Getting Mileage Out of Old Photos

A couple of years ago I had the great pleasure of spending a cold, winter day photographing Portland, Maine firefighters practicing building bailout and escape techniques. My climbing and high-angle rigging background came in very useful for this shoot. By mid-day I was hanging four stories up off the side of the training tower adjacent to the fire house as Portland's finest proceeded to throw themselves out the window.

It was RAD!

Various images from that day have been used by Sterling Rope in advertisements, brochures and websites. The advertisement shown here is the most recent highlighting Sterling's new F4 escape device. I also shot the product shot of the F4 in bottom-center as part of a series of detail shots done for Sterling this past summer.

It's always fun to see my commercial work in print. Now I just have to figure out where to get a hard copy of Fire Rescue or Fire Engineering magazines!

The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life

This weekend is the annual American Cancer Society's Relay for Life fundraiser event in Portsmouth, NH. I've been involved in Relay at some level for the past 5-6 years, and on the planning committee for the past two years providing website and design support. Thank you to everyone who has contributed their time and donation dollars to this event. We've not yet met the monetary goal for the year, but have surpassed all of our expectations for community involvement and team participation, which is huge success in these challenging economic times! Learn more about Relay here.

Buy a rope

That is what advertising is for, to entice you to buy something. In this case, a climbing rope. A new ad that I designed for Sterling Rope is now running in Climbing and Rock & Ice magazines. The ad features a fantastic photo of Chris Sharma by Keith Ladzinski (always a pleasure to work with Keith) and three product shots which I did in my studio. Check out the thumbnail of the ad below. Don't you feel like buying a rope now? Cheers,

A good cause

For the second year in a row I have enjoyed volunteering my time and design to help out the Community Child Care Center of Portsmouth with their annual "Dance for the Stars" fundraiser event. My small part in this great event is the design of the event invitation package, including invite, RSVP card, envelopes and save-the-date flier. Special thanks to RAM Printing, my go-to for all things printed, for graciously volunteering materials and press time, and for making my design look so damn good!

If you're in the area and looking for a worthy cause to contribute to, as well as have a great evening out with Jumbo Circus Peanuts, check out "Dance for the Stars."


About Community Child Care Center of Portsmouth
The Community Child Care Center of Portsmouth (CCCC) is a private non-profit organization that provides a nurturing and stimulating early learning environment for children in the Seacoast NH area. The mission of CCCC is to provide high quality child care and early education, to give priority to children that are in need, and to take a leadership role in advocating for children and families.

Combining Passions

It's a great thing to be out shooting photos of new subjects in interesting locations. In this case, I was working for a corporate client in conjunction with the Portland, Maine Fire Department. I've never worked with firefighters before, so that was COOL. And, I'd never done high-angle rigging from a building billowing smoke. That was really COOL. I was tasked with capturing images of a new safety rope developed with FDNY for bailouts from multiple stories up. Essentially this thing is a rope with a big mean hook on it that firefighters can you use escape when there is no other way out. I hope no one ever needs to use it, but after seeing it in action I'm glad firefighters have it.

So, I spent the day inside and outside this smoke-filled training tower as the brave men from Portland jumped out the windows and slid down their ropes. I've now just finished an advertisement using one of the images (and other product shots also I shot) for upcoming publication. It's such a great feeling combining these two passions of mine -- photography and design. Below are a couple of photos from the day and a thumbnail of the ad. Thanks to the folks at Sterling Rope and PFD for making this all happen.

Training for Climbing

I have just completed an advertisement for Eric Hörst promoting his new book Conditioning for Climbing and the second edition of Training for Climbing. These new books from Falcon are quite stunning in four color, and the photos are great. I am biased since they both feature several of my own. This ad will be run in the new publication Dead Point Magazine, an exciting new venture based next door to favorite crag and home-away-from-home, Fayetteville, WV. Check them out, and look for the ad.

Sharma & Sterling

It was just recently announced that uber-climber Chris Sharma has signed a deal to join the Sterling Rope Ambassador Team. This is exciting news for Sterling, and for me. I just finished up a new advertisement featuring Chris and his new route Jumbo Love, possibly the hardest climb in the world. I always enjoy working on creative for Sterling Rope, and with Chris on board it's given me an opportunity to work with images from some new photogs. In the ad, the main shot is one of Boone Speed's from the first ascent. These images are being rep'd by Aurora, so I did not work directly with Boone. The inset shot of Chris working the route is from Jorge Visser. Jorge shot some great stills on the route, and was a pleasure to work with. I hope to see more of his shots in the future.

The ad will be running in the next editions of Rock & Ice and Climbing magazines. Check 'em out. The photos make the ad, and kudos to Jorge and Boone for capturing them, and I am psyched to have worked with them.

Sterling Rope Catalog Completed

I am very excited to have just recently completed the layout and design of the new Sterling Rope climbing catalog. For this piece I was able to incorporate a variety of services--layout and design, product photography, and action photography--into the finished piece. The catalog debuted at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Expo in Salt Lake City, UT last week, and I am eager to learn how it was received by retailers, who are the main user of the piece. The main goal of the layout, and photography, was to provide the most pertinent specs and make them easy to find, as well as portray the products in an elegant and accurate way. I am biased, but I think we succeeded! It was also great to interact with some fabulous photographers for this project. Keith Ladzinski, Simon Carter, and Anne Skidmore... your images are amazing, and I had a blast sorting through them with the folks at Sterling!

You can download a PDF file of the new catalog here.

New Web Galleries Coming Soon

I am in the process of updating all of my photo galleries online. Therefore, I have pulled down most, but have uploaded a new climbing gallery. The new format I am going with uses an app called SlideShow Pro, and integrates with Adobe Lightroom. This appears that it will make keeping my galleries updated and current infinitely easier! Check out my new climbing gallery here, and look for additional galleries to be posted soon.

So Dope...

I recently finished a new advertisement for Sterling Rope that will run in Urban Climber Magazine. This ad was a departure from the other ads I have designed for Sterling over that past year, and I like the direction. Particularly, use of less ad copy! The ad features Joe Kinder and Sterling's new Nano 9.2mm rope.

I've been working with the folks at Sterling Rope over the past year+, and for me it's been a wonderful creative opportunity. Not only am I doing the type of projects I love -- advertisements, collateral, etc. -- but with a company whose main line of business is focused on the sport that I obsess over. Through this relationship I've come to know climbers that I looked up to, collaborated with industry professionals such as magazine editors and photographers, and gotten a look into the business-side of climbing. Sterling has allowed me to combine both my professional life and my personal passion on a regular basis.