Working with professionnal skier is definitely an advantage when you want to shoot action ski, as it is with professionnal model when you want to shoot lifestyle. But if a lifestyle model might not do what an athlete can do, an athlete can easily do what a model do, and I believe it's the same for photographers, but it's an other story… Athletes are in shape, tan and used to work hard so a couple of hours front of a lens might not be a big problem. Aurelien Ducroz, 2009 Freeride World Champion, is playing the game just before the FWT stop 3 in Squaw valley, where he did 2nd.
Have also a look on a little session we did with an Hasselblad H3D and some broncolor strobes in Chamonix, also during the FWT but in Chamonix. Thanks to Yannick from Light and Byte who lent us those material. Yannick did a little making of on our experience.
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||salt Lake, mar. 2010))
dimanche 7 mars 2010
When a ski world champion turns into a model
Par Dom Daher le dimanche 7 mars 2010, 14:52
samedi 6 mars 2010
Traveler's tricks and tips
Par Dom Daher le samedi 6 mars 2010, 11:50
As photographer, traveling is a big part of my job. After 10 years of being uninformed and even screwed up I became pretty good at it, here are a couple of tricks which can help when traveling (by plane).
-take all the time the same company and ask for a miles card. You will earn miles and trip after trip you'll be able to have a upper status (silver, gold or even platinium) which gives you access, to some special care: more luggage, more weight,special check in and in board access, lounge access wich free food, drinks or internet in quiet and comfortable room while waiting for your flight or connection.
-book your flight thrue a travel agency or directly at the flight compagny and avoid cheap internet booking, it will cost you more as you get a single problem.
-Tell the compagny if you have some special luggage (as ski bags or oversized one).
All that can cost you a little bit more than the cheapest internet flight but it worth it! and you'll find back your money.
If you have a premier or gold credit card it include a good insurance on it for you trip but you have to pay with it, so ask your client to let you pay and then be refound. It works also for rental car and then you don't have to pay some extra cost for the insurance. American Express is doing a very good deal with Air France KLM, for the insurrance but also to earn more mile, each euro you spend is equivalent to one miles and 1,4 if it's to buy a flight ticket on the compagny.
-If you are traveling with lot of gear, be at the ckeck-in in advance and then negociate for the best solution. On my trip back from Squaw valley I had a 22 kilos over weight, which was around 230 $, but for 50$ I checked in an extra bag, up to 23 kilos… But I had to figured it out by myself, because they didn't tell me that.
-try to have all your flight information on your cell phone such as booking number, visas number(for the US) and itinerary, you can be asked forit at the security gate or at the check in.
Then sleep, sleep and sleep as much as you can it will help you out to fight againts jet lag. An inflatable neck pilow, a noise reduction head set, some special traveled sock to avoid swollen feet and some sleeping pills (ask your doctor, to have some which help you to fall asleep and not to "drug" you) and you are pretty much done for any big trip around the world.
vendredi 5 mars 2010
Back from the US
Par Dom Daher le vendredi 5 mars 2010, 15:27
My way back from the US was not an easy way but I made it, not without a couple trouble…As I decided to stay one more day in San Francisco to visit some friends, Daniel and Aurelien prefere to go back as fast as they can. So fast that we went to the wrong airport. We left the rental car and went to the check in desk. We discoveverd then that we were in the airport which was an hour from the other. As the 2 other guys had to take their flight we jumped with all our junk in the first cab and for an 100 dollar he raced and bring us to the good on in 40 minutes. Then I left my stuff in a lockers room. my skis, flash, 500 mm and some other little think without value!! If I didn't felt comfortable, I felt at least lighter. Then the reallity of San Francisco jumped in my face. Tons of weirdows, half drunk, half junky but totally losted, talking to directly to god or to a wall or even to their cart as they were for most of them homeless…As I was looking for my way, a public bus bump into a cyclist who finished under the wheels of it, and the driver didn't want to stop. In less than a minute, 3 police cars, two fire engine and an ambulance where on location…So if you're there and ear a thousand of siren it might be just for one problem. I finally get back to the airport and had to deal with m 22 kilos overweight, but that's an other story for later on.
mardi 2 mars 2010
Good Morning Squaw
Par Dom Daher le mardi 2 mars 2010, 08:07
After a pretty difficult start here in Squaw Valley the FWT is over with a second place for Aurelien Ducroz. Why should I mentionned that? just because I was following him all the week before the event. Working with professionnal athletes is a big part of a good picture like working with top model for fashion photographer. Once again I had a lot of pleasure to work with my friend Christophe Margot who don't let me do bad pictures as he is all the time giving his best in each shot and so make me bad not to do the same. check out his blog. after two weeks here please don't say, sick dude, fuck yeah and Ski patrols,any more please! the two first one because seems to be a kind of ponctuation down here and the last one because giving a sherif star to some idiot, make them too important. Fuck yeah, oups…I didn't say it. Here are a couple of picture took during the week, some dark one as we used to wake up at five…
dimanche 28 février 2010
Lighted powder
Par Dom Daher le dimanche 28 février 2010, 05:43
California is better known for surfing than for skiing and I know why now: the warm weather. My first plan was to go with Aurelien Ducroz (the curent world freeride champion) to shoot action under the snow with flash. Cameraman and friend Daniel Lafarge came with us to do a making of for Eurosport. Everything was setted up but as I mentioned it before nobodies cares about skiing down here even the weather. Instead of a big snow fall we get a kind of wet and warm weather. The powder turned into plaster. We anyway did a couple of shot which was not that bad…Tomorow the competition gonna happen on Tram Face or on Silverado, the final decision will be taken at 6 tomorow morning. But I already have two diffent position. I will go there by skin, carriyng my 500mm in my back, wich is not killing you wich will make you stronger!!
jeudi 25 février 2010
The Box magazine
Par Dom Daher le jeudi 25 février 2010, 21:22
As I just arrived in Squaw Valley, I get the article on last year freeride world tour from The box magazine, it's weird that it happens at the same time as I show up here. Most of the picture are from Squaw and all from me so I'm happy, also it's one of my first swiss publication, so in my new country. Here it is
mardi 23 février 2010
Cold, Cold, West!
Par Dom Daher le mardi 23 février 2010, 01:29
3 days in Jackson Hole, where the snow was not realy here but the cold was with a -22°C at the bottom of the ski resort. We any way found a couple of thing to do and Aurélien Ducroz, the curent FWT world champion, did some great jump and some power full turn in the old cold powder. Thanks to him who hike like crazy to allow me to do a couple of realy great shot. Traveling with this kind of athlete makes my job definitely easier even when the condition are not good he can make it happen. Tomorow we gonna drive down to Squaw Valley where the snow seems to be better even if the hors piste is forbiden there… who said USA is the country of freedom? I don't know but he was definitely wrong on the ski aspect, except in Jackson Hole, the best american ski resort.
samedi 20 février 2010
Jackson Hole
Par Dom Daher le samedi 20 février 2010, 17:07
Just arrived in Jackson Hole, a nice flight and unfortunatelly nothing special to tell, all our luggages arrived on time, our car was correctly booked…I'm really looking forward for some trouble, I mean excitement…
jeudi 18 février 2010
Chamonix
Par Dom Daher le jeudi 18 février 2010, 14:38
Chamonix is maybe one of the most beautifull place in the world. But for shooting i's very difficult. Not because it's too crowded, not because it's high altitude mountain, full of danger, not even because the localism attitude is really hard (I was with some locals, and moreover a mountain guide). No it's too difficult because it's too nice. I'd like to find some new interesting angle, but all the time an amazing background shows up. So I decide to turn my back to it, but an other one is there…and frame after frame I captured this amazing surrounding…I'd like to say it's not possible to re-invent the wheels all the times, but I'd like at least to bring my personnal point of view…I was not able this time but I'll be back and fight againts this. Thank you to Douds Charlet, an Aspirant mountain guide who did some amazing tricks. Thank you to Aurelien too who showed me his garden and to Bichon (Thomas Diet) to keep the entertainement at its bigger level!! Now it's time to go to Jackson Hole and then to Squaw valley.
jeudi 11 février 2010
ISPO 2010
Par Dom Daher le jeudi 11 février 2010, 19:45
ISPO in Munich is the largest ski trade show where all the european countries are meeting there to show next year product. It would have been easier for the french to meet in France, but that's a part of the game, going far away make the excitement even bigger. I came there by car, but as I had a family meeting in Vienna, I drive 11 hours to go first there. Actualy before that I was in Chamonix but I drive to Montgenevre and then Geneva. Once I was in venna I drove back to Munich and then Geneva again…almost 3000 km in a couple of days, under the snow and during the big german and Austrian winter vacation. Any way this Ispo 2010 was really interesting, a lot of kilometer by feet too, to see each booth and dream on the next year gear.By far the best one was the exhibit Space junk gallery offered, with some live performance from 6 different artist, including Nico Thomas or Nikodem . I also check the different brand I worked with and have been please to see a lot of my picture on those booth.
Also Yannick from Light and Byte edited a making of on the freeride world tour and on the hasselblad session portrait we did whith Christophe Margot.It's availlable on Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/user/birdos6490#p/a/u/0/xeKUSS1qi9g. Thank you for this great experience, shooting with such as the hasselblad H3D 31 and 39…He also brought some Broncolor strobes. Add some of the best skier, and I let you imagine how interesting it was. I'll post some picture later on. Here is what's happen at Ispo.
vendredi 5 février 2010
Proud
Par Dom Daher le vendredi 5 février 2010, 22:32
Today my friend Christophe Margot put the pictures he did on me, on skipass website.He followed me during the FWT in Chamonix. I'm really proud of those pictures, first because we are all the same and love when people have interest into what you do, but also because I really like what Christophe is doing, the way he is shooting so it was a real honnour. Also the comment where pretty good (so fare) and I'm glad that people have interest about pictures and those who are behind the lens…thank you guys (especially Christophe and Guillaume Desmurs). I have all the time been very critic againts Skipass (even if I'm stocked about how those guys manage to make such a big website, congratulation to Guillaume Lahure) and even more againts the forum side which is the thing which pist me off the most. I'm now on the way to Vienna in Austria then I'll drive to Munich on sunday for ISPO…considering I was in Chamonix this morning,then in Montgenevre for a shooting in powder and in Geneva to night, I've to shut up and sleep…for at least 5 hours!!
Check out Christophe's portfolio |http://www.skipass.com/news/47524-portfolio-photographe-freeride.html
jeudi 4 février 2010
A cover please!
Par Dom Daher le jeudi 4 février 2010, 20:08
As the FWT is ending with a great day in the powder, shooting like hell (32 G0 in one day!!) I just found out that I had a cover shot of Julien Liseroux in the last Skieur Racing Magazine. Also Christophe Margot (www.photomargot.com) followed me and did a making of on me working on the FWT. We are both pretty sure the Skipass (where the picture will be shown) forum will kill us with some bad comment, but we don't care and assume it…it's our life and we are so proud to do photography as our job that we realy love sharing our passion.
mercredi 3 février 2010
Picture of the month
Par Dom Daher le mercredi 3 février 2010, 11:55
I have been super surprised and pleased to see one of my picture as the Red Bull Photofiles picture of the month! This not the one I prefere but I still like it and I've to say that I'm proud of it…Also Fall line skiing publish a picture of Phil Meier, maybe the 10th time time this picture is published this year…a great score for a super bad situation, but I'm glad to be able to look at it with my friend Phil!
mardi 2 février 2010
In Chamonix
Par Dom Daher le mardi 2 février 2010, 09:28
As Kevin Roland killed the X games Super pipe, I'm in chamonix for some big mountain consideration at the Freeride World Tour 2010. It was a cold, sunny and very busy event. After the action I had the opportunity to do a shooting with the Hasselblad H3D 31 and 39 mp and with the best broncolor equipement. Yannick from light and byte in Switzerland came with all those equipement and film the making of. Some pictures and video are coming up.
vendredi 29 janvier 2010
Photo annual
Par Dom Daher le vendredi 29 janvier 2010, 10:58
Once again the best photo annual magazine is for me a snowboard mag, transworld snowboarding. Why those guy are able to do such a great job? I've a couple of idea, but definitely it's the time they put in looking for and scouting the pictures. When I was in Russia Athum a photoeditor and editor in chief of a sport magazine wanted to have a selection from the freeride world tour. he came over and spent an hour an half checking my pictures and asking me for some details and other pictures I might have. He wanted to see the picture at 100% then from far away…
I'm putting so much effort in my passion that this kind of interest people can have on my work make me really happy. I also just had a local magazine cover and I'm glad to see they took some risk using and HDR picture for a cover!
mercredi 27 janvier 2010
The safest way to do a back up while traveling
Par Dom Daher le mercredi 27 janvier 2010, 12:44
When you are traveling you have a lot of possibility to loose your data. The first one is to crash your computer hard disk, then to be robered (during the trip or in the hotel room) or even to do something wrong when working on it. A memory card is little and light and can stay with you all the time. Also a good memory card is the most stable and safer place to put you data, the worst is maybe a cd or dvd closely followed by a hard disk (I mean a single one, not a raid system), if you don't believe me drop a hard disk and a memory card on the floor and check where you have most damage.
So when I'm shooting far from home, I take a new card every day. I never format it before I'm back home where I have a raid 5 server. I used to do it with my old card, but then you have to work with old slow card, which is just not professionnal (why to buy the fastest camera and give it a slow card?)
An other day in the black cat life
Par Dom Daher le mercredi 27 janvier 2010, 10:36
Most of the people who check this blog are more expecting my black cat stories than the latest picture I did…That's why on my way back from Sochi I did my best to provide you a litle story so enjoy…
At 1.30 AM on this early monday morning two buses were suppose to leave the 2014 Russian olympic winter games bulding site(AKA our hotel in Krasnaya). On board, most of the riders from the FWT and ten times more bags, skis and other stuff. The idea was to reach the airport to take the 5 O'clock flight. with only an hour drive it seems more than enough…but Russia is not like any other place in the world. Of course the bus compagny, which was the same as the one who took a week ago just thought about the 40 peoples they have to drive and not about the mess we are carrying with us too…after half an hour filling up every thing, people and gear all together inside the bus we start our adventure to go back home. 1.30 on the morning is the exact time of the night where the working people are exhausting and the partying people are at their maximum alchool level. Unfotunately during this night I was in the first category, finishing my picture work with my photomate Christophe Margot, and we end up in the bus with the other category helped by even more local Vodka bottle in the bus. Shouting, walking over your head as the bus was more than full, having pee from the window and even some more, all that covered by some very explicit loud alcoolic songs…a nightmare.
But of course it was just the begining. 20 minutes from the airport, the police stoped us. Medvedev and Putin were on big meeting in Sochi concerning a war with some country around…so they closed the road with no clue about when they gonna reopen it. As they let us starting the snow start dumping…the drive was slow and the airport seems to be a graal we will never get on time. But we did it. Actualy not on time but considering it was almost a privat flight with only 3 people who were not a part of our group, they postpon the flight and did the fastest security check ever, so fast that most the drunk guys came on board with bottles of vodka in the hand…A couple of puk later we land in Vienna, 20 minutes before our connection, but in time to make it. Unfortunnately, due to a "Technical problem" our flight was postpon again. Two more hours to wait. So during this time the security did some bags inspection and found an ABS gaz bottle (used for those new avalanche bag which alowed you to stay above the avalanche). It's great to see that the security is a serious issue but it would have been better if they also found the 30 other gaz bottle we were carrying with us, as most of us uses those bags…
When we finaly arrived in Geneva, half of our bags were not here, and it tooks and other hour to be able to leave the airport, thinking we will get it later on. The flight compagny give us a call saying they won't want to pay for the delivery…imbelievable isn't it?
But the story is not over with all the time we waisted my friend Christophe was in late to his appointment in Annecy. He was suppose to join the guys from mavic for who he is shooting a commercial movie, with the latest canon MK4. So I drove him there and went to the UPS office to pick up a box Sandisk sent me from the state. The UPS office is hiden in a suburban zone and it was so difficult to find it even with GPS that after an hour of search I decided to look for a UPS Truck. I found one and stop it then he drove me to the office. There the guy asked me for 521 euros of custom fee…I decide not to accept it but it start to be a long and difficult procedure so I was so exhausted that I decide to pay it, which was an other complicated thing but finaly after 2 days without sleeping I've been able to reach my bed…heu actually not my cousin from Marseille (5hours drive) just show up with some good wine, but it's an other story (a good one so boring for you guys!)
dimanche 24 janvier 2010
The good and the bad
Par Dom Daher le dimanche 24 janvier 2010, 20:43
The Russian adventure is close to the end with the cancellation of the event due to bad weather and a high avalanche danger. It's bad and it's the 4th time this year an event where I'm working is canceled, actually it's not really cancelled but postpon to next week in Chamonix. On the other hand and it's the good news, Sandisk internationnal just add my profile (http://www.sandisk.com/microsites/extremeteam/index.html#) and use one of my picture for the first page of the main website.
vendredi 22 janvier 2010
Finaly in the powder
Par Dom Daher le vendredi 22 janvier 2010, 20:11
Russia is known for it's powder which mean for me shooting a lot of face shot and happy people playing in the snow. But with the world ski elite it was even better. A litle bit stressfull because they were more skiing together than doing a photo shoot, so I shoot every thing doing my best to find some good angle without waisting their time, but they were realy kind with me and sometimes they even gave me ten to fifteen second to find a my spot, put the camera out and shoot… I'm glad that I took a 32 Go memory card, because it was no point to take time to change it…Any way I had a lot of fun and I even ski…Hope they won't be to disapointed with the result.
mercredi 20 janvier 2010
FWT: Christophe margot and Candide Thovex
Par Dom Daher le mercredi 20 janvier 2010, 18:17
The Freeride world tour is on in Sochi with the bib draw today. I'm not a big fan of this kind of thing but thanks to my friend and co-worker Margot who remind me that it's up to me to make anything interesting " you have to create the event"…So I tried to do my best. Fortunately an other big star was here and happy to be here (as Margot is…) Candide Thovex. This world tour will be really interesting either on the sport side and on the picture side. I'm looking forward to be on the snow.
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