Dan Carr

Founder of Shutter Muse, full time photographer and creative educator. Dan lives in the Canadian Yukon, but his wanderlust often sends him in search of images all around the world to meet the needs of clients and readers alike.

South of the Equator – Chapter 1

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Eventually winter comes to an end in Whistler. Last day of summer camps on Blackcomb glacier were mid way through July and with temperatures in the mid 30s every day I needed to get back to a cooler climate. 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. …

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Portable Storage – LaCie Rugged drives

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I just picked up another LaCie Rugged drive for an upcoming trip to New Zealand so I thought I’d take a second to post about them. The Rugged line of drives from LaCie are designed with the traveling photographer in mind and are encased in a protective rubber shell. I have been using a 120gb Rugged for about 2 years now and it has been faultless so far. If you take a look at the larger version of the photo on the left you will even see a sizable dent in the case on the top but still it keeps …

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Summer happenings

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Bit of an odds and ends posting this one. I’ve been shooting a few things up on Blackcomb glacier in the last week or so. The progression of skiing over the last year is pretty impressive. It seems everyone has a new variation on a double cork or double flip these days. Paul Bergeron (photo on the left) is looking particularly impressive. I also shot a quick video of Peter Olenicks new double which seems to be a kind of misty 5 to switch backflip. Crazy stuff. Pete Olenicks new dub from Dan Carr on Vimeo. A few nights ago …

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Think Tank Wired Up Collection – Review

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This Month, Think Tank Photo will be releasing an entire new collection of camera bags designed specifically with the Multimedia photographer in mind. With the advent of cameras such as the Canon 5dMKII and the the Panasonic GH-1, more and more photographers are being asked to shoot video and/or audio on photographic assignments. More to shoot means more to carry and these new bags are designed specifically to meet the new challenges associated with multimedia shooting. If you decide to purchase any of the bags, Think Tank has a special offer on at the moment. If you go to their …

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All quiet on the western coast…for now

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The blog has been pretty quiet lately.  Having finished my final shoot of the winter for Whistler Blackcomb in May I took a bit of time off after a long winter.  I went back to England to visit my family and also took some time to head to France to watch the Le Mans 24 hour motor race.  After skiing, motor racing is my second passion.  One day I would love to spend a bit more time shooting it.  The trip to France was a holiday for me so i didn’t spend a lot of time shooting but I did …

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Interview on Skiing Website Newschoolers.com

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Just a quick post today. I did an interview for the skiing website Newschoolers.com. Update January 2016: This older interview is no longer available on their website for some reason but you can download the PDF of it HERE.

Summer is coming

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Yesterday was Gaper day here in Whistler. Blackcomb is now closed and Whistler is open for some limited spring skiing. I have one more snowboard shoot left to do here with the Sandbox crew and it looks like we will get that done towards the end of this week when the current low pressure has cleared out. Winter is nearly done. When winter finishes in Whistler though you only get a couple of weeks off before summer camps start up on the glacier. I’m stoked already, the Blackcomb glacier hosts 2 of the best summer parks in the world. Momentum …

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Ultra Portable lightstand. 386B Nano Clamp

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Ever find yourself skiing,snowboarding or biking with a 40lb pack? Chances are your bag is full of speedlights, cameras and lenses with 4 lightstands hanging off the side just waiting to crack you in the side of the head at every turn. This winter when I started to slimline my gear a bit in an effort to save my back, I decided that i needed to find some super lightweight lightstand solutions. I tried out some $10 tripods from ebay, you know the ones, shiny and silver , made from 1/2 mm think aluminum. Lightweight they are, but they are …

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Pocketwizard TT1 Review

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Be prepared… this is a long one. A few months ago I wrote a post HERE about a couple of exciting new products from LPA designs, the makers of the pocketwizard triggering system. If you are entirely unfamiliar with these products i suggest a quick read of my earlier post as there is a bit of assumed knowledge. I’m not initially interested in the wireless ETTL modes for these new models so i just bought myself a TT1 transmitter to try out the Hypersync mode which supposedly allows you to achieve a much higher x-sync with your strobes. Unfortunately I …

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Tested my 85mm lens.

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When I sold my 70-200 2.8L IS to get one of the newer, sharper f4 versions I also picked up a Canon 85mm f1.8 to use for shooting portraits and lifestyle stuff. This week I have been shooting with Kaya Turski , fresh off her win at the European Open and with an x-games medal in her pocket she is finally putting injuries behind her and skiing really well. As well as some skiing stuff, I also wanted to get a few headshots and portraits of her as i’m sure magazines are going to be needing this stuff next winter. …

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A note on remote camera shooting.

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Ever looked at something and wished you could shoot 2 different angles? Any working photog these days is going to own more than one camera. If one of your cameras fails, you need to be able to finnish the job you are being paid for. But other than having the camera just as a backup, you can put that camera to good use too. Remote cameras are nothing new in sports photography. Take a look around any major sporting event and you will often see hundreds of remote cameras. Photographers for some large agencies will capture anything up to 10 …

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70-200 f4 L IS – Initial thoghts

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Those of you who follow this blog will remember that a couple of weeks ago I sold my beloved 70-200 2.8 L IS lens. The lens that has shot the majority of my ski photos for the last few years. I replaced it with it’s smaller and lighter brother the 70-200 f4 L IS. Having spent a couple of weeks using it now I thought I would confirm my initial suspicions. I LOVE this lens. As I sold my old lens I have no way of doing any direct comparisons but if that’s what you want to see then check …

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