The Wasatch Powderkeg is a ski-mountaineering race that covers nearly 6,000′ vertical feet of climbing and skiing. That is, skiers start from the bottom of Alta ski resort and ‘skin’ (i.e. hike on skis) nearly 2,000′ to the top before racing back down. Repeated 4 times on 3 different peaks. The top racers often finish in under 2 hours.
While I’ve raced the Powderkeg several times in years past (including a Rec division win my first year!), I’ve always wanted to photograph it. Coming down with a chest cold this year offered a perfect excuse to finally pull out the camera.
As the race covers a lot of terrain, I debated for a few weeks about where to shoot from – thinking I’d photograph the racers as they zoomed by. However, the day before the race it struck me that what I’d really like to do is capture the racers immediately after they finish, in a series of portraits. Luckily my 8×10 holders were already loaded!
Since the finish line was more than a 1/4 mile up the hill, my assistant Kealan and I had to haul about 400lbs of gear up the hill (backdrop, cameras, film, tripod, etc.)
The portraits were mostly shot on 8×10 film, which is somewhat akin to burning $20 bills, with some of the later images shot on my Graflex 4×5 Series D.
Enjoy!
Comments 9
These portraits turned out great.
Posted 24 Mar 2009 at 3:07 pm ¶I enjoyed looking at every one.
I wish I would have done powderkeg.
Your photos are inspirational – amazing. Glad to see someone still using film…
Posted 25 Mar 2009 at 3:51 am ¶Hello. I noticed on your 4×5 images your using a grafmatic holder. Did you modify your D?
Posted 21 May 2009 at 12:42 am ¶@Adam
Yes, I have a Graflok back on my Super D and about a dozen Grafmatic holders, which are a perfect combination.
Posted 23 May 2009 at 5:01 pm ¶Hey! Your work is fantastic! I love the adventure stuff on your site! Was wondering what equipment you use? Those shallow depth of field landscapes are brilliant! What lens are you using on your 4×5? And the blurry full body portraits of the skydivers! What are you using for those? Amazing!
Posted 31 May 2009 at 1:57 am ¶Thanks Brandon. Sorry for the delayed reply…
I shoot on all sorts of different equipment – LF, MF, & digital. The smokejumpers were shot on my Deardorff 8×10 with a 100 year-old Wollensack, but most of the landscapes are 4×5, 120, & digital. For 4×5, I use Schneider lenses on a Linhof (for sharp commercial stuff), but have a bunch of old-tech lenses on the Graflex and Speed Graphics. Nothing too fancy, a lot of it just comes from shooting a bigger piece of film…
btw, I enjoyed reading your treatise on film vs. digital. Very nice. Always a pleasure to see others shooting film!
Posted 05 Jun 2009 at 9:38 pm ¶So when are you going to post more work. Love to see it
best
Posted 21 Jul 2009 at 7:39 am ¶The last few images(4×5) from this Powderkeg series light leaks form in the middle of your images in a square. This is a common thing with the Super D.
I noticed that I got the same with my D You can get rid of this glare affect by just putting your head over the chute, blocking any light from coming in through the top.
You can also just compose the image flip the mirror up to seal the top and then manually pull the M lever. Hope this helps.
All the best!
Posted 23 Aug 2009 at 11:06 pm ¶@John. Thanks, I’ll take a look. I was thinking maybe it was my grafmatics…
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 10:56 pm ¶Post a Comment