THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

On a typical campaign shoot, you book a model that looks right for what you‘re shooting, and you don‘t think too hard about what kind of skill set they have. Your own skill set is limited to how well you can change the settings on a camera and compose an image. This is where shooting adventure images get separated from the other genres.

Not only does the photographer need to have the required skills to get safely through whatever adventure is being photographed, but the talent also needs to be capable enough in the scenario to be safe, and of course photogenic while they do it.

KEEPING THE IMAGE AUTHENTIC MEANS KEEPING THE ADVENTURE AUTHENTIC

There has been massive media attention given to the outdoor world as of late, and when I scroll through my instagram feed I see image after image of perfectly groomed, styled, and un-outdoorsy models posing with their arms in the air as if they just conquered Everest. The truth is most of the time they just stepped out of their car at a famous viewpoint and set up a tent, which they never intended on sleeping in.

Keeping the image authentic means keeping the adventure authentic. When I shoot I like to get people who are skilled in the outdoors, plan an adventure, and then just step back with my camera and let the adventure happen. Clicking the shutter as we go.

When I shoot Climbing, that means finding people who can climb without having a look of terror on their face. I need to be able to get myself into a position on my own while the “models“ climb the route on their own. But there are still ropes, and the opportunity to rest. A model can hang in place for a while and try a move over and over again until it‘s done right.

FAMOUS AND DANGEROUS

Shooting surfing is another story. To get something unique a long lens from shore won‘t cut it, you need to be in the water. Positioning yourself is like a chess game, predicting the motions of both the surfer and the waves, fighting the current, and swimming in the break zone where waves are constantly crashing. The photographer is under constant threat of being in the wrong spot at the wrong time, and having a wave smash you onto the reef, camera in hand.

With all of this in mind, I set off to shoot on the North Shore of Oahu, the most famous and dangerous stretch of waves in the world. You know that the waves are big when on the North Shore of Hawaii, where the worlds best surfers are waiting to compete in the Pipe Masters, only a handful of people are in the water, and that‘s exactly what I found when I arrived.

TIME TO TURN THE CAMERA ON MYSELF

I know my limitations, and I know that in waves that size I wasn‘t going to get what I wanted, so I had to wait for the waves to chill out a bit before I could get in the water. In that time I lost the people I was supposed to be shooting with to their normal lives, and the waves hadn‘t lost their menace. It was time to do something that I don‘t really like to do, but I‘ve become increasingly good at. It was time to turn the camera on myself.

At Sunset, I walked down to the beach carrying a standup paddleboard, my camera gear, a tripod, and my intervalometer. I stood on Rocky Point; behind me one of the sponsor houses was packed with pro surfers standing on the deck watching the sunset. In front of me, empty 25-foot waves were crashing on shore. There was no way I was going to be able to paddle out there. This was going to be humiliating.

I framed up my image, set my intervalometer to take an image every three seconds, and started running around the frame, posing in different positions and holding it awkwardly in front of the sunset viewers. I saw some smirks, and I could read their minds when they thought I was a “kook“. The most feared insult handed out by surfers.

LET GO OF YOUR EGO

There is no image that was bettered by a photographer’s ego. You just have to let it go, and own the fact that there is a struggle, which may require looking like a fool. I got through it with one simple thought. When they are flipping through their magazines in a few months, and they come across that image I hope they stop for a second and appreciate it, and then I hope they remember me running around like a kook on the rocks taking pictures of myself.

Enjoy this video from the Access Road Trip. The campaign was to educate and inspire everyone to get outside!

MORE ON BEN HORTON

Please check out Ben Horton’s photography here and be sure to follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

FOOTNOTES: Photos & Story by Ben Horton

The post Access Project Volume 3 appeared first on BLACKRAPID.

WE WANT DOWN

As a photographer I‘m always trying to find a different angle to photograph from so I can make the image unique, and so I eschew the idea of photographing a landmark from a viewing platform.

Bri and I had done a short hike in to a waterfall, and had ended up standing on top of a viewing platform with a group of tourists. This wasn‘t what I‘d come for, so we climbed down a few hundred feet of steep and muddy forrest under the redwood canopy to reach a deep pool under the waterfall where I could shoot from. My camera was cinched up with my Blackrapid strap, my backpack clipped tightly around my waist, everything loose tucked away and safely attached, at least I thought so.

DIVING FOR KEYS…NAKED

One of the photos I was trying to get was looking up out of the water with an underwater housing, so i was leaning off of a rock over the deep water trying to stay dry when I hear the dreaded sound “kerplunk“ and see the car keys drifting down into the depths. This was my only set, and we were far from cell service.

Between a guy and his girlfriend, there is no such thing as drawing straws, so I stripped down fully naked and dove into the water. There on top of a boulder, I saw a shimmer and to my astonishment found the keys. They were in the only place I believe it would have been possible to have actually found them. Had they gone an inch in either direction they would have slid off into the cracks between the rocks and have been lost forever. Lucky doesn‘t cut it.

FREE SHOW

I climbed out, and stood naked on the rock trying to absorb some heat from the sun, when behind me, I heard voices. It was at this point that I remembered the viewing platform. I looked up to see a group of tourists taking photos, only this time, not of the waterfall.

Please enjoy this video from the Access Road Trip. The campaign was to educate and inspire everyone to get outside!

https://vimeo.com/140849701

MORE ON BEN HORTON

Please check out Ben Horton’s photography here and be sure to follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

FOOTNOTES: Photos and Story by: Ben Horton

The post Access Project Volume 2 appeared first on BLACKRAPID.

WAKING UP WITH BEARS

I‘ve been woken up by bears sniffing my head in Alaska, I‘ve encountered wolves in the arctic, mountain lions, crocodiles, sharks, and more. Needless to say, I‘m fairly comfortable with the idea that these animals have no real interest in people, and seeing them is part of the reason I love being in nature, though preferably from a safe distance.

That comfort level doesn‘t always extend to when it‘s time to go to sleep. My girlfriend and I were deep in the Olympic National Forest, and my mind had wandered back to that grizzly in Alaska that woke me up by sniffing my head. When the mind is in this state, every squirrel hopping sounds like a bear stepping, and when the wind rustles the trees it sounds like the approach of something very large.

SOMETHING IS OUT THERE…

It was raining, and that always makes it harder to tell if something is out there, the white noise can either drown out the animal noises, or your brain can find patterns in the way the water is dripping from the trees and you can end up believing that something is walking circles around your tent looking for the best way in.

I thought I heard something walk by, and chalked it up to the wind, and then I thought I heard my bear canister getting rolled around, but the burbling creek next to me made similar noises. Perhaps I should have walked it a little further away I thought. My girlfriend was sleeping softly, why couldn‘t I, was she braver than me? I was listening so intently that I felt my ears straining, and finally I figured nothing could be walking around us for that long, and nothing would waste that much energy trying to get in the bear canister, it had been at least an hour, I passed out.

THE NEXT MORNING

The next morning, I walked over to where the bear canister was, under a fallen tree about fifty feet away at the bottom of a small depression. It wasn‘t there. The area had been trampled, grass laid flat, and the canister was over a hill where it had been abandoned.

Sometimes at night, squirrels become bears, and bears become the wind. Still though, only 50 feet away, as we slept like burritos in a delivery bag, the bear had left us in peace.

Please enjoy this video from the Access Road Trip. The campaign was to educate and inspire everyone to get outside!

https://vimeo.com/140849701

MORE ON BEN HORTON
Please check out Ben Horton’s photography here and be sure to follow him on instagram, Facebook, and twitter.

FOOTNOTES: Photo and Story by: Ben Horton

The post Access Project Volume 1 appeared first on BLACKRAPID.