The job of a photographer is to act as eyes for viewers who cannot be there. Be it editorial or commercial content, we create images which are used to bring the world of action sports onto your screen or page. Visual creatives use many different techniques to capture and describe the events, locations, soul and emotion that encapsulate our passion. Adding the third dimension to imaging creates a whole new field of opportunities to help us describe the qualities of the events, landscapes, products and subjects we are photographing.

-For view this image 3D you must have red/cyan 3D glasses, click on the image below and it will go to a flickr page, then click on the image a second time to view it larger. View it as large as possible, and if you can turn off lights in the room.-

-This second image will give you a much better 3D image with more detail and depth, however its more difficult to achieve the full 3D effect. Click on the image below, it will take you to a flickr page, then click on the image on that page, and it will come up larger. You will be looking at 2 similar images side by side. Turn of lights in the room you are in, and view the image as large as possible. Move about 1.5-2 meters away from your screen.
Cross your eyes until the images overlap. When properly overlapped you should be seeing 3 images; one slightly faint image on the left, an image in the center, and a faint image on the right. Try to get the image in the middle to overlap perfectly by focussing on the rider. Once your eyes line up, they should ‘lock’ in on the rider and you’ll the the image fully in 3D.-

The texture of a jacket is no longer simply a flat screen’s pattern of light and dark, now you can see the dimensional detail of the fabric. Clouds in the sunset behind an alpine booter have the details of each independent layer. A trail of granite rocks covered in slimy mud being ridden by a tire with a newly designed rubber compound, is now described in intimate details of interacting textures and materials.

I’ve been fashioning this gem from concept to image over the last three years. Given the time to learn the skills needed, and to acquire the small army of pocket wizards and cameras necessary I’ve started to photograph some sports in 3d.
Incase you haven’t noticed, 3D imaging really getting popular, and with new 3D screens let you view 3D images without eye tricks, the walls between the viewer and depth are being broken down. The best real world example so far is the Nintendo 3DS, a handheld gaming system you can use without glasses or eye tricks. The technology can soon be integrated into reading tablets such as the ipad (if apple is bold enough to make that jump) TGR has a 3D segment in their most recent film Light The Wick. They seem to be testing the waters, and maybe we’ll see a feature length 3D film coming out next year.

This is only the beginning.

I’ve continued my habit of driving really far into BC for very short visits. Last blog when I drove 8 hours each way to visit Pentiction for less than 24 hours, to watch and shoot the Ironman race. This time I was heading to Whistler to watch the Redbull 5000 Down race.

If you are out of the loop on what the race involves:
130 Riders in a mass start
5020 Vertical Feet
12.3 KM track distance
14 CM of snow on the peak of whistler.

Tyler Morland won the race with a time of 21:49. Okay go back and read that again, just under 22 minutes from the peak of whistler to the skier’s plaza at the bottom… absolutely insane time. Next time you ride the park time a lap on garbanzo, and that’ll give you an appreciation for how impressive that time is.

Race Winner Tyler Morland neck to neck with Chris Kovarik as they emerge from the snow.

I spent last weekend doing an insane amount of driving; I spent more time in the car driving to and from Penticton than I actually spent watching/shooting, eating and sleeping.

I drove out with my buddy Petar, and we took a pitstop to hit a rope swing i’ve been eyeing up for over a year. Its big.
Correction: Its really big

Most rope swings I’ve jumped off you are only slightly nervous the first time. This one however was one intimidating manly beast of a rope swing. I launched my carcass off the insane contraption a couple times, every time I stood atop the platform I was didn’t find it any easier to step off.

Josh, my older brother, raced in his first Ironman on sunday. I still don’t quite understand the sport, its impressive in every way, however I can’t quite get my head around actually doing such things.
His race times;
1:05:00 Swim
5:13:51 Bike
3:36:45 Run
10:01:19 Overall

This shot comes from near the end of the bike, the skies opened several minutes before getting the shot. I had a couple heart stopping moments as I scrambled with plastic bags and duct tape to cover the flashes used. Tearing down the elinchrom ranger after quite unnerving. I’ve had a full 1100 watt second strobe empty it’s capacitors into my arm before, and its not exactly a cherished moment.