The Red in November: Post One

Eddie Avallone coming down off "The Madness" 5.13c

The Motherload, RRG

Lindsay Reareon styling the classic "Fuzzy Undercling" 5.11b

Military, RRG

Zak Romuald hitting the India feature on "Tissue Tiger" 5.12b

Military, RRG

Gitta Lubke on "Convicted" 5.13a

The Motherload, RRG

Dan Apostoli having a "Mid Life Crisis" 5.11c

Indy Wall, RRG

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope everyone has recovered from their food induced coma gracefully, what a week! I've been working hard on editing all the photos from the trip, and I still have a lot of work ahead of me. Also, if you would like to see these photos somewhere offline, this upcoming week three prints will be featured on the work in progress wall at MIAD, and I am excited to hang them together as well as get some reactions from the work. Also, one of my photos was chosen for the Adventure Rock photo contest winners, and is now on display in the gym, although it was not printed by me. I will be short with the writing today, but will have more in upcoming post... more to come soon.

Presently...

Well the trip was a great success. The weather was great for November, and I was able to photograph everyday. I spent significantly more time hanging this trip, and my hand-crafted belay seat was extremely helpful and minimized my discomfort while in the air. Bringing two ascenders made jugging easier too, and it saved me some grief, even though I had two right handed ones. The lighting conditions were varied the whole trip, and the first day it was either direct sun, or cold flat light, neither of which are ideal. I focused on getting different angles on the routes I had photographed before, and tended to back away a little more from the climbers on most occasions. I also learned a couple new tricks to keep myself from dangling helplessly facing the wrong direction, as well as how to work in trees. I also made a point to get everyone's name that I photographed this trip, and now can credit each individual directly, as well as have an excuse to make some new friends. I hope you all enjoy the photos, and feel free to contact me. I will posting the new images very shortly, and frequently, so check back and tell your friends...

Hittin' the Road Again

After some last minute planning (frantic searching for people to cover my weekend shifts) I am now free to leave Wisconsin, and am heading straight to Kentucky. I got my one remaining shift covered today, and must thank Dave, Dustin, Alicia, and Lara for keeping my job(s) fun, as well as being flexible and willing to pick up the slack in such short notice. I anticipate this will be my last major opportunity to photograph rock climbing in Kentucky before spring, although I would not be surprised if something else came up between then and now. I have made some improvements upon my rigging this time around, and am bringing two ascenders (instead of one) as well as fewer lenses and no tri-pod. I am also building a belay seat, which will help comfort my ass while hanging in the air for consecutive hours. Besides comfort, the belay seat will look, and act, very much like a swing. It is made from one rectangular piece of (found) wood with holes drilled in the corners and some climbing cordalette to suspend it. I was thinking about improvising some sort of padding for the wood, potentially a towel or old shirt cut up... I think the seat will work great, although it is a little more weight to haul. If it totally sucks it will make good firewood anyway...

This will be my second trip down with Zak, and my first with Dan. We are planning on leaving at midnight Friday and arriving around 10 am Saturday, just enough time to get some quick breakfast and start the day. The weather looks good for the weekend, and I hope it stays unusually warm. If anyone else will be in the Red this weekend and wants to meet up, just call/email me.

The Intern

I've been working with Jessica Kaminski for I think over half a year now, and my intern status has been officially confirmed.  Jessica has been working to update her website as well as streamline and promote her business, which I have also been helping with.  She has moved into a new shared studio space off Water and Chicago downtown, and its all coming together.  She photographed me for the staff bio section of her website, and it was a hoot to break in the new studio.  If was a simple shoot, but I still had to set up lights, not complaining though.  All in all it was a lot of fun, and I think the photos and bio really reflect that. 

"Matt is an aspiring adventure photographer whose work currently focuses on rock climbing, cycling, and life outdoors. He is rumored to be in cahoots with Jessica Kaminski, and can be found assisting, carrying equipment, and running errands. He was last seen biking around Milwaukee transporting an odd assortment of strange looking objects."

Photo Contest Voting

I have recently entered a photo contest through Adventure Rock Climbing Gym. This is the second year they have hosted the contest, and this years winners will be compiled into a calender, which I can only imagine will be on sale at the gym. My submissions this year are all from my most recent trip to the Red, and I am happy to submit them. To help determine the winners, vote for your favorites HERE. I have uploaded some more images from that trip in this post as well. It has been very refreshing to spend so much time thinking about these images. I have also started to work on some "final" prints of a few of these, and they are great to see large, although some are unable to be enlarged much because of cropping . Look for those prints at MIAD if you're around, I will be rotating the prints hanging as I work on them.

Unknown Climber at The Motherload, RRG

Emily Harrington on "White Man's Overbite" 5.13c

The Motherload, RRG.

Zak Romuald on "8 Ball" 5.12d, The Motherload, RRG.

Andy Hansen on the 5.11 warm up wall at The Motherload, RRG.

Andy Miers taking it slow on "8 Ball" 5.12d

The Motherload, RRG.