Alex Strohl

Alex Strohl

alexstrohl

IDay 17. LESSONS in Commercial Photography — The Huayhuash range in the Peruvian Andes has been on my mind ever since I saw it on a magazine years ago. Canon had reached out about shooting a new camera release so I immediately thought of going to this place for it. I always think back of this trip as my biggest lesson in commercial photography, here’s why: Back then, there wasn’t a lof of information about this through hike. There were reports of people getting mugged, a hiker even got shot and killed there. Instead of listening to all the horrible news, I tried to approach it logically. If we have the right guides with the best local knowledge, we may be able to pull it off. It seemed that only a few limited spots were problematic. So I found Damian on an official guide site, spoke to him on the phone, and he was confident we could pull it off. He even offered to assemble a crew for us so we didn’t have to worry about any logistics. It seemed over the top but OK. Damian and his crew picked @isaacsjohnston and I at the Lima airport and drove us all the way to the mountains for our hike. All in all we had our our guide, driver, Justino the cook, and Justo, the donkey handler. Initially I had reservations about having the logistics taken away from me… it felt like I was losing control over the trip but in end, I’m so happy I did. When reflecting on that experience, everything went perfectly. Although a guy in a balaclava did try to steal my watch at the top of some mountain pass. After respectfully declining to give him my watch, he disappeared. I’ll never know if he was armed or not but it was a moment for sure.. That was one of my first camera assignments and I’m so happy I hired the full crew. All we had to worry about was making the best images possible while the crew took care of everything else. Without that logical approach, and the team, we would have never pulled it off. Now I always look for the right people to take care of the things that get in the way of image making so I can focus on what I do best…

04.18 03:05

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Day 11. An Exploration of the 100-500mm lens — If the 70-200mm is the “make it happen” lens, this is the nuclear weapon. It sees everything but sees nothing at the same time. Point it at the wrong thing and it becomes useless — It really is a tool for separating subjects from their environment. I’ve shot 17,000+ photos with it which doesn’t sounds like a lot but really is if you consider its narrow use cases . This is what I pull out when I’m in front of a massive landscape, too big to capture with anything else. I take a big breath (waiting for the stabilization to kick in) and patiently start zooming and panning at the max zoom. That’s when small compositions within the far away landscape start to appear. Almost like hazy miracles. She isn’t a looker on your camera, its protruding barrel doesn’t help, but Its a lens that rewards you incredibly for your time and efforts. You could argue that a lot of my best blue hour work was done on this puppy and you’d be right. Thank you for all these years 100-500. Captions: 1-2. South Greenland 3. Bryce, Utah 4. Whitefish, Montana 5. Pyrenees, France 6. North Shore O’ahu, Hawai’i 7. Montana 8. Glacier NP wildfires, Montana 9. Chamonix, France 10. South Coast, Iceland 11. O’ahu, Hawai’i 12. Biarritz, France
Day 10. Field notes with the 70-200mm focal length — Well, looking at Lightroom I can see I’ve shot about 31,400 frames with this focal range. If I had to give it name it would be the “Make it happen”. This glass doesn’t care about my excuses, it’s here with solutions, and it packs a punch. I often pull out this lens when I can’t see a shot, or I’ve shot enough with the wider lens. But, this seemingly transactional relationship doesn’t say it all. A lot of my favorite shots ever were made on this lens. As someone who likes cleaner, more “minimal” compositions, this is the ultimate isolator, often to a fault where you could blame it for creating simplistic images. But it’s this very thing that makes me love the 70-200mm. It’s always in my camera bag when I travel because the times I didn’t pack it, I ended up needing it. Photo captions: 1. Capitol Reef, Utah @iflyheli 2. Carbondale, Colorado @sienavalleyclub 3. Cathedral Range, Wyoming 4. Ardeche, France, dad 5. Homer, AK @mathieulelay 6. Polson, MT @altbloom 7. Polebridge, MT @isaacsjohnston 8. Landmanalaugar, Iceland 9. Mammoth Lakes, CA @andreadabene 10. Idaho Sand Dunes, ID 11. Carbondale, CO 12. O’ahu, HI @andreadabene
Day 7. ATACAMA— capping off the first week of this daily project with perhaps the most special place I’ve ever been to. I remember not feeling at ease in this desert. Too hot, too dry, too high… we’d sleep in till late and head out in the late afternoon to avoid the heat. In retrospect, I’d do all of these photos differently but i want to put them here, as a reminder of where I come from. We learn so much about our work by revisiting its beginnings, and this project is pushing me todo just that.
Day 6. Patagonia, more than a decade ago. My father in law flew @andreadabene and I to the southern end of Chile for a multi day trek. I showed up with a pair of sneakers that gave me horrible blisters, a waterproof jacket that wasn’t waterproof, and a backpack that was way too big. I wonder what my law must have thought when he saw us show up at the airport.. Total newbies.. that’s the beauty of hiking though, you don’t need to have the best gear, just a willingness to endure discomfort and a thirst to see around the next bend.
Day 4. Thoughts on underrated places — Greenland is a strangely wonderful island. It has to live under tourism marketing shadow of Iceland, Norway, and perhaps even Svalbard. Its culture and mind blowing geography can fuel my imagination for hours and for that reason I planned a weeklong solo trip there a few years ago. There was only one hotel and one restaurant in town which made the business of booking very easy. Once the water taxi dropped me off, it was just me, the icebergs, and a handful of stray dogs. Perfect. My days were filled with wild berries, fun interactions with curious locals, and runs up the hill behind town. There was an effortless sense of peace up there. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Day 2/30. I often connect the photographic experience with a sense of peace. Making calm images has always been an unspoken goal of mine— perhaps to counter balance the incessant chatter in my head? One of the places that brings peace to me is the Tonquin Valley, deep in the Canadian Rockies. I enjoyed revisiting this set from a few years ago where our days consisted of rowing the boats, pretending to be good at fly fishing, eating pancakes, and just looking at those damn peaks 😮‍💨
Iceland on medium format revisited. I shot these on a 500 C/M some twelve years ago, as Iceland was on the cusp of becoming cool and to be honest that was one our best trips ever. @andreadabene and I had the place to ourselves mostly, we drove around, stood in the wind, drove some more, did some hiking, had lamb soup, slept in the back of a rental A4, and came back home. It’s nice to know that despite the trend to go to Iceland, there are still a lot of quiet places there. I mean quiet if you don’t count the roaring wind! #120film #mediumformat
Catching the last lift for the day to wait out blue hour. Such an honor to photograph this year’s @salomonfreeski MTN Co with some of the best skiers in the world. Always a reminder for me to get better at the things I love.
Life in the new neighborhood. Also the first photo of @andreadabene and I shot by our 2 year old daughter (!),she shot it once she regained composure after tumbling down the sand hill (last frame). I’m a proud dad!
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