MATTHEW TURLEY » outdoors

Salt Wash

Matthew Turley — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:53:51 +0000

Went canyoneering with some friends over the weekend, but we got shut down early by a rainstorm which made a nice backdrop for our Subaru enabled escape:

Teton Aerials

Matthew Turley — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:56:34 +0000

The only artwork above my office desk is a small print from one of my greatest inpirations, Bradford Washburn, whose accomplishments spanned the fields of photography, mountaineering, cartography, and science (making him an instant hero in my book . However, he is perhaps best known for his richly-toned black & white aerial images from the great mountain ranges of the world – including Alaska and the Alps – which he shot from open airplane doors at high altitude on 8×10 large format equipment. Simply amazing.

Anyway, in the spirit of aerial photography, earlier this week Marie and I flew into the Teton Range with my friend Tom. Since I grew up in nearby Idaho Falls, and have spent a great deal of time climbing and exploring these peaks, seeing it all from altitude and bathed in beautiful evening light made the experience heavenly. Here’s some of what we saw:

Cathedral Group from the northeast

Enclosure, Grand Teton and Mount Owen from the south

Enclosure and the Grand Teton from the south. Middle Teton & Teewinot are dwarfed to the right.

Mount Owen and Grand, Middle and South Tetons from the north

Teewinot, Owen, and the Grand Teton from above Mount Moran

Mount Owen, the Grand Teton and Enclosure from the north.

North face and profile of north ridge of the Grand Teton. Table Mountain to the right

Upper Exum ridge, Ford couloir, and upper east face of the Grand Teton

Rock Canyon overlook

Matthew Turley — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:04:39 +0000

Drove up behind Squaw Peak this evening to see the fall colors, but ended up responding to something else. Mainly, I realized how much I miss the mountains above Utah Valley.

Of course, there was some color, too.

Quickie test shoot

Matthew Turley — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:52:27 +0000

Needed some gritty/muddy running shots for a quick add to my portfolio, so I called up my friend Courtney, a former Cytomax™ athlete who apparently specializes in modeling from the knees down . Although we’d just done a climb/run up Mt. Superior the morning before, Courtney always seems to be up for more pain and suffering – which is probably the best way to sum up splashing through the same creek 100 times in a row. Mother nature threatened us with a blank blue sky for most of the morning, and being August there was no real mud to speak of, but I think we squeaked by with a few workable options. Thanks Courtney!

Wasatch Powderkeg 2009

Matthew Turley — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:33:14 +0000

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!

Link to the Portrait Gallery

Spiral Jetty

Matthew Turley — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:34:56 +0000

Travelled out to the Great Salt Lake last weekend to see Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty’. Being my first visit (not counting the times I’ve flown over it), it was only natural that I first see it and photograph it at night. That is, I seem to have a penchant for first visiting landmark locations while at night. For example, I made three trips to photograph Delicate Arch before finally seeing it in daylight. The same could be said of Mt. Timpanogos, Lone Peak cirque, and many others.

Seeing a natural (or manmade) form for the first time in the dim star- or moon-light adds a dimension of mystery. It’s as though the brain hasn’t quite resolved everything, leaving more room for the imagination to run free. Mountain walls loom taller overhead, sandstone arches feel thoroughly lunar, and a singular spiral jetty in the desert evokes extraterrestrials.

Unfortunately, my beloved Subaru blew out its turbo-charger on the way home, making these photos worth at least $1,500