Canon 1D IV, 15mm 2.8 fisheye. ISO 500 10sec (02:36am, August 30th).
A little while back I spent 4 nights wild camping around the Chamonix valley. The first three nights were focused around covering the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (check out that post here). Spending the days down low, I made my ascent each evening to a camping area that proved ideal for following and capturing the trail running race.Having covered the race sufficiently, and with a free schedule for the last evening, I was able to accept an invitation to join some friends for dinner at the Refuge de Plan Glacier. They were booked in to stay the night at the refuge, but as I was travelling with a dog there was to be no space at the refuge for me. Most of the alpine refuges operate a zero dog policy, with this one no exception. She was offered the chance sleep on the porch but instead opted for the tent, aware that a night spent outside at 2680m would be no fun.
A beautiful sunrise greeted us two days earlier.
Each of the previous 3 nights, i’d camped up around 2000m. with the Chamonix valley lying at 1000m, this after work hike proved just the right amount to make a camp before the sun went down just after 8pm. Carrying camera and camping gear as one, i’m well aware of the exertion required to make it up to these high places and i’ve been actively seeking ways to lighten the load. If contemplating night time images, a tripod is one of the most valuable items to take and i’d been searching for one since earlier this year. With a lightweight trip planned to Nepal this November, I made the decision to purchase from UK Company, 3 legged thing. This tripod, a carbon fibre model named Rick, folds up small enough to be housed inside the front pocket of my F-Stop camera bag, whilst extending to a level that i’m just about happy with. It does come with a centre column that will make its reach a little higher, but i’ve removed that for weight saving. So far, so good. Lets see how behaves in the Himalayas.
3 legged thing, Rick. Named after The Young Ones, an 1980s UK TV show.
Fits perfectly in my F-Stop Satori. Tent and sleeping mat were attached to the outside of the bag.
Fully extended (minus the centre column). I’ll take that.
As I just said, each night i’d been camping around the 2,000m. The Refuge de Plan Glacier is a special little place though, way up at 2680m. That additional 600m makes the world of difference to the landscape. Gone is the verdant slopes of the valley, replaced with the inhospitable and somewhat threatening Glacier de Miage. With the car parked at 1,000m I set off rapidly at 5pm to try and make it the 1680m up to the Refuge in time for dinner at 8pm. The whole valley had been witnessing extremely high temperatures over that weekend, meaning that it was important to carry a light load, in order to make the ascent as painless as possible. I’d jettisoned my 70-200mm lens at the car, travelling with only a 24mm 1.4 and 15mm fisheye. The weakness came in the Canon 1D IV which is one of the heaviest and bulkiest cameras to walk with. Things will change here.
As you can see in the next image, the location of the Refuge is simply incredible. You hike and hike and hike without lying your eyes on it to the very last minute. Then, out of nowhere it appears, perfectly camouflaged against the surrounding mountain. I’d made it just in time for sunset and found a space to pitch the tent (an MSR Hubba Hubba NX) just 100m walk from the Refuge. Sat eating my meal of polenta and sausage, prepared by the live-in resident I watched the sun fading from the background and added additional layers as the temperature plummeted.
Blink and you might miss it. The Refuge de Plan Glacier is an incredible feat of architecture.
As darkness fell it was time to make the trip back to the tent and settle in for a night in incredible surroundings. What I hadn’t realised at the Refuge was that during my meal the wind had picked up to gale force strength and on that small walk back, the light of my headlamp was unable to pick out the tent. Thats due to the fact that it had partially blown away. I got back to where the tent had originally been pitched (in beautiful still conditions 1 hour earlier), to find a groundsheet and little else. The tent itself was about 6 metres away, with my bag and camera (that had been left inside – it’s great to have heavy cameras…) being the things that saved it from going on a trip down to the valley.
It took me around 45 minutes to get the tent back in place with rocks needing to be placed in and around the structure. Finally done, I clambered into what sounded like a wind tunnel and lay there, slowly drifting off to sleep, jumping awake every time the tent buckled under the strain. The hard ground provided a surprisingly nice sleeping surface and I woke just after 2am to a beautifully clear, and more importantly quiet, sky. Walking outside It was now unnecessary to use a headlamp as the full moon reflected off the stones lighting the way. For night shots like this, it’s best to capture them under clear skies with a new moon. In that case you would see a galaxy full of stars, but the stars this evening were simply overpowered by that moon.
Canon 1D IV, 15mm 2.8 fisheye. ISO 500 30sec
The tent glow that you can see in both images is from a small headlamp placed in the tent. Aimed directly up, I’d like to diffuse the light next time as this headlamp often blew out the highlights, despite not being a very powerful source itself. Staying warm is probably the most important thing when working during the night like this. As soon as you start to get cold, motivation seeps out of your body as you long for that sleeping bag back in the tent. Happy with the handful of images I’d produced, it was back to bed before my 6.30am breakfast call.
First light for some coffee and bread. For begging purposes, the dog was allowed at the breakfast table.
Breakfast with a view.
Heading back home. The Refuge is in the top left of the frame. Mother nature being amazing with her morning light.
After breakfast it was time to pack up the tent for the roundtrip back down. Getting back to the car brought an end to the four nights of wild camping around the Chamonix valley. With plenty more planned i’m looking forward to getting out on a more star filled night. I can’t recommend the experience enough, with plenty of opportunities for great photographs should you be documenting the night.
I’ve spent a bit of time looking at my portfolio this week, shuffling around certain galleries like my 
Arriving at the lift station of La Breya the path ventures into high alpine territory, but actually becomes much easier to navigate. Despite having another 1,000m to reach the summit, the path seemed to flatten out and with first light approaching, my running partner took some time out to sit for a head torch lit portrait, tail still wagging ferociously.
The dawn of the day gave me a new lease of life and I was able to push on hard, marvelling at the views that were unfolding around me. I’d seen this area of Switzerland from down in the valley before, but the sheer beauty of it up close with the cloud inversion below, really is breathtaking. As with a lot of my light adventures, I was running with only my point and shoot camera, the Sony RX100. With an old Nintendo Wi wrist strap attached to the camera, i’m able to run pretty freely with the camera in the palm of my hand. Despite taking a few bumps along the way, this camera functions amazingly well when you need to be light on your feet but still want quality images.
With the sun now illuminating the sky, all that was left was to make it up to Cabane du Trient. Taking a wrong turning at the previous refuge, i’d ventured onto the glacier and knew that my friends were most probably starting to make their way down on the higher path. This turned out to be the case as arriving up at Trient I found a relatively empty refuge with a quite remarkable view over to Aguille du Tour.
Making my way back down the correct path towards Cabane d’Orny, finally everything aligned and I was able to capture the image that acts as the main focus of today’s blog post. Looking at the image now it could be easy to spot some shortcomings and say how things could have been done better. Of course with a much higher resolution camera and expensive glass this could have been made differently, but that kind of defeats the purpose. The path from Champex-Lac to Cabane du Trient is advertised as a 5hr40 hike. Moving lightly with minimal equipment I was able to get up there in just over two hours, capture the sunrise and cloud inversion, meet up with my friends (I found them at Cabane d’Orny) and give the dog a pretty damn good walk.All before breakfast.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8…………….I count 30.Outdoor photographers love clean images. We can often be seen crawling around on the ground making sure that our field of view is uncluttered with nothing else, especially other photographers, encroaching on our frame. Every now and again though it feels nice to break the mould, bringing me to today’s behind the shot, focusing on a series of images from this years Mont Blanc Marathon.I’ve never been a huge fan of finish line images. Like podium presentations they often feel like a necessary evil with a nod in the direction of the sponsors rather than the athletes themselves. More often than not these images see a quick turnaround with them forgotten about the following day. I’ve been on a mission of late to take scenes from an editorial setting, such as a race like this, and make a completed image that stands the test of time, 
Despite feeling like herded cattle, i firmly believe that many accredited journalists (much like the iPhone “journalist” above) just don’t question the possibility of photographing from somewhere else. Maybe it’s the power of the media pass around their neck dictates that they have the right to photograph from a hallowed position that keeps them from straying, despite the fact that their lens is aimed at exactly the same point as 50 or so other people.I’ll admit, moving position though was a gamble. I had two of Elisa Desco’s sponsors requiring images and she had held together her side of the bargain by being in a position to win the race. The marathon distance that this year would crown the winner as World Champion was kind of a big deal. Elisa had fought off intense competition and entered the finishing straight after 3hr53. With every other photographer preoccupied with the finish line, I was able to capture some great moments from this unique angle. I mentioned it was a gamble and it really was. There’s a huge risk that a photo from behind could prove unflattering, uninspiring and just plain busy.As you can see from the image in the header, this made its way to become advertising for Scott Shoes (with Compressport also using one of the shots in the series). There’s no fear of an unflattering image here, her figure looks incredible and the fact that all of the photographers are fully clothed in waterproofs really adds to the environment.
Of course, media accreditation is a great tool that we have at our disposal during events, but it’s great to take a step back and think about how to create different images to all the others, that will stand that test of time that i talked about. A week after this race I photographed a series on the Tour de France without accreditation and it proved to be a great lesson in working hard for my shots. The Tour de France is a logistical nightmare at the best of times and without a pass, there has to be some intense planning on what you want to achieve from that day. A selection of shots from that project are now available on a 
In a previous blog post, i talked about 
When most people think of road cycling, one race comes to mind: The Tour de France. Spread across 21 stages and over 3,000km, this carnival of sport attracts crowds in the millions with all roads, in a cycling sense, leading to Paris. What people often don’t know is that professional cyclists do actually take part in other events, often back to back, whilst in preparation for the 3 Grand Tours (the Tour de France is joined by the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta A Espana in the Grand Tour classification).A very busy UCI World Tour calendar sent the riders to The Tour de Romandie, a 5 stage race around the Western region of Switzerland. With many people’s perceptions of riders limited to what they see during a race, I wanted to spend a little time behind the scenes to bring out the real life personalities of the riders around the team buses and away from the bike. Access to the riders is almost unattainable during stages of the larger races, whilst many of the buildup events often have much fewer spectators opening up an array of photo opportunities bringing us to toady’s behind the shot.I’d spotted the Europcar rider, Davide Malacarne the previous day (
I always enjoy watching how people interact with my work, discussing what they like and don’t like about individual images. This week I was showing a potential customer my 
Behind the shot is a new addition to this blog and is something i’m really looking forward to constructing. With a back catalogue full of interesting images, i’m hoping to provide a little visual stimulation in this weekly blog offering.The first image in this series dates back two years ago, to the beginning of the 2012 winter season. For the last three years now i’ve made the trip in October over to Annecy for the IF3 Freeski Film Festival. This year was no different and I was sat with cinematographer Kyle Decker while Swedish skier Niklas Eriksson pitched the idea of a early season trip to Sweden.A few years ago, city big air events were all the rage. They’re a dying breed now but i’ve attended many, including London, Barcelona (where I had all of my camera gear stolen), Zurich, Innsbruck, Denver and Sapporo. A Stockholm event proved to be rather fortuitous for me as I was able to plan to shoot that event for ESPN which would then fund a two week trip on the back of it. Sweden was on.This was a Level 1 Productions trip, so we were joined by two additional skiers: American Will Wesson and Norwegian Sig Tveit. Despite it being absolutely freezing in Stockholm, there wasn’t actually any snow around so we knew that we had to head North. The truth is, there wasn’t really any snow anywhere. Reaching Åre, Niklas’s home town, we knew that we’d have to head higher – much higher.In truth, we ended up 1300kms north of Stockholm in the mining town of Kiruna. If you know your geography then you’ll be aware that Kiruna lies 140km north of the Arctic Circle. A little additional knowledge was handed to us every time we spoke to a resident – literally every time. “You know they’re moving the town” people would say to us. Again and again and again the same sentence would crop up. And they’re right. The town is quite literally being picked up and moved 3kms East of its current location. Building by building it will all be moved until all 18,000 residents have settled in their new, albeit very similar, habitat.Kiruna was a dud. Checking out the Northern lights followed by a kebab and a night out lead to sore heads the following morning as we packed the cars and started to head South. 20 minutes out of the city we passed the sign for the Jukkasjärvi Ice Hotel and drove straight by. A brief conversation followed where we discussed whether we should, “being in The Arctic and all”, actually go and check it out.The decision to turn around was one of the best of the trip (admittedly we should never have driven past in the first place). The