Dreamtime Images » Adventures

Swimming portraits in Santa Barbara

Dreamtime Images — Sun, 02 May 2010 06:21:16 +0000

Things sometimes just fall into place, which is exactly what happened a few days ago while passing through Santa Barbara. I got a phone call from a bride whose wedding I shot a few years ago, and she was wondering if I’d be in Southern California any time soon. For Mother’s Day she wanted me to take some portraits of her brother, who’s just finishing up his swimming career at UCSB. Well, after a foggy morning shoot and a chilly and wet evening shoot (pools can be COLD when you’re standing in them taking pictures!) here’s what we came up with.

Climbing photos in Smith Rock

Dreamtime Images — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 06:28:38 +0000

After we left Seattle, we headed down to Portland to visit good friends, and then ventured out to Bend, to Smith Rock, the birthplace of American sport climbing. The cliffs there host some of the most dramatic and inspiring lines on the planet, a number of which go up the famed Monkey Face (yep, it looks like the head of a monkey). After a few hours of laborious climbing (and dodging falling grapefruits lobbed by feral, hostile children at the cliff edge) we wound up inside the massive cave that makes up the monkey’s ear. Some shouts and screams were wafting toward us from the other side of the cliff, so we wandered over there and peered downward. Right below us was a dude sending super hard on an endless and impossibly thin crack. He was fiddling in some fiddly trad gear and… and… and then he was airborne. Snap snap snap went the shutter! Thanks to Ryan for letting me grab these images in the middle of an epic redpoint attempt. For anyone interested, it’s the North Face, and it’s 5.12b regardless of what the guidebook says.

A few images from the Grampians

Dreamtime Images — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:10:54 +0000

Been shooting climbing in The Grampians the last few days — it’s definitely one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to. Here are a few favorites. Stay tuned for a massive update to my rock climbing and adventure sports site, http://www.nathanweltonphoto.com.

G’day Mate!

Dreamtime Images — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:20:31 +0000

G’day! I’m writing this from an apartment overlooking the ocean in Sydney — in fact, I have a straight view to the Sydney Opera House thanks to the generosity of our couchsurfing.com host, Alex. I’ve never couch surfed before, and I’m floored by how nice people are!

We’ve been traveling in New Zealand for the last 10 weeks and have 7 weeks of adventures ahead throughout Australia. I’m busily adding images to my stock photo collection of travel and adventure sports, which is all housed at my other site. Alex introduced us to Sydney on Australia Day, where we saw an amazing fireworks show with a few hundred thousand other folks in the heart of the city. I’m not much of a big city person, but I think Sydney is really cool — maybe even up there with Paris.

At any rate, I figured I needed to update this blog with some new photos from the adventure so far, so here are just a few random shots. These are everywhere from Yosemite National Park to New Zealand. You’ll notice in the first picture there’s actually a climber on the left side of the frame at the same height as the top of the wave. Yikes!

Hope everyone’s having a good 2010 so far. If you’re interested in getting some info about 2010 weddings, shoot me an email! I have a connection every few days, and have even been able to schedule Skype meetings with folks.

Jumping for Joy Down Under

Dreamtime Images — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:43:52 +0000

Happy Holidays everyone!

I’m writing this note from the West Coast of New Zealand, where I’m traveling at the moment in pursuit of beautiful light, great imagery, and an endless summer. It’s been a fun trip so far, and I’m excited to see what’ll happen next. Before I start the busy 2010 wedding season, I’m headed to Australia, Tasmania and Tonga, three places I’ve never been but have always dreamed of visiting.

2009 has been a wild, wild ride. It’s taken me across continents and oceans, and I’ve photographed almost everything imaginable: climbing in France; coral reefs off the coast of Venezuela; landscapes in New Zealand; and weddings in the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, California wine country, and as far away as Norway. Back in September I added up the days my car had sat at the Denver International Airport parking lot, and was startled to discover the total: nearly 18 weeks. That means I was shooting out of state for about half of the first 9 months of the year. In October I shot weddings in Colorado and California, and climbing in both Zion National Park and Yosemite, and in November I flew to New Zealand. Despite being on the road, I’ve kept busy with new bookings and album designs — and as a cool side note, JenLos’ book, from their Virgin Islands wedding, was picked by Kambara USA as a sample album that the company will bring to trade shows around the country.

It’s been humbling to win awards from the WPJA, it’s been fun to see my shots for Sigma Photo show up in magazine advertisements around the world, and it’s been exciting to grow my studio with the addition of associate photographers (in two different states) and a production manager. Expect to see profiles of Bernd and Chris in upcoming blog posts — we are currently booking them weddings in both California and Colorado, and they do an absolutely rocking job. Both of them have seen it all: Bernd shot a wedding in Vail this year with a reception so bumping that the smoke alarms went off and the Fire Department came, while Chris just recently shot an elopement in Rocky Mountain National Park in the middle of a whiteout. Party on! You’ll love these guys.

I’ve had more fun behind the lens in 2009 than in any other year of my life. It’s been awesome to see the resurgence of break dancing, and I’ve been downright impressed with the all-star partying I’ve encountered at this year’s receptions. Resisting the urge to boogie has been a challenge, especially after watching people bust out award-winning worms, aerial stalls, head spins, and every other dance move invented in the last 40 years. I have realized that I need to learn to break dance. Can someone teach me? It’s also been cool to reconnect with past clients, learn about their lives, and even see their new babies. I love this job.

I’ll try to get a best-of-2009 post up soon, and maybe I’ll put up a few shots of my winter adventure so far. Meanwhile, here’s a shot of me jumping for joy somewhere in countryside in New Zealand, courtesy of Rannveig Aamodt.

Last but not least, please excuse me if I don’t respond to emails immediately. There’s a day or two lag time here, as cell reception is spotty.

First ad out for the Sigma Our World campaign

Dreamtime Images — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:57:38 +0000

Here’s something exciting — my first image is in print for the Sigma Our World advertising campaign I shot in late 2008. This was part of the 2009 corporate calendar, and it features a shot of pro climber Ethan Pringle on Anaconda, a heinous 5.13+ trad line on Lumpy Ridge that’s only seen a handful of ascents.

Ethan hung out in Estes for a few days scouting some lines in the middle of a pretty ridiculous 2008 sending spree. He’s a certifiable badass and one of the world’s best all around climbers. He’s climbed 5.15a sport (Realization), solid 5.14 trad (Cobra Crack), onsighted 5.14, bouldered VImpossible, and, well, you get the picture. He’s super inspiring to watch charge, and he’s a lot of fun to hang out with.

The Sigma Our World Campaign continues

Dreamtime Images — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:28:12 +0000

So a few weeks ago I started shooting the first installment of the Sigma Our World ad campaign. H to the E to the C to the TIC. The first assignment I’m doing is an outdoor sports segment, which focuses heavily on climbing, bouldering and cycling. It’s been waaay fun, as it’s pushed me to get in touch with some incredible climbers. Living near Boulder is pretty sweet since so many world-class athletes are nearby. I wish wish wish I could post some of the images, but I can’t until I have Sigma’s approval. That will happen in due time, so stay tuned. Pretty exciting stuff!!

The Mouth

Dreamtime Images — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:37:43 +0000

Back in Cali kickin it with the crew. Miss it here. Good times, great friends. Toots got his first chance to visit one of our favorite places on earth, the stunning mountaintop boulder field at Lizard’s Mouth, home to the best moderate sandstone bouldering anywhere. And actually thanks to our buddy Bernd, a bunch of new hard lines have gone up in the last year.

Here we are on one of them, an unnamed route overlooking the ocean. We spent sunset here taking pictures.

If you want to know how it’s done, I used a really fast prime lens at f/1.4 coupled with a single flash bouncing off a gold reflector disk. Reflector was pointing up from ground level, flash was triggered via a PocketWizard. Very low ISO (100) allowed me to get the dark blue sky at 125th of a second. It also let me have a very noiseless image. I passed off the camera later on and Bernd grabbed it to take the last two shots, one of Steve and one of me.

Quite possibly the highlight of the day was seeing Alicia’s parents’ chihuahua Rosie wearing Bernd’s kid’s diaper. Finn, Bernd and Hjortis’ little infant, was nice and warm and had a spare diaper. Rosie was freezing and had nothing. So… What happens when you have a spare diaper and a freezing chihuahua? Diaper Dog. It’s was the only solution.

Rooaaaadd Triiipp!

Dreamtime Images — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:42:22 +0000

Yes!

About time! We’ve been meaning to go to Indian Creek and Penitente Canyon for months, and we finally did a few weeks ago. The usual suspects consisted of me and Alicia, Toots, 5 crazy Norwegians (two of whom are good friends we met in New Zealand) and a Canadian guy named Tee, who just started a 6 month climbing trip and is now probably half way to Mexico to hit up El Potrero Chico.

The two Norwegians we already knew are Maja and Terje. Maja is pronounced “Maya,” while Terje is pronounced “Tah-dee-uh,” which is too complicated for me so I call him TJ. So meet Maja (at our campsite), TJ (on Supercrack) and Tee (on Binge and Purge).

TJ works on oil rigs in the middle of the North Sea doing real safe stuff like changing the spouts that spew out all the flames. Not sure exactly why, but he’s looking for a slight career change, and photography is his top choice. I copied my outdoor sports website, spruced it up a little bit, changed the logo and let him use it — check it out: http://www.terjeaamodt.com. For the first time ever, I’m the guy on the other side of the lens. Kind of weird.

Indian Creek was awesome, as usual, and we did all the classics. Supercrack, Incredible Hand Crack, The Wave, Fingers in a Light Socket, etc. For some reason I got the not-so-bright idea to go climb wide cracks, including the Big Baby (100 feet of 5 to 6-inch 5.11c offwidth) and Binge and Purge, another 5.11 with a squeeze chimney that lets you rest only when you inhale. So to move up, you exhale and don’t breathe, and to stop and rest you inhale and don’t breathe. That enables you to get a nice torso jam, but it also makes you want to purge. Not sure where the binge comes from. TJ took the next two shots of my struggles. They were worthwhile, though, because when we got back I finally ticked off the Crack of Fear, an offwidth in Estes that I’ve wanted to climb since I started 10 years ago.

TJ also took this cool shot of Tee on a cool 5.9 near Supercrack. I think he’s got some awesome images. Norway, represent!

Here’s a shot I scored of TJ climbing the Cave Route, a 5.11 lieback that’s hidden behind a giant slab of sandstone that fell down once upon a time. Great place on a hot day.

After a few days of beating ourselves up, we cruised on to Penitente Canyon, in the middle of Colorado’s San Luis Valley. It’s my favorite place to climb, and I’m not sure why. The routes are short, but oh-so-nice and the whole setting is just kind of magical. Even Toots liked it:

It’s home to a lot of super-mega-hyper-awesome classics, including what many consider the best arete in America, Bullet the Blue Sky. Here’s TJ falling on his second try (but he sent on his third, which is stupid fast for a 5.12c).

Then TJ got these awesome shots of me on my faves, and I have to show them off because I’m so excited to have, for the first time in my life, cool pictures of me climbing. First, the infamous Stemmroids, a .12d open book overhung stemming line with an off-balance deadpoint/dyno at the top that I’m about to do. And then my still-undone project, a .13a called Virgin No More that I’ve yet to send because 1) the last move is insanely hard and 2) every time I try it, it starts hailing, raining or snowing. I came —-> <—- THAT close to getting it, but I screwed up my sequence at the top and bailed. Again. The cool thing is that I have to do it again, and the line is superb and the climbing is like a dance. So no worries.

Yay for climbing!

Eastern Sierra fun

Dreamtime — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 10:47:21 +0000

Awesome! I’m shooting an absolutely killer wedding later today in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains at this place called Convict Lake, which is just down the road from Mammoth. I flew in a few days ago and have been hanging out with some Norwegians we met in New Zealand, who are wrapping up a year-long jaunt through Thailand, the South Pacific, Canada and America. For the last few days we’ve been waking up, sitting in hot springs, climbing, sitting in hot springs, and then going to sleep. Not a bad life! The other day TJ and I went up to climb one of the most photogenic boulder problems in Bishop, a proud line called Atari that’s shaped like the videogame symbol. I’m psyched with some of the images I captured of him up there. Check it:

Then TJ caught a few pictures of me on some of the other super-mega-classics at the Happies. Ahh. Lovin’ it. Lovin’ it.

Pictures from the wedding will come soon!