Christmas Camp at the Ranches

Christmas this year was a blast. I was up at the Adventure Unlimited Ranches in Buena Vista, Colorado with my mom. My primary job was to drive ski vans to Monarch and other ski areas as necessary, but I was also asked to put the “end of camp slideshow” together. Guests submitted their photos and Andy helped me sort through them (though, we asked the submitters to do a bit of editing themselves – this helped heaps). I took little video clips throughout the week and put it all together in iMovie.

In looking for a good soundtrack, I texted my friend Alex Cook and asked if I could feature songs from his recently released “Tree of Life” album and he was all for it. Better yet, he was cool with me posting the whole thing to YouTube. Since YouTube limits videos to 10 minutes, the slideshow is in two parts, both are below. Enjoy!


PART 1

PART 2

More videos at: http://www.youtube.com/offyonder

Weekend: Music & Planes

Alex Cook is out here on his West Coast CD release tour with a box of 300 “Tree of Life” CD’s. I made it to his show in Encinitas where the producer of the album, Jason Froese joined him to play bass. Andrew set up two video cameras to record the whole thing and I snapped a few stills, see below. The music is awesome and should be available to all via iTunes and the such soon. If you want to see Alex live yourself, check out his tour schedule at http://myspace.com/alexcookmusic. If your area isn’t on there, drop him a line and have him come out your way!

The next day, Dad and I headed to the Miramar Air Show. I’ve been to a few air shows, including this one years ago. But this was the best way to do an airshow: be on the Air Crew for a static display aircraft. Dad helped Pamala bring her T-34a Mentor over on Thursday and it’s one of the planes on display for folks to check out. As Air Crew, we got passes to the Air Crew Chalet, a little section of the flight line roped off where they provided us with meals, snacks, drinks and a place to sit and watch the air show in the sky. Dad and I got in early to get good parking in the special Static Display Crew Lot and really enjoyed the day. After the Blue Angles did their thing, we had to hand tow the T-34a past the public access area to the active ramp. Dad fired up the Mentor and flew it back to Gillespie while I drove the car over to pick him up. Select photos of the air show also below and on my Facebook Page and in my gallery.

Sierra Adventure: Hwy 395

A little adventure up the Owens Valley and into the Sierra Mountains. Mammoth, Devils Postpile & Mono Lake. And some night photography! Click below to see more images.

Review: Ibex Clothing

Ibex in the Alaskan White Mountains

Cameron staying warm wearing Ibex in the
Alaskan White Mountains. [Full Story]
Photo by Nathaniel Wilder

I’ve come back to wool. When I started my personal journey into outdoor recreation in earnest I was 14 and still mostly at the behest of my parents financial support for the requisite clothing and gear. So when I decided to join the Explorer Search and Rescue unit that covered the Cascade Mountains in Washington State my parents were hesitant to buy me the fancy polypropylene and fleece layers that were so popular in the early 1990’s. Instead, I ended up with the heavy and cheap (but very warm) Army Surplus wool.

Since then I’ve kept with my outdoor recreation enthusiasm and have been through a number of synthetic insulation layers. But I’m done wrapping myself in plastic against my skin. Maybe it was the years in the rough Army surplus wool that made the transition to the silky smooth Ibex wool layers so easy. Maybe it was the clean cut of the base layers that snuggled against my body and moved with me with out bunching up. Maybe it was the bright and bold, the cool and subtle, the classic black, the earthy heath and heather… a great array of colors to choose from that drew me to Ibex.

Focus UK 2009

Focus UK 2009I’ve just returned from a really great few weeks in England where I was part of a program called Focus. It’s a 10-day camp for Christian Scientists that only happens every four years. I worked as a house parent for the 8 under 18 boys and they were all great.

CS Sentinel Interview: Beauty

I was recently interviewed by Kim Shippey, a senior editor at the Christian Science Sentinel about my views on beauty. It stemmed from my work as a photographer, but as you’ll see if you read the interview it gets deeper than that.

Anyway, requests have been made to get prints for the photo published in the Sentinel, so here it is. Just click on the photo and it will take you to where this photo can be purchased along with a gallery of images that were either mentioned in the interview or considered as candidates of ‘beauty’ as I saw it.

The full article appears in the 20/27 July (double issue) Sentinel on Beauty. It may eventually be available on the Sentinel website: http://www.spirituality.com/sentinel/

Feel free to leave comments below, but if you want to let the Sentinel know they’ve done good, drop them a line.