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Tag Archives: Travel Photography
The Dream Job Schedule
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
Also tagged Adventure Sports, Europe, Photography, Photoshoots, Travel
3 Comments
Top 10 Favorite Photos of the Decade
Well we’ve done it – a top 10 List. Thanks to increasing peer pressure we have compiled our favorite 10 photos from the decade, which was our first full one in business.
Our succumbing to a Top 10 List is the fault of Twitter – where these are going around. My first thought was to not give a “Best of” much attention, but then I started to check some out and enjoyed seeing what, and more curiously why, the selects were made.
So Janine and I sat down for the edit. Of the 30,000+ images in our stock database we pulled 37, and from this we culled the lot down to 10 along with two honorable mentions that are purely for fun. The criteria; images that really speak to us, not because they are portfolio worthy or what we want people to see, but because they have great memories or are the type of images we enjoy most. It is interesting to note that the bulk of the images were from our earliest days, when we were really learning and everything we were shooting was so new, and of course being with our closest friends, which to this day remains the single best part of our job.
In no particular order, here they are.
Vote for your favorite, and why, via Comments
We spent the winter of 2000 in Moab, Utah, living in our VW Westfalia. Each day we ran trails, climbed and shot our first real work photos. This particular morning we were with two friends hiking up to climb Sister Superior. The approach was through dense fog, but as we arrived to the tower the fog settled below me allowing for a Brocken Spectre to form around my shadow, luckily in just the right spot.
We shoot much of Smartwool’s advertising photography. The Creative from this brilliant company is simple, go on cool trips with your friends and have some goofy fun in their product. With Andreas Irsara and Susie Sutphin we headed to Austria for the Silvretta Tour. Andreas was fresh back from an AC/DC concert, which got us thinking… I still can’t believe they did this. Hells Bells was playing on the iPhone, we were howling, and numerous Austrians were looking on in horror.
No photo better exemplifies the Italian Dolomites. Janine and I planned to be in this spot for sunset, I had my own ideas for a shot, Janine insisted on this one. She won, big time.
Twice we have traveled to India to get away to shoot what we love most, travel photography from the hip. In 2008 we went to Rajasthan and there made this photo, one of those scenes not so uncommon in India, but this one is just made special because of so many things.
Janine and I… always out. The Aiguille d’Entreves out of Chamonix
Kurt Astner on Zion’s Moonlight Buttress. The right place at the right time. The single most beautiful climbing line I have ever seen.
We all missed the alarm going off. It was meant to wake us around 4 but the sound was dampened by an arm under the pillow. We thought for sure we would be too low for getting a sunrise shot off en route to climb the Zinalrothorn above Zermatt, Switzerland. Some things work out for the best and we had sublime views of the first light hitting the Matterhorn and surrounding peaks. Janine and Alberto De Giuli.
Gonzalo – he wasn’t so sure about me taking his photo, but we like it. Lots going on.
Makes us smile and miss the Eastern Sierra
In the summer of 2001 we climbed all of California’s 14,000 foot peaks. On Mt. Russell’s Mithral Dihedral, what started off as a standard, sunny, Sierra Nevada day, quickly turned nightmarish. As we climbed above our friends so as to shoot down, all hell broke loose in the form of lightening and snowfall. There we were, several pitches up with lightening striking all around us. “Might as well keep shooting”, we thought. Janine got this photo of one of our best friends, Mark Leffler, as he raced into the belay so we could all start rappeling. In a business of what can be some posed scenes, this is certainly the real deal.
and the Honorable Mentions……
My favorite photo of Janine and our incredibly fun life. The very reason we go to places like India to make personal photos.
And finally, Janine laughs at this one. After she shot the last image in our Favorites, above, she turned her attention to me.
Vietnam Travel Photography
Travel Photography
On the first day of my photography school, I had to stand up in class, introduce myself, and explain what kind of a photographer I dreamt of being. To this, I proudly stated, “I want to shoot for the The National Geographic”. Later, I would learn that three years prior to my own announcement, a Swiss girl named Janine had done the same thing. Now, 14 years since that time, neither one of us are Geographic shooters. But, we did meet while applying for a NGS internship and we did shoot numerous assignments for the now defunct National Geographic Adventure. Maybe it is all for the best.
As professional Mountain Sport photographers, we know that having to shoot what you love instead of always just wanting to shoot what you love, sometimes turns it into, well, work. So, each fall we like to take a break from the mountains and go do what we enjoy most about photography, diving into another culture, wandering around, and photographing all the details and scenarios that we stumble upon. Not for work, but for fun.
Vietnam and Cambodia were this year’s destination. There we found a Southeast Asia in a frantic state of development where first world desires are colliding with third world traditions. As so often happens, it is the third world which provides all the color and character.
While shooting in this style we study life, both external and internal, in the hopes of finding beauty within chaos. I tend to focus on segments of the overall while Janine likes to pull back and show the larger picture.
To wake in the pre-dawn darkness and hop onto our rented motorbike, then to buzz along the coastline towards a chaotic fish market, this is our personal little National Geographic assignment.
This bucket is in the photo at the top of the post and was Dan's honing in on details while Janine preferred the overall scene, above.
The fish market, I knew this was going to produce a cool photo while walking towards the scene
Going a little tighter, suddenly it is an interesting image
Janine Patitucci photographing in Vietnam
Dan Patitucci making a discovery
PatitucciPhoto New Portfolio
Stella Alpina - Edelweiss
In 1999 it wasn’t quite “in” yet to do a version number of your site. While Photoshop was at about V5.0, Janine and I were very much at V1.0 – beta even. Now, in 2010 we must be around V9.0 for websites – but a better way to benchmark our progress is V.ery happy. This has been a phenomenal year for us for both work & fun. But, the last couple of weeks have been terrible for photography (rain) but great for office time (rain). So we thought, “Let’s get a new site up and running”.
Our last portfolio was up for almost two years so we had some serious editing to do. Where to begin? What are the image categories? We want to show our best work but not too much, less is more, all that sort of thing. In the end we want to honestly and accurately present who we are and what we do for our clients; new, old and those searching for the best mountain sport photographers. Now it is ready, this new site is us.
Our photography is perhaps a bit unique in the outdoor industry. After 12 years in this business we still prefer to shoot our own experiences, our own friends, our own travels. Of course we do commercial photoshoots, editorial projects where we document stories, and production stock shoots. But the real Dan & Janine Patitucci love nothing more than to head out with friends trail running, skiing or mountain biking, one lens in the pack, and see what we find. If we don’t find anything, we make turns. Come November, we enjoy traveling with a simple camera and lens to shoot purely what we run across. Our Travel Photography is telling of exactly how and what we see as image makers, photographers just doing what they love.
While editing 12 years of work down to 87 images, we had some decisions to make. It is often difficult to not just show personal favorites, or images we are emotionally attached to, we need to show what we can do as professionals – a balance must be found between these things. There was one image I kept coming back to, a personal favorite of mine, yet one I wasn’t even there for. In 2006 we were set to go to Morocco for a Patagonia ski shoot. Our gang met in Chamonix where we first spent some days skiing. Immediately upon arrival I crashed and split my tibia & fibula. I was out, Janine was bumped to lead, and solo, photographer. Off she went.
Months later, with the job delivered, I was clear to trash the outakes. One image in the folder caught my eye, it was nearly black, but some details were trying to come through. I decided to open it in Photoshop, bring up the exposure and have a look. I found the image below. To me it is perfect, I may not have been there, but this one image made it all present. Our friend Susie Sutphin, inside a tent with a Moroccan guide, writing in her journal. So simple but so perfect for revealing life while traveling. We love making images, we look forward to another 12 years.
If you have thoughts on our work, we’d love to hear, please feel free to comment on this post. Thanks.
Croatia Travel Photos
Janine and I just returned from almost two weeks traveling in Croatia. For both of us it was our first time there and we found it an absolute joy. It is Europe without the masses, where one can get some breathing room, escape, and find slices of perfection. We loved it.
With no schedule we moved about as we pleased; climbing perfect limestone in Paklenica National Park, cycling along the intricate and stunning coastline, island hopping and of course making some fun snaps. Then there was Dubrovnik… For photos, getting lost, and meeting new friends in the various piazza’s each evening for outdoor World Cup viewing on massive monitors, Dubrovnik is truly a special place.
Nearly two weeks freedom exploring a great country - 10 Big Photos here: Croatia Photography
Expressive
Expressive is a new addition to our online stock site’s categories. While our other categories are based on subject, Expressive is based on a feel; the sheer beauty of the environment, a playful look or special action by the subject, a uniquely captured moment, or simply some emotion we can all identify with. The images are in the collection because they are what make still photography special.
More than anything, these images are what we love about photography, what we love about making photos – the type of photos that make us happy to create and to look at.
We hope you enjoy them and would love to hear which are your favorites.
Posted in Photo Business, Photography
Also tagged Adventure Sports, Mountain Sports, Photography, Travel
1 Comment
Iceland Quick Summary
10 days shooting in Iceland is a wrap and now we find ourselves soaking up some much needed sun in the Italian Dolomites.
Iceland Summary:
Wet, windy, always light (yet cloudy dark), cuisine challenged, full of fun, friendly people, and in all likelihood, home to the single most beautiful & unique landscape we have seen.
Overall, Iceland gets a 9+ (would be a 10 but for a horrific seafood experience) as a destination. The time is now to go as they are in recovery mode from their economic woes. Tourism is much cheaper than it used to be. This was our third time there and expenses are much less than they used to be. Put Iceland on your priority list and go see what we have been talking about.
We overheard a fishing guide tell some clients, “You may not always catch fish in Iceland, but you’ll always catch a cold”. The same is true for photographers and friends. Colds were a popular souvenir, but well worth it.
Much more info will come later, including a full trip report of the Laugavegur Tour over at DolomiteSport. For now, we’d like to provide a quick glimpse of some early images we have been happy with. Many more will be posted in the coming week on this site.
Enjoy,
Dan & Janine Patitucci
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