Road trip. January 25th, 2009
The French alps had had a huge amount of snow over Christmas so I decided to get myself out there and shoot a good batch of stock for Cultura Images. I picked up Ben Benson, a good friend who is also an incredible skier and headed south to the mountains. Our first stop was Hotel Le Chamois in Alpe d’Huez. This is a groovy little hotel run by some friends of mine, it has a great atmosphere, great food and a cool bar, an excellent spot to work from. So we shot pictures in the old town and then up in the mountains, shooting ski lifestyle and action, giving the Elinchroms a good workout in the freezing cold. We had great weather and great apres ski, which sometimes merged into an evening out. It’s a hard place to leave, but I had to try and keep to my plan, which I have to admit was fairly flimsey.
We said our goodbyes and headed off to Serre Chevalier. I hadn’t been there for nearly ten years and I’d forgotten how huge it was. I did a ski season there in 1993, so I met up with old friends and worked a few days on the hill shooting action, the light was superb and so was the snow, we got some great images. I must get back there again, maybe this summer, if not, definitely next winter. Back in car again and off to Morzine where we met up with Catherine Peck and professional model who was doing a ski season there. We spent a couple of days shooting lifestyle, but unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worst and our plans for action pictures where finished. We’d had a great trip but, as always when your travelling, money gets eaten everyday, so I decided we had done enough and headed back to the UK and home, all in all a very successful trip.
Many, many thanks to Gareth, Catherine and Adam at the Hotel Le Chamois for their help and hospitality. To Mike Truelove for nearly killing us and to Lara, Howie and Sally for the breakfast, guiding and Tartiflet. Also a big thank you to Ben Benson for all of the hiking and amazing back flips and Catherine Peck for all of the help in Morzine.
Shropshire snow. January 7th, 2009
Snow in the UK is always a little disappointing to me these days, but this January we had a few weeks of really cold weather, -12 at one point, and we had some good snow falls. So I took advantage and grabbed the camera, a down jacket and the dog and headed out the door. Here’s a couple of shots.
