July 2017 Roadtrip to Eastern Oregon

Made a quick photo road trip to Eastern Oregon after my annual slideshow at High Cascade Photo Workshop. Pretty much limited myself to the use of my 100mm lens to see what I could catch. Visited Shaniko, Antelope, Fossil, Mayville, Condon, Longrock, and Hardman for 2 days. See some of my results by clicking the photo above or at this LINK.

Mike Basich & Matt Schlingmann, Snowboard Pioneers

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(left) Mike Basich and (right) Matt Schlingmann at Mt Reba (Bear Valley) Photo Shoot in April, 1991

Maybe we were a little ahead of our time. Tom Hsieh had a visionary moment when he arranged a nightime snowboard photo shoot at Bear Valley, Mt. Reba, CA. The crew was assembled (Mike Basich, Matt Schlingmann, Randy Walters, and others showed up for the scheduled two night clothing photoshoot and worked their asses off) … to be published in the Fall 1991 issue of ISM (never happened though since ISM closed their doors after the 90/91 winter season). Mike McDaniel and the crew of Bear Valley had the quarter-pipe and park (one of the first, I suppose) spray-painted for the event (obviously, this was before eco was smart). I shot about 15 rolls of film under a generator-powered Dynalite studio kit from the Bay area (which we blew up). Luckily everything was finished after the first night (till sunrise of course).

Mt. Reba, Bear Valley
And of course, the Mt. Reba painting crew made it all possible.

World’s Greatest Athlete – Shaun Palmer

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Shaun Palmer, Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, 1989 Photo

Shaun Palmer was one of the first athletes I photographed and learned to respect. His drive, passion, and desire to win is matched by no one. Since this photo was taken at Lake Tahoe, Shaun has won nine gold medals at Winter X and championships in snowboarding, skiing, motocross, mountain biking and has even successfully competed in car racing and skateboarding. He was named the World’s Greatest Athlete by USA Today in 1998 and won the ESPN ESPY in action sports in 2001. In 1995, Shaun founded Palmer Snowboards (and Skis), who remain an innovative leader in snowsports to this day. Just turning 40 years old last November, Shaun still actively competes in several sports against other youth half his age.

Snowboarder Magazine Story (2008)