Multi Post

Colin Adair - Friday, September 23, 2011

Here's a few things that I've had in the vault for a couple weeks just waiting for the right time to drop.

It's Friday so hopefully you've got big plans for the weekend. Go to the beach if it's not too cold and crappy in your area, go to a concert, go camping, whatever............enjoy it.

I recently shot a TV on the Radio show for LiveNation. I have shot some live performances before but this is the first real official one. Press pass, the whole nine yards. When shooting live shows you are generally restricted to shooting the first three songs only. No flash. The stage lighting is usually bright enough and you can definitely get some dramatic images depending on the performer(s). It's not rocket science and you're not inventing the wheel but you have to be quick and have a gameplan. Those three songs go by quickly. I'm shooting Broken Social Scene this Saturday for LiveNation again so I'll post those shots a little later. Here's a few samples from the TVOTR show.

Get there early and scope the venue. Get a gameplan. Maybe an adult beverage.

 

The Commodore Ballroom is a tough space for angles. The don't have a "pit" (area in front of the stage reserved for photographers). Luckily my friends had a booth sidestage so I was able to steady my long lens for this shot.

This is a close as I could get sidestage right beside the giant speakers. Need to remember earplugs next time.

 

This is a shot from backstage. I got yelled at for taking this shot by the bands stage manager and quickly left the scene so as not to get my credentials taken away. Oddly enough this is the shot they used on the Live Nation site.

A full house. Shot from the balcony.

Next up is a couple animated gif's/timelapses from the KNOW?MAG shoot a couple weeks ago

I made these as an afterthought during the shoot. When the art director and stylist were putting the products in place and taking them down I thought it would be cool to shoot and create this timelapse. The idea sort of came about half way through so it's not complete from start to finish but still you can see how much tinkering and tweaking is done by the AD and stylist to get everything in the perfect position and arrangement. We did four set ups in total and it took the entire day.

A day at the beach................

 

What to bring for a music festival/outdoor concert.......

 

 

And now last but not least......................a cover shot of SNOWBOARD Magazine! This time it's Devun Walsh and once again it's the Whistler Backcountry. There will be a huge 15 page feature interview with Devun and Iikka Backstrom so keep your eyes out for that issue.

 

 

He comes from the land Down Under!

Colin Adair - Tuesday, September 20, 2011

A while ago I was in NZ. Still need to post some photos from that trip but the editing has been slow. Sorry.

When I was there I scoped an issue of Australian and New Zealand  Snowboarding Magazine. They had asked me for some shots of Australian and DC team rider Ryan Tiene and some shots of Devun Walsh and Iikka Backstrom for an interview. It's pretty funny. Not sure you can read any of it with these small jpegs tearsheets but search it out online if you want.

All the photos are mine except the very last spread shot.

 


 

 

 

 

FLIGHT night

Colin Adair - Thursday, September 15, 2011

Well. It was quite a night as Vancouver played host to BrainFarm Digital Cinema and The Art of Flight. This movie definitely needs to be seen to be believed. I highly reccommend watching it on the big screen if you get a chance.

I wasn't able to get my hands on any copies of the book but I was assured one or two would be coming to my doorstep soon. Stay tuned.

And because I didn't take any photos at the premier here are a few more outtakes from my trip to Patagonia with BrainFarm last year:

The landscape photographers dream location.


 

 

 

On our way down to Patagonia we stopped in Punta Arenas for a few days. We showed up at this little ski hill to ride and get rid of our "plane legs". We walked into the rental shop and the kid in there was watching "That's It. That's All". He could not believe that Travis Rice and Mark Landvik were standing in his little shop. He kept looking at the TV and then looking at Travis. He really was almost speechless. We rode around the mountain and this local must have called his buddies because all of a sudden there were about 10 kids riding with us. They kept calling him "Traveeeece" and "Trice". It was a fun day. Here's a shot of Travis just soaking Mark in the old puddle spray trick.


 Lando spent a lot of time getting wet on this trip for some reason.

 

Travis caught some sea urchins and we made ceviche out of it later that night.

 

 Alejo waiting for the helicopter to come in for refueling.


 

 

 

 

 

The Director Curt Morgan with the ultra slow motion Phantom camera. The shots from this scene in the movie are amazing.


 

Our pilot who barely spoke english and seems to barely fit in the heli in this photo. The language barrier was a bit of an issue for Curt who needed to direct the pilot how and where to fly the heli while he was filming. You can see the camera mounted under the heli. Curt sits in the front seat with a control station and monitor to operate the camera.

 

Curt Morgan.

 

Travis Rice.

 

Alejo.

 

Star gazing and sweet berry wine go hand in hand.

 

That's it. That's all...............sorry couldn't resist.

 

FLIGHT Club (The Art of.......)

Colin Adair - Monday, September 12, 2011

In case you have been recently comatose or in the 8% of the world where Facebook and the internet don't exist then you know that the new BrainFarm Travis Rice movie, The Art of Flight, has been released. Hopefully you've seen a big screen HD version otherwise you are missing out. Well, actually, I wouldn' know cause I haven't seen it yet but that's what I'm told. I'm holding out for Wednesday's Vancouver premier where I will be front row with my 3D glasses and garbage bag of popcorn.

I was lucky enough to go on a trip with Travis, Mark Landvik and the BrainFarm crew to Southern Chile's Patagonia region almost one year ago to the day. Followers of this blog will have seen those posts. If not, go here.

Now a year later, the movie is out. There is also a very limited edition book that contains some of my photos from that trip to Chile. I haven't seen it yet but I'm sure it's awesome. I will have copies soon and if I get enough we'll be doing a giveaway for sure.

In honour of the anticipation of the movie and book and a good night out on Wednesday, here are some unseen outtakes from my trip to Chile with BrainFarm Cinema. Hopefully I'll have some photos from the premier night as well:

Look really close and you'll see Antarctica..........Ok, not actually but it was only about a 1000 kms away as the crow flies.

Travis with the Red, White and Blue.

 

Apparently there are a lot of these in the movie.

If you were following the original blog posts you would know that we had less than ideal snow conditions on this trip. On an off day we took the super charged Chilean military helicopter to the moon. This is director Curt Morgan after being told by the heli pilot that he couldn't bring any moon rocks home with him.


 

 This is Alejo, our Chilean logistics coordinator. He spends his summers guiding in Antarctica. He had so many stories and became the trip guru. You just never knew what he was going to say next.

 

This is Fan Fan (Stefan) our french ski guide. His home base is Chamonix so he knows how to get really gnarly.

 

 

Rice and Landvik charging to the next unknown, unexplored descent.

 

Alejo once again just because he was so fucking cool.............


If you don't KNOW well now you KNOW?

Colin Adair - Wednesday, September 07, 2011

The latest issue of the KNOWMAG? is on the streets. They were lucky enough to have me shoot something. I'm very busy. And important.

They are very cool guys/girls and all talented on their own but as a group they really produce a great mag. I was happy to get the call again this year.

The assignment was "Always Be Preprared". Well, as a young lad I was in Beavers and Cubs so I know that motto well. A combo of studio product photography and location shots to accompany each product theme was the task. I was on my own in terms of the accompanying shots and I was able to somehow convince them to let me shoot them on film with my beloved Hasselblad. The studio shoot had a very specific direction and look. I worked with stylist Tanus Lewis again this year as well as Daniel Curtis who I have worked in in the past (see Young Ones post).