My First Day with the IQ250

In case you missed it, at the end of the last week PhaseOne announced the worlds first CMOS sized sensor for medium format cameras systems -- the IQ250. Now at $35k its not something that I think most folks are going to run out the door and buy, but there's no question in my mind that if you are a professional photographer and want the very best of the best; this is it.

The reason I'm able to say this with such confidence is because I've been shooting with the IQ250 for the past month alongside my favorite DSLRs (largely the D800 and a7r) and the IQ250 is by far the king of the heap. You can hop over to the PhaseOne site and see several of the images that I shot last month with big league mountain bikers Kyle Strait and TylerMcCaul -- or if you like moving pictures -- check out this video that we put together about my crazy first day shooting with the IQ250.

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The Explorer

It seems like its only once or twice a year that you get the chance to work on a commercial project where you are tasked with creating the idea, capturing the content, editing the story, and delivering the final color corrected film. Its a long process -- albeit a rewarding one when the dust settles. This is one of those times, and I couldn't be more proud to share it.

We had the great honor of working with Peter Metcalf and LandRover to create a multimedia story for Outside last month. Check it out here:

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/driven/peter

With just a single piece of 1" webbing under his feet @renan_ozturk walks the line between spires in the Czech Republic.

#stoked to be on the Instagram suggested user list. thank you!

The guys that are good at it say that walking a slackline is like riding a bike -- just hop on and your body remembers. Turns out I'm not good at it! I didn't make it 2 steps into this giant line, but @renan_ozturk played on it until the sun went down.

Without the featured stalactites that hang from the undersides of the massive arches in Yangshuo, China climbing them probably wouldn't be possible. Luckily for @emilyharrington there are stalactites for days! If you haven't taken a climbing trip to China this is the place to go!

Getting Rad with BFGoodrich and a Couple Redbull Rampage Champs

This past May I spent a month chasing some of the world's best action sport athletes across the mountain west while directing a series of videos for BFGoodrich. While all of the adventures were amazing; the combination of location, epic light (day and night), and pure athletic skill made my time with Redbull Rampage champs Kyle and Cam one of the more memorable shoots in a long time. Add in their childhood friend and badass filmmaker 'Sage' and we had the perfect team for a week on some fresh dirt. Sit back and crank up the tunes -- and watch a few of the worlds best Mountain Bikers discover a new zone in the Utah Desert.

This just in: I'm über stoked to share that I will be instructing at the Adventure Photography Workshop at the end of the month in Jackson Hole. Corey Rich, Chris Burkard, Lucas Gilman and myself will be offering our insights through live shooting, presentations, and portfolio reviews. Its pretty much the bees knees when it comes to outdoor photo/video workshops. If you have the time free you'd be a fool to miss it. http://www.photographyatthesummit.com/adventure_photography_workshop.html

My Personal Essentials for a Remote Photo Shoot in the Mountains

By the time you read this we will have hiked for half the day to get into an advanced basecamp in the Bugaboos in Canada. The 'Bugs' are famous for giant walls, epic scenery and awesome rock. So, when I got a call from two of the best trad climbers in the world asking if I'd be interested in a week of climbing and shooting (on their mega-project) I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

I frequently get emails asking what equipment I carry with me on our shoots. So, I thought I'd share a few essentials for this week long journey into the mountains.

Wish us luck -- and I'll make sure to share some of the goods when we return.

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Back it Up 2.0

Over the last year I have been doing the initial post work on my photos on location more and more. Because of this, earlier this spring I begrudgingly traded in my old 17" MBP for the new Retina 15". While the switch left me with less physical real estate I did gain speed, battery life and the latest in connections for my peripherals -- namely USB 3 and Thunderbolt. These new connections are blazing fast and have really helped speed up my workflow. Err.... Wait -- I should say at first they didn't help that much, but once I created my new custom external storage solution the newest versions of CaptureOne and Lightroom have been loading my images a blazing speeds and my card dump times are the shortest they have ever been.

Here is the criteria I worked through when looking for new external storage for shooting on expedition or out on location.

After doing some homework I realized that what I needed was a bus powered, thunderbolt, solid state drive that was at least 500gb in size. But after doing a ton of research, I realized that nobody was making external SSDs over 250gb. So I decided to make my own.

Here's How:

1. I started with a 500GB Buffalo Thunderbolt/USB external drive. I wasn't concerned with the spinning drive, I just needed the enclosure and the 500gb version was the cheapest available.

2. Then I added a 500GB Samsung SSD. I chose this size because my research showed that the Thunderbolt ports on a MBP would not support the voltage needed to power an SSD over 512gb in size. Plus the price on the 500GB drive was pretty cheap.

The Buffalo External drive takes some 'butter knife love' to get the glue/double sided tape to separate properly. But once you get the enclosure apart its pretty much plug and play. The whole process takes about 5 minutes.At today's prices I've been able to build two of these at about $450 each -- that's less than $1/GB for a USB3/Thunderbolt SSD bus powered SSD. Oh and did I mention its screaming fast?!

Thunderbolt:

USB3:

So if you aren't afraid of a little DIY and need some more space and speed give it a shot!

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Cineflex 101:

In the beginning of June I spent two weeks flying high above the Alaska Range, including North America's tallest summit Denali, shooting aerial motion and still photos from a helicopter. We were shooting for a personal project that my good friend and partner in crime Renan Ozturk has been working on -- and it was a trip of a lifetime.

The first bit of content to come from the adventure is a behind the scenes film that we shot that focuses on the aerial film technology we were using to capture amazing motion images from the heli. If you aren't in the film world you have probably haven't heard of the 'Cineflex', which is a gyro stabilized motion camera that mounts to planes, trains, and automobiles. And even if you have heard of Cineflex, few people understand how it all works. We shot this video to give a first glimpse into what we captured in Alaska and how it was possible.

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PHOTO TIPS FROM ICELAND

Many of you know that I spent most of the month of May in Iceland. It was one of the most remarkable shoots and adventures I've ever had. We worked our asses off at the beginning of the month and then played hard at the end -- the perfect opportunity to shoot just for fun. I've been writing a series of photo tips for Nat Geoadventure based on the 'playing' part of our image creating adventure and the second post is up here. Check it out: http://on.natgeo.com/16henlt

Alex Honnold -- Limited Release The North Face -- Trucker Hat

Hot off the presses, I just got my personal copy of the limited release TNF PhotoBomb Hat that is featuring an image of Alex making the 2nd ascent of 'Maniac' at Quoddy Head State Park in Maine from our big Northeast Expedition.

PDN 'Best Of the Year' 6 Years in a Row!

So I suck at tooting my own horn, but this is pretty cool. Each year Photo District News (the photographers inside line on what’s happening in the photo business) holds their annual photo contest to showcase the best assignment and commercial photography for the year. I’m honored to share that for the 6th year in row (6 years!!!) my images (from our light and fast shoot for Black Diamond Equipment) are being recognized as the 'Best of the Year'. Thanks to Sandra, JT and the rest of the team over at BD  - kickass!!

This is also the shoot featured in the latest FStop series here: CLICK ME

Rory Bosio for The North Face -- Chamonix, France

Video: Life in Focus