Oh how I do love the spring

Yes, I know... nothing can beat the cold, dark, deep of winter with the endless snow that comes to us every January and February, but... spring is a close second to my favorite time of year. The temperatures rise, the sun shines, the sky pops blue, and the snow softens, but best of all the local resorts close. When the resorts close it forces you to do one of two things: travel or hike, and both are very rewarding. Its hard to get into the backcountry or leave town to travel somewhere when your local resort has really good snow.

Anyways, my spring has been amazing and as you have probably noticed I have not been posting that often so I'm doing a mass post that encompasses most of my spring.

It started at Mammoth with the Volcom Peanut Butter Rail Jam. It was such an experience to shoot at such a big event with an immense amount of media coverage. There were so many photographers there as you can see in the pictures and everyone was virtually getting the same shots. I wanted to get some different stuff so I kept switching around between long lens and fish and tried to stay away from the crowds of media. It seemed to work pretty well, I got some different shots, some I like and some not so much. Here are a few of the better ones: 

Two amazing days of park riding followed the PBRJ. When the sun comes and the snow is soft at Mammoth some big things can happen. I was soo stoked on riding I didn't even pull out the camera till late afternoon. I got alot of the average everyday park shots that were pretty good but I have seen so many pictures like them this year I decided not to post the so called "normal" park angles.

These are different but the question is: Do you like them?

Once the traveling was over (I was so stoked I didn't catch the swine flu) I got to move to a very different aspect of skiing: backcountry.

Freedom is the only word to describe backcountry skiing, you can look at anything and decide to do whatever you want. When you backcountry ski you hike to everything and due to the work involved you really start to think more about your line and how your going to ski it. We usually hike for a few hours and ski anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500 vert which goes by very fast. Backcountry skiing really teaches you to pick the right line and savor every turn. Call me lame but it really is "Soul Skiing".

I've been making sure I get out at least once a weekend into the backcountry, here are some shots from the past two weekends. It's too much weight to haul the 50D so I've been using the point and shoot. The quality isn't quite there but you get the picture.

Looking through the top of one of the better lines

Another shot from on top of a line

The seasons are changing and my photography is going to have to move away from snow related shots... I'm interested to see where the new season takes me, yesterday I used my strobes for some outdoor lifestyle shots and it was pretty fun. I'll just have to see what happens.

Thanks for reading,

-Essex