The Dream Job Schedule

April 28, 2011 by PatitucciPhoto | 3 Comments

The Tuscan village of Pienza

Outdoor Industry Photographer Life

In addition to being professional photographers, I think it’s safe to say we could be considered professional travelers. In February, after plugging many clients needs into the calendar, we saw that to make everything work we would have to be on the go for seven straight weeks. In the last twelve years we’ve done a lot of back to back trips, but this was ridiculous; Tuscany (post), Norway, Chamonix, Sicily, Switzerland, Italy – in two cases we went straight from airports home to swap bags, then dashed to the next location. Planes, airports, and cars served as editing stations, the iPhone the entire communication platform.

In Montura's new Gore ProShell, Kurt Astner climbing his route White Chocolate. Norway

Our trip to Norway was for W.L. Gore (Gore-Tex) and the Italian clothing company Montura. The goal was to photograph professional climber Kurt Astner climbing some new ice routes in bad weather. The trip also included our own fun, both wandering around the Lyngen Alps and lots of backcountry ski days.

Evening walk along the Norwegian Fjords and scoping ski lines on the other side

A day to ourselves with four laps of fun in the Lyngen Alps

From Norway we flew to Munich, drove three hours home, did laundry, slept a few hours and were in the car headed for Chamonix. The Swiss women’s clothing company Wild Roses had hired us to photograph two of their athletes for three days. The job was to document each of their lives as mother’s and very busy mountain athletes. Esther Larios is a Swiss UIAGM Mountain Guide based in Chamonix and a mother of two. American Nina Silitch, also a great friend and mother of two, is one of the world’s top women ski randonee racers, competing & training fulltime on the World Cup circuit while living in Chamonix. With each of them we spent a full day photographing their day to day routine. Then, the third day we headed into the mountains for a fun day of alpine climbing and skiing work.

Esther Larios and Nina Silitch on Chamonix's Midi Plan Traverse

Nina Silitch

Esther Larios and Nina Silitch in Chamonix

During the Chamonix shoot it became apparent it was crunch time. After the third day shooting skiing and climbing, we were back in the car for the 6 hour drive home. Once there, Groundhog Day; laundry, a bit of sleep, an attempt to edit, then our bell was ringing. Great friends Christof and Evi were outside, the car was packed, we were headed to Sicily for a week of sport climbing. Unlike the other trips, Sicily was our own shoot, both for stock and our DolomiteSport story. AAhhh…. relax a bit, get caught up, deliver some jobs, hang with friends and get a bunch of climbing in.

Christof Ursch at the Castle of Aragon, 7b. San Vito lo Capo, Sicily

With Sicily a wrap, we were back home and awaiting the arrival of our friend Ben Grasseschi from the US. Ben was on his way over to spend two weeks with us, ski touring and shooting more work for Gore. We had news for Ben… while he is from Lake Tahoe, where even now, well into April, they are still skiing winter powder, we in Europe had a mostly ski free winter. As photographers, we need blower powder, untracked lines and interesting weather. For Ben, and for much of the winter, we had very little snow and lots of splitter blue sky. We had the ingredients for some fun, but not to get a very specific photoshoot accomplished. Together with Ben and Italian friend Andrea Gabrielli we headed for Switzerland’s Piz Bernina Group for a multi-day ski tour. Then the very day we skied out of the Bernina, we drove to the Ortler Group and skied straight into another hut to give it a go for a few days. More hardpack snow, blue sky and carved up lines, but amongst it all – some turns, some laughs and loads of great food.

Andrea Gabrielli skiing amongst crevasses in the Piz Bernina Group

Looking back to now it was, as has been our entire career, a phenomenal experience. Great memories, lessons learned, new friends and of course lots of photos. The dream job is indeed dreamy.

Follow us on Twitter to see what we do as we do it : @patitucciphoto

Posted in Photo Business, Photography, Travel Tagged , , , , , |

Photographing Climbing in Norway and Sicily

April 5, 2011 by PatitucciPhoto | 6 Comments

Climbing Photoshoots

Within 12 days of one another, we had two very different climbing photoshoots. The first was ice climbing with Kurt Astner, one of the world’s best ice climbers. This assignment had us go to Norway’s Lyngen Alps to shoot for W.L. Gore and their new Gore-Tex material, ProShell.

On a fixed rope, I hang next to Kurt and follow him as he climbs

After Norway we headed home, jumped in the car, and drove to Chamonix for a three day women’s catalog shoot for Wild Roses (Blog coming). From Chamonix we met up with good friends Christof and Evi from our hometown of Bruneck and boarded a flight for Sicily and our climbing destination, San Vito lo Capo. Both Christof and Evi are superb climbers. Best of all, inspired by the photoshoot, both were well prepared and fit to pull hard.

Photographing Ice Climbing

Shooting climbing is hard on both camera gear and the body. Shooting ice climbing compounds all of this in tortuous ways. Not only are all the usual climbing logistics present, but there are lots of sharp things around and everyone wants to keep moving because it is cold, painfully so. To fend off the cold requires bulky clothing, and this contributed to a small disaster. In an aggravated effort to keep moving, I was throwing lenses loose into my pack, ignoring the lens tubes that were supposed to be their home. The price… a broken Image Stabilizer in a 70-200 and a broken housing on a 17-40. Thankfully the loss of lenses came at the end of the shoot and not the beginning.

Ready to go with the chest mounted camera bag, key for working on a rope.

LowePro Camera Bags, with whom we recently began working closely with, is going to be receiving more of our attention as I commit to being more careful with gear. For me, dedicated camera bags have proven essential to the safety of camera equipment I must rely on.

At the end of the day everyone was happy. Janine and I felt good about a job well done. Kurt had made a first ascent of what he has called “White Chocolate”, WI6, Grade IV. And Gore happily reported that we nailed the look of harsh conditions they were after to market their new product. Success.

Last summer, after photographing Kurt Astner climbing on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Italian Dolomites, we posted what became a very popular blog story. During the shoot, I wore a helmet video camera to capture what I see while shooting in these dramatic locations, I thought to do the same for this ice climbing shoot. It seems the perfect opportunity to see what it looks like to be the photographer, to get my perspective of what I am making photos of, and to watch Kurt climb. Beneath the video are a couple of stills that show the end product of what we were after.

Arriving to the ice fall Kurt had found after a two hour ski approach. 200 meters of what may be unclimbed, steep ice.

Kurt Astner on his new route White Chocolate, WI6, Grade IV

Photographing Rock Climbing

A little friendlier terrain than the ice

Less than two weeks later we were in a different world. Sicily’s seaside village of San Vito lo Capo has recently become a hotspot for sport climbing. With absolutely perfect limestone walls lining the Mediterranean coast, an ideal spring climate and superb food – San Vito lo Capo made sense for our next shoot, and an escape from a poor winter in the Alps.

Shooting rock climbing, especially sport climbing, is quite easy compared to what we faced in Norway. In Sicily the routes were never more than 35 meters long, were always safely bolted and had flip flop approaches. I could quickly get a fixed rope in place or even shoot from high boulders next to climbs.

The trick here was having the right people, people who could get on hard routes and climb them in style. Climbing images require a sense of power while at the same time looking to be in control. Christof and Evi are ideal.

The very photo being made from the above right image

Christof at the Castle of Aragon, 7b

Evi on the Cinema Paradiso Wall, 6b

Christof making things look dicey, because they are

Steep?

Camera Gear for Climbing Photoshoots

In my opinion, for all things in the photography world, less is more.

For climbing, in almost all situations, I take the following:

Canon 1d Mark IV – Quality, speed and focusing points

8GB film cards – I like 8GB because I don’t have to change them so often and run the risk of dropping one. And, they aren’t so big to potentially have every image if they do get dropped.

Canon 16-35 f2.8

Canon 15mm 2.8 – For getting the wider angle with the 1d Mark IV’s conversion

Canon 70-200 f4.0 – Optional depending on how close I know I will be to the climber

LowePro Top Loader 70

LowePro Lens Tubes

Once I am on the rope I have a small top opening pack hanging below me that serves as a bucket catch all for lens tubes (be sure to actually use lens tubes…) and anything else I may need. The chest mounted camera bag allows me to quickly stow the camera to move up and down on the rope. The less is more policy is key for staying focused on the shot and the movement of the climber, not fussing around changing lenses or fiddling with various things, also the simple need of staying mobile and light.

Interested in following what we do as we do it? Follow us on Twitter @patitucciphoto

The Sicilian Office

 

 

 

Posted in Climbing, iPhone Blog, Photography Tagged , , |

Women’s Adventure Cover and Spreads

March 16, 2011 by PatitucciPhoto | 1 Comment

We just saw the new Women’s Adventure Magazine for spring 2011. An unusual photo from us is cover along with more work inside as spreads. The cover is unusual only because it is such a tight portrait, not our usual style but one we really enjoy shooting, we are happy to see the new type of usage of our work. Does it work as cover? I think so. And you?

Posted in Clips, Photo Business

The Value of Location Scouting

March 6, 2011 by PatitucciPhoto | 4 Comments

Photoshoot Pre-Production

The line item “Location Scouting Day” often gets questioned when I send a job estimate to a client. “Nah… it’s beautiful there, just show up the morning of the shoot and we’ll get it all done that day”. This is a really bad idea that is likely to lead to a stressed out photographer and an unhappy client. Without a doubt, one of the most difficult things to explain as a pro photographer is that not all beautiful places make beautiful places for photos – there are an infinite number of variables that influence a shoot location.

Last week’s shoot in Tuscany proved the point. In this case, our client did want us to scout. We had a day to spend driving around and looking for the locations for some very specific images. This particular job required us to shoot four pages for a global advertising catalog as well as a tradeshow booth display. They knew what they wanted in terms of activities – now we had to get it, and most importantly, it had to look very Tuscan.

Photoshoot Day 1: Rain and dark skies. No go.

Photoshoot Day 2: The forecast called for clouds but no rain in the morning, then increasing at noon. Stress was building, we had to get something shot as the deadline was upon us. We decided to go, to be on location with the models and ready. Our scouting day paid off, the morning was clear and we dashed from one location to the next, plugging in exactly what we had looked for by simply working through a checklist to remain efficient. At 11:00 a.m. our skies went dark. The limited time did not allow for variety or fine tuning, but it did let us put our experience to work and get the job done. Thanks to a carefully planned morning and knowledge of what to do and where to go, successful images were made and delivered.

Janine Patitucci location scouting in the Tuscan Hills

 

 

Posted in Photo Business Tagged , , |

Smartwool Winter Running Photoshoot

March 1, 2011 by PatitucciPhoto | 2 Comments

Smartwool has its act together. The product is superb, the creative gang a joy to work with and the brand just plain fun. That little logo of their’s – the happy little guy – that really is their energy. It is a fun brand that is reflected in the staff. As a result, we are happy photographers and like to promote them.

The typical clothing photoshoot scenario is to shoot out of season, meaning that we are sent summer clothing to shoot in the dead of winter. Much to our disliking, this is common timing. With Smartwool, they match the clothing availability with the season it is meant for. And so this winter we were called up for a few shoots; the first being winter road running of their Fall 2011 men’s running products.

The Making of a Photoshoot

From the Creative Team we are given the necessary ingredients, it is our job to put them all together.

Location – A snowy road with some character, near a mountain town.

Weather – Ideally a post storm day, snow on the trees, everything glimmering with a fresh layer of snow.

Model – A real runner, a guy, chiseled, with a boyish, fun look in his eye. He must really love running.

And so it begins. We scout locations, take angles of the sun, walk around to look for shots and consider all the variables that might pop up because they always do. Finally we settle on a little town about 30 minutes from our home.

Next up, the weather. Can’t do much about this, especially this winter where at one point we went 6 weeks without snow. The location is getting a little scrappy. I keep an eye on the web cam to see how it is fairing in the soaring temps. Stress begins to set in as we schedule other shoots around this one, we want it to happen but the weather needs to cooperate, the landscape needs a bit more snow, and on this day both the model, and us, need to be available.

The Model – Kurt Faltner. Through friends we meet a very real runner who happens to live a few houses away. He is the real deal with the current goal of this summer’s Jungfrau Marathon. We meet, give him the clothes to try and say we’ll be in touch. I tell him he’ll get to do intervals on photo day, he’s game.

The day arrives and we commit, call Kurt and all is set. It snowed the day before and the forecast is bluebird. Off we go.

Remember that line about how variables always seem to pop up? This shoot’s unexpected, near monkey wrenching, comes in the form of howling and well below zero winds. Huge plumes of snow engulf us and force us to wait for stiller moments. Frozen fingers, toes, and rapidly dropping battery levels – all part of shooting skiing, but road running? Kurt is doing fine wrapped in his merino wool while Janine and I, dressed for a near the car shoot, are less comfy.

In the end we have it, Kurt does his intervals, we fill a few cards and even have some time at sunset to make some portraits. A great shoot.

Back in the car and driving home comes the final confirmation from Kurt that everything went well, “Can I keep all the clothing? I really like it”. He got it, but you’ll have to wait a bit.

To see Smartwool’s cozy merino offerings this season, visit Smartwool and see if you can spot more of our photos on their site.

Posted in Photo Business, Photography Tagged , , |

PatitucciPhoto Partners with LowePro Camera Bags

February 28, 2011 by PatitucciPhoto | 1 Comment

Dan Patitucci using LowePro's Top Loader Pro 75 in Chamonix, France

LowePro Camera Bags

Back in December, we posted a story about our fall 2010 Vietnam & Cambodia Photos. One comment that came in asked what camera bags we use while in the field.
To this I responded with an honest, “None”, explaining that at some point we stopped using camera bags and started carrying our gear in whatever was convenient, or in whatever pack we were using for the activity.
It turns out that the folks at LowePro were tuned in to our Blog. Back in the early 2000′s we were actually doing some product testing for them and got to know one another. Suddenly, I had an email from the marketing team and it came in the form of a challenge.
They had seen my comment and offered to provide me with a bag or system of my choice. I was to use it, really use it – and if I liked the benefits I would do a write up. And if I didn’t like it…. this post wouldn’t be here.
My choice was the Top Loader Pro 75 and a 70-200 f2.8 lens tube. My reasoning was that I would be able to have the bag easily accessible and in front of me, as I used to do years ago. If the camera is easy to get to – you shoot more – period.

Now, a month after getting the bag – I am sold… and here is my post as proof. We are happy to report that not only are we rewarding LowePro with a purely positive review – we are also involved again as both product testers and providing design input based on our experience shooting mountain sports in a wide range of conditions and scenarios, as both photographers and athletes.

In the coming 6 weeks, we have a virtually nonstop photoshoot schedule. We’ll be shooting mountain biking in Tuscany, ice climbing & skiing in Norway, ski mountaineering in Chamonix, sport climbing above the Mediterranean in Sicily and then right back to Chamonix for alpine climbing and spring ski touring.

Photos and stories will be posted here from all the projects, or follow us on Twitter for live updates and random fun at @patitucciphoto. And for Mountain Sport fans, follow us on Facebook:DolomiteSport

Questions? Comments? Send them our way.

Posted in Gear Review, Photo Business

It’s All About the People

February 17, 2011 by PatitucciPhoto | 2 Comments

Beginning March 1, we have 6 solid weeks of photoshoots and travel, literally every single day is accounted for. To say we are excited is an understatement. We’re thrilled as both the work and who we are doing it for offer amazing opportunities. But first, some serious effort at one key thing which happens to be our single biggest challenge. I was curious if people had any idea what this issue may be so I threw it out there on our Twitter feed (@patitucciphoto)

“What is the single hardest part of being a professional mountain sport photographer? Guess, anyone?”

Marketing? No. No sleep? No. Weather? No. Keeping up with the athletes? No. All the editing? No.

It’s finding people, the right people. Why is it so hard? They must be the right size, have the skills, the time, the look,the desire, the patience, the fitness, and most importantly, something needs to come out of them, something that makes them special, a feeling that we can reveal in our images. Their personality needs to be as shiny as their skills in the sport we are shooting.

Here in Europe we have an added challenge, one that we would never have considered in the US. Europeans don’t “hang out” and they rarely have jobs which allow them to float. Drop into any American mountain town cafe or outdoor gear shop and you are likely to see countless 20-40 somethings all just kind of being groovy. It is almost like they are waiting for a photographer to walk in and discover all their free time. This is a photographer’s gold mine. But not true in Europe, maybe Chamonix, but certainly in few other places. Here people have jobs, during work days they work, when they have free time, they get out and charge doing what they want to do.

I even threw it out there on Facebook, “Seeking Models for Mountain Sport Shoots in Europe” – sure enough, an endless stream of Americans poured into my Inbox. While I’m happy to have a bulging database of Colorado athletes, it does me little good in the Dolomites, Norway, Tuscany, St. Moritz and Chamonix… our immediate plans. We always have the locations and the desire, now it’s all about the people.

Posted in Photo Business

PatitucciPhoto Outdoor Industry Photography

February 11, 2011 by PatitucciPhoto | Leave a comment

Recent Clips

It is always rewarding to see prominent uses of our work, these are two fun examples. Above is an image we made last fall while visiting the US with Italian friend Kurt Astner. Our two month long climbing road trip was meant to take us back to our roots shooting the same subject matter that was our intro to the world of outdoor industry photography 15 years ago. In the early days we shot climbing, loads of it, and had two covers of Climbing Magazine in the early 2000′s. These were likely our first big clips. Now, 10 years later, we are happy to say we are just as thrilled to see the result of lots of effort get used.

The second use is just plain BIG. Last week was the ISPO Trade Show in Munich, Germany. There, Janine and I charged around the show connecting appointments and continually running into PatitucciPhoto images as booth displays. But none were so big as the Jack Wolfskin panels wrapping their impressive booth. This seems to prove that the Canon 5d can go to at least 5 meters tall.

Posted in Climbing, Clips, Photo Business, Photography Tagged |