Andrew Strain Photography » whistler

Deep Winter 2011 Slideshow

Strain — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:59:15 +0000

It’s been almost a year since I managed to steal third prize in Whistler Blackcomb’s Deep Winter Photo Challenge. Today, I was out on the mountain scouting some stuff with Jussi Grznar, who is making his own run for the title of “King of Storms” next week, bringing back all kinds of wonderful memories like shooting in such heavy snowfall that my camera completely iced over. Or, sitting in the Glacier Creek bathroom for an hour trying to de-fog my lenses with a hand dryer (a more detailed re-cap here).

Would I do it again? Hell yes. I live for Whistler’s storm season. In the meantime, enjoy my 2011 slideshow, and get your tickets for this year’s event before it sells out. January 14 @ the Fairmont. See you there.

Intersection

Strain — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:09:19 +0000

When Intersection was announced as a new event for this year’s World Ski and Snowboard Festival, I knew it would become one of the premiere events of the festival: 6 film crews would get one week to put together a 5-7 minute ski/snowboard video, all filmed within 100km of Whistler. When I saw the $15,000 top prize and the list of crews competing, I figured it might establish itself as THE event of the festival, in it’s first year. My good friends with NuuLife Cinema, Voleurz, and Dendrite Studios were all sure to put together incredible entries, with Family Tree, Videograss, and Toy Soldier Productions rounding out the competition.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with NuuLife on their entry, a piece that showcased Whistler and the surrounding backcountry through the eyes of 4 local photographer: myself, Mike Helfrich, Kieran Brownie, and Mike Jones. I took the crew on a splitboard attempt of the Spearhead Travese – whiteout conditions halted us between Decker and Trorey, forcing us to hunker down there for the night and retreat back to Blackcomb the next day. We regrouped, lightened our packs and spent a full day filming and shooting in far better conditions around Joffre Lakes. You can see from John’s pole cam shot in the edit just how good Heartstrings was…

All of the crews put together incredible and diverse entries, particularly Voleurz and Dendrite. I thought our entry had a good shot at winning but the judges awarded the $15,000 to Voleurz.

NuuLife Cinema’s entry, “Relatively Unknown”

A couple photos from our poor visibility splitboard missions:

and the winning submission from Voleurz:

Needless to say, Intersection was a HUGE success and will be a marquee event of the festival for years to come.

Deep Winter 2011 Recap

Strain — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 01:21:40 +0000

Wow, where to start? Last week, I was one of 6 photographers chasing the title of “King of Storms” in the 5th Annual Deep Winter Photo Challenge at Whistler Blackcomb. Leading up to the contest, it was looking like it might end up being the “Deep Freeze” Photo Challenge: high pressure had settled over the area and the long range forecast was not looking promising. Thankfully, Ullr smiled upon the mountains and conjured up a beast of a storm that hit with impeccable timing: each day of the challenge brought a fresh, deep canvas for the photographers to work with.

The idea behind the Deep Winter Photo Challenge is to showcase Whistler in it’s true element: the epic January storm cycle. Everyone loves bluebird shots of a skier making perfect turns on a dream line, but Whistler isn’t the kind of mountain where it storms overnight and is bluebird the next day. When we get hit, we get hit – hard. January is typically one massive storm, where locals see the sun about 5% of the time. Not that anyone here minds; we live for these monster storms, and spend our sunny summers yearning for a return to day after day of low visibility and endless pow. The goal of Deep Winter is to document these January days that exemplify the riding experience at Whistler Blackcomb.

For the challenge, I selected a mixed team of skiers and boarders – I ride and shoot with skiers all the time, so it seemed wrong to leave that out of my slideshow. My riders were not only talented athletes, but some of my best friends: skiers Eliel Hindert, Jake Cohn, and Liam Casey, along with snowboarders Braden Dean, Eric Poulin, and Alex Filler. Possibly the best thing about Deep Winter was that it was a contest that allowed us to do what we would have anyways – lap trees, share laughs, and explore our mountains.

Shooting Deep Winter presented a great deal of challenges – predicted and unforseen. It’s always difficult keeping pace with athletes, let alone doing it with a 35 pound camera bag strapped to your back. It gets interesting billygoating around the big cliffs that my riders like to send and, sometimes, you have no option but to drop too – with thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment along for the ride. Sometimes shots that everyone puts a lot of effort into just don’t work – maybe sometime I’ll post my clunker list. My slideshow consisted of 60 images, whittled down from 1600. Most of those 1600 suck.

The environment is always a factor when you shoot snow, but Deep Winter was another level of frustration. It was great to get new snow every day for the comp, but I could’ve done without the wet snow coating my camera and turning to ice, the constant lens wiping or worse – having every element on all of my lenses coated in fog (that prompted a trip to the bathroom hand dryers and took an hour to fix). Thankfully though, just when it seemed like it couldn’t get any worse, it didn’t. It was as if every day had a series of major obstacles for us to overcome before we were allowed to get shots.

It was such an honour to have my name alongside guys like Blake, Tim and Scarth – and while I figured Robin and Ilja were good, I didn’t really have a feel for their talent until after I’d seen their slideshows. Standing on stage with the rest of the photographers, one thing was very clear to me: this was the strongest field of competition I’d witnessed at the Deep Winter Photo Challenge, and it was a pleasure to watch everyone’s unique style and vision unfold on the big screen that night. Robin and Blake were clearly a class above, so that third place announcement was the only one that carried any real suspense. Hearing my name called – ahead of 2 guys I’ve looked up to since I started shooting snowboarding – was a blur of excitement and relief.

One thing I’ve heard mentioned a couple times since the show is that snowboarding doesn’t really seem to lend itself to the Deep Winter format. Jordan‘s slideshows have featured a snowboarder in the past, but a snowboarding photographer has never won the contest. Perhaps the shred world is too sled-dependent, while skiers are more used to booting and touring around the mountain? Food for thought, anyways.

I need to give a huge thank you to Ryan Proctor and the Whistler Blackcomb PR team for giving me the chance to compete in the Deep Winter Photo Challenge – my whole team had an incredible time trying to capture what makes Whistler such a special place. Also owed thanks are Ryan Regehr for helping me edit my slideshow and filming behind the scenes footage for Unofficial Networks, all the other photographers for inspiring me over the years and putting on an incredible show on Saturday night, and my beautiful girlfriend Alix for putting up with the days I spend glued to my computer editing or out shooting for 18 hours. I love you.

Enough talk, here’s a look at some fun and behind the scenes shots from the contest that didn’t make my slideshow. Enjoy.

Deep Winter Photo Challenge – Pregame discussion

Strain — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:20:49 +0000

For a couple years now, my friends have been pushing me to throw my hat into the ring for the annual Deep Winter Photo Challenge, a photography competition that has a reputation for being a fiercely competitive 4 day grind. 2011 marks the fifth round of a contest that has been won 3 years straight by Vancouver-based photographer Jordan Manley. I was shooting in Whistler during last year’s contest and mentioned that I’d be interested in competing someday, provided Jordan got tired of winning.

As fate would have it, Manley has graciously decided to give someone else a shot at the top prize this year, and I jumped on the opportunity to be a part of the Deep Winter experience. Despite this, the competition is intimidating: Blake Jorgenson and Tim Zimmerman (so badass that he doesn’t even need a website) are top names in the ski and snowboard worlds, John Scarth is the photo editor of Snowboard Canada Magazine, and while I’m not all that familiar with ski photogs Ilja Herb and Robin O’Neill, I’m sure they’ll have a thing or two to say about my bid for a share of a $6000 prize purse.

For those unfamiliar with the contest, photographers have 3 days to shoot in-bounds at Whistler Blackcomb followed by a day to put together a 3-5 minute slideshow, presented and judged live before an audience of 1000. 1st place takes home $3000 in prize money and is crowned the “King of Storms”.

The slideshow presentation runs Jan 15th this year. Get your tix ASAP – this event sells out well in advance every year. Needless to say, I’m thrilled and honoured to be one of the competitors and I’m really looking forward to see what the collective minds of the photographers and our teams are able to produce during the 72 hour shooting window. I’ll be posting blog updates before, during, and after the contest – next up, an introduction to my team of athletes. Stay tuned!

Dendrite Studios presents: Out of the Shadows

Strain — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:23:25 +0000

Watch for this one fall 2010. If this teaser and the Perspectives clips are any indication, this is going to be one hell of a movie.

Out of the Shadows Trailer – 2010 HD Ski Film by Dendrite Studios from Dendrite Studios on Vimeo.

Surface Tour – The End?

Strain — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:46:42 +0000

Our extra day in Whitewater used up most, if not all, of the energy I had left. Moving on to Red Mountain, which I’ve heard so many good things about, was something that my body was not ready to do. I took one lap to say I was there, then retreated to the demo tent to let my body recover from 3 weeks of constant travel and riding. The mountain was socked in anyways, so I didn’t feel too bad about not even bothering to shoot.

The plan was to demo at Red, then drive through the night back to Whistler and set up the final demo of the tour at TMC (where you can buy Surface Skis in Whistler) the next day… but the Kootenays struck again, wedging a rock into Eliel’s tire and keeping us in Ymir for an extra night.

We arrived in Whistler a day late, but the extra night in the koots let El and I make the windy drive back to the coast at a leisurely pace, and in daylight.

Note I say El and I. We left Shayne in Ymir, promising to return in a week or so to take him to Denver for SIA and then home to SLC. More on that later…

We returned to Whistler after 15 days on the road, and right on schedule the first major storm since we left rolled in. Low visibility, deep pow and alpine closures – to the trees! Exploring new hills was a blast but theres a lot to be said for knowing your favorite line like the back of your hand…

So thats that. Demo tour done… end of the line! But my adventures with Surface are far from over. A week later, I’d get back in the truck with Eliel and head back to Ymir, Whitewater and destinations south…

Dendrite Studios – Perspectives

Strain — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:54:30 +0000

Just a quick little plug for the boys at Dendrite Studios, a new film company out of Whistler currently working on their first full length video for release in fall 2010. Two of my good friends and favorite photo subjects, Jake Cohn and Eliel Hindert, have been filming with them all season and I can’t wait to see the finished product.

Eliel and Chris Turpin go big in the Pemberton backcountry:

Perspectives #6 – Ten Years from Dendrite Studios on Vimeo.

Jake Cohn and Athan Merrick getting creative with camera placement on and around Whistler:

Perspectives #4 – Point of View from Dendrite Studios on Vimeo.

Check the Dendrite site for more ‘Perspectives’ clips, a full length teaser (soon), athlete profiles and other goodness.

Tis the season…

Strain — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:25:00 +0000

Every fall as the leaves turn colour and the days get shorter and longer, those of us who are addicted to the pursuit of the perfect line start getting restless. The first dusting of snow on the local mountains serves notice that winter is indeed just around the corner, and that restlessness boils over into full on night-before-christmas ADHD. The anxious daily routine of checking snow reports and forecasts and opening day updates begins, and doesn’t end until the lifts are turning and the base is deep.

For the determined few, these early sprinklings of snow offer more than just anticipation. The rock boards, gore tex and avy gear come out of the closet and the backcountry addicts ascend into the alpine for the chance to sneak a few turns before fall reclaims its brilliant colours with a dousing of October rain.

For photographers, that first snowfall is a reminder that many of the photos we took last season failed to pique the interest of a buyer, particularly in times when money is tight. I’m stoked to say that my list of photos that are slated for publication is higher than last year, but I still have an extensive list of shots that didn’t make the cut anywhere. As I wait for the opportunity to get to work this season, I’m going to post up some of my favorites from last year that have yet to find a home in print somewhere.

I’ll start it off with a strobist-style photo of Taylor Pfaff on Whistler mountain. This log jib is usually a lot smaller, but the lack of snow last season made for a fun session.

Dream about snow! Stay tuned for further updates…

After the storm

Strain — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:11:00 +0000

Not much to say with this post, as I think the photos speak for themselves. After the storm passed, the clouds lifted and revealed the scars of a thoroughly badass avalanche cycle. While I scoped the slides from lift accessed terrain, photographer Jeff Patterson and the MSP crew had a sketchy close call out in the backcountry (read about it on his blog). Be careful out there!

Fissile got ripped open:

Some photos of a controlled avalanche on Poop Chutes in the full post:

Patrol bombed Poop Chutes and it rode to the road:

The runout rolled right up to the Blackcomb Glacier cat track:

A closer look at the start zone:

270mm reveals all the different layers in the crown. That is alot of snow coming down the mountain…

I’m sure if you knew the field of view at that focal length, one could figure out the actual size of the crown, but I’m fine with settling for “big”. Props to patrol for keeping us safe.

A week of winter, pt 4

Strain — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:38:00 +0000

Wednesday was essentially a write off day due to the shenanigans that went down on Tuesday night, but we managed to get in a couple good laps in the afternoon. I was stoked to be riding sans camera – ripping through the trees and pillows is always a little nerve wracking when the contents of your backpack are worth more than your car…

On Thursday we got up bright and early (leaving from Vancouver early) and cashed in some previously purchased fresh tracks tickets to get up the mountain an hour or so before the general public. Fresh tracks is great, especially if you’re really hungry – someone with a big stomach can easily get their money’s worth at the breakfast buffet in the Roundhouse…

As is the norm during any decent Whistler storm, the visibility off the back of the peak was atrocious – the only remedy is to head into the trees.

Jake Cohn makes some low-vis pow turns:

More words and photos in the full post:

—-

Eliel Hindert drops 20:

Pow stoke:

Theoretically, this was going to be a fun photo of Eliel, Taylor and Jake all charging through the snow at the same time. You can see Eliel’s ski, upside down, in the top right. Fail.

What’s that you say, Eliel? It’s deep?

Jake and Taylor try to coordinate their next move a little better:

Eric Poulin harvests some stump-pillow:

I got off the mountain at 5:45, soaking wet (I’m a sweaty beast) and dead tired. Back down to the city to dump photos, take a breather and see the lady before heading back up for the weekend…