You can view a slideshow of some of my images right here :

Petit Le Mans 2011 – Selects – Images by Dan Carr

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Click through for a huge post and some videos on the whole experience.

What gear did I take with me ?

I know people love to know what equipment was used so I prepared a short video when I was packing.  I’ll talk a little bit about what worked and what didn’t later on.

Rolling to the media center with my Think Tank gear.

My biggest concern before I left was which long lens was going to be the right choice.  I asked several guys who have shot there before and I had a really mixed bag of responses.  Some said a 300mm f2.8 and some teleconverters works well and some swore by the 500mm f4.  In the end I decided to take my trusty 300mm f2.8 L IS with me for a couple of reasons.  Firstly I figured that f2.8 would be nice to have at dusk and dawn and even in the middle of the night.  Secondly I had just taken delivery of both of Canon’s latest MKIII teleconverters and I was eager to test them out.  I’ve experienced a fair bit of success shooting with the 300 and the previous MKII TCs so it would be an interesting test.  I still packed the older MKIIs in my bag as well though as they were a trusted component and if I experienced any issues with the newer ones I would have those to fall back on.  So what was the eventual outcome of this decision you might be asking ?  Well I wasn’t disappointed for a second.  By far the most popular choice of lens there amongst other shooters was the 500mm.  The shooting positions at Le Mans are close enough to the track that a 600mm is not really necessary.  I found several angles where the 300mm was absolutely the best choice of lens for the job.  In some circumstances I was a little short on length but this didn’t happen enough for me to be worried I had the wrong gear with me.  The absolute best setup would be both a 300 and a 500 at this track though that would be hard work for such a long event.  I routinely used the 1.4x MKIII extender on the 300 and was very pleased with the sharpness although quickly learned that the AF speed suffered hugely in diminishing lighting.  The 2x MKIII extender also produced sharp shots but my keeper rate was low with that as the AF speed was simply too slow to lock onto subjects moving as fast as these cars were.  Using a 300 and 1.4x on my Canon 1dMK4 gave me a 35mm equivalent of 546mm f4 and it worked great when I needed it.

My general setup for the week was a 70-200 f2.8 L IS on a Canon 5dMKII over one shoulder and the 300mm on my 1dMK4 on a monopod on my other shoulder.  I carried my 24mm f1.4 and extenders along with batteries and memory cards in a Think Tank Skin Set which I have reviewed before on this site.  I love the Skin components from these guys because they take up very little room in your bag when you are traveling.  On the flight over to France I put all the lenses and camera bodies into a Think Tank Airport Airstream roller bag with an Airport Check In shoulder bag holding all my computer accessories.  Incidentally my laptop setup was my usual combo of Macbook Pro 15″ and a couple of LaCie Rugged drives to backup photos onto.

I picked up a new shoulder pad for my monopod just prior to the trip, the Aquatech wrap (which I reviewed here) was great to have for an event like this where I was carrying a long lens on my shoulder for hours and hours each day.  Before the trip I wasn’t sure which wide angle lens to take with me either.  I ended up packing both the 17-40 and the 24mm f2.4 mkII just in case.  The 24mm is my absolute favorite lens that I own.  It’s images are so crisp and so full of contrast that I’ve never once regretted the rather large price tag that it comes with.  In the end I used the 24mm exclusively all week.  For night work in the pit lane it proved to be the perfect focal length on a full frame body like my 5dMKII for shots of the cars re-fueling.  On a 1.3 crop body it would not have been wide enough so for pit lane work I used the 24mm on a 5dMK2 and a 70-200 on the 1dMK4.  The wider aperture of the 24mm prime was also appreciated in the dark.  Occasionally I would throw a 15mm fisheye on the 5d as well.  Next time I would not hesitate to just leave the 17-40 at home though, I love to use primes whenever I can because it forces you to think about your composition much more than you do with a zoom.

On to the track

Some of my favorite images are shown below with a bit of a commentary on them and where they were shot.  If you’d like to take a look at a full gallery of shots then please head over here.

The La Sarthe circuit is unlike any other in that it expands out onto public roads and doesn’t return back to the pit lane again for nearly 9 miles.  This makes covering the track, photographically speaking, quite a challenge.  Some of the corners are a very long way from the media center and require intricate knowledge of the surrounding French countryside and a maze or restricted forest tracks to access them.  Due to the scale of it all there are also very distinct differences in the light at various locations during different times of day.  As with all photography, light is key, so you must pay attention to it’s position in the sky and the compass direction that the track faces.  With a bit of careful consideration it’s possible to work out an optimal time to be at every corner on this huge track.  Throughout the practice and qualifying I gathered info and gradually made a plan for the race so I knew where I wanted to be for every hour of it.  I have to say a HUGE thanks to fellow shooters Dave Davis and Bob Chapman for their invaluable advice during the week.  These guys have been shooting the race for many years and without them I would not have come away with so many images to be proud of.

Some terrible quality GoPro footage….

The Start

Using  GoPro camera on top of my lens I captured what it was like to shoot the start of the race.  This was hands down one of the most exciting things I have ever shot.  I was terrified of blowing the start shot but in the end it worked well.  I shot with the 300mm and it was perfect.  Due to the temperature of the track there was a lot of heat haze.  Telephoto lenses compress the haze and you get very soft looking images if you are shooting too long.  I think for the start the 300 was the best choice and those with 500 and 600mm lenses probably suffered with the heat haze if they were shooting from a low angle.

Canon 5dMK2 , 24mm, f2.8 , 1/1600, iso400

Canon 1dMK4 , 90mm , f6.3 , 1/1250, iso500

Canon 5dMK2 , 90mm, f6.3, iso400 , 1/800

1dMK4 , 300mm , iso640, f10, 1/1000

The pit lane

Dodging cars in the pit lane took a little getting used to.  There seemed to be a plethora of unwritten rules as to where you could walk and stand and it was only through trial and error that I figured it out during the night time practice sessions during the week.  I was glad I spent the time there though so when the race came I was much more comfortable with running up and down there.  I knew the shots I wanted and I already had several things planned out for the race.  It was also important to know where the pit box was for each car, and then pay attention to the radio to know who was coming into pit at what time.  This way I could run to the correct pit box before the car got there, to try and get a good shooting position.  Incidentally, fireproof overalls are mandatory in the pit lane and yes they get bloody hot when you are running about carrying a ton of gear!

I love this shot of Sebastian Bourdais sitting in his car.  The front of the Peugeot is so curvy that I decided to put the fisheye lens right up to the car and itreally accentuates the car’s design.  You can still see the driver in the car and also the pit board above the box to let you know which car it is.

Canon 5dMK2 , iso2000, 15mm Fisheye, f7.1 , 1/60th

Canon 5dMK2, iso2000, 15mm fisheye, f4.5 , 1/100

When the driver of the Audi #2 got pole position for Le Mans there was a huge media scrum to get a photo of him getting out of the car. Instead of joining the scrum I went on the other side and slowed my shutter speed down to try and catch the flashes from the other photographers. I managed to grab a couple of flashes, I wish there had been a couple more but I still quite like how this turned out.  I think this tells a good story and I was able to get the Audi #2 banner in the background and see the car much better than I would have done if I was just trying to get a shot of just the driver.

Canon 5dMK2 , 19mm , f4.5 , 1/160th

In the middle of the night during the race I grabbed my tripod and a cable release to do a few long exposures of the pit stops.  Listening to the radio commentary I could tell who was coming into the pit lane and position myself opposite them on the pit wall.

Canon 1dMK4, 100mm, 0.8 seconds, iso160 , f7.1

Occasionally I grabbed my monopod and a cable release.  With the 5d2 and 15mm fisheye I could raise the camera up high on the monopod and fire it using the cable release to achieve a more interesting shooting angle.  I like this shot below as it takes int he dusk sky and the pitlane grandstands in the background.

5dMK2, iso1600, f4.5, 1/200, 15mm fisheye

Dawn is coming as the leading Audi comes into the pit lane.  I waited about half an hour to get this shot and that meant I was running a little late to get to Dunlop Bridge for sunrise.  I literally had to sprint to the media center, rip off my fireproof overalls and then run full speed up the inside of the track as the sun came up.

Canon 5dMK2 , iso1000, 24mm, f4.0, 1/120

Canon 5dMK2 , iso1000,f4, 24mm, 1/100

Dunlop chicane

There’s few things in motor racing that are as iconic as the Dunlop Bridge at La Sarthe.  The Chicane just before it has several great shooting positions.  A quick walk from the pit lane allows you to shoot from behind the cars as the enter the first apex of the chicane.  Just before sunrise there was  yellow flag and I was able to capture the silhouette below of the Peugeot with a marshal waving a flag in the background.

Canon 1dmk4 , 300mm, f4.0, iso320 , 1/400

Moving up the track a little further there are some excellent colors painted on the ground so I spent some time shooting panning shots at low shutter speeds to capture this shot of the Corvette.  Shooting at 1/30th , 1/40th , 1/60th of a second is quite difficult but over the week I found myself getting much more proficient at it.  This was shot with my 300mm lens, the perfect length for this shot.

Canon 1dmk4, 1/30th, f14, iso 100 , 300mm

Moving another 50 yards up the inside of the track you can get a nice shot of the cars exiting the chicane and running under the bridge.  The sun hits this part of the track just after sunrise so this is the best time to shoot here.  I shot on the inside of the track during the Saturday morning warmup session to get this shot of the Porsche.

Canon 1dMK4, 420mm , f40, 1/13th, iso100

I also shot from the outside of the track with my 70-200 to get this shot.  It’d another slow pan but I noticed the correlation of the car’s colors and the tire barriers.  Crouching down low and shooting wider on the 70-200 I was able to keep the barrier in the shot and still blur everything in the shot except the car.

Canon 5dmk2, 1/60th , f18, iso125 , 130mm

During the race I literally sprinted from the pit lane at sunrise over the bridge to the outside of the track.  Here you get a brilliant shot as the sun crests the horizon and hits the drivers right in the eyes.  It brings out a lot of texture and detail on the dirty, battle damaged cars.  Once again the light on the Sunday morning was simply beautiful.  At sunrise you definitely want to shoot this part of the track or a little further down on the run in to Tetre Rouge.  By the time I shot this angle at sunrise during the race I was exhausted and been awake for 24 hours.  The exhilaration of capturing the cars in such perfect light was keeping me going though.  I knew I had to stick to my race plan to cover the rest of the track!  Thankfully I was able to grab a chocolate covered waffle at this point for a sugar boost!

Canon 1dmk4 , f4.5 , 1/1600, iso1000 , 300mm

The Esses

This was the scene of Allan McNish’s enormous accident in the first hour of the race after coming under the Dunlop Bridge.  At the time I was standing right next to the bridge though I was looking the other direction and missed the actual accident.  As soon as I realized what happened I ran down to the scene though and was able to capture a few shots of Allan’s car as they removed it from the gravel trap.

Canon 1dMK4, 300mm , f4 , iso100, 1/320

Canon 5dmk2, 24mm, f1.4, 1/5000, iso250

The following morning I returned to the Esses after sunrise after shooting at Dunlop.  It’s a nice place to get a few slow shutter speed panning shots and I liked how this shot of the winning Audi turned out.  When I’m shooting slow pans I’m always on the lookout for foreground and background elements to blur out.  To me there’s little point shooting a super slow shutter pan and being tight on the car.  You need that blurred surrounding to appreciate the speed.

Canon 5dmk2, f11, 1/60, iso200

A little further down the track gets you to the second part of the Esses where you can either shoot low, directly at the cars, or from a slightly higher raised platform.  The low position is a real eye opener as the cars come screaming out of the corner just a few feet away from you.  Breathtaking stuff.  For this shot, a 300mm on a 1 series body is perfect.  If you take the higher raised shooting position then a 500mm is perfect.  Getting low with the 300 though , and having the low sun at dawn gives a glint in the driver’s eyes that you always want to strive for.

Canon 1dmk4 , f7.1 , iso 400, 1/500th

Tetre Rouge

Strictly speaking the shot below if on the run down to Tetre Rouge.  Again this gets the best light in the morning and you can shoot with any length from 300 to 600mm depending on how far down you walk.  I only shot here for a couple of minutes on Sunday morning though, not enough time to walk a bit further and get a shot of them exiting the corner onto the Mulsanne straight.  I’ll have to get that one next year.

Canon 1dMK4 , 300mm , f8 , 1/1000, iso 1000

Playstation Chicane

The first of the two chicanes on the Mulsanne straight is accessible with one of the media navettes.  I only went there the one time on Sunday lunchtime and it’s not my favorite part of the track though I made a few cool images there.  I didn’t like the head on shot so I shot them from behind, and also found a pretty neat looking spider web in one of the tire barriers which I incorporated into a couple of cool shots.

Canon 5dMK2 , iso 320, f2.8 , 1/2500, 24mm

Canon 1dmk4 , iso320, 1/3200, f2.8, 300mm

Mulsanne Corner

Being on the outside of the far corner of the circuit this is time consuming to get to and there is no media shuttle to get you there.  After talking to a few regular photogs I decided not to bother going down there during the week.

No man’s land

Moped riding through the French countryside

The run out of Mulsanne corner and down to Indianapolis doesn’t really have a name.  There is no way for spectators to get anywhere near this area and getting there as a photographer requires some prior knowledge of a series of woodland tracks, and the use of a moped.  I caught a ride there with Bob Chapman on the Saturday evening.  If you get nice light as the sun goes down, this is the best pace on the track to shoot.  As it happens, we had some stunning conditions for the hour we spent there.  It was an hour of shooting that I will never forget for my whole career.  The sun pokes in and out between trees as it goes down, bathing the cars is a very directional soft warm light.  Shooting towards the sun gives you an incredibly orange sky and reflections off the track.  It really is a beautiful part of the track as the cars pass through the woodland at 180mph+

Canon 1dmk4 , iso2000, 300mm , 1/800 , f11

Canon 1dmk4 , iso1250, 1/800, f8.0 , 420mm

Canon 1dmk4 , 300mm, iso640, 1/1000, f4.0

The last few seconds of sunlight were out of this world!!

Canon 1dmk4 , iso800, f11, 1/400 , 300mm

Indianapolis

There’s a couple of shooting spots for this cambered corner.  You can shoot the cars head on coming into it but I found the background to be too dull for my liking.  You can also walk down the track a little further and shoot them coming out of the corner and passing just a couple of feet from you to head to Arnage. I lined up the Audi sign in the background and then waited for an Audi to come round the corner.

Canon 1dmk4, f8.0, iso640, 1/1600, 300mm

Arnage

Just 50 feet further on you have the tight slow Arnage corner.  From the inside of the track I didn’t really like the shot of them going through the corner because there was too much clutter in the background.  There is a good place for some slow shutter pans though as the cars come into the breaking zone with all the spectators in the background.

Canon 5dmK2, 1/60th , 170mm, f16, iso500

Porsche Curves

The photo position on the entry to the Porsche curves is incredibly close to the track.  Literally a couple of feet away from the tarmac.  You can shoot here with 300mm although 500mm is preferable here.  It gets excellent evening light and as the sun gets low in the sky you begin to see it glint onto the drivers face as the cars pass through pockets of sunlight caused by the surrounding trees.

Canon 1dmk4 , iso800, f9.0, iso1250 , 420mm

I tested the new MKII 1.4x teleconverter a lot at this location and it proved to be very good at locking onto the cars coming at me at about 160-180mph.

Canon 1dmk4 , 1/1000, iso800, f10, 420mm

If you take a walk further down the track you can cross over the run-off area and climb onto the banking that overlooks the apex of the first curve for a decent panning shot.  There’s a couple of other shots at this location but you need a 500mm or even longer to get them effectively.

Canon 1dMK4 , 1/60th, f16, iso250, 420mm

Ford Chicane

The Ford Chicane is an easy place to get to from the media center so I ended up there a few times.  There are several photo holes in the fencing and I found that they each required a different lens for the optimal shot.  My 300mm was ok for a panning shot of them exiting the final part of the chicane but I needed to shoot longer to get the head on shots of them crossing the second apex.  The first apex was out of my reach with my setup.  It is also possible to get to the entry of the first part of the chicane if you travel to the inside of the circuit.  I shot there for half an hour just after sundown but it wasn’t my favorite spot on the track.

Canon 1dmk4, 300mm , 1/200, f2.8, iso320

Canon 1dMK4 , 420mm, f5.0, iso1250, 1/640

Canon 5dMK2 , iso320, f5.0, 1/1000, 200mm

During qualifying Any Prilaux crashed his BMW heavily coming into the chicane and I managed to grab a few shots of him surveying the damage.

Canon 5dMK2 , f2.0 , 24mm, 1/1600, iso800

Pit straight

A short walk past the Ford Chicane gets you to the pit straight where you can shoot back at the cars exiting the ford chicane with the fair ground rides in the background and the grandstand.

Canon 1dmk4 , iso2000 , f5.6 , 300mm, 1/1000

Canon 5dMK2 , iso50, 30 seconds, f32, 100mm

The finish line

The midday backlit light on the finish line is about as bad as you can think of.  I shot from the wall opposite the pits to get the famous Rolex clock in the shot with the winning car and the checkered flag.  It’s a bit of a dull shot though to be honest but when the car came back around I spotted the two team mates of the winning car on the wall and got a nice shot of them celebrating as their car opened the door having passed the line.

Canon 1dMK4 , iso1250, f9 , 1/1600, 200mm

The Podium

Having shot the finish line it was a mad dash with all the other photographers to the other side of the track to get a good position for the podium.  There was a coral directly underneath it but I could not find a way into it.  The typical shot most people try and get is standing quite a long way back with a long telephoto lens but I wanted to get close to the winning car.  I shot from below and to the right of the podium and it worked out pretty well giving a nice view of the winner and the trophies.  I also got a few closeup shots of the winning car with the 24 Heures Du Mans signage in the background.  This was much harder to get because I was shooting through gaps between many people.  I tried probably 100 shots to get these and most of them had someone’s arm or head in them.  I love to see the dirt and the ticker tape on the car though.  The sign in the back is important to tell the story!

Canon 1dmk4 , iso1000, f11, 1/250, 130mm

Canon 1dmk4 , 150mm, f5.6 , iso1000, 1/500

Canon 1dMK4 , iso1000, f8, 200mm, 1/250

 Contact me !

If there are any images here or in the larger gallery that you would like to use for anything please contact me on dan@dancarrphotography.com .  If your team, company, race series or magazine is looking for race coverage in the future then please do get in touch.

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I’m here with a crew from Poorboyz productions, working alongside them while they film for their new movie, Revolver.  Our stacked list of pro skiers  consists of Dane Tudor, Tim Durtchi, Julien Regnier, Pep Fujas and JP Auclair and I’m doing some shooting for Atomic Skis and Salomon .  The trip actually started out with a bang though….. flying into Juneau from Vancouver I was greeted with beautiful sunshine.  There are only 2 ways to get from Juneau to Haines, sea or air.  And we aren’t talking 737s here , you need to pile into a tiny 4 seater Piper Cherokee with all you ski gear and camera equipment.  When the weather is nice the plane is the way to go and saves you a ton of time and for $100 you get one of the most beautiful flights you could ever hope for as you fly up the Chilkat inlet towards the port town of Haines.  As soon as we landed we headed straight up to “33 mile”, the base for Alaska Heliskiing , located 33 miles outside of Haines.  It was already late afternoon but we did all the necessary paperwork and safety checks that are required when you go heli skiing, so that we were ready to fly the next day if the sun held out.

Unfortunately, as usual, I cant show you any of the skiing photos until they have been used in next winters ski magazines but here is a few other shots from our trip.

On the flight from Juneau to Haines I jumped in the front seat with my Canon 1d MKIV and my 24mm f1.4 II lens.  Due to limited space I could only take the camera and one lens but I made a quick little video.  These little planes are shaky, could have done with a gyro to stabilize things a little bit.  If you want to watch it in HD you can head HERE

Shooting in AK is very different from normal shooting in most situations.  The cost of using a helicopter is huge, nearly $3000 per hour to be exact.  There are several ways to approach using a heli and they both have their advantages and disadvantages.  If you rent a private heli then you have to pay a minimum cost per day, whether you use it or not.  This cost varies but it can be upwards of $4000 a day.  When you often have huge long stretches of down time like we have had, having your own heli can really ruin your month!  On this trip we have experimented with various options, including splitting a heli with a snowboard film crew that is also up here.  The disadvantage is that you get less drops on a good day, but at least you dont go broke if you have some major down time.  Its not unheard of for people to come up here and spend all their budget without ever getting to fly at all!  So you finally get up in the air on a bluebird day and that clock starts ticking, you pay for the heli for every minute that you are flying in it, $50 per minute.  Taking hours to search all the lines in the area is financially not really an option so the riders have to be on the lookout for something they want, and we have to quickly make a decision as a team, as to whether its going to look good on film and photo with the light that is currently on it.  Knowing the area is a huge advantage, knowing which lines get light at which times and which ones get sun-baked by a certain time.  Its a huge learning process for the younger riders in the crew like Dane and Tim.  When a zone is selected the heli spins round to let the riders snap a photo of the zone and then often they are dropped straight on top of the line, only seconds after seeing it.  From there everything looks very different and picking your line down by looking at the photo is an art in itself.  Because of the limited weather windows and the huge costs, there is always pressure on the riders and filmers/photogs to make every shot count, its a very different vibe to most shooting that I do in the mountains.  For the skiers , and even myself to a slightly lesser extent, you have to stay constantly mentally prepared.  The weather can change quickly and then you get the phone call to gear up and get down to the heli port.  As a skier, in an hour you can go from being in bed to standing on top of the line of your life, with no warm up run.  And as a photographer you have to make sure that you capture that moment perfectly because you might have waited days and spend thousands of dollars for that split second.  There’s always a lot of choices to make, where can you stand that is safe (which can be a limiting factor), what lens will you use and when will you take the shots.  The lines can be long, and simply holding down the shutter button will have you filling your in-camera buffer in no time meaning you miss the shot as the skiers sends it off the cliff at the bottom of their line.  If you don’t have a private heli for the day, the riders can only expect to get 3 or 4 runs in a day if its bluebird all day.  More often than not, the weather is not that stable and you might get one run in before the clouds roll in and its time to head back to the motel.  It’s a waiting game.

The video below was shot entirely with a  GoPro® Helmet HEROâ„¢ Wide camera.  I’ve had one of these now for a couple of months and been really impressed with the quality of the video.  It shoots in full 1080p at 30fps , or 720 in 60fps.  It can also be used to take low res photos and you can set an interval timer on that to create a timelapse.  These things are a lot of fun and small enough that i can just slip it in my pocket.  Most of the shots in this movie were taken using the optional GoPro chest mount.  This video is well worth watching in HD on vimeo’s site, if only just to see the exceptional quality of the video from such a tiny tiny camera!  Hopefully it give you a bit of an idea what its like to shoot a day in Alaska.  The video was edited in Final Cur Pro but one thing you should know is that natively the GoPro records to an h.264 encoded file that is not much good for editing.  If you want to edit multiple clips together like this you will need to use a program to convert the files to a quicktime file with a different codec like AIC or prores 422.  You can use a free program called Mpeg Streamclip to do this. To watch the video in HD please go HERE.

Shooting skiing in Alaska, GoPro helmet camera video. from Dan Carr on Vimeo.

Here is another quick clip too.

Heli shooting in AK from Dan Carr on Vimeo.

What gear do you need to shoot in AK?

You can see some of the stuff I’m using in the video and its a bit of a different selection to what I would normally take skiing.

Canon 1dMKIV – Main camera

Canon 5dMKII – Backup (spends most of its time in the hotel just in case the 1dMKIV has problems)

Canon 70-200 f4 L IS – Good for wider shots of some of the shorter lines round here and good for shooting from the helicopter when permitted.

Canon 300m f2.8 L IS – For lines in Haines I think this is the lens to have.  Most of the lines here are between 1000 and 2000ft of vertical and 300mm works pretty well.  Its also flexible because you can add a 1.4 teleconverter and still get great shots and even a 2x TC if needed.  I have both TCs with me though I only used the 2x twice when we had to shoot from way across the other side of a valley.  Its actually the first time i have ever used a 2x TC and I was pretty surprised by the results.  Better than I expected.  Back in whistler I often use the 300mm f4 L IS but it doesn’t handle the TCs very well so that got left behind this time and the extra weight and size of the 2.8 has to be dealt with.  The majority of my shots on this trip were with the 300mm 2.8.

Canon 24mm 1.4 L II – Lifestyle shots are great with this lens , far too wide for action shots round here.  I don’t bother to take the 17-40 with me either as its just too wide for things in AK but the 24mm is just perfect on the 1.3 crop sensor to show a it of environment around the subject, but still isolate them with the 1.4 aperture.

Sigma 15mm fisheye – Only used for some interior shots in the heli

I’m also using a carbon fiber Induro monopod which can be handy as you have to sit around a lot and i can just jam it in the snow to support the camera while I wait.

Dont forget all the other little things like transceiver, radios, safety harness (necessary for heli skiing up here), shovel, lots of layers, gloves etc etc.  All of this is packed into my F-stop Tilopa.

Too close for comfort

There is obviously an inherent amount of danger that comes with shooting in the mountains.  Everything in Alaska is huge, and the dangers that come with it are amplified.  Our guides are the best in the business and they have many years of experience out here in Haines, we know and understand the dangers and prepare for them as best we can.  The stability of the snowpack is constantly evaluated and it’s important to always have an escape plan from where you are skiing just in case the slope does slide.  From our point of view, as filmers and photographers, a lot of the time here we are looking up at things from the bottom.  We need to be aware of the dangers that could come down from above, not just from the lines that the skiers are on , but also from surrounding peaks as natural avalanches and cracking cornices occur all the time.  You really need to make sure that you are in a safe spot to stand and on our third days flying up here we really proved why you need to be constantly aware in these mountains……

This photo on the left shows the view from where I was standing.  The cornice there is roughly 25ft thick, and when it hit the slope below it you can see how the whole slope ripped away right down to the rock, leaving a 5 or 6ft crown below the cornice.  The panorama actually doesn’t even show the full length that the debris slid, there were chunks even further down out of my view from that vantage point. That sort of volume of snow makes an indescribable noise as it picks up speed.  Immediately a cloud of cold smoke rose up from the ground as the huge cornice chunks mixed amongst the now moving slope.  We had picked our vantage point carefully, perched up on a slight rise in the middle of the glacier.  An avalanche will follow the path of least resistance so we knew if something happened it should turn downhill before getting to us.  Of course that didn’t prevent a heart stopping scramble through the snow as the slide began to pick up speed.  Initially I was sure we were safe, but then the huge cloud of dust grew bigger and obscured our view of the larger pieces of rubble.  Many of those chunks were the size of cars and even buses, we wouldn’t have stood a chance if we were hit by those.  As the dust cloud rolled up and gathered speed and got closer, me and poorboyz filmer Steve Rozendall started to run as best we could.  Within seconds we were engulfed by the dust cloud thrown up by the slide.  Fortunately the main body of the slide turned downhill and our safe zone turned out to be just that.  The skiers might be the ones on the crazy lines, but remember that its coming towards you if things go wrong!  Good preparation saved us on this occasion.  Once Dane had seen the slide pass by Steve and myself he managed to snap a quick photo of it continuing on down the slope.  The panoramic photo of the aftermath above was taken on the wind-lip right next to front of the slide in Dane’s action photo on the left below.  As you can see, it was still carrying a lot of force at that point in the swirling mass of snow.  The photo on the right below shows Steve and Me where we were standing when it slid to give you a bit of scale.

That’t about enough on this I think, don’t want to go on too long.  I’m by no means an AK Veteran like some of the other ski shooters out there.  But I always wandered what it was like to shoot up here.  Hopefully this gives you a little insight into things.  Drop more questions in the comments if you have them.

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We left Vancouver airport heading for Tokyo and then a flight from there to Sapporo on Hokaido, Japan’s North Island.  Trying to pack gear for long overseas trips like this is always tough.  Airlines have all but done away with the old baggage allowances of  2x32kg bags , most now only allow 2x22kg (and sometimes even less).  To transport ski equipment, camera equipment and personal items in 2×22 is nearly impossible.  My ski gear (skis, boots, poles, ski wear etc) weights in at 20KG on its own.  I resign myself to the fact that I’m going to get charged for excess baggage either way.  The important thing though is to try and keep it to 2 bags of 32kg.  Anything over 32kg must be sent as freight!

For this trip I took a large Dakine rolling ski bag in which I packed my ski gear, a tripod, a shovel and probe, 2 lightstands and some ski touring equipment. I also packed a pelican a pelican 1550 hard case with my large sized F-stop ICU. In the ICU I put my Elinchrom ranger battery pack and flash head, along with some pocketwizards and a couple of Nikon flashes.  One thing that I have always been wary of is how conspicuous the pelican cases look.  They can attract far too much attention if you are looking to slip though immigration and customs without being held up for a long time.  There’s also the chance that they could get stolen because they scream, “I’ve got expensive gear in here”.

To combat this I put the pelican case inside a huge 150-liter duffel bag.  This time I was using a First Ascent bag available from Eddie Bauer.  First Ascent is a new collaboration between Whittaker Mountaineering and Eddie Bauer, affordable mountaineering equipment and clothing.  From what I have seen so far it seems like good value and durable stuff and its made from 1000d Cordura nylon.  In the same duffel bag I also pack a smaller North Face flyweight duffel bag with all my clothes.  That way if there is any problem with that bag being over the limit, I can easily take the clothing bag out and check that separately.  It also makes things easier when the airline wants to get into the pelican case to do  security checks on the battery pack.  They wont have to unpack all my clothes, just simply take the smaller bag out.  The tiny North Face duffel is perfect because it only weighs 14oz. I also packed an F-Stop Satori into the duffel to carry the lighting equipment that was in the Pelican case.

Worth mentioning too is that for every single flight I took on this trip , my name was called at the gate and I had to go and meet with the security personnel from the airline to discuss my battery pack.  This is nothing new, happens all the time and I don’t blame them at all but make sure you are prepared for it.  I wrote an article on my blog about this and if I had not been taking my own advice I think I would have failed to get my bag on all the flights.  Every single security agent thanked me profusely for being so well prepared with my paperwork.

For carryon I packed 2 cameras ( Canon 1dMKIV and Canon 5dMKII) plus 8 lenses into my black F-Stop Tilopa.  I like the black Tilopa for flying with because it draws a lot less attention than my red Satori.  I don’t want the airline personnel to take a second look at me because then they might decide to weigh my carryon where they would find that it’s over 3 times the allowable weight!! Discretion is key!  If your bag does get weighed, there is a good chance that you will have to hang your cameras around your neck and stuff all your lenses in your pockets to get them on the aircraft.  This has happened a couple of times to me.  Technically you can take a camera on board in that fashion, and nowhere does it restrict the size of that camera.  Just in case this happens, I also wrap my camera bodies in Lens Coat body wraps to protect them from scratches if i have to carry them on separately. For this reason I always carry my ski jacket with me too, no matter how warm it is because it has 8 different pockets I can stuff lenses into.

The trip was to be quite long and I was unsure as to exactly what kind of shooting we would be doing.  In fact I ended up taking more lighting equipment than I needed, but i’d far rather do that than not take enough.  For the majority of the time, the flash gear stayed locked in the pelican case in the back of our rented mini-van.  The 5dMKII never came out for skiing on this trip but I did use it for travel pics while we were wandering around Tokyo and Sapporo.  This was the first trip that I had used the 1dMKIV though and I was blown away by it, but more on that at a later date.  Just trust me for now, its an incredible camera.  On the left here you can see my typical daily lens choice while we were there.  I had the 300mm f4 , 70-200 f4 IS , 17-40 f4 , 24 1.4II and the 1.4 TC.  Other lenses like the 85mm and 50mm and 24-105 went somewhat unused for the trip because we were doing a lot of hiking in very very deep snow, or ski touring, and in those situations I want to keep the weight of my pack down a bit so I can keep up with the athletes!!

Being an international flight from Canada I was also allowed to take one “personal item” on the plane with me.  You are allowed to take a laptop bag as your extra item, but crucially the allowable size of the bag is much bigger than the size of a modern laptop!  Use this to your advantage!  For my laptop bag I use a Think Tank Airport Check In.  Designed specifically for this purpose it allows me to fit a laptop and all my necessary chargers I need neatly into the same bag.  I can also fit my extra hard drives as well as my ipod, point and shoot camera and all the necessary travel documents and reading material.  When you are on the plane, stash your main camera bag in the overhead bin and then slip the Airport check in under the seat in front of you so you have easy access to all your magazines, books and ipod on the flight.  All of your chargers and cables go into a separate case that slides easily in and out of the main compartment and includes dividers to organize things even further.

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Back at home in Whistler I got a call from Jeff Thomas or Poorboyz. He was just getting into town with Tim Durtchi to go sledding for a few days.  The following day was far to stormy to sled so we headed up Whistler Blackcomb with Brandon Kelly and Tim.  The snow was DEEP but the weather was stormy so we headed into the trees and hiked around for a few hours.  Next day the weather wasn’t much better but we decided to head up Rainbow mountain on our sleds for a few tree laps to find some pillows.  Snow was great, bit heavy but Tim got a couple of cool shots.  Brandon’s sled broke down in the parking lot so unfortunately he didn’t make it up (remember what I was saying about snowmobiles?).  The following day we headed back up to the same area, temperatures had gone up though and throughout the day the snow got heavier and heavier.  We spent a couple of hours building a jump but by the time it was finished, the snow on the in-run was so wet and sticky that there wasn’t enough speed to hit it.  We were all soaked to the skin and freezing cold from water blowing off the nearby trees so we called it a day.  And that’s where i’m at !  A day off the mountains to catch up on some office work.  Hopefully next week brings a bit more sunshine!

A couple of quick photography related thoughts:

• My insurance company got me another Canon S90 after mine was stolen in Mexico. I LOVE this thing, there’s a couple of snaps in the gallery below.  Something i have noticed though, when shooting in RAW, the embedded JPEG that is displayed on the screen has a heavy noise reduction applied to it.  ISO performance is great, but the on screen JPEG tricked me into thinking it was slightly better than it actually was.
• The last few stormy days in Whistler I have been shooting with the Canon 7d.  The weather sealing on this camera is clearly very very good, I have drenched this camera all day long covered in rain and snow with nothing covering it and it still keeps ticking.  It’s nice to know I don’t have to baby this thing too much.
• It wasn’t really possible to take a laptop to Bralorne so I took my Colorspace UDMA with me for photo backup duty.  Despite temperatures getting down to -15 Celsius is worked just fine!

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Predictably I took too much with me.  Some of the gear stayed unused in my bag so here is a few notes in no particular order:

Think Tank Airport International: This is the bag I used to take my cameras and lenses on the plane.  You can fit a huge amount of gear in this.  Fully loaded with 8 lenses, 2 cameras and other miscellaneous trinkets it weighed in at 20kg but its dimensions are designed to make it legal carry on size.  Unfortunately the weigh limit for carry on on air New Zealand was 7kg.  My carry on is always over the limit so that’s no surprise.  I just do the old trick of taking it all out and hanging cameras round your neck with lenses in your pocket.  What did become a problem though is that this bag weighs 6KG when its empty….. leaving you with only 1 solitary KG of gear to be allowed in the bag should it get weighed by the “jobsworths” at the gate.  Certainly worth consideration.  Rolling cases are great for your back but I hadn’t appreciated how much the empty bag weighed until it was pointed out to me by my friendly gate agent.

Canon 45mm T/S:  A new purchase just before I left and first impressions are great.  It’s a little softer at f2.8 but by f3.5 is nice and sharp as long as you nail the focus, which is manual only.  This thing was absolutely awesome for some of the product photography I had to do for a catalog.  Total control of the plane of focus allowed me to control exactly which elements of the product you were drawn to in the photos.  Manual focus was not a problem when combined with live view on the 5dMKII.  I also found myself reaching for this lens for full length portraits too instead of my 50mm lens.  In fact my 50mm lens did not get touched once on the whole trip.  Played with the lens a little bit for action shots too, novelty value is there but could get old pretty quickly.

Elinchrom Ranger: Apart from the traveling problems I experienced with this, it worked flawlessly as usual and I used it nearly every day for product shots , portraits or action.  Taking this with me on a trip is a no-brainer.  One decision that I did make before I left was to only take metallic reflectors with me and leave other light modifiers behind such as softboxes.  I had no problems with this, the light quality from the ranger with a bare bulb is beautiful and it did the job admirably.  I took the huge sports reflector with me but found that I could have easily coped with the smaller standard reflector and the medium sized one with a 20 degree grid.

Support: 1 tripod, 1 monopod, large 12ft lightstand,  4ft lightstand and a manfrotto magic arm.  I could have left the monopod at home, only used it a couple of times.  I took it to use shooting some pipe but in the end i could have accomplished the same thing with the 4ft lightstand.  The magic arm didn’t get used more than once but i’d still take that with me.  I find that when i need that thing, there is nothing else that will do the job and it’s saved me a few times in the past.  I ditched the regular sized super clamp this time and just took the new nano clamp to go on the end of it but this was a mistake.  It is not strong enough to support a 1 series camera and I snapped off the end of a spigot inside one of the threaded holes on the clamp.  Next time I will take the super clamp too and just keep the nano for holding small flashes.

Long lenses: I had my 300mm lens with me but I was surprised how little I actually used it.  When sledding in the BC backcountry I use it all the time but I could probably have left it behind this time.  To save a little weight one day I took my 1.4 teleconverter with me and my 70-200 f4 L IS.  I had never used this combination before, not since I sold my 70-200 f2.8IS.  With the 2.8 version of the lens I was never happy with the 1.4x, in fact I hated it.  However this time, with the 70-200 f4 IS I was amazed at the quality!  With the old 2.8 lens you could tell from a mile off which shots had been taken with the teleconverter, but this time, with the f4 lens I actually had to check the EXIF data most times to figure it out!!  You need to stop it down a tiny bit, but overall I was very impressed by it and wouldn’t hesitate to use it again.

Small Flashes: I took 4 Nikon SB-80DXs with me.  I could have easily managed with just 2 of them

Pockewizards: I gave the TT1 transmitter one last try but the only time i tried to use it, it failed to learn the channel I needed it to and then I couldn’t get it to transmit at all.  Still total junk.  All my old plus IIs and multimaxes were just fine though.

Pelican 1610: This is the case that I pack my flash gear into.  Before I bought the case I studied the specs on several cases.  The trick is to get a case that gives you a good volume to weight ratio.  Some of the larger cases are so heavy even when they are empty that it leaves you very little allowance to put gear in before you max out at the 32KG limit enforced by airlines.  The 1610, packed with a ranger system including a spare battery, 4 pocketwizards, 4 small flashes, and a couple of small light stands weighs in at exactly 32KG.  The Ranger head and the battery pack are packed into modular inserts made by F-Stop.

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I flew direct from Vancouver to Auckland on a new service from Air New Zealand and I have to say that they are just about the best airline I have ever flown with.  Though it does help the that booking agent was an action sports photo fan and kindly hooked me up with a bulkhead seat so I could stretch out.

Of course I went through all the usual problems trying to get my bags within the weight limits but eventually after I had tossed a ton of non-essential items (clothes) out at the check in desk I sneaked everything into 2 bags at 32KG each.  One pelican 1610 hard case full of flash equipment and F-stop bags and my huge DaKine ski roller bag which held a pair of skis, ski boots, light stands and a small amount of clothing.

The rest of my camera equipment travels with me as carry on in a Think Tank Airport International roller case.  I think the weight limit for carry on was about 7kg but my bag weighed at least 25kg.  No questions asked on the first flight but I did hear the dreaded words ” excuse me sir, can you just put that bag on the scales for me” when I was boarding my connection from Auckland to Queenstown. Busted.

Always have a backup plan!  No matter what the weather is I always fly with my ski jacket under my arm.  It has HUGE pockets and if the worst happens, I can put a lot of lenses in the pockets.  I slung my 300mm and my 1dMKIIN around my neck, my 70-200 on my 5dMKII over my shoulder and the rest of my lenses went in my jacket pockets.  The flight attendants were scratching their heads as I did this and they still made me check the Think Tank roller into the aircraft hold, but at least all the important stuff was with me.  Of course I looked rediculous boarding the plane, especially as I was the last one on by this time and it opened the floodgates to the usual questions….. ohhhhh how much does that lens cost, can you see the moon with that thing, your job must be very easy with such a nice camera etc etc  C’est la vie.

Once arrived I took a couple of days to chill out in Wanaka.  Every time I go to that town I am stunned by it’s beauty.  Simply breathtaking scenery but I didnt have much time to spare.  A quick day catching up with friends and then on the road north to Christchurch to meet up with the Atomic ski team for a 10 day shoot for their 2011 catalog….. stay tuned for chapter 2 later in the week.

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It’s been a strange winter here in British Columbia.  The snow didn’t really come in November and December leaving the mountains still looking like mountain bike resorts.  A lot of my plans went down the plughole and I was left twiddling my thumbs for a few weeks.  Then on December 26th Vancouver received nearly 60cm of snow (though nearby Whistler got only a couple of inches).  With more snow than Vancouver had ever seen I quickly organized a trip down there to meet up with the Poorboyz crew and we hit some rails for a few days with Mike Henitiuk, Matt Margetts and Leigh Powis.  When a city that normally doesnt get any snow, receives nearly 2 feet, the place comes to a standstill.  Jeff Thomas met me at his house in North Vancouver by coming down his road on his snowmobile…..

As soon as that trip was done I headed back to Whistler for the Deep Winter photo challenge that I wrote about last week.  After the Deep Winter I headed back down to Vancouver for a shoot at Grouse Mountain which saw the beginning of another strage weather pattern.  As we arrived at Grouse it looked like the day was going to be foggy and overcast but a quick trip up the gondola quickly showed that the temperatures were inverted and the top of the mountain was bathed in a beautiful orange glow as the sun rose above the cloud layer.  This inverted weather pattern stayed around for the next 10 days though bringing unseasonally high temperatures to the alpine regions while the valleys hovered around 0.  Up in whistler the temperature in the alpine shot up to a high of 10 degrees and stayed there for the week.  The already thin snowpack was melting away…….

Booter shooting in whistler from Dan Carr on Vimeo.
With no real powder to ski anywhere I spent the week building backcountry jumps with the PBP crew.  We discovered that the snow on some West facing aspects was still soft enough to land on once you punched through a thin crust so we built a collections of step downs, hips and gap jumps with Anthony Boronowski, Charley Ager, Brandon Kelly, Dane Tudor and Riley Leboe as they work on the new Poorboyz movie to be called………. well I cant tell you that yet but wait until the SIA trade show in Las Vegas next week and all will be revealed.  For now though the inversion has dispersed and the slush has turned to Ice but at least that finally gave me some time to do an update!

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Support the site

• B&H Photo
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• DROBO Enter coupon code DANCARRPHOTO for up to $150 off on certain models.