. Note the interesting distortion and fabulous teak patio furniture.

Super dim light. Wide open. 20mm @ 1.7 and 1/13th. ISO 400!

My computer didn’t recognize the rw2 files. I use CS3 and bridge. I like it, don’t try to convert me. I’m happy. I used to be able to download, rename, convert to .dng and add metadata all in one step, but obviously I was going to have to change my workflow. After some tinkering I figured out how to convert to .dng, and realized that for my needs, mpeg was going to be way easier to deal with than avhdc codec for video format. So now my downloading takes a little longer. The “Silkypix” included software has a smattering of followers and supporters so I downloaded it, but the UI turned me off. I might get there eventually, but I’m too impatient to learn a new system right now.

Eventually I ended up with the .dng files that my computer knew what to do with and I was ready to get started. And the files were good. First the 20mm lens. It’s sharp as shit. Wide open sharp, stopped down sharp, really good. It’s also fast, and that, combined with improved performance at higher ISO compared to the G9, makes this setup a killer in dim light. Which is good, because I’m not that enamoured with the GF1 onboard flash.

The 7-14 is not as fast, but it’s a really nice lens. It’s expensive though, and I probably should have thought about some longer lens options before I got something so specialized. I did however, have to shoot some house photos for a Real Estate listing the day after I got it, and found it to be pretty much the perfect lens for the job. No barrel distortion makes for a nice open room without the freakshow angles. I haven’t really done a ton of walking around with it yet, but I liked it for landscape and environment shots when I was fishing.

Shows the whole room without the crazy distortion of a fisheye.

I didn’t use this one for the listing, but I like the symmetry.

So one of the things I was most excited about with this camera was the ability to use some of the lenses from my old Contax G2. I read extensively about the pros and cons of all the adapters, and it sounds like some of them were evolving as I was reading, but I eventually settled on the Metabones because of its large focusing ring. (Bought on ebay, shipped from hong kong, took about ten days -ish)

After it finally arrived, I was back out on the patio, shooting the garden, checking out the specifics of the lenses and trying to get used to manual focus with and lcd and 90mm that is equivalent to 180mm on 35! Here is what I have to say about all that. Handheld is really hard with the 90mm. The GF1 helps you to manual focus by zooming in on the screen, and it’s really effective, except that when you are using such a long lens any minute movement from your hand translates to a drastic shake on the screen. Is it impossible? No, of course not, and I have used the 90mm quite a bit, but it is difficult. So I mentioned it. You could easily solve this problem with a tripod, but then you’re carrying a tripod. The 45mm was quite a bit easier to focus because of its shorter pull and it is a pretty amazing piece of glass. I leave the adapter on it most of the time.

Back out to the garden with the 45mm. OOOOooooooo!

100% crop. No processing.

The process of shooting slows down with the manual focus prime lenses, and for some this defeats the purpose of a small, high quality camera. I admit, when I’m out walking the dog with my wife and she’s just trucking away, I often have mere seconds to compose, focus and shoot before being left behind. In that situation the Zeiss lenses aren’t my go to choice.

No chance I’d be pulling out my DSLR in this situation. 20mm, 1.7, 1/25th with +2/3 stop exposure comp

I found the autofocus to be extremely fast and accurate, catching moments like this where the g9 would have lagged.

So here is the crux of the issue; when does your small camera become too big? That’s obviously different for everyone, but for the GF1 to be truly portable for ME, the 20mm is the lens I’m working with. When you start using the other lenses it becomes a whole different class of camera. And that’s not bad, because the quality is in a whole different class. But I miss the versatility of the G9’s zoom relative to its body size.

I went by the Monster office the other day and there was one of the MTB athletes in there. They needed a quick portrait for the website and I had my GF1 and 20mm. In 5 minutes, with ambient light, I had a shot I was happy with. To me, that tells the whole story. Could I have got it with the G9? Well sure, I mean, they’re all just cameras, but the quality of the image with the GF1 is better and I feel way more confidant pulling it out to get the job done.

This isn’t the shot, but you get the idea.

There have been lots of times when I have wished that I still had the G9 in my pocket, but so far I still reach for the GF1 when I’m walking out the door. I have lots of opinions and impressions, if I haven’t covered something that interests you, leave a comment.

D.

GF1 Pros:

Image quality
Lens quality and variety.
Speed of operation

G9 Pros:

Camera size
Versatility

Everyone loves sunsets

Long exposure with the GF1 balanced on a mossy rock and 2 sec. self timer. 1 sec, f22.

The 7-14 excels at this sort of thing.

Nice light in the woods.

Black and white? I hear the black and white mode that’s built in is nice. Haven’t tried it yet.

Fishing again. The Skagit.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-07T10:51:23-07:00

Since moving to Vancouver my fishing has suffered. In Whistler I used to pop out to the lake several times a week, and hit up the rivers fairly often as well. Vancouver was intimidating. Where to go? How could I fish without going shoulder to shoulder with the crowds of tin-chucking meat harvesters? I don’t keep fish often, it’s a pain in the ass to clean, carry and care for them and the truth of the matter is, I’d rather fish for a big trout in a catch-and-release only stream than a million average trout in an overstocked put-and-take fishery. But that’s me, I don’t judge.

Last week I finally got out to the Skagit. To say that it’s “local” is a bit of a stretch, the drive is over 2 hours from downtown. In fact, I could probably get to the Birkenhead faster, but I’m looking for new water and the Skagit is that. Plus I went with Jon Cartwright and he’d spent a productive day there last year, pulling decent fish on the dry fly, so I wasn’t going in completely blind.

First of all, this is some beautiful water. Right now you can wade it everywhere, there are perfect deep holes, riffles, undercut banks and best of all, fish. Almost right away we started to see big silver flashes in the deeper water. Like, BIG flashes. That and lots of surface action. Then I started turning over rocks and what I found blew me away. Huge mayfly nymphs, massive cased caddis, and lots of stoneflies. Eventually I found one of the biggest I’ve ever seen, almost two inches long!

There were a few fishermen and women around but people moved frequently and we never felt crowded. The rainbows here are as cautious as they are plentiful. I found a noticeable difference in my luck when I switched up and fished 5x tippet after a relatively slow patch with 3x fished wet. We had luck on dark stone nymphs, not so much with the golden stones that had been recommended and all sorts of dries. At first we concentrated on elk hair caddis, but after we started to see more mays coming off, we moved to green, yellow and black humpies and had the most action. Really pretty rainbows between 12 and 14 inches were the order of the day.

Near the end of the day I got too curious about those big silver flashes and put a big black bead head leech on my sinking line, dropped it into a deep slow running hole and waited. A minute later as I slowly retrieved I felt a heavy weight. At first I thought I had bottom, then the bottom did a head shake and I knew I was into something better. I could tell pretty quickly that I was into a Dolly. He took a few sharp runs but mostly just bulldogged me and worked his way into the current whenever he could. On the 5 weight, he was a perfect fish. He measured out just over 18 inches when he finally gave up and showed off his vibrant peach-coloured spots and flashy sides. He was a little skinny, but clean. From the flashes I saw, I’m pretty sure that he was small to average, I’d wager there are some of his far bigger brothers in there too. But that’s for another day.

So I’ve got a little gem in my pocket now, I’ve seen some beautiful water, not too far from home, and am looking forward to learning more about this beautiful river.

First look

First fish on a black nymph

Jon tests the banks

A small stone nymph. The huge one I found was a little too active for a photo.

Jon releases a bow.

and casts for another one.

Under these rocks, lots of fish food.

The dolly.

Full length.

End of the day.

Vancouver is Awesome.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-06T08:07:53-07:00

Hello friends,

Followers of the blog will probably know that I have spent quite a bit of time away lately; Honduras and Sweden have taken a couple month chunk out of my summer and a little time in Arizona rounded out a lot of travel. But now I’m home. I’m committed to a year in Vancouver. No taking off to go dive for a month. No galavanting with foreign friends in far off lands.

So I need a job. And until that happens, I found something else to keep me busy. The other day, my favourite website picked one of my photos for their Flickr photo of the day, which is always cool. The very next day this notice showed up in the place of the daily Flickr photo. I thought to myself; “Well that seems right up my alley. I’m a photographer, I’ve been a photo editor...” So I shot Bob a note, and here we are, a few days later, and me with my first pickr, from flickr.

I’m going to be doing that for the next 3 months and I’m looking forward to seeing a ton of photos, but I want to encourage all my Vancouver friends who aren’t part of the Vancouver is Awesome flickr pool to join and submit some photos. Be part of the best website in the city.

Enjoy your labour day!

D.

PS: I caught this Dolly Varden in the Skagit River on Friday. It was around 18 inches and super clean.

Calendar Wallpaper!

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-09-01T18:15:15-07:00

Inspired by the talented photographer and personal marketer David DuChemin, I’ve decided to roll out some Wallpaper Calendars for you all. I shot this today on a little walk near the Cleveland Dam in Capilano Canyon on Vancouver’s North Shore. It feels like it represents late summer/ early fall to me so I decided to offer it up to y’all. If it’s popular I’ll do this every month from now on.

Wall papers come in Large (2400x1500 pixels), Medium (1280x800) and ipad (1024x768). These correspond to the most common screen resolutions of visitors to my website according to google analytics. I just did this on a whim, so feedback is welcome and important. Enjoy!

It looks like this:

One from the road.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-25T18:51:56-07:00

The tonal range and quality of the GF1 sensor is impressive. I’m planning a full review of all my impressions, good and bad, in the next day or two. Leaving Phoenix now and on my way back to YVR.

two old dudes, toy boat, hugging couple and a cute girl

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-18T22:22:30-07:00

4 photos

This was the beginning of a long day.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-17T20:37:48-07:00

Annie Leibovitz Exhibit in Stockholm

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-15T02:15:35-07:00

Had a nice tourist day in Stockholm yesterday. Walked around, took the “hop on, hop off” boat, went to the Vasa Museum and saw the Annie Leibovitz Exhibition at the Fotografiska photography museum. More later. Gotta go do some shopping.

D.

military cadets at the palace.

nice stems

that dude.

segways!

this thing sat underwater for 333 years.

and now, some swedes.

Louise in Stockholm

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-14T00:44:53-07:00

Took the train to Stockholm yesterday. Had lunch with some family and then made our way around town. What a perfect town for walking or riding a bike. In fact, it’s one of the most bike friendly cities I’ve seen. Louise enjoyed being a tourist dog and wore herself out.

More Stockholm today.

D.

train reading

tight streets of old city

walking on the cobbles

perfect swedish bike guy

Louise tourist photo

old

Red boat hostel. More Louise tourist shots.

tight streets

Then we found this cafe with really great light across the street. Had a couple beers and shot some people. This is an awesome little set but I don’ have time to work on them right now. Here are a couple.

last day for a boat ride

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-12T10:23:56-07:00

Well, today was our last day here in Kladesholmen. We spent it out on the boat.

Tomorrow we are off to Stockholm. So there.

D.

ropes

trap

balls

navigation cairn

swedish colours

no man is an island.

We had some rain yesterday.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-12T00:11:48-07:00

we had some rain yesterday...

but then it cleared up

sweden + time on my hands = lots of photos.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-10T13:52:20-07:00

More...

tight real estate

somebody took a whiz here.

lichen covered rocks

catching rays whenever and wherever

the whole coast is covered in swim ladders. swim ladders to cold, cold water.

When a jumble of words become a sentence.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-10T02:32:02-07:00

It’s interesting after being in a place for a few days how you start to get a better sense of it. At first on this trip I was shooting what I saw, but as I spend more time, I start to shoot how it feels here and as a result the shots become more honest. A style is developing and as it does, I search it out more. Shots from a few days ago already seem not to “get it”, which is to say that they no longer fit in with the narrative that I’ve developed in my head.

Kladesholmen was a fishing village forever when around 50 years ago some folks from Gothenburg started to buy little fishing huts as summer houses. Now there are very few fishermen lift and it is a community of vacationers and retirees. It maintains a bit of the feel of a fishing village, but it’s more like an homage than a true representation.

The maritime feel of this place is very real though. Most days include a boat trip, which is fine by me!

More soon.

D.

ropes and floats. one of the last working fisherman here.

and his boat

Calm water early one morning

web

cart

swimming hole at the park

fishing boy

tubby lil boat

coils

floating hotel

hungry!

lunch spot?

power

bird

little dock

tiny harbour

more sweden

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-09T01:27:41-07:00

Some more shots from Sweden. Boat trips, walks and meals are the order of the day.

D.

yellow house

trap

map

eyes

fishing house

cart

soccer pitch

cemetery

church

flowers?

we got a little rain

the land of white fences

A couple Sweden shots

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-07T00:08:22-07:00

I’m in Sweden for two weeks on a little Island called Kladesholmen. I’m taking lots of photos. Here are some now...

A shot from Cuba

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-06T09:12:30-07:00

In 2004 I went to Cuba. A week ago I scanned this photo for the first time. This is a typical day in Vinales. Enjoy.

D.

Granville Island

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-08-05T22:05:40-07:00

The other day we took the aquabus down False Creek to Granville Island for breakfast. As it turns out, almost everyone who serves breakfast there stops serving it at 11 o’clock, so if you’re thinking of going for brunch, you might end up having lunch instead. We had blueberry crepes though and they were delicious. We also found out later that the food place in the net loft serves breakfast all day. So now you know. Here are some shots of things from Granville Island.

I’m in Sweden for a couple of weeks. I’ll put up some photos soon.

D.

The aquabus arrives.

Sylvie is very excited about the aquabus!

crepes. mmmmmmm.

conversation.

happy sausage. mmmmm.

stuffed peppers. mmmm.

fresh new potatoes. mmmm.

a big stack of cherries. mmmmmm.

prawns! mmmmmmm.

carrots

fresh salmon!

desert.

amazing looking tomatoes.

Craig in Black and White.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-31T19:01:00-07:00

Here is a shot of Craig Kelly that nobody has ever seen. I like to think of him out there in the mellow pow fields doing long heelside carves.

Have a nice day.

D.

Snowboard Photo Blog #a billion

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-30T22:43:48-07:00

I’m scanning again. Every time anyone asks me for an old shot and I have to go dig into the binders I get lost for days.

This was the end of the 2001 season. JP Walker had just about finished filming one of the best parts in snowboarding history and he wanted to smack it way over the fences. At this point rock rides didn’t happen. He did this one and set off a flurry of them over the next couple years. This was heavy. I remember stressing about the angle, I wanted to make sure that the entire length of the rock was in the frame. The sketchiest part of the whole thing was the runout though. He had to weave through the treeline at speed after landing.

The magazine morphed a sequence but nobody has ever seen the still photo.

D.

Urban yoga circle

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-30T13:00:58-07:00

I passed a yoga circle on my walk yesterday. It looked like this:

That is all.

D.

Sound System

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-28T19:30:32-07:00

I have cool friends. Stylish friends. Amazing and interesting friends that make me look like pretty much of a shlub in comparison.

The other day we went over to my friends Semele and Bruce's home for an afternoon cocktail before heading out for a sushi dinner. They have taken a typical vancouver box house and turned it into a beautful example of good design and impecable taste. When we got there some surfy acoustic bliss was coming out of this stereo record machine. Sounds as good as it looks and made for a perfect soundtrack for Sem's spur-of-the-moment blender drink creations.

Good times, good company, summer...real nice.

D.

a boat.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-24T21:51:47-07:00

In Roatan you spend a lot of time waiting for boats. Waiting for them to go out so you can dive, waiting for them to come in so you can strip off the gear and reload it, waiting for friends to come back, or waiting to go somewhere new. It's one of the realities of living on an island. Some of the boats have been working these waters for years and they wear their age like an old coat.

I walked past this old girl for a long time before one day, while waiting for a different boat, I decided to take a closer look.

D.

Cirque de Soleil Kooza in Vancouver

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-22T14:02:15-07:00

So the last time that La Cirque de Soleil set up across the street from us, we looked at the tents for a month or six weeks or whatever and barely discussed going to the show. After it was gone we kinda slapped our heads and said "What the Hell were we thinking?"

La Cirque is back with a show called Kooza and this time we're not going to miss it dammit. However, our tickets aren't until we're back from sweden so I'll have to wait a few weeks. Until then, here is a review and some photos that I've taken in the last few days. The tents are so big and distinctive that they are hard to miss on our daily walks. I've yet to really get a shot that I like but will continue to snap away.

D.

The inside of BC Place and the cirque tent and our building

In tents, Intense.

La Cirque with no Soleil.

Chainsaw, cut wood.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-19T13:22:46-07:00

One more of Rob and his chainsaw.

And what they do together:

Hastings park for Wiener races

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-19T11:14:13-07:00

Yesterday was the second annual Hastings Park Wiener Dog races. Louise was a little young for them last year, but this year she was ready to go. After an extensive training program (4 days of running from one parent to the other in the park) she was ready to test her skills against some of the finest racing dachshunds on the planet. Or at least the 64 who bothered to sign up in time from Greater Vancouver.

Right out of the gate she was flying, until she noticed that there were 6 other dogs behind her, so she slowed to take a look at them all. That's right about the time that she noticed Max, a good looking chocolate dapple, making a break for the finish line. She hit the gas and almost caught him at the wire, but had to settle for second.

So Louise didn't advance to the final, but she did show a lot of promise and flat out speed. If she can focus next year, I think she might take it.

Our friend Nancy has a little video of the race. From her angle it looks like Weezy caught up and won. It was that close.

D.

That is one good looking racing dog.

No pre race nerves here. Cool as a cucumber.

Proud parent.

I took a t/s lens with me. (No I didn't).

Mom stretches it out and perfects her form.

In the gate and ready to rip.

So right here is where she got a little sidetracked. "Hey, what are all you guys doing back there?"

I was so excited that I stopped looking through the viewfinder and just let the camera rip. Focus/shmocus.

Actually, the sound of pounding hooves is really soothing.

I don't bet on the ponies.

The winning form of Joey. Two years running.

Next year Louise will have some training behind her and give him a run for his money. Or not, whatever she feels like...

A little fishing trip

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-07-17T11:55:15-07:00

After 6 weeks diving I came home to no obligations and a fierce need to go fishing. I unpacked for a week and caught up on some things and then called my old friend Rob from Whistler Cigars.

Me: "hey buddy, I'm thinking about trying to sneak away for a few days of fishing"

Rob: "I'm leaving Sunday at 6 AM with a couple friends..."

Me: "Done and done!"

So a couple days later I'm driving with my oldest friend up to a lake that we haven't been to together in about ten years. I'm writing a little story about the trip so I'll keep it short, but here are some shots from the trip. Enjoy.

I've been off blogging for awhile, but I'm back in the groove folks. You'll be seeing lots more from me again.

D.

Follow me on Twitter

Sunrise at 5:45 in Whistler.

flybox full of options

pumping the stomach to find out what they are feeding on.

Chironomid fishing is a patient business.

Misty evening sunset fishing.

Rainy and cold in July.

And even some damn snow.

A boy and his dog.

Hydration is essential...

...as is proper nutrition.

Neon green sunset forest. Notice the Beetle-killed pines?

This is what it's all about.

Whistler Ski and Snowboard Festival 2010

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-04-18T15:10:00-07:00

It’s sunny and warm in Whistler today and the place is packed. I’ve been working on the Grenade Games all year and now we’re only a couple days away. I got into town Friday and within 15 minutes had an adult Monster bevy in hand and was getting settled. Danny and Dingo and the boys made it into town before me so we hooked up for some dinner, few more drinks and lots of stories and catching up. Being that I’m old, my liver wasn’t really keeping up and pretty soon I lost the battle. I found myself in Sushi Village (again) catching up with old friends and warming up with some sake. I think you see where this is going.

As the restaurant was closing I grabbed my coat and headed for the door, almost made it out too, but just then my friend Gribbon dragged me back inside and a giant dumbo sized bottle was placed on the table. Don’t really recall how the rest of the night went but I spent Saturday a complete write-off watching Mantracker in the hotel room.

The Telus Whistler Ski and Snowboard Festival is back my friends, and whether you’re celebrating a great winter or just happy it’s over, there is no better place to be this week than Whistler, British Columbia.

Tomorrow’s weather is looking a little grim but it should get better as the week goes on. Come on up and play.

I came up with this new thing

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-04-08T11:44:35-07:00

So last year at the Grenade Games we did a damn good job of showing everyone out in the snowboard industry how much fun we were having. It was a ton of work and by the end we were justifiably proud. In the months that followed, people emulated our strategy and even our style and I thought it was al very flattering. It also highlighted something that I thought was missing and that was interaction for all the people that couldn't make it to the event. Sure they could watch, but I wanted them to feel more involved.

To give the masses some control from far away, I decided to do something new. Partly based on the fact that every single day kids are uploading short videos that they've made from their local hills or from their trips, I decided to provide all of our raw clips from the Grenade Games every day and let people edit their own remixed version of our daily videos. Every day we'll highlight our favourite, or the funniest, or whatever, and at the end we'll award prizes from Grenade for the best video.

I decided to call it Remote Control, cuz you know, people get to have some control, from remote places...

Give it a look and tune in between the 20th and 25th of April to watch what happens.

-D

Monster, Nike, Olympics, History, Keynotes...just a normal couple weeks.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-03-01T15:28:22-08:00

What a crazy couple of weeks.

It goes without saying, but during the Olympics the eyes of the world were on Vancouver. There was so much going on that it was almost impossible to keep track, so here is a little wrap-up of the projects I was involved with.

I worked with Monster to put on a series of parties at Grouse Mountain, the highlight of which was Live Transmission. It took place the night of the Men's halfpipe contest and featured Mixologist Darryl McDonald from Port Restaurant in Toronto creating adult beverages from behind a custom ice bar, and Chicago MC Kid Sister who blew everyone away with her set.

Over on Mt. Seymour, I was working with Nike 6.0 to document the installation of their "Greatest Hits" park. The idea was to give locals a place that they could hit up some really iconic urban jibs in one setting. the 6.0 crew did an amazing job on recreating a version of the Quebec Red Ledge a few weeks ago, and then smack dab in the middle of the Olympics they unleashed a perfect replica of the infamous Burlington double set that has been featured in shred flicks for years. With the video I set out to do an opening segment that could be mistaken for a true urban setup, and then reveal it to be part of the greatest hits park. Since a couple Olympians dropped by we had a ton of issues with clearance, but eventually it got done and released. I like the opening. We did a ski and a snowboard edit, here is the ski edit.

I spoke a bit here about the Aries 2010 project that I was involved with, that took place right in the middle of all the Olympic madness as well. Here is a shot from Trevor Graves, and the video of the project. I can't say enough about being able to speak at this event, the people involved are just so top notch and the idea behind it is overdue. Thanks Trevor for thinking of me.

I also managed to sneak in some actual Olympics. In fact, I was somehow lucky enough to attend the single biggest hockey game of my lifetime, the Canada vs. USA gold medal game. I've never been so consumed with a sporting event. As someone who came a little late to hockey fan-dom, I have certainly embraced it now. There are some shots on my flickr, and here are a couple to tease you.

Faceoff

Team Canada sings the anthem

crosby waves the flag

And now it's on to the Grenade Games. You'll start seeing more from me on that by the end of the week. Stay tuned...

Jumping through hoops for the Olympics.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-02-15T10:08:54-08:00

All last year my friend Shin would disappear now and again for a secret project that he was working on. I didn't think too much about it until we started getting closer to the Olympics and the rumours started flying about a crazy ramp being built in BC place for the opening ceremonies. Right around that time I noticed that Shin was making a lot of trips to the city. And then My friend Johnny sorta disappeared from the twittershpere. Hmmm, something was going on.

Well secrets don't stay secret very long in the snowboard community, so by the time I attended the Opening Ceremony rehearsal I already knew that Shin and Johnny were going to be jumping through the Olympic Rings as part of the ceremony. What I didn't know was that the whole stunt would be preceded by a couple minutes of really well filmed freeriding shot last year, and that the jump was going to kick off the whole Olympics! Damn!

I wish I had a chance to see Shin hit the jump in the first rehearsal but it was amazing to watch Johnny stomp his indy on the sketchiest carpet and airbag landing. As the story now goes, the decision came down to a coin flip. I'm stoked to have known and shot these guys for years and glad that they had such a positive influence on the way snowboarding was portrayed to the world. Shin has said that the producers were really open to their input and made sure that snowboarders wouldn't be bummed on yet another misguided "hollywood" attempt at portraying us.

Here are some shots of the boys over the years.

Johnny Lyall on a Whistler kink rail

Johnny Lyall on a Whistler Backcountry booter.

Shin at Whistler last season

Shin Campos from the deep winter contest in 2008

Shin Campos on Whistler last season.

The Nike and Nemo Aries 2010 project

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-02-14T14:17:33-08:00

A few months back my old friend Trevor Graves from Nemo asked me to be involved with a project that he was putting together. It's called Aries2010 and it is a time capsule to chronicle historical artifacts from the progression of snowboarding. At first he just asked me to submit some photography, which of course I was happy to do, but as the date of the opening reception came closer he asked if I would be a keynote speaker with Legend Terry Kidwell. That was an easy decision despite the fact that I've been underwater with other projects in the run-up to the Olympics.

As I walked in the door last night I began to understand the scope of what Trevor had undertaken. He spent months talking to many of the players and original characters from snowboarding and collecting many of the most significant bits and pieces of detritus from our culture. There are more memories in that room than you can imagine including many prototypes of influential boards, boots and bindings. Obviously it's not all going to fit into the Aries capsule, but everything has been documented and will be included as well as some select items.

I was honored to say a few words and show a quick slideshow that did its best to shed some light on my perspective of the history of Canadian snowboarding, but I was most honored to be able to introduce Terry Kidwell. His influence on snowboarding can't be understated. He was a critical participant in the design of the first kicktail that ushered in the concept of riding both ways on a board, and then he took that design to the hills and basically invented freestyle snowboarding. Terry never made a fortune from his snowboard career so he's auctioning some of the most photographed boards in the history of snowboarding. A semi-tragedy that is all too common with athletes in young sports. I know he appreciated the turnout last night and young shredders and pros alike were literally lining up to shake his hand and let him know how big a deal he is to them. I saw more than one person stand speechless in front of him.

Here are some photos, I wish I had more time too shoot but I was kept busy most of the night. The whole set is on Flickr. My pal Mark Gribbon shot the photo wall all night and you can see those shots here. If you can get your hands on the Aries book, it is a remarkable document and will be going in my permanent collection. (Right next to Out West, which I gave out quite a bit last night too) If you are in Vancouver before the 19th you pretty much have to go down to the Boardroom and check this out. the closing reception is on Friday and the always entertaining Ken Ach will be speaking.

Trevor's "misty cam". Many photogs in the mid 90's would have given a digit to see this little number.

Trevor and Ken Achenbach in front of the actual capsule.

Shaun Palmer's infamous gold victory suit.

Ken Ach checks out the Kidwell quiver. The best snowboard shots of the 80's were taken on these boards.

John Kamitakahara is a long time Vancouver snowboarder, photographer and unintentional archivist. He was stoked to meet Kidwell.

Annie Boulanger is Rider of the year. What you know bout dat?

Terry talks to a rapt audience.

Former SBC editor and current Push.ca editor Matt Houghton with legend Chris Nicholls.

Kidwell and Kevin Sansalone compare notes.

Nike 6.0 greatest hits.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-01-31T10:25:08-08:00

One of the things I've been working on lately is a park installation at Mt. Seymour for Nike 6.0. The idea is to take iconic urban features and build them in one place. In an Olympic year, a lot of kids find themselves either unable or uninterested in participating in any of the Olympic shenanigans so this whole thing is for them. By the time the "Greatest Hits" park is done you will be able to go up Seymour and ride facsimiles of three legendary spots that have seen a lot of coverage in ski and snowboard media over the years.

We started with the Quebec's Red Ledge. It was made by the folks at snowpark solutions and installed on the 28th of January and then on Saturday the 30th was opened to the public. The Nike 6.0 version of the Red Ledge is a little smaller and a little less steep than the real thing, but it's been awesome to see people come out and take a swing at it. Here is Duff testing it out.

You can check all of Geoff Andruik's photos from the Red Ledge Jam here and the video that we made here.

The next event is coming up on February 20th. We're recreating the famous Burlington High rail but this time there will be no concessions on size. This thing is going to be Identical. Come check it out or sign up for the jam. We're going to have some very special guests there with all the heads in town for the Olympics.

Catch a glimpse of the real one here (especially ender shots) and here

Deep Winter is back

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-01-05T11:05:19-08:00

Right now there are five photographers that are totally exhausted. They are competing this week, in the Deep Winter photo contest that Arc’Teryx and Whistler/Blackcomb have been putting on for the last several years. The idea behind this contest was to highlight the fact that some of the best riding that ever takes place in Whistler is during storm season, and the first week of January is a fairly safe bet for storms.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow the photographers head up the mountain and shoot enough photos to present a 3 to 5 minute slide show on Thursday night in front of 700 or so people. The rules state that you have to shoot in bounds and during regular operating hours. That essentially gives you less than 24 hours of total shooting time. Having done this contest twice, I can tell you that it is the most exhausting and exhilarating week of the season.

This week I’ll be judging the slideshows, so come out to the Fairmont Whistler on Thursday night and watch the work of some of the best photographers in the business. Jordan Manley has won it twice, Paul Morrison has won it and I’m really looking forward to first time competitors Colin Adair and Nicholas Teichrob.

Here are some of my favourite shots from my two efforts and you can watch my second slideshow here.

Good luck out there guys.

-Dano

Thinking of Kevin Pearce

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2010-01-02T00:13:01-08:00

Here is a shot from a few years ago of Kevin Pearce. Kevin was hurt riding halfpipe the other day and is in a Utah hospital as we speak. Head injuries are always scary but the best thing about them is that they can end up with no long term effects. Everyone is crossing their fingers for Kevin.

I only met him this day. He was quiet, shy, new to the media circus. Now, in the run-up to the 2010 Olympics, his crash makes the US national news.

Send him good vibes here or drop by the frends site. Snowboarding is a massive brotherhood and we're all thinking of this little brother today.

-Dano.

December 24th.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-12-25T16:01:29-08:00

Here is our day from sunrise to sunset yesterday:

YVR departures

Loading luggage

Bye bye Vancouver

Bye bye Canada.

Nothing but Pacific.

Islands on the horizon.

Surf is way up.

That's us.

Arrived

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope Santa treats you well.

flickr slideshows

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-11-28T16:51:33-08:00

Flickr Slideshow. Why not?

Winter work sets in.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-11-13T12:58:24-08:00

Now it can be told...

So I started to work with my old friends at Monster again last week. As longtime followers of the blog know, I've been doing all kinds of different media projects in the last few years as a way to keep myself challenged and to continue to add experiences to my list. After the success of the Grenade Games last spring, Monster was nice enough to have me back to work on through the Olympic year. Which brings me to this event. I'm afraid that I can't give anything away yet because details are being pounded out as we speak, but suffice it to say, for all the people who can't afford, or don't want to attend the Olympics, we're going to make sure that there is an event you can get stoked on at the same time.

Stay tuned for details, this one is going to be good.

Oh ya, and then I'll be working on Grenade Games 6 too. My liver hurts already.

Also. I've been taking pictures of the buildings on my walk to and from the Monster Office for a long time now. Eventually the plan is to have photos of every building on the west side of Main, from Alexander to the viaduct, in all sorts of different media (35mm film, digital, large format, paint, whatever) and line em all up on a white wall somewhere so you can experience my walk to work. I'm hoping to get it done some time in 2010. I've been posting a bunch of stuff on flickr lately too. Weird.

121, 123 Main Street. Vancouver, BC.

229, 231 Main Street. Vancouver, BC.

Back from Maui, on to the real world.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-11-01T01:15:24-07:00

Back from my trip to Maui to celebrate my one year anniversary. We had a great 10 days in the sun and spent most of it underwater with our friends Gabe and Sarah. The highlight of the week, aside from the obvious milestone of the first year of marriage, was spending 15 minutes around 85 feet underwater with 30 foot long whale shark. This is the biggest fish in the ocean and for most of us, a once in a lifetime experience. Having spent a bunch of time in Utila, my wife T had snorkeled with Whale Sharks on numerous occasions, but to be deep underwater with one, and have it hang around, is rare and we are still amazed by our luck. I didn't have an underwater camera rig on this trip so you'll have to settle for the flickr group that was taken by our divemaster Joe. Thanks to Ed Robinson's dive operation, this is the second year we've done our boat dives with them and they are a solid operation with great people. We did around a dozen shore dives over the course of the week too, and we rented our tanks from B & B scuba in Kihei. They're a really great shop and nice people who took care of us last year and again this year.

For my scuba geek friends, you'll be stoked that we saw over a dozen different nudibranchs, some of which are unnamed and still unknown, eagle rays, more turtles than you could count, huge and tiny scorpionish, devil, leaf, and more, tons of frogfish, one of them even freeswimming, lots of whitetip sharks and some grey reef sharks, that I missed but everyone else saw, tons of different eels including dwarf, whitemouth, yellow margin, zebra and tiger moray, and just about every tropical fish you can imagine.

Here are some shots from the trip.

D.

The "Sea Spirit", our trusty ride.

Kits on board.

Sunset from Wailea

Part of a beautiful drive on our way to a remote shore dive.

On our way to the Mala ramp shore dive.

Rays over the water, rays under the water.

Lahaina

Legendary Hawaiian diver Ed Robinson.

Tonight is the night

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-10-16T11:46:59-07:00

It's been about 18 months since Westbeach first came to me with the idea of writing a book for their 30 year anniversary. Even though the book has been shipped to a bunch of media outlets, the actual big boxes of books only got here on Wednesday, which is lucky considering that tonight is the party to celebrate the launch of "Out West". I'm looking forward to seeing so many of the people who have been involved as well as a bunch of old friends.

We're starting things off with a private dinner for the people who've made this happen, then off to the Red Bull lounge for a VIP mixer with a bunch of awesome people from Westbeach's history as well as Canadian snowboarding legends, and finally we end up at Fortune Soundclub, Vancouver's new hip spot to keep it going.

If you've been following the Westbeach Heritage project then you've probably seen the videos (here, here and here) and maybe you've flipped through the first chapter of the book online here, but you certainly haven't seen all these folks in one place at one time in the last 15 years. Old dogs and young shreds all mixing it up together. Awesome.

Bowman may even show. BOWMAN!

Nix is coming.

Anyone seen Alex Toporowski?

Of course Cartwright will be there.

Belzile? Check.

SBC Cover

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-10-15T12:57:53-07:00

I got an email from Sarah Conrad just before I went to bed the other night. You remember her, we talked about her back here in April. She dropped a line to say "thanks" for the shot we got published. I hadn't heard anything or seen anything so it came as a bit of a surprise to find that it was the cover of the Snowboard Canada Women's Annual.

It's always nice to get a cover shot but I especially like this one. I had a good feeling about her Japan to fakie as soon as we shot it which is probably why I wrote that blog. I got the pdf from John Scarth at SBC today but I still don't have the issue in my hands. Gribbon has three copies though so hopefully I'll get my greasy hands on one soon. Here it is.

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The book. It exists. And folks are talking.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-09-21T15:44:46-07:00

Well! The advance copies of my book "Out West: Snowboarding, Westbeach and a new Canadian dream." have hit some media outlets and all I can say is wow! Great reviews. People are stoked. I'm stoked. Everybody's happy!

I want to talk more about it but I'm swamped in this edit right now. I have a lot of stuff I want to blog about so stay tuned for some recently published shots that I'm stoked of, some of my opinionated rants, and Way more pictures. Until then read the reviews:

ESPN

Transworld

Buy it!

I stole this photo from Transworld.

boulder

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-09-18T11:10:41-07:00

Yesterday was the last day of the catalog shoot I've been working on. We shot a little bit of bouldering around the base of the Squamish Chief, a huge chunk of granite that is a climbing mecca. Despite some problems in the morning, by sunset we were making some nice pictures. I wish I had another week in there, there is so much to shoot. Look forward to another job that has climbing involved, I have some great ideas.

d.

bike

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-09-14T20:52:02-07:00

So today was the Mountain Biking portion of the catalog shoot that I'm doing. It was really dark all day so we had to light everything and the priority for the brand is to show the clothes, so we weren't dealing with super gnar riding. Still it was really fun and Eric got to bust out a bit at the end.

paddle

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-09-14T07:57:17-07:00

Shot some paddlers on Friday. Here are some outtakes. Off to shoot some bikes today. Cheers.

Putting summer behind me

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-09-10T17:25:31-07:00

I stumbled into a little catalog shoot this week. My friend Mark broke his hip pretending to be an 18 year old skater and rather than letting down his client he asked me to shoot it for him. It's very straightforward shooting and I'm a little disappointed that I won't be pushing any limits, but as always I intend to bring something special to the job and find a way to over deliver. All this comes a little quickly and going from sleepy third world living to hectic first world organizing is a definite switch of gears. Wish me luck.

Here is a little slideshow from my diving gallery on Photoshelter. Some of the shots are old but there are a bunch from this past summer. I'm closing the book on diving for now and moving on to the next thing. Well, at least until the end of October when we head to Maui...

Enjoy,

D.

scuba dive - Images by dano pendygrasse

Dr Sun Yat-Sen Gardens

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-09-04T09:34:21-07:00

I was ten minutes early for a meeting yesterday so I finally went into the Dr Sun Yat-Sen gardens by my house. The entrance is literally a block and a half from my front door and I've never been in. In ten minutes I managed to scratch the surface, but there are undoubtedly many more photos to be found here. I love Vancouver for its amazing diversity and the fact that there are little gems like this tucked away just about everywhere.

It's my wife's birthday. Give her some love.

D.

Click any photo

I'm so sick of HDR, well balanced images. Let the highlights blow out you idiots.

It's hard not to shoot the cliche shots.

I love the f'ed up lines in this. Everything is going to be alright. Indeed.

WOOF! WOOF...er, I mean; Bark.

Flight

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-09-03T23:13:31-07:00

I had a really long trip home the other day. A 10 hour flight ended up taking somewhere around 28 hours.

It was really hazy over BC from all the forest fires.

More soon.

D.

Home. Finishing some things and starting some others.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-08-22T09:43:40-07:00

"Whoa. Are you still here? Wow. Nice to see you. Me? I've been away. In Roatan, Honduras. Ya, there was a "coup". Big Earthquake too. How big? 7.1! I know, it was crazy. Well, between that and the swine flu scare the tourists pretty much stopped coming. Ya, that's why I'm on my way back to Vancouver. Just in time for the salmon in the rivers and the leaves to change colour. I'm hoping for an indian summer, I love Vancouver in September.

Pictures? Sure, I took some. Not as many as i would have liked, the divemaster training kept me from shooting much and then I started to work leading divers and couldn't take a camera along. Ya, it was a bit of a bummer, but I was happy for the chance to get some experience.

What now? Well I have a couple of interesting job offers and it's an Olympic year so there will be lots of things to shoot, but truthfully, I'm mostly just looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and catching up with friends. Yes, of course I'll start writing regularly again. Having reliable electricity and internet makes blogging a lot easier.

Well thanks, I'm glad to see you again too. Talk soon."

bad reason to travel

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-06-27T20:23:32-07:00

I'm back in Vancouver for a week on an unscheduled break from summer in Roatan. A few days ago our dog Willamina was poisoned and after 10 agonizing hours died in our arms. She was an innocent victim of some local kid's vendetta against a Rottweiler. 6 dogs died within 24 hours from this little prick's poison. There is a special place in hell reserved for assholes like that and I truly hope he dies slowly, painfully, and in view of his loved ones.

It's hard not to lash out at the place and culture that took our girl from us but we're determined not to. Bad things happen everywhere and we're not immune here in the first world. In fact we'll be back in Honduras by Friday and that will help us to start to put this behind us. Besides, Will is there and so it will always be a special place to us.

I don't have a lot to say right now, precious little about photography, but if you haven't hugged your dog lately, or your family, or friends, go do that now. Things change fast, and when they do, the biggest regrets are the little things we failed to do.

D.

Back in Roatan

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-05-24T08:55:58-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been in Roatan for a week now, took about half that to get my bags, battled off the dreaded "roatan gut" for a few days and then got down to business. I'm doing my divemaster training with Reef Gliders and have started to wade through the thousands of pages of reading and tests, but still have managed to sneak in a few dives. I always like to shoot at El Aguila, it has lots of cool lines and as I learn how to shoot underwater better, it's a good baseline to judge myself against.

Yesterday on the first dive, I was shooting a photo of a turtle passing me by when I heard Barry banging away like mad on his tank trying to get my attention. Barry isn't really one to bang his tank a lot, so I figured something exciting was going on. As it turns out a big green Moray Eel had snuck up behind me and was biting my fin! Never had that happen before! When I got back to the shop and looked at my photos I saw him sneaking up on me in the background of this shot.

Sneaky Green Moray Eel and turtle.

Just blowing bubbles.

A diver on the wreck.

Goldentail Moray's are my favourite eel around here

And finally a flamingo tongue.

It's a little tough to keep up with the blog here, the power still goes out pretty much once a day, the internet is painfully slow and I am kept really busy with the DM course, but I'll try to get something up at least once a week, hopefully more. I'm going to try to get photos up here as often as I can too, so check it out if you like.

Cheers,

d.

Going away presents

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-05-15T06:56:18-07:00

This week I was in at the Monster office saying my goodbyes when Libby asked about the going away presents. Now I've always thought that when someone leaves a job, the people at that place of work have a "going away party" or give that person some sort of "gift" as a token of their friendship and appreciation. It turns out that I was wrong. Dead wrong.

"Where are our presents?" Asked Libby. You see, what I didn't know, (and suspect that Libby didn't until it came out of her mouth at that very moment) was that at the Monster office, when you leave you are obligated to GIVE presents.

Well I thought about sending a fruit basket, I trolled around Home Depot looking for something funny (to which Libby replied; "New rule: no Home Depot presents") and eventually realized, with 3 dollars left in my pocket, that the best present I could give is the gift of memories.

Here is a little photo essay of our trip to lunch one day. There is a restaurant down on East Hastings that offers steak for less than 10 bucks. I've always looked at it and wondered "who goes there? It looks so sketchy." Well now I know who goes there: Friends.

Hand painted signs are the best. Is that the best bull ever?

Oh so THIS is where friends meet.

This is the sign that always had me wondering.

MMMMMMMMM. Multi and Tasty.

Oh I shouldn't.

The proprietress

Dave and Paul map their culinary attack

These live on bulls.

The view.

The meal.

Libby likes?

Let's just drop off some cards. Notice the No LImits in there?

Uh. We're done.

And then there was weird homeless sex acts on the way home.

You're welcome. And I'm out. I'll miss you guys. Best crew ever.

I'm coming!

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-05-14T23:50:07-07:00

I sleep till plane. 2 till this view. Port Royal or Salva is the hardest decision I'm making for awhile.

Friends

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-05-13T21:32:15-07:00

I'm going back to see these goofballs. Can't wait.

Moments in time - Matt Goodwill

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-05-06T18:01:11-07:00

After trying for years Matt Goodwill finally won the Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom in 1999. Matt was seriously one of the most exciting snowboarders to watch, but very few people ever got to see him in his element. He was a monster in big mountains and his high speed Alaska attack predated Johan Oloffson's reshaping of big mountain riding by several years. Interestingly snowboarding doesn't seem to pay him much attention or give him much credit, but in my mind he was one of the people who really rewrote the rules about how to ride the steeps.

When he won the Banked Slalom it was as inevitable as it was awesome. He looked almost relieved to finally check it off the list. He raised the ceremonial drum that was the trophy that year, and let out a native Washingtonian whoop that everyone there felt in their soul.

A great moment in snowboarding's history for sure for Steven's Pass's favourite son.

I always loved this photo but it never had a home.

d.

Photography, ah yes...

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-05-02T08:43:41-07:00

So as some of you know, I'm about to take a trip down south. I'm going back to Roatan to do my Divemaster training and hopefully see a little more of Central America. Soon my blog will be mostly turquoise and jungle green.

I'm not rich, so I can't just leave the apartment empty and pay the mortgage. This is unfortunate. I have some paintings on the wall that are very valuable to me and that I'm not particularly interested in leaving to the whim of fate, so they are getting stored. They are 7 panels and the arrangement left me with a bit of a dilemma; what do I use to replace them? I decided to make 7 shots from around the hood, all taken with the canon g9 and converted to black and white. Of course then I went ahead and made way too many and now I have to choose.

Can you guys help me by picking your favourite and least favourite. I know some of you don't like to make public comments, so it's ok to send me a note, or feel free to put your comment in at the bottom. All this stuff has been taken in the last year and a half walking around my neighbourhood.

D.

Thanks very much

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-30T16:07:43-07:00

I need to say some thank you's before I move on from the Grenade Games stuff and get back to our regular programming.

This was a new stage in my career, I went from simply being a photographer covering events to running a team of people to cover GG5. Before it started none of us had worked as a team, so to have been as successful as we were was a testament to hard work and good luck combined with a bunch of solid groundwork.

Jay Vaillancourt built and maintained our site with little direction and a healthy dose of self motivation. Jay takes what you think about Web geeks and throws it out the window. He is straight metal and an intimidating looking dude, but don't be afraid, he rolls with the punches (and drunk dudes knocking on his door at 3AM) and keeps everything running. Couldn't have done it without him. Thank you.

Damon Pyett from Coastal Riders is a freak of nature. He brought together a crew of fimers who, if they walked into a meeting you might laugh out of the place, but then you'd be an idiot. Jeff Keenan, Matt Standish, and Mike Fikowski worked their asses off shooting pretty much around the clock to get our edits up faster than people could believe. We set out to raise the bar and we did because of these guys. Thank you.

In front of the camera and keeping busy behind the scenes as well, Joanna Majcherkiewicz, came into our team as a sort of floating media expert but quickly found her role. She was tireless, fearless, hilarious, and pro in the face of a daunting schedule and a generally crazy scene. I still can't pronounce her last name, but I sure know how to say thanks. Thank you.

Russell Dalby has been shooting events for Monster for a long time, but this time he truly upped his game. His shots from the Poker Final Table really stand out to me. The fact that he managed to stay mostly sober this whole week totally amazes me. Most of the photos you see on the web were taken by Russell and he deserves high praise. Thank you.

We also got some filming from Rob Picard although he wisely kept his distance from the mad media room most of the week. Thanks Rob.

The Canadian Monster team is the best group of people to work with in the game. They are patient, persistent and resilient. They also brought the soul back to an event that badly needed it. Anyone who doubts their commitment to making action sports a better place is way out of line. In it for the right reasons. Libby Everest is strength personified. She takes no shit, makes no excuses and is completely on point. Friend crush. Nelson Phillips is a visionary dude, make no mistake. He saw the writing on the wall for the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival and set out to do nothing short of remake it. Mission accomplished. Thank you for getting me involved.

Dave Phillips and Paul Rak are the boots on the ground and I often think that they work harder than anyone. They also play harder. Honorable mention goes to Brad Broughton who was right there with them almost every step of the way. So were Amy Huddle and Lindy Thomson who made sure so many things were taken care of, and always with a smile. Thank you all.

I'm really impressed with Danny Kass and Kevin Casillo from Grenade. They decided to take the Grenade Games bigger and international this year, and they trusted us to do it up right. They were nothing but gracious and grateful and it made dealing with them and fulfilling their vision really painless. I've worked with so many prima donna pro snowboarders before, and to deal with someone who is at the top of the game but still does it for all the right reasons is truly encouraging. Kevin is like some kind of soul mate from across the continent. Instant friends, intelligent conversations way into the night, awesome. As the week wore on and I got stuck in the media world more, I didn't get to spend as much time with them, but still, we had a great week.

I've saved the best for last. Nobody put in more hours or worked harder than Clayton Larsen from Sandbox. He is the amazing editor that put together all the videos. He brought good ideas and great technical skill to the table, did revisions quickly and without complaint, and worked just an unbelievable amount. You can see that he has gained a ton of experience in the Sandbox camp, and he's clearly unflappable. Clayton man, you get the biggest THANK YOU of the week.

Around this time last year I was writing this. The most important line of that was "Put the snowboard back into the "ski and snowboard festival". I challenge the organizers of the WSSF to make this festival into a legitimate part of the contest scene, and to bring us back some credibility, not just the hotel visits."

What do you have to say? Did we do it?

Joanna M and Damon. Can I get you some sunscreen Damon? Joanna M photo.

Dalby always looks like this in photos.

Biggest Canucks fan ever? Possibly. Nelson Phillips is the captain of the ship. Don't kiss any pigs in Mexico.

Radical dude. Just ask his ass. My favourite grenerd Kevin Casillo and me at Sushi Village.

Libby and Jay at Sushi Village. Jay is the man.

Friends. Libby and me at the skate jam

And this drink means it's over. Oh wait, Danny just bought a round of shots? Oh shit.

Grenade Games day 5 and all the crazy video movies...

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-24T14:04:21-07:00

I'm poking my head out to say hi to everyone. The Grenade Games are a rolling ball of madness and destruction. The parties every night and the hilarious events are way beyond what my fragile soul was prepared for but I like to think I'm rallying to the cause. My liver hasn't taken this kind of abuse in years.

The halfpipe finals are on now, I'm uploading photos from the rock party last night that SBC and Monster threw. The video is going to be as hilarious as the Grenade Games opening night at sushi village video. You can see all of em here.

Wish me luck. In 48 hours it will all be over.

John, Scott and Mat rock out.

Aliens are real.

My favourite hair metal rocker of the week

The dancefloor was madness. Especially for Slayer, Angel of Death.

Monster Grenade Games 5 - Day 4 from monster dano on Vimeo.

Grenade Games updates

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-22T13:13:04-07:00

What an insane week this has been so far. This basically the first time I've had a second to pause and update here since I've been doing all my updates over at the Monster Site. (blog, galleries, video) The Grenade Games started off with a bang and they have been loads and loads of fun. The moguls are going on right now, and unfortunately we went from sunny slush yesterday to cold overnight, so it's hard as a rock up there. Luckily the weather is going to get back to warm and sunny soon.

Here is a video from the opening party. We're doing tons of posts so if you want to know what's happening in Whistler this week check it out. I'm a twittering little fool too, so if you need instant updates you can follow me @dspphoto.

Grenade Games 5 - Night 1 from monster dano on Vimeo.

I can't give you guys any promises about updates for the rest of the week so drop by the Monster site if you are into that sort of thing.

D.

Grenade Games 5 is on

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-20T09:47:39-07:00

Registration day. Grenade Games 5 is on!

Westbeach Heritage video number one is alive!

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-18T12:27:55-07:00

The first of several videos for the Westbeach Heritage Project is up. It's essentially a teaser for what is to come. It's fun for me to see so much of the work that I've done over the last year put together in video form. We hired Lenny Rubenovitch to produce the series and I think he's done a really great job. Check it out:

The Heritage Teaser from Lenny Rubenovitch on Vimeo.

While you're in Whistler for the Grenade Games you should check out the "State of the Art" show at the Whistler Conference Center. Westbeach has a heritage display there featuring a bunch of my old shots and best of all, the Classic Westbeach video "Virus" is playing. Watch all the way through for one of the few video parts I ever had as a sponsored shredder. I laughed my ass off when I watched it there, it's been 15 years since I've seen it.

Speaking of the Grenade Games, the riders are starting to show up already and Monster's takeover of the Adara hotel is almost complete. More green M's than you can shake a dead cat at. Come on up and check it out!

d.

Sarah Conrad and Grenade Games

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-15T17:37:56-07:00

I was shooting with the WVSC today in the Blackcomb pipe and met our Canadian National Halfpipe Champion, Sarah Conrad. She's really nice and she threw down for my camera for awhile. Here is a sweet Japan to fakie. As we get closer to the Olympics I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more of her name.

Throws down...

and super pretty. This girl has a future.

We're charging into the Grenade Games now and soon I'll be blogging on a different site for he duration of the event. I'll post a link when it goes live.

Cheers,

D.

crash

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-10T10:37:41-07:00

Earlier this week I drove to Whistler early one morning to shoot some park. You can watch a video of that day here. On the way up, past Squamish, in the Cheakamus canyon I was the 4th or 5th vehicle at an accident scene. As I dove up I saw the highway was blocked by a pickup truck that had been dumped on its cab. Two people were taking the driver out and then took her (I think) to the barrier where they were attending to her. She walked away from this.

Motorists attend to the victim of an early morning accident on Highway 99 north of Squamish, April 7, 2009.

She was taken care of and I was late, so after I saw that I couldn't be of any assistance I drove on. I called it in to Mountain FM, so if you were listening to the radio on Tuesday you might have heard Dano.

Drive safe.

Park photos from blackcomb, video.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-08T14:02:56-07:00

Yesterday I shot photos in the Blackcomb Terrain Park. It was sunny, hot as heck and super, super fun. Mark Gribbon assisted, he's awesome. Rob Picard from the WVSC came along and shot video and then stayed up late putting it together. That was super nice of him and because of his hard work now you can watch a day at work with Dano. You'll have to wait for the photos until after Whistler/Blackcomb gets to see them.

Thanks to Dan Stubbs, Robjn Taylor and Mark Sollors who hiked a lot for me.

Enjoy Quicktime:

Or Youtube:

Brian Savard

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-05T22:57:38-07:00

Snowboarding is timeless.

Quiksilver Showdown over the city

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-03T14:26:57-07:00

A couple shots from last Saturday at Grouse Mountain. Despite the fog I had a lot of fun shooting. Thanks to Jeff Silcock from Grouse for hooking me up.

I'm still really busy with too many projects and dealing with my truck. Sorry I don't have more to say today.

Grenade Games are coming soon and registration is open now right here. It's only open till the 8th so get on it!

This kid had sweet tailslides through the kink. He and his friend never stopped hitting it all day. I love it when kids are stoked on shredding.

seb toots won it

ridiculous style

Atsushi came third.

belzile at the end of the day in the skyride.

Life Photos, Snowboarding, and other stuff.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-04-01T10:07:58-07:00

Just after I started writing this blog I got a call fro the New Westminster police to tell me that my truck had been recovered, a week to the day since it was stolen from in front of my building. There is some damage but it looks like I will be getting it back. It remains to be seen how long that will take and what condition it will be in. Of course my sled is gone. I'm going to have to eat that loss and it completely sucks. If anybody is looking at a really good deal on a 2007 skidoo summit 600, please take a close look at the VIN and give me a call or drop me a line.

I shot a couple things over the weekend including the Showdown over the City and was going to show some photos but I suddenly don't care that much. Instead I'll show you this:

Life magazine is allowing bloggers and non-commercial web folks to use images from their archives free of charge, a very interesting move.

tough week

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-03-27T21:57:38-07:00

One of the weird things about theft is the unforeseen consequences that go along with it. My truck and snowmobile were stolen from the front of my building this week. This in itself was devastating but pile on top of it the fact that I was on my way to shoot for a job that I really need to finish, and as result, I missed the best day of the week. That's not the end of the world, but it stings and puts me even further behind on an increasingly huge workload.

I lost that whole day. I lost half a day dealing with ICBC and police. I have lost my ability to get to and from my work at a time when I desperately need to be mobile. But worst of all is the fact that I am mad and disheartened and I have no ability to be creative when I am angry.

I tend to portray myself as a pretty happy guy on this blog. For the most part that is true, but I am a reformed cynical punk rocker angry kid mad at the world, and that guy is lurking just below the surface at all times. When he gets out, I tend to not be very fun to be around. He was knocking on the door with a crowbar this week begging me to come out and play.

I took a few days off from blogging because I didn't want to vent here, and I'm glad I did. There have been a couple of really generous people who have offered to help and that has been a little bright spot in a dark week. I have about six weeks left in the season and I feel like I am at square one. I've been trying to be a better person in the last few years and to have this shit come down just days after raising a bunch of money for my favourite cause is one of those things that makes you scratch your head.

Aftermath

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-03-23T12:04:11-07:00

Sorry this took a whole day to get up. Better late than never.

Thank you very much to everyone who came out to my opening at the Blake Jorgenson Gallery on Saturday night. It was extremely well attended as was the party after at the Firerock. Special thanks go to Libby, Dave, Paul and Nelson from Monster. Scott Arkwell and Mat the Alien who kept the place rockin' all night long and longer, Holly and Joey at the gallery, Russell Dalby who shot photos at the party (you can see them here) and all the people who donated spinal cord research through Murray Siple and the Rick Hansen Wheels in Motion. We raised around 500 dollars and I'm really stoked on that. I'll let you know the exact amount when I count it later tonight. I especially want to thank my wife T who has to put up with all the chaos in my life.

Highlights of the night for me were seeing unexpected old friends like Don Schwartz and Scott Murray as well as JF Pelchat, Shin Campos (who brought his two week old daughter Cora!), David Aubry, Stu and Abby who managed to show even though we didn't think they could make it, Gerhard Gross, Michelle and Ryan from Whistler/Blackcomb
and lots of photogs like John Scarth from SBC, Phil Tifo, Mark Gribbon, Eric Berger, and Jeff Patterson who narrowly avoided a huge avalanche earlier in the day.

Damon from Coastal Riders was there with a ton of the Party Snake kids and they kept the management worried, Gnarcore was in the place too, with Brockelbank having the most fun of anyone grilling Murray about his old snowboard movies and Rouleau sporting a trainwreck of a haircut.

Good times had by all, lots of telegrams and roses from folks who couldn't make it, and I even managed to get up the mountain to shoot a couple photos and ride all day Sunday. The show runs till April 15th so drop by and take a look.

Nelson, Libby, Paul and Dave. The Monster crew. "New rule: shiny backgrounds" Russell Dalby photo.

I carried this thing around till it was heavy and full of money. Russell Dalby photo.

Jim Barnum showed up sporting an original shirt from the first Westbeach classic at Cypress in 1989! Still neon after all these years.

This was the last shot I took in the Gallery after it opened. Then it got busy and I started shmoozing...

Showtime at last.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-03-21T11:57:58-07:00

Well folks, today is the day. I'm just finishing up the final details for the opening party tonight and getting ready for the good times. Thanks so much to the folks at Monster Energy who are supporting this exhibit and Holly at the Blake Jorgenson Gallery who has been burning the candle on both ends and still made time to hang all the photos with me yesterday. All I can say is, I wish I had more space. I would love to show about three times as many photos as I'm finally able to, but that's the deal.

We're going to try to help my friend Murray Siple raise some money for spinal cord research tonight so please bring at least a twoonie to throw in the jar or go here if you can't make it. I know that we're really close to being able to treat injuries like Mur's and every little bit helps. That way, when you see him walking through the village in a few years you can take a tiny little bit of pride that you helped make that happen. This isn't a question of "if" anymore, just a question of "when" and the sooner it happens the sooner the life of Mur and thousands of others will improve.

Ok, I have to go sign a bunch of prints. Check out some more of the coverage here, here, and even here.

The things I don't know.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-03-18T19:19:12-07:00

I might as well admit right here and now that I don't know squat about photographers. I mean, other photographers. Well, that's not entirely true, I've learned a lot in the last couple years, but for the longest time I didn't know any important photographers beyond Ansel Adams. And that was just fine with me. I lived in a bubble and I liked it. When my shooting started evolving from pure "action sports" into something a little more advanced, I wanted keep the process as untainted as possible. I was really afraid of being overwhelmed by an influence and becoming derivative as a result.

In the last few years I have seen young action sports photographers take unique ideas and recreate them, and pass them off as their own. I think it's totally reprehensible, but the shots are getting published, so I guess I have a higher standard for originality. There is a lack of shame about it to, as if the copyist is entitled to the concept simply because they've seen it with their own eyes. The entitled generation has an entirely different value set and it's interesting to see how they interact with the establishment. I'm sure that at some point I'll see the bigger picture, but right now I just see selfish kids who only know how to take.

One day about a year and half ago, I was showing my friend Tim Zimmerman a bunch of my older non-action sports shots as I scanned them and put them online. He said something like "whoa, Jay Maisel influence eh?" I said: "Who?"

This is exactly what I was trying to avoid, and it didn't work at all. Without ever having seen the man's work I was being compared to him, and I was pissed off. Well in a very short time I completely changed my tune. I stopped being afraid of influences and started to embrace them. Of course, I'm not interested in recreating anyone's photo, but I've gained a lot by looking at peoples' process. In fact that is what led me to finally take a workshop last spring after avoiding them for 15 years. And of course, I learned a ton. Maybe not just from Heisler, but also from some of the other people involved. Just watching other people work changes how we work. We see solutions to problems we've been having. We learn little tricks. Questions that we have are answered and inevitably we have that moment of "Ah Haaaaaa!"

During the Heisler workshop I met Jay in the flesh, his unmistakable marble mouthed commentary sharing the little bits and pieces that make up who he is. It was a brief encounter and he wouldn't be able to pick me out of a lineup, but it completed the transition out of my bubble.

Yesterday Jay shared a little bit more at Scott Kelby's excellent blog and it's worth a few minutes. In the end, I don't want to take Jay Maisel's pictures, I just want to make pictures like Jay Maisel does. The way he works suits my style perfectly. However, I fear that he is last of a breed and we're less likely to see his kind of work much from my generation. (Although I'm sure a few of the entitled kids are walking around his neighbourhood looking for his shots and trying to identically recreate them to call them their own.) I understand that there probably isn't much chance that this body of my work will ever have a showing at the VAG, but that's not the point. I am compelled to shoot like this and have to keep doing it.

Here are a couple links to things about the show this weekend. See you there:

The Pique

Boardistan

More photos from France and Switzerland

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-03-17T15:01:03-07:00

Well I have seen just over half the prints for the show this weekend. I'm pretty stunned with the quality. I don't print nearly enough stuff and that is going to change right here and now. Nothing on a computer screen can compare to a 30 inch supergloss print. It's like rediscovering your work.

I had breakfast with my friend Cole yesterday. He's in Vancouver waiting on weather in between jobs. Kid is on a tear right now having just made the PDN "30 photogs to watch" list. So young and so talented. Good people also.

It's been dumping snow all over Whistler and Blackcomb this week at last. I'm taking care of all the stuff that piled up while I was away and then I'll be on my way up to get my share.

Here are some more shots from the trip. I thought I'd point out that pretty much everything I put up here on the blog is shot with my Canon g9. It came up in a conversation the other day so I thought I'd clear that up. Some of the stuff from the archives and the Snowboard Photo Blog of course are from the Nikon SLR's, but most of my walking around stuff is on the g9.

Also, you can follow me on twitter here. If you're into that sort of thing.

fist tree!

light shadow

sausage?

looks terrible. tastes great.

tram to the top of Le Brevent.

Lessons learned in Chamonix

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-03-15T22:10:07-07:00

I've never taken a vacation in the winter before. Winter is shooting season and shooting takes priority over everything else. That is all good and fine, but one day you wake up and that priority just seems, well, a little bit delusional. Or compulsive. Or maybe just misguided.

I just took a family vacation to France. My wife's family, that is. When the idea of going on this trip came up I looked at the dates and without even thinking decided I wouldn't be able to do it. Second week of March? Seriously? What snowboard photographer could take that week off to just, go snowboarding? In the Alps.

Well as it turns out, I could. And it was easy, all I did was say "yes" and then not book anything that week. The world kept turning. I didn't miss out on anything life changing. And I got to ride Cham with my wife and brother-in-law, in super deep powder and sunny skies to boot.

My priorities have changed a lot over the years, and never more than they have in the last 18 months. Photography is a really tricky lifestyle in that it is on one hand really needy, to show off, to put your work out into the world, and on the other hand very time consuming and often not particularly social. There is a reason that when photographers get together, you can't shut them up. It's because they have already used up the "photo talk" patience of their wives, girlfriends, and family and are just dying to talk shop with someone whose eyes don't roll back into their heads when you start talking about the minute details of a hyperfocal distance or photoshop actions. We go through the often solitary act of making photos, we often have nobody left to bore with our excitement for the things we make, and we compulsively consume information about anything that has anything even remotely to do with our job.

It could be worse. We could be proctologists.

So ya, I'm learning to take a deep breath a little more often. to not get lost in the chaos of winter and to keep my level of passion high. As a result I'm less consumed and more into photography than I have been in years. I've stopped being influenced by the machine of the industry I work in and I'm concentrating on fostering the elements of my work that are true to my vision and not commercially corrupt. They're honest. I spent a bit of time taking pictures last week, no time talking about taking pictures, and a lot of time thinking about taking pictures.

Ok, so here are some shots from europe that have nothing to do with any of that.

Things you find in 400 year old houses

Vines near Hilary's house, Geneva.

suisse

Blue house number.

No Dachshunds?!?! Get Draplin on the case!

Cham is huge

Uh, lady, I think you've had enough sun.

bike

sausages as far as the eye can see.

Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps. These black birds aren't crows.

The Aiguille de Midi. I'll have some shots from the top in the next couple days. Stay tuned.

I'm in Whistler

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-03-02T17:51:08-08:00

Here are two monochrome shots from a few days apart. I love when the world is black and white without me having to change it. I hate cliche "shoe on the wire" shots, but I was walking along with Paul Rak and for whatever reason I couldn't pass the shot by.

shoes and wall. Railtown. February, 2009.

This morning I was waiting for a ride and it was really warm and beautiful outside so I went to the driveway to wait in the sun. I started searching around, knowing that there was a shot out there somewhere, looking for something interesting. I looked out at the mountains, tried a couple frames that were totally unremarkable, and then looked down at my feet. The slush on the ground was melting away (in fact when I got home a couple hours later the driveway was bare) and I looked into the slushy wetness. I looked closer, saw the bubbles and took a few frames.

I love this shot. There are always pictures. Everywhere, all the time.

Slush. Whistler. March 2009

Hard times for young photographers

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-26T08:23:18-08:00

I mentor a few young photographers and more and more, I'm hearing how tough it is to break into the photo world. This isn't news and it isn't surprising, but this post today on A Photo Editor really drove it home. Today I feel lucky to have some solid clients and diverse interests.

I used to tell anyone who asked that snowboard photography was the best job in the world, and at times it can be, but the truth of the matter is that to make it, you have to get published, and the magazines in the snowboard world are in a state of semi-panic as their page counts drop and their corporate bosses tighten the belts. They are forced to do more with less, and since there is little money to develop the web, it becomes underfunded, even though it is clearly the future of media.

Young photographers have always been taken advantage of and it's hard to say no to someone when you are hungry, but these days it's not even like the rates are too low, it's more like there are no rates. I wouldn't mind so much, because everyone can just say no to a bad deal and walk away, but when editors at magazines bully young photographers into giving away their shots for free with threats of blackballing them, things have gone too far.

The stage is set for the demise of paper magazines. At the very least we will see the herd thinned down to one or two titles in snowboarding. Evolution is coming to the shred media and it will come, like all good things, from the bottom up. Behind closed doors, photographers, designers and writers are already planning the next step. We'll soon see the day where publishing bullies are left impotent at the helm of a media ship that has sailed. Then they will have to take a long hard look at how they have treated their young peers.

I've never believed in the theory of stepping on heads to get ahead. I think that today more than ever, the idea of coopetition makes more sense. Also, the idea that poor young photographers should be funding multi-million dollar publishing conglomerates is just abhorrent. I hope that young shooters will stand up for themselves and not get bullied into giving away their shots for free. There is a time and a place for that, but it's called charity, not career. And you magazine editors flexing on these new kids should be ashamed. Especially the ones who were photographers first. This is straight out of Orwell's Animal Farm. Power corrupts eh boys?

"How to start a Home-Based Photography Business"

showtime

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-25T08:55:36-08:00

Hey folks,

On March 21st I'll be having an opening at the Blake Jorgenson Gallery in Whistler. I've decided on most of the photos I'm showing, but wanted to leave a spot open for you guys. Take a minute and look through the galleries and leave a comment or shoot me an email and let me know what you think should be included or what shouldn't. We're keeping it to winter shots, and mostly action. If you remember a shot that you always loved and isn't up here at www.danopendygrasse.com let me know and maybe we'll bring it back for you.

Thanks for all the support. I love that so many of you are visiting this website and following the blog.

-D.

Snowboarding

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-23T23:13:28-08:00

I like this photo. Nothing more. Nothing less.

A black and white snowboarding photo. Of Mark Landvik. In the Kootenays.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-19T15:09:54-08:00

There isn't a lot of demand in the snowboard media for photos that have an emotional depth. People focus on the "trick porn" a lot and although you may see lots of well executed portraits and "lifestyle" shots, they are more often than not staged, plain, soulless images made to emulate the photographers favourite technique instead of capture anything transcendent or intimate. That's fine, it's just snowboarding and there really is no need to aim high...

I've always liked photos that evoke a feeling, especially one of familiarity. I like when you can look at a shot and know what it feels like to be there, to feel the snow, the cold on your face, the wind. I like when a photographer stops wanking off with their technical ego and starts to pay more attention to what is going on in front of the camera. I guess I'm tired of seeing technically perfect and creatively anemic snowboard photos.

Protect our Winters

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-18T12:43:17-08:00

Over the holidays I donated some photos to a collab between Origin Design and POW (Protect our Winter), the environmental charity promoted by Jeremy Jones. I like working with the people at Origin, they are extremely professional and in the action sports industry, that's a refreshing change.

I'm an opinionated guy but I don't preach often. I feel like unless you are a perfect example, it's very hard to tell anyone else what to think or do. I'm pretty far from perfect. I use transit, I walk and bike, I recycle, I try to get my food from local sources, but I also take planes to far off places several times a year, drive a 2 stroke snowmobile (although less and less), and I'm sure that if someone took a good hard look at my life they could find a lot of ways that I could live a better, more environmentally responsible life.

So I donated some photos to people who are working harder at it than I am. If you have time, take a look at what they are doing, maybe you will find something worthwhile there.

D.

Cal B.C. becomes Westbeach

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-16T15:52:38-08:00

Westbeach grew out of Canada's fascination with California and everything it represented. If Chip had decided to sell shorts with an Eastern European theme we wouldn't be talking today.

Here are some things from the archives. First is an article clippped out of the Calgary Herald from Chip's personal stash from about 1983 or 84.

Next is one of Chip's early business cards.

And finally an old sticker. This sticker is significant because it is a snapshot of the moment in time when Cal B.C. became Westbeach. It's cool to see the single surfer logo that preceded the "three surfers" that everyone knows. Also, Westbeach was never really known for its involvement in skating despite having sold the product for years so it's cool to see the "Westbeach Skate Lounge".

Finally, here is an excerpt from the book that talks about some of those times. Enjoy:

As the kids started to pick up on snowboarding, the retailers inevitably followed—even if they were a little skeptical about the new sport at first. Scott Sibley worked with Chip for Dome petroleum and he also had a business selling sailboats in Vancouver. He was the first to sell Chip’s shorts in BC and as they became more popular his business changed from sailboats to surf and skateboard brands. He and his partner Richard Mellon had a little pink house on 4th Ave. that they called Cal B.C. and they eventually formed a partnership with Chip and the store became Westbeach. Scott remembers his first impressions of snowboarding:

It was so good for us, because all the young guys [were] coming into the store going, “Oh, have you heard of snowboarding?”—you know, bringing input to us—and we’re going, “Oh, really?!” There was a kid called Kelly Alm and he was just on us like crazy about this new thing called snowboarding. He brought in this—it was the Burton with the medical-hose bindings and all of this stuff—and he goes, “Check this out!” And you look at it and you go, “Are you serious?” But, you know, that was my first discussion about snowboarding. And it comes through a kid.

Of course, once Westbeach started to carry boards, things really started to pick up steam. I asked early Westbeach team rider Paul Culling about discovering snowboarding and the role that the shops played in the sport’s development:

I went to Cal BC, which was a little pink house [on 4th Avenue in Vancouver]. It was a California-inspired clothing store, and then downstairs in the basement there was a skate shop, so we used to go over there. It was probably just a matter of hearing that there was a shop in Vancouver that sold some kind of snowboard…When you were a kid and you were skateboarding, you would take the bus clear across to—I mean it—two hours to go to a skate shop, not even if you had any money, [but] just to stare at the new decks on the wall, right? And that’s the kind of feeling of this passion that you have, and you want to go in and you want to talk to somebody else. Back then if you were to see somebody else on a snowboard, anybody to do with snowboarding, you would immediately just talk because you wanted to share experiences—“Where have you gone? What have you done? What are you riding?”—because it was all so new. I mean, everything was new.

In 1987 Cal BC officially became the Westbeach Surf Company, and the store moved out of the little pink house and into the spot that would be the center of the Westbeach brand for more than twenty years: 1723 West 4th Ave.

- From the soon to be published "Out West: Snowboarding, Westbeach and a new Canadian dream"

David Rouleau snowboards for my camera.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-16T11:14:36-08:00

Dave Rouleau. Gap to frontboard. Whistler.

Mountain Photographer, Portrait Photographer, Snowboard Photographer...

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-12T16:46:51-08:00

I've had a lot of feedback to a recent article I wrote for Snowboard Canada Magazine. The funny thing about my career as a photographer is that it came out of my desire to be a writer. In the end I'm doing both but I've met so many good writers over the years that I can't take that side of my career as seriously as the photography.

In any case, SBC had been asking me to write something for their "RANT" column for a long time and I had been trying to avoid it because as I get more experience I realize that I don't want to invest in negative energy and would rather keep it positive. They persisted and one day one I was feeling particularly snarky I pounded out 750 words or so for the column. Now when I write something for a magazine, I do it so that it will be an excuse to run one of my photos. That's a dirty little secret in our world, if you can write, you'll get published more. That's all there is to it.

Anyhoo, the article came out and John Scarth used his own shot to illustrate it. Irony.

Here is the article in case you missed it:

Keep it to yourself.

For a long time now I’ve been known as an opinionated guy. Part of the punk rock chip on my shoulder still survives from my teens and as much as I mellow with age, there is a bitter cynic lurking just below the surface. I don’t really let that guy out much anymore. I’ve come to realize that when you invest in the negative energy, all you get is negative results.

But sometimes things just Piss. Me. Off.

I’m working on a book right now, and it’s about the history of our sport, and about the Westbeach company. It’s been really interesting to dig into the vaults and get to know where we came from a bit more. I mean, I lived it, but I was also a teenager and some of those years are a little blurry. So I’m looking at the pictures and stories with fresh eyes and let me tell you something - our history is something to be proud of.

But then somewhere along the line things changed. In the late 90’s there was a lot of consolidation of brands. Little guys either banded together with bigger guys, or they went out of business. Ski companies smelled money and moved in. People with real money, like Trump money, started looking at snowboarding like it was the next big, great investment. Some of them bought in too.

So what pisses me off? The culture that killed the Westbeach Classic pisses me off. It was the best snowboard event in Canada. Some people think it was the best event in the world. And it went away. Why did it go away? Because Westbeach got bought, sold, cut up into pieces, and eventually two groups of people who had nothing to do with the original company, snowboarding, or the heritage of the sport, and only cared about bottom lines, signed an absolutely horrendous contract and pulled the bloody pumping heart out of the company. And they didn’t even know that they were doing irreparable damage to Canadian snowboarding. Didn’t even care. It pisses me off that they were ever even allowed to be in a position to make decisions that affected our sport and our future. Of course they are going to do the wrong thing, they have no vested interest in the sport. So how in the world did venture capitalists and corporations get control of our future? We gave it to them.

When a company reaches a certain size, it becomes too expensive for them to keep doing business without outside money. Outside money doesn’t just grow on trees so when you get big enough and want to take it to the next level, chances are you will have to make a deal with the devil. Lots of snowboard companies made these deals to try to grow into a bigger company, but take a look around the landscape of Canadian snowboard history and you will see it littered with the bodies of companies that couldn’t make it work. Storm, Treeline, Rev, Or:g, Limited, Luxury, to name a few, and that’s just some of the board companies that come to mind. So why am I mad? Am I some sort of class warrior socialist hero? No. I’m not that guy. But I am patriotic, and even more, I’m a snowboarder who cares about the future of Canadian snowboarding.

We need more Canadian snowboard brands. And we need companies that can say no to a bad deal and manage their growth. Anyone can go buy snowboarding culture at the mall every day, and instead of being a reflection of the people who live it, these days it’s just being force fed to them. I don’t want focus group tested colour ways. I don’t want 5 companies selling the same red and black striped jacket year after year. What I do want is individuals to make things that are unique. I want for them to get noticed for that, maybe get a little credit for that, and not get ripped off by some multi-national corporation. I want regional diversity. I want the people I meet on the road to look different from the people I meet at home. I want arrogant heroes and unapologetic badass locals. I want them to invent trends, grow them, and then when they're ready - unleash their culture on the clones.

Mostly I want riders to care enough to buy something local, something Canadian or even better I want you all to quit fucking buying “cool” at the mall and start making it yourself.

- dano

A photographer and sometimes social commentator, dano has been called both unapologetic and arrogant.
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Vancouver Downtown Eastside.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-09T20:52:20-08:00

Vancouver's downtown eastside is rough. I spend a lot of time walking down there and I've seen all sorts of madness from the bottom end of humanity. Drug abuse makes people into husks. One dimensional creatures with a simple agenda; get more, do more, by whatever means. Crime is rampant and the streets are full of characters that you don't want to meet in an alley after dark. I don't make eye contact often.

There is, however, a lot that I want to take pictures of. I've begun to get a little braver with the camera, and it comes out pretty much every day now, but I'm still not ready to take a picture of an addict in the middle of a psychotic speedball episode. It's not really what I'm interested in to be honest. It feels a little cheap to go looking for the truly depraved so that middle class folks can point at the pictures and say "that's the problem."

power.

cranes/lights.

rooms.

Recent Work, Westbeach Heritage book, Grenade Games 5.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-06T10:42:07-08:00

It has been pointed out to me that I should maybe showcase some of the things I've been up to lately. As you can see from the last blog, my last year has been really busy as well as really diverse in terms of the projects that I've taken on. I'm still waiting to get the hard copy of Whistler/Blackcomb's media kit to see the portraits I shot for it, but I'll show you some of the other things going on.

Go here to see the Westbeach Heritage blog. We'll be leaking bits and pieces from the book in the next six months as we lead up to the publication, as well as some things that didn't make the book that are super interesting.

Of course I'm charging hard on my new project with Monster Energy and Grenade to bring the Grenade Games to Whistler for the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival. I'm really impressed that after voicing what a lot of people were thinking last year, that the TWSSF has taken an active stance to make a better festival and let me be a part of it. It's very much a "put up or shut up" situation and I've turned my focus to this for the season. Join the Facebook group here for updates.

I've had a bunch of work getting published in the last month or so too. Here is some of it that I like best:

The word "legend" makes me feel old. Snowboard Canada Mag.

Landvik rules. I'm glad Anon picked this shot.

Devun Walsh's interview in Frequency Mag is pretty great. It's a good issue and you all should pick it up.

12 months

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-04T15:36:14-08:00

In the last 12 months I:

Got married.
Bought a condo.
Wrote a book.
Spent 20 (though not nearly enough) hours underwater.
Watched the magazine I helped start, end.
Sold photos to magazines and companies around the world.
Did the highest paying photo job I’ve ever done.
Was offered less than I ever have been for photos.
Took huge chances in my career.
Worked on a deeply satisfying personal project.
Worked too hard, but not smart enough.
Lost my priorities.
Found them again.
Fell further in love.
Started to put the pieces together.
Was humiliated.
Was proud.
Was intimidated.
Got over it.
Rode a bus.
Rode a bike.
Rode a boat.
Rode a helicopter.
Rode a snowboard.
Rode a plane.
Rode a (sky)train.
Rode a snowmobile.
Wakesurfed.

Sometimes I have absolutely no idea how I make it through the years. My life astonishes me.

Wind. Olympic Village. Vancouver.

Several steps

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-02-03T12:10:27-08:00

My life is getting torn in several directions lately. It's exciting to do new things and have new challenges, and it's also difficult to let other things wait.

Yesterday was the beginning of the media campaign to promote Grenade Games 5, this spring and it went very much according to plan. As the days move on we'll be bringing more information out and continuing to work to make sure that the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler is the best it has been in years.

On the other hand, the winter in BC has being very difficult and isn't cooperating in the making of snowboard photos. I find that to be frustrating. C'est la vie. Life moves on. Mine continues to be very, very interesting and unusual. As I shoot more and more in my neighbourhood, I am starting to really "see". Themes start to become obvious and I spend more time developing the ones that speak loudest to me. This is a long process and It's very interesting. The best part about it is that as you live longer, the things you see change. How you see changes. What is important to you personally and photographically change. This means I'm often dismissive of some of my past work as I move past it, and also some things from my past that didn't resonate with me immediately grow on me over time. My work evolves even after it's in the can.

As my snowboard photography suffers in a bad season, I become a better photographer.

Here are a couple shots from this week.

s canoe

dog run

casino bird

Home

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-30T11:58:18-08:00

Back from a quick three days and two nights in Vegas. The SIA trade show is going to be in Denver next year so this is the end of a long stint of industry debauchery that is some people's yearly highlight. My mission was to spread the word about the Grenade Games coming to Whistler for the WSSF in April and generally show my face around and connect with folks. It was pretty successful, although it is definitely impossible to do everything you set out to at SIA. To all the folks I missed, sorry bout that, come to WSSF and I'll buy you a drink.

My overall impression of the snowboard industry is that it is remarkably optimistic and full of piss and vinegar despite the whole economy. Booths were full, stuff looked good, people were smiling and the general feeling I got from people was "what crisis?" All in all, it's nice to feel optimistic when the world seems so dreadful every day. There is really extensive coverage on boardistan and matt's blog and of course from our friends at Transworld Business so if you are interested in pictures of all the new stuff and whatnot, you should check them out.

the view from the palms' playboy bar or whatever.

Lana flips out. It's a noisy mess, i know, but she's rad so there you go.

dalby wins the g9 wars.

Speaking of optimism, this came over my blog reader today ( via pixsylated. thanks) and I thought I'd share it with you. It's a really simple concept that just works so well that it makes you stop and take a second look. Seriously cool.

Have an optimistic day.

d.

Turbulence

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-27T14:51:48-08:00

On my way to Vegas. My 7:55 AM flight, that I got up at somewhere just after 5 to get to on time, was cancelled and I was rebooked on a flight at 11:50. That would have been ok I guess, but I got to spend over an hour on the tarmac too! Something about frozen toilets.

Here is a picture of Mathieu Crepel on a suspension bridge.

5PM

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-26T09:39:58-08:00

Today is the first day of the year where the sun stays up until 5 PM. For folks who live up north, the rapid lengthening of days is a welcome relief from the truncated sunlight hours we endure for several months each year.

Yesterday I came down from Whistler early for an afternoon meeting. When I was done, it was so nice out that I decided to walk down to Granville Island to get a hot cheese bagel from Seigel's. I've been treating myself to these little nugget's a few times a year since I was a teenager and they are basically the most amazing thing you can eat.

But they were sold out. It was Sunday and I had nothing else on my agenda for the day so I decided to take the Aquabus down False Creek and home. When I got down to the Ferry dock they told me it was going to be about 25 minutes so I decided to walk the rest of the 5 kilometers. I mean, it was a really spectacular day.

Along the way I met up with some friends, so some good sights and basically had about the most relaxing Sunday afternoon I could imagine.

Ok, that's enough of that. Back to work. Here is a map and a couple shots from the walk home.

-d

View Larger Map

ducks wait for the pond to melt.

I ran into Jon and Grace and took this while we were chatting.

So much new stuff

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-23T13:04:40-08:00

There is so much going on these days I can barely take it. Exciting times in Danoland for sure. I've taken a new job which I will expand on in the next week or so, I'm getting down to the final phases of the Westbeach book and some of the people who have seen the rough layout are tripping, so that is encouraging. Getting set for Vegas next week, kinda last minute decision to go, due in large part to the new job. I feel really lucky to be in a position to have work, so many photographers are struggling this season and I'm finding that being versatile and able to do more than just click a shutter is helping me a lot. My relentless curiosity, as much as it drives my girl nits sometimes, is definitely an asset to my work.

I've been loosely working on a project for the last few years shooting portraits of the folks who work at dive shops. It's been cool to do something that is just for me and allows me to connect with new people outside the snow world. I put a small gallery up here, so if you have a minute take a look.

Seeya in Whistler or Vancouver or Vegas!

D.

Heineken bottle. Police Yard, Vancouver.

the fog

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-22T10:50:36-08:00

Vancouver is setting a record for the longest stretch of fog ever. I mean, I heard that anyway. It might be true, maybe not. This was taken at noon. (That also may not be true.)

Craig.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-20T15:28:16-08:00

It's been 6 years since we lost Craig Kelly. I called him "Snowboarding's last great leader" a few years ago when the documentary "Let it ride" came out and I think it holds true. Volumes have been written about Craig's influence so I won't go too deep into it. I'll let his riding do the talking. I wear a "remember Craig Kelly" button riding every day.

Saturday night's alright for a...

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-19T11:19:10-08:00

Saturday night the Blake Jorgensen Gallery in Whistler hosted a party to promote the "7 Artistic sins" line of skis by Rossignol. If you ever thought snowboarders had skateboard envy, it seems like skiers have got it even worse. Instead of using famous skaters like Stevie Cab and Andy Howell, should skiers be hitting up the talents of famous rollerblader artists? Jus' kidding skiers, I ain't hating.

Anyhoo, it was packed in the gallery, super awesome fun times. Monster was all up that thing and after they held a party down the hall at the firerock. Scott Arkwell is looking more like a Sikh every time I see him and it's a good look. Jon Horvath from the Fort Knox Five was the other half of the best party soundtrack I've heard in a long, long time. Seriously fun night while all the drunk kids in town for MLK weekend beat each other up in the rest of the village.

Thanks for the good times everyone.

-d

Scott Arkwell and Jon Horvath know music.

Westbeach book

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-18T12:29:45-08:00

The cat is out of the bag.

So THAT is what I've been doing for the last six months!

canucks

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-18T10:23:14-08:00

The Canucks have totally been sucking lately. Sanford even looks bummed here.

snowy dreams

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-17T14:08:15-08:00

Remember winter?

heli dreams.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-16T22:54:02-08:00

This is not where I am right now.

Roatan dive photos - Photoshelter gallery

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-14T11:07:08-08:00

Check out some shots from diving in Roatan, Honduras.

Mark Landvik

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-13T10:23:39-08:00

Deep Winter 2009

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-09T12:54:43-08:00

So tonight is the Deep Winter contest in Whistler. For the last three days, 6 photographers have been shooting their asses off in terrible conditions with the aim of putting together an award winning slideshow tonight. I've done this contest for the last two years and it is easily one of the most exhausting photographic experiences I've ever endured. Considering the conditions, I'm more than glad to not be doing it again this season, but I am very much looking forward to seeing the results. And this year I will sit on the panel of judges.

I think that judging photography is stupid. I said "no" to the request half a dozen times before finally being convinced to participate. In the end, someone will win, but I know that just the experience of shooting for those three days and making a slideshow to present on the night of the fourth provides a huge sense of accomplishment to the contestants.

Here is a link to my show from last year and a couple shots from the contest. Good luck to all this years contestants.

Home.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2009-01-05T12:50:36-08:00

Well, I'm home. I'm pretty good at changing gears but I found it impossible to get excited about all the snow in Vancouver. I'm about to go out and walk in it, so maybe that will change my mind, but my head is still underwater.

Here are some shots from my Christmas Vacation. I hope you like them.

Anessa and Barry watch the sun set from the Reef Gliders dock

One of the millions of Sharpnose Pufferfish that are all over the reef

lil buddy

Brendan clowning around with a bottle he found.

Spotted moray eel.

A giant anenome in front of the blue on the reef wall.

T checks out a preoccupied turtle. He was munching on a sponge for about 5 minutes.

T checks out a lobster on the wall.

This Peacock flounder was showing off his blue spots for me.

Reef Gliders moved into a huge new shop with its own beach and dock. Nice!

And now for the real world. I'm actually excited to see all of the entrants in the Deep Winter Photo contest going on this week. I'll be judging the event and I'm not really looking forward to that. Judging photography is like deciding which puppy is cuter, everyone has an opinion and they are all correct. However, someone has to win and I'll contribute as best I can to make sure it is the right person.

Unfortunately, saying yes to this event means that I am going to miss the Greg Todds Memorial in Trout Lake this weekend. I'm really bummed about that. I hope all my friends out there have a good time, and be safe. I look forward to seeing the photos.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope that is the last time you al have to hear it. On with the show...

D.

roatan for the holidays

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-12-30T13:57:33-08:00

In between power cuts and with extremely inconsistent internet, I'd like to wish everyone a happy Christmas and New Years from Roatan. Diving with Reef Gliders again and they have a new, much bigger and better spot in the West End. I've seen all sorts of old friends and met some new ones too. Saw a seahorse on my second dive, of course I never dive with my camera the first couple times after time off. Of course.

Here is a turtle. I'm already counting the days before I have to come home.

travel day

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-12-19T23:26:43-08:00

I'm stuck at PDX. My 11PM redeye to Houston became a 3AM redeye to Houston. Although the flight still takes up the entire night, I am now stuck in the airport for 7 hours and not that stoked on it. However I can't get too bummed, my wife's flight from YVR to SEA got cancelled and they put her ON A BUS! That's why you pay for flights, so they can put you on a bus....

The other day it was colder than you can imagine in Whistler and they were firing up the snow guns trying to make up for the fact that mother nature hasn't been too helpful in the snow department this season. The wind was blowing like crazy, it was minus 25 up there, and all the snow that they were blowing was just flying up into the air and off the mountain. I pulled out my old 400mm f5.6 too see what it looked like on a digital camera. It doesn't hold up at all, but still, there is character in old glass.

I'm gone to the land of unreliable internet and no cell phone. I'll be there until the new year so I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has spent time looking at my photos and reading my words in the past year. The power of my bog is continuing to surprise me as things I've said come back time and again in all kinds of strange ways. At its core, self publishing is the easiest and most democratic way to be heard that humans have ever enjoyed. I don't always have things worth saying, but when I do, there are people out there who are listening. thanks for tuning in.

Happy Holidays,

Dano.

Brian Savard

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-12-17T09:55:44-08:00

Brian Savard was one of the hardest working shredders in the game for awhile and despite never having ridden for one of the big "star maker" brands in snowboarding, he still managed to become one of the biggest names in the late 90's.

This photo ran on the cover of Snowboarder Magazine in 1999 and is an all-time favourite of mine. I've shot this cliff a few times with Brian and also with Shin Campos. It's in bounds on Whistler Mountain and rarely sees much action because it's really hard to get on top of. We called it "tree cliff" because there is a tree in the landing that both Brian and Shin have hit.

In an era where we are seeing more and more weak riding in the media (tail blocks, tiny "urban cliffs", and weak backcountry booters), I miss the power of riders like Brian. Of course there are still lots of them out there, but increasingly they are pushed aside in favour of over-strobed "filler" shots. The rise of this kind of photography corresponds with the strobist culture that is prevalent with young shooters. They tend to prioritize their technical (pocket) wizardry in front of the skill of their riders. With the increase in blogs and websites as the culture-defining media outlets and their lack of buyout budget, we see lots of b and c grade photography being paraded around as legitimate. Unfortunately this trend has trickled upwards and traditional paper mags have been persuaded to believe that if a photo has enough gelled strobes lighting it, the riding can be just about anything.

I disagree. I think we are on the verge of a point where people will stop picking up magazines that continue to pass off this cheesy faux snowboarding and see it for what it is. A charade.

Brushie

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-12-16T13:29:46-08:00

I've been following the VBS.tv series "Powder and Rails" since it started earlier this year and although the episodes are short and they come out erratically, it's fun to watch my youth being given the documentary treatment.

This week there have been a couple of episodes on one of my favourite riders ever, Jeff Brushie. When Jeff was still a teenager he came out to Whistler and lived at the end of a dead end hallway in our house. He was super stoked on riding and was content to make himself a little bed in the corner, live on next to nothing and ride every day, all summer long. When I started shooting pictures in 1991 he was one of the first guys I shot and over the years I got to shoot with him quite a few times.

Brush was the kind of rider who set the bar for style. If he changed how he did a trick, the very next day half a dozen pros would do the trick his new way. I guess some would call that a compliment. Jeff had pop back when hardly anybody did and he was always crowding the top of my frame.

Style is harder to put your finger on these days and maybe as a result there is less emphasis put on it in snowboarding. I think that is a shame. Brush will always be the king of style.

Blackcomb, Summer 1991.

Blackcomb, Summer 1992.

Squaw Valley, 1993.

Snowmass, 1994

Westbeach Classic. Whistler, 1996.

Carts of Darkness, Whistler Film Fest, WCP party.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-12-08T12:17:15-08:00

Here is a quick shot from last week. I was in Whistler for a screening of my friend Murray Siple's "Carts of Darkness". It's an amazing documentary about bottle pickers who ride shopping carts down steep hills. Afterwards we met up with Nix from Fourstar Canada for some sushi. The Whistler Film festival is going on so we went to one of their party/gala deals where we hooked up with Whistler superstar Ace Mckay-Smith and legendary DJ/Producer Scott Arkwell.

This crew was obviously a recipe for hours of conversation, foosball and venue-testing. I don't get to hang with the good people as often as I'd like and this was an awesome night that I paid for dearly the next day.

The next night was the Film Fest party put on by Whistler Creek Productions. I set up a photo booth and we shot some of the attendees. Another legend, Bruce McDonald, was in the room and there were screenings of some of the films from the Heavy Hitting B-Grade Horror film Fest as well as an auction of some photos. Here are some of my favourite shots from out front. The rest will be on the WCP site later.

Romain De Marchi and Paul Watt from Absinthe Films

Super Master DJ Mat the Alien and his better half Amanda

Alberta is a long drive but Rob Stevens don't care

"Hey I'm going to do a backflip"

Nix And Kashi show their party face.

best expression of the night

Stuart Andrews and Shin Campos from Whistler Creek Productions

Just awesome

waiting

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-12-06T13:31:33-08:00

Winter is taking its sweet time this year. Here is a wall from Antigua, Guatemala in 2007. Layers and layers of paint, plaster and concrete. 400 years of bumps and wear.

classic

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-12-02T11:04:42-08:00

Hey folks,

Today I'm posting up one on my best-known and favourite photos. When I shot this photo of Lukas Huffman in 2003, this jump (known as 'perfect jump' because of its natural perfection for jumping) had become pretty blown out and was a one trick pony in terms of angles. I was completely sick of shooting it because there is such an obvious angle that has been shot to death, but not many others. This day I was determined to get something different.

I watched Luke's shadow pay across the snow in the foreground and set out to capture it. I had to beg the rest of the crew not to mess up the snow in the foreground zone with tracks, so someone threw the last bit of their sandwich in there just to mess with me. You can see it there on the left. My friends rule...

When I shot this I had never seen another snowboard shot that looked like it and I was really, really happy with the result. It has run in Magazines a bunch of times and I recently sold a print of it. I love this shot.

Ok, on a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to throw a shoutout to the good folks at Yobeat.com who have been making fun of snowboarding for over a decade.

backlog

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-30T01:45:00-08:00

I've been shooting lots of stuff lately and not posting any of it. So now I have a whole gang of photos just burning a whole in my hard drive. Here are some of them. Enjoy.

grrrr. i'm all enraged and stuff.

sun/blinds

this crow is not one bit intimidated b those spikes

gold medallists will stay here

I'm a sucker for this kind of thing

more damn crows.

this is the last photo I took in maui. from a moving car.

dog walks look like this. it was way colder than this.

we have two young trees named yarbit and narbit. this is narbit.

Snowboard Photo blog v2: part 7 Chris Wimbles

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-25T09:55:53-08:00

Well folks, it looks like Whistler has pushed forward their opening day to tomorrow, so this will be the final episode of Snowboard Photo Blog: Version 2. It's been fun, I hope you guys have seen some stuff you liked. Now that it is shooting season again you'll start to see some fresh shots up in here!

Today we have Chris Wimbles from December last year. I had a shot of Wimbles in the Frequency photo book recently and in the caption I spoke a bit about how he is a real working professional. Never cracked the Shaun White status, but gets out there and works his ass off to get published all season long. I respect that. A Working Class hero is something to be.

Have good shredding folks.

-dano

click photo

Snowboard Photo blog v2: part 6 Eric Jackson

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-24T11:44:14-08:00

Hey Folks,

Welcome to a brand new week and more shred photos. Thursday is opening day on Whistler, so this will be the last week of Snowboard Photo Blog until I have new shots to share. It was my birthday yesterday and tons of people did cool things to make me happy, which is nice. I'm older, no wiser, and still doing what I do best. Taking pictures of snowboarders.

Here is Eric Jackson again. "But you just showed him on Friday" you say. Well yes I did, but so what. This is one of my favourite shots from last year so I'm showing Eric again.

Have a great day out there. I'm going to write a chapter for the book.

-d.

click photo

Snowboard Photo blog v2: part 5 Eric Jackson

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-21T01:02:51-08:00

Facebook tells me that it is my friend Eric Jackson's birthday today. My favourite kid and a great snowboarder, Ejack keeps me stoked and keeps me laughing when we shoot together. He is everything I like about snowboarding these days; he is a young progressive rider but he takes on the whole mountain instead of just getting stuck in the park. Luckily he has had some great mentors like Mark Landvik and Mads Jonsson, not to mention his brother John. I like taking pictures of Ejack.

Happy birthday buddy, can't wait to get out to the secret spot with you again. It's your year to slaughter.

Here is a double shot of Ejack.

Snowboard Photo blog v2: part 4 Benji Ritchie

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-20T09:26:23-08:00

I spent a couple days shooting photos of Benji Ritchie, Gabe Taylor last winter while the were filming for the Grenade Films "the boned age". This is the kind of shot that makes me want to go riding, and winter is just around the corner so I hope it makes you want to as well. I hope you have been enjoying the Snowboard Photo Blog. I'll keep it up on weekdays right up till it's time to ride!

click photo

Snowboard Photo blog v2: part 3 Romain de Marchi

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-19T09:25:10-08:00

Good morning shred dogs, Welcome to Part 3 of the Snowboard Photo Blog: Part 2.

I'd like to welcome all the portrait photographers out there today. Whaddup face shooters.

Today we have a shot of our friend Romain de Marchi from the Absinthe Films' movie "Ready". I spent some time with Paul Watt last year and we had some good days out in the backcountry and also up in Revelstoke.

click photo

Snowboard Photo blog v2: part 2

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-18T09:21:20-08:00

Good morning friends,

Welcome to day two of version 2 of Snowboard Photo Blog. I'll keep this up right up till opening day so that you all can get as stoked to snowboard as I am.

Our victim today is Mads Jonsson, world record holder and also one hell of a nice guy. He's funny, he's scando, and he's really, really good. This shot was taken during filming for Standard Films' "Aesthetica" this past season, at Northern Escape Heli near Terrace, BC.

Enjoy.

click the photo

Snowboard Photo blog v2: part 1

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-17T10:34:08-08:00

Hi folks.

Opening days are popping up all over the place and winter is just around the corner in our neck of the woods. To get you all in the mood for the snowboard season I'm bringing back the Snowboard Photo Blog. Check back every day for new snowboarding pictures from the past winter. Click on the photo and it will take you to a wonderful place where you can see more of my snowboard photos.

transitions

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-14T10:41:58-08:00

I'm having a really hard time transitioning from the warm water and beaches of Maui to the grey cold of Vancouver. It's that time of year that is always really challenging, too early to snowboard, but already cold and wet. Roatan is sounding better all the time. Reef Gliders is moving and I can't wait to check out the new shop. I miss my friends down there and the fun times. Shooting diving photos underwater again in Maui has got me all amped on that again. It's a shame that it is so bloody expensive to get into and a tough place to sell photos. I figure it will take about another season before I have some really good underwater stuff. Not that I'm not happy with some of the things that I get down there, but I'm not as consistent as I am shooting people, or snow or whatever.

Ok, time to write a chapter for the book.

A box full of magazines

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-11T17:00:59-08:00

I just found a box full of magazines. Some of my covers from over the years. Unfortunately they are mostly older and a bunch are missing, but still, it's cool to see some of my old snowboard photos. Chris Dufficy, Devun Walsh, Jf Pelchat, Bjorn Leines, Shaun Palmer, Dionne Delesalle, Brian Savard, Marc Morriset, Mark Landvik, Shin Campos and a bunch more. When I get the rest of my archives gathered together I'll try to make a comprehensive gallery.

d.

Maui in October

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-11-05T20:25:53-08:00

Tomorrow is my last day in Maui, and then I have to faced the reality of cold November in Vancouver. In the last week I have done a bunch of diving, hiked through a tight bamboo forest, had some great meals, and, um, oh ya, got married.

I'd never been here before this trip, and I pretty much fell in love with the place. Here are a few shots. In a couple days I will try to catch up a little bit.

Dano

The sun sets here like, ever single night!

sometimes guidebooks tell you to go places that aren't really there

But sometimes those places turn out to be pretty cool

this is not the waterfall we were looking for.

Lava, oceans and green as far as the eye can see.

On the highway to Hana there are all sorts of super beautiful famous waterfalls. This is not one of them.

This is my wife checking out a huge anchor. She found a Green Hawaiian Lionfish.

This is the lionfish she found

and this is a leaf scorpionfish, which is also cool.

Devun Walsh Photo

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-24T17:16:41-07:00

As long as I've been a snowboard photographer, there have always been certain riders who have stood above their peers. Taking photos of Devun Walsh has always been easy. He's a hard working dude and he loves being out in the snow. I was pulling shots today for an upcoming interview with Devun and couldn't help throwing one out there to you guys. I have hundreds of pictures of Devun and over time I hope to get them all scanned so that I can share them. Thanks Dev.

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Mathieu Crepel

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-22T19:51:39-07:00

I added a function on photoshelter so that people can download copies for a couple bucks for personal use. Someone asked and it took me, like a month to get around to it...

Mathieu Crepel has epic style. He's French (like France French) and he's cool and here he is over Vancouver.

vintage snowboard photo (no way dano...really?)

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-20T22:40:21-07:00

I'm pretty sure that this is 1997 but sometimes magazines used to remount your slides and you'd lose all your labels, so I don't really know. I had a total epiphany on scanning today and I had to put something up. I have been hating on my slides because the scans don't feel as cool as the transparency, but today that shifted. That is good and bad. Good because everything will look better from now on, worse because I will probably have to go back and redo a bunch of things. Boo.

I started an Agency for Snowboard photos on Photoshelter. It's a really cool deal where photographers can group together to promote themselves and their work. If you want to play, let me know. The only thing I don't like is that the resizing is automated and some shots look bad. Anyway, check it. If you know what I can do to make the galleries look like the originals, drop me a line.

blue girl

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-19T22:03:59-07:00

Me: I need a picture of someone feeling blue.

LG: I've been crying all night.

Me: Perfect...

The Descendents

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-17T14:39:16-07:00

So busy with work and wedding. Sorry I don't have much to say. Well, I actually have tons to say and no time to say it.

Drink coffee.

It used to be a cover

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-11T00:01:44-07:00

This was once a cover of Snowboarder Magazine. They sent me a great package of history this week to help me with the book. Thanks Pat.

I'm off for my "stag" which means I'm going to fish for two days with some friends. And that is all I have to say about that. Have a great weekend.

subtle rarely wins online

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-08T18:09:13-07:00

Recently I've started making a lot more prints as a result of requests and being momentarily stable enough to get set up to print. The thing about printing is that you get to see photos big and beautiful and with all the related depth and tone that doesn't translate to a computer monitor. It's something that just doesn't translate to the web. So having said that, here is a photo that looks amazing in print, but maybe not so much on the web. I remember when I took this shot, I thought to myself, "this will never work for a magazine, it's just too subtle."

But I love it y'know? And now I have a print of it.

And you can too.

Fishies and deep breaths.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-07T11:28:55-07:00

A year ago today, I left Roatan after living there for 3 and a half months. I expected to be back there around June, but life is always interesting and you never know what is around the next corner, so instead it has now been a year since I've seen some of my friends down there. I've booked a flight back for Christmas, which makes me extremely happy, but I miss the place. No Roatan has also meant, no diving, which I miss terribly. People have asked me what the appeal is lately and my response is this; scuba diving is everything that snowboarding isn't. It's warm (at least where I like to do it), it's no impact, it's quiet and calm (which snowboarding actually can be too, but not sledding or crowded mountains, etc.).

Diving to me is like a forced meditation. You slow down your breathing, clear your mind, and look at pretty fishes. It calms me.

So in the year since I've been home, a lot has happened. I've made big strides professionally, and am very proud of the work I'm doing these days. Between that, the new apartment, and impending wedding, life has kept me very, very busy. I feel fortunate, considering the state of the global economy and how tough it is out there to make it as a photographer, to still be getting work, selling pictures, and interesting new clients.

Now if I can just figure out how to do it all of that from the beach...

This is a typical view off the wall in Roatan. No sharks or seahorses or barracuda, just a squirrel fish and lots of coral. Aaaah.

Another friend.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-04T14:36:01-07:00

This is a shot of my buddy Rob. We met in high school and became fast friends. When I moved to Whistler after high school, Rob did too and we stayed together for the first couple months. When I got interested in Fly fishing, I did it with Rob and we spent days and days on the Birkenhead River tossing out flies and learning how to fool the exceptionally wily Birkenhead rainbow trout. Eventually we knew that river as good as anyone, and Rob became a guide while I chose to keep fishing as a hobby.

As much as we did just about everything together, I never followed Rob into the water when he got into scuba diving. He braved the cold BC waters and was even considering doing his dive master. I didn't understand the appeal at all and left it to him. Fast forward 20 years and I'm completely enamored with diving and he must be laughing. He's coming to Maui for the wedding and after all these years I'm finally going to get to dive with my oldest friend. Amazing.

Robbie's dog Sedge was our faithful companion on all our fishing trips and when he finally passed on earlier this year it was a very sad day. He liked to lick trout while you were trying to release them. He thought they were like funny wiggly sticks put on earth just for him to chase. He was a good fishin dog.

A misty morning in Northern California.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-02T23:35:11-07:00

When I lived in California, I used to do the drive up and down I5 between Leucadia and Vancouver 4 or 6 times a year. In the almost 3 years that I lived there i watched the gas costs for that trip go from about 280 dollars to over 400. Gas has gone up 50% since then and I'm not missing that expense. I liked the drive though. I liked 22 hours of no computers and no office. I liked the anticipation of getting home and the feeling of excitement I got as I left Southern California.

I really start to feel like I've left California when I climb out of the plains, into the pine forests and see Mt. Shasta right by Yreka. I usually end up staying the night there unless I've made good time and press on into Oregon.

One morning, I woke up early in Yreka, eager to hit the road and get back to BC before dinner. I wasn't five minutes out of town when I found myself on the side of the road taking in this beautiful scene. The sun was rising and the hazy valley floor was cast in a warm light while mist came off a small farmer's pond. Shasta lurked back there in the distance.

I made three frames and drove north.

You can buy this photo here. And if you do, I'll go and buy another print from Will Steacy who has hit a hard stretch with a shitty landlord. I already bought one, but some of you out there could help me to help him. Pass it on...

A portrait of a friend.

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-10-02T10:10:56-07:00

Today I'm posting a picture of my friend Jon. He will inevitably hate the fact that I chose this portrait, but everything he hates about it is why it's going up. I don't get to shoot pictures of my friends nearly enough, and some simply despise having their photo taken, much like I do. Jon is different, he loves being in front of the camera, becomes a total ham the instant a lens is on him, and the results are always amazing. He however, feels like the morning after a one night stand, with lots of hand wringing and "i can't believe I did that". Within minutes of taking this shot, Jon was down to his cherry red Y-front undies, and everyone in the studio was on the floor laughing.

Jon can't make it to my wedding, we haven't seen each other in a couple years now, and I miss him like a brother. This picture makes me feel like I do when we're hanging out. I'm pretty much always smiling around Jon.

Thanks buddy.

Vintage Snowboard Shot

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-09-29T17:18:48-07:00

I hate to do this to you all, my loyal readers, but as the Orphan Works Bill passed in the US today, i am looking for the owner of an orphan in my files, and so here is yet another old photo of me snowboarding. Sometimes I end up with shots of myself and due to a lack of labeling, I have no idea who took them. Magazines used to occasionally send me photos that weren't even mine, because they looked like someone or somewhere I shot. In the end, if you send your pictures to a magazine with no labels, you can't be too surprised when they go missing. Sometimes however, the magazines remount shots after scanning, in which case your pooched.

All of this is a moot point because slides are over, but who took this photo of me at the Westbeach Classic in 1991? (Note the toe grab crail...)

Snowboard Photo Blog: part 13

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-09-26T01:03:26-07:00

Lucky 13! Ok this has been fun, but I'm done for now. I need to get back to long winded rants and shots from walking the dog around the neighbourhood...

We've had some luck getting magazines interested in some of these shots in the last few weeks, and traffic has been up, so I'll call this experiment a success. Give me a little break on the shred shots and then I'll come back with a new series. I have something good planned. Until then, subscribe to my feed or check back and I promise to keep it interesting around here.

Here is Gaetan Chanut in the Coast Mountains.

Snowboard Photo Blog: part 12

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-09-24T21:45:06-07:00

Hi everyone. Here is a shot that is going to run in Japan but nobody in Europe or North America has chosen it yet. Even though it's not how I typically shoot, the thing I love about this shot is
how Shin's head is plowing a perfect wake through his spray. So cool what you can do on dark early winter days with a strobe.

This shot is from the deep winter photo contest in January. Jordan Manley won it and he has been having a hell of a season already with some sweet covers. We're big fans of his work and his character.

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Snowboard Photo Blog: part 11

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-09-23T18:38:35-07:00

HI folks, fans, and freaks. Sorry about missing the photo blog yesterday, all that snow got me excited and between that a bunch of interviews and design work, and a sick pooch, well I just didn't get around to it. I know you'll forgive me.

Here we go again for Tuesday. Here is what happens when Mads doesn't get enough coffee and has do ride 55 degree faces before 8 AM. Please, please, don't try this at home.

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Snow day

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-09-22T09:28:42-07:00

Good day my friends. Check this:

Not a live picture. Click the picture to see the snow melt. Winter is just around the corner...

Hope you all had a great weekend. I'll try to get another shred shot up by the end of the day.

d.

Snowboard Photo Blog: part 10

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-09-19T11:04:06-07:00

TGIF eh? Am I right? Or what...

Here is Gabe Taylor enjoying an afternoon booter in the Coast Mountains. Now I have to go walk the dog.

Snowboard Photo Blog: part 9

dano@danopendygrasse.com — 2008-09-18T10:54:14-07:00

Busy day today. No time to chat.

If this doesn't make you want to go snowboarding, I don't think we're going to be friends...

Romain De Marchi from Absinthe Films shoot. Coast Mountains, British Columbia.
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