Andrew Strain Photography » photography

Mountain Landscapes

Strain — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:04:41 +0000

A pair of mountain landscapes, one from the summer and one from last week.

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.

Cabo Pulmo

Strain — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:40:23 +0000

A quick post since I’m rushed for time – I spent the past 2 weeks in Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, where my friend Jake Cohn has an incredible place within spitting distance of the ocean. Not a bad spot for a skier to rehab from season-ending shoulder surgery, eh? That boy leads a rough life, I’ll tell you what…

I tried to take as much time away from the lens as possible, but eventually the orange glow that filtered through the window every morning pulled me out of bed to shoot as the sun rose. Unfortunately, the time flew by and I’m back in Pemberton, frantically unpacking my vacation bags and gearing up for another field season looking for gold [+copper +molybdenum] in the mountains of British Columbia. One night in my own bed and I’m headed into camp.

A few more photos can be found on my flickr.

Tremor

Strain — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:15:48 +0000

I’m not feeling particularly wordy but wanted to post a couple photos I shot last week from the summit of Tremor Mountain, the highest point in the Spearhead Range. There are few things as humbling as travelling on skis through big terrain – note the two skiers tackling the spearhead traverse (bottom left) for scale.

Tremor was one hell of an adventure and I’m stoked we made it out there – the hourglass is a line I won’t be forgetting any time soon. I was quite pleased with how easy the trip was on my splitboard – I can’t imagine doing a day trip out to Tremor on snowshoes. Speaking of, anyone want to buy a pair of MSR Denali Evos? I won’t be using mine again… ever.

Splitboarding is the answer.

A few more photos from the trip to Tremor:

A little help?

Strain — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 06:37:44 +0000

The last month has been a crazy ride – placing 3rd in the Deep Winter Photo Challenge last month and now, taking 2nd at the Ski Salt Lake Shootout last week. I’ll do a full rundown on the SLC shootout as soon as the snow stops falling in Whistler, but for now, I have to ask for a little help…

I’m in a couple little facebook photo contests right now, both for some serious coin. I need your help to win. EDIT: CONTESTS CLOSED. I didn’t win. Oh well.

The first is the Unofficial Networks photo contest – a simple, ‘most shares on facebook wins’ style competition. All you have to do is click this link to my entry, click the ‘Share’ button at the top, and post my entry to your profile. Most shares by the 20th wins $1000.

The 2nd is a side challenge from the Ski Salt Lake shootout. Go to the Visit Salt Lake facebook page and follow the voting instructions there. My photo is photo one – a shot of a steezy hand drag 3 by Eliel Hindert at Alta. The prize there is another cool grand, with Eliel taking $500 for his skiing as well.

Thanks a bunch, and obviously, beers are on me if I win.

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!

Wedgemount Lake, 2008

Strain — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:03:39 +0000

One of my most-read and searched for blog entries is a trip report for a hike up to Wedgemount Lake in 2008. I’m heading out the door for the 2010 edition right now… she’s gonna be cold but the weather is looking good.

Here’s a photo from 2008 – this will be joining the photo from my last post on the walls of the Blackbird Bakery sometime next week.

Far over the Misty Mountains cold…

Strain — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:26:23 +0000

…To dungeons deep and caverns old,
We must away, ere break of day,
To seek our pale enchanted gold.

-JRR Tolkien

Cayoosh Creek

Strain — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 06:35:44 +0000

It’s been a long time – months – since I took the time to shoot some photos for no reason other than to shoot photos. No travel budget, no media pass… no pressure. It was a refreshing change.

Went for a drive over the Duffey with my dad the other day and stopped along Cayoosh Creek to check out some rock (in case you wondered where I got that from…). I let the old man do the heavy lifting while I got artistic… I felt kinda bad until I realized he was shooting photos of me shooting photos. Apparently rocks aren’t the only thing that run in the family – flannel and gumboots have been a Strain fashion staple for decades.