click. click. click. sweet.

Rolling in the Deep

2011-07-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Like an amoeba, the bike gang multiplied on Sunday. We had nine eager folks, all dudes except for me, loading the 9:40am ferry over to the Sunshine Coast. Riding from the terminal up an impossibly long hill, we finally arrived at Sprockids forest to enjoy the flowy trails that had recently been ridden by participants in the BC Bike Race.

Despite the weather forecast saying temps wouldn't break into the double digits on Sunday, Mother Nature proved us wrong and we climbed forever through a muggy 20C forest.

I hauled my camera for all 40kms of riding but wrangling a group of 9 for photos is kind of like herding cats. Here are some b-roll shots of what I did get:

And one for good luck, my man Ryan took this one of me!

Good Decisions

2011-07-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

GPS is the best thing to happen to mankind since sliced bread. Seriously, without GPS, yesterday my bike gang and I would have either a) died in the mountains or b) turned around and missed out on a fantastic bike ride.

We didn't have GPS of course. It was the hapless or helpful pair of geniuses who decided to ride Tenquille early season as well... thankfully earlier than us, otherwise we wouldn't have had any tracks to follow in the insane amounts of snow we hike-a-biked through.

Not gonna lie, by the time I post-holed to my thigh for the third time I was pretty done. Really, really ready to call it a day and call a helicopter right out of that godforsaken forest.

Within all this lies the importance of a bike gang. Gangs take care of their own, and in our case, makes sure our own eats even when we think we don't need to. It was pouring rain down on us the entire time we hiked through snow, which was about 2 miles of the toughest traversing of my life. I can barely move today.

In 7 hours of travel, only 2 was spent actually biking. The rest was spent slogging through snow, over creeks, and around tree wells. Tree wells in July! Seriously!

Anyway, here are some photos of the mayhem... I love my bike gang.

Bralorne. A Veritable Gold Mine of Biking Radness.

2011-06-19T23:51:00.000-07:00

Hopped in a truck with a hungover Dave and super keen Kyle for one of the longest, and yet most amazing, bike days of my life. As a newly incorporated Team Adventure Bike Gang, we lived up to the gang mentality of doing gnarly stuff.

I'm tired, so I'll let my b shots speak for themselves:

Whip it, whip it good

2011-05-25T09:50:00.001-07:00

I'm a photo blogger for the Whistler Bike park now. It's fun, took some shots:

Trading Wax and Edges for Rubber and Brake Pads.

2011-05-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

It's getting really, really difficult to drag myself up the mountain this month. It isn't so difficult to get talked into a road ride with Kyle Long. Good thing for our start-of-season ride he chose the Duffey hill climb for a friendly warmup to a hopefully long and glorious bike season. The Duffey only rises about 1000m in a 14km stretch of two-lane highway beginning at the Northern end of Lillooet Lake and reaching it's highest point shortly after the Joffre Lakes parking area:

Being the immaculately prepared and exceptionally bright individuals that we are, we set off on the journey with a water bottle each, and very little clothing. I had on chamois underneath my long(ish, not long enough) Sombrio biking shorts, and a long-sleeved Lifa shirt and a rather thin nylon cycling vest to top it all off. No leggings, short socks, you know, prepared for hours of climbing uphill. Kyle had about the same, man version. And, by the way, we took off from his car at 6:12pm.

Things started off great for the first few switchbacks. We had a quick stop so layers could be removed, and from that point onward I kept going and going and going and going kind of like the energizer bunny or Tina the Tank Engine. Nothing could stop me, because I'm fairly certain I would have turned around and/or died right on the spot if I stopped moving my legs for even a moment. Finally, after a number of lonely kilometers (Kyle had vanished around corner #5,000,000) I found him waiting for me at the Joffre Lakes parking lot. It took everything I had to continue to the top even though we had cycled from spring right back through time into winter. (Take that Michael J. Fox!)

We stopped at the top for a few quick snaps to show how blue I mean excited we were to have accomplished such an... interesting endeavour:

After these photos, I went from blue to purple. Believe.

I've never been closer to hypothermia in my life. I had convulsive shakes the entire ride down and had to pull over multiple times to try to jumping-jack some life back into my fingers. Hands were numb all the way to my wrists, and I'm shocked I was even able to brake. I arrived back at Kyle's truck at about 8:40, and my shins were actually purple and my lips were blue. How does Lance Armstrong do it in the Alps? Seriously? Thank goodness for Kyle's seat heaters in his truck, and for the epic Minestrone soup at the Pony in Pemberton.

I think I'll wait till July before I do that ride again! See ya on the road/trails/ski hill/pumptrack tomorrow.

Epic Saturdays

2011-04-30T23:32:00.001-07:00

Today I had an absolutely fabulous day with my homie in crime Sophie. It all began with a simple text saying "Let's hike and bike." There's really no arguing with such a clean and concise statement, I couldn't resist.

We headed up Blackcomb for some teeth-shatteringly awesome turns in the morning, then regrouped and packed up my car for a quick trip down to Squamish for some mountain biking on the loamy trails. The conditions down there seem like winter never happened, and it's a welcome respite from the endless ice age we have experienced in Whistler since November.

For the ride we did Jack's Trail to Alice Lake, 4 Lakes Trail to Edith Lake, Bob McIntosh Memorial Trail to Rock n Roll to the Corners trails below the power lines, then we hit up Don't Tell Jude and carried on to Tracks from Hell. From there we rode back down 4 Lakes Trail and over the Wonderland to finish up. Following that we had some sushi at Sushi Sen and called it a day!

Renegade Heli Club

2011-03-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

The other day I got the chance to join a wicked crew of 3 AK-trained guides, my buddy Dustin, and another guy on a heli touring excursion up the Duffy. We got picked up at the Pemberton airport and flown to a nice little spot on Mt. Matier. We skied a couloir on Matier, then skinned up the col toward Mt. Hertzell, skirted around it and bootpacked up Spetch for a nice long ski to Mt. Slalock, where we skinned once again for a final ski all the way down to upper Joffre Lake. It. Was. AWESOME.

I know where all my money is going next season......!

Renegade Heli Club from Amy McDermid on Vimeo.

Winning like Charlie Sheen

2011-03-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

This has been the year for zero visibility. It's okay though, because that usually means that it has been snowing a lot, and I like snow. Much.

Over the past week, however, the sun poked it's fiery face out from behind the fog and clouds and hung around for a while. With only mornings to work with, I took advantage of the light and hiked a few times, dragging along my friends Chanel and Kyle.

Here's a winning video of it all:

Girls Movie. And Kyle. from Amy McDermid on Vimeo.

Serious Behind the Scenes Snaps.

2011-03-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

I love photojournalism because it's not set up and as a photographer you're capturing what's actually happening. In the cases of these photos, what's happening is that I've asked the girls to hang out in a snowy field where every step you take you're post holing past your knees.

My flashes and I had some minor/major technical difficulties but here are some candid snaps from the evening:

Ladies in the Backcountry.

2011-03-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

This past week and a bit was 9 days full of powder, girls, skiing, shooting, chai-drinking, and eating. Lots of eating.

We had two weekends of Rossignol's Girls Day Out flanking a week of shredding with the other coaches in Revelstoke and Golden. Here are some B shots from our adventure up the Fingers on Mt. McPherson in Revy. Starring Izzy Lynch, Leah Evans, Tessa Treadway, and Tatum Monod. Thanks girls for the good times.

Oh yeah, I have a blog.

2011-03-08T22:24:00.001-08:00

Revelstoked. Revelling in the stoke. Riding the stoke chair. Ripping on the ripper. Getting out with Girls. At Girls Day Out.

In Revy visiting with Leah Evans and Zoya Lynch while we spend the week skiing powder awaiting weekend number 2 of Girls Day Out.

Here are some shots from the past few days.

Hansen Wedding

2010-12-12T11:49:00.001-08:00

I had the honour of photographing two of my good friends at their wedding in Seattle this weekend. Lisa Shimoi married William Hansen and despite rain storms and hungry bridesmaids, the wedding went off without a snag. Thank goodness for umbrellas! Enjoy this sneak peek.

amymcdermid.com

November Pow-y Goodness.

2010-11-30T20:40:00.000-08:00

Today I reconnected with some members of the Rad Boob Club, and we slayed pow from open till close on Blackcomb. Breaking trail into Cancer Man in neck-deep powder was challenging, but it was super fun to drop all of the little cliffs and pillows down the line. There's nothing like skiing all day with a whole whack of girls, the best part namely being the chatter on the chairlift about boys and boys. Yes, boys, we talked about you.

One bonus of having so few chairs open in the early season is that it's really easy to find your friends, and if you lose them, there are more waiting in the lift line!

Anyway, being back on snow is pretty sweet and I'm excited to share some silly videos of some skiing we've done over the past few days. Enjoy.

Whistler Opener

2010-11-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

Brrrrr it feels like we're in the Rockies, except that now that cold feeling is stabbing us in the bone marrow. A friend described the cold temperatures in Calgary as "you know it's cold when your nostrils stick together when you breathe," and here in Whistler it's that cold- and some.

It's not that often that I don't feel inspired to go up the mountain, but when a friend's metatarsals and toes suffer frostbite after an hour-long skin up to the Peak, another friend has two perfect triangle-shaped patches of frostbite on his cheeks after sledding for the day, and my boot heater batteries need to be plugged in for minimum three days after a summer in storage, sometimes it's best to stay at home. I chose to curl up with books and work on my art portfolio.

Anyway, a while back, before the antarctic-worthy temperatures graced us with their presence, my friend Brook Baker and I went for a wee pedal in the Whistler Mountain Bike park. Not only did we have to look out for slippery roots and snow patches, but flying ice chunks were also a concern. Enjoy:

Petition to Keep Bike Park Open until now. Or maybe now? from Amy McDermid on Vimeo.

Wow, it's been a while...

2010-11-14T23:11:00.000-08:00

Let's think a bit about what has happened since March 22nd...

I haven't taken many photos, but I did take some. I'll share those photos, and some videos too, that I've created in the past months. I worked a lot over the summer and fall and now that ski season is ramping up my work hours are going back down to a humane number.

The other day I attempted to explore the infinite abyss with my good friend and adventure buddy Miss Zoya Lynch. It was an adventure alright- what else do you expect when missioning into the great outdoors with me? Needless to say, there is no longer a bridge across Fitzsimmons Creek above the hydro project. Google earth would beg to differ.

Mini Spearhead from Amy McDermid on Vimeo.

Oot and Aboot.

2010-03-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

I've been in Whistler for a long time as of late. A few months without escape, but that's alright with me, it has been a good winter. Here is a random selection of shots from the past few months:

No Boys Allowed!

2010-02-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

Video of the trip here.

For those that can't wait to see what we skied, here you go. For this one I was actually taking a picture of my favorite peak, Fissile, but there's Decker in the foreground. Of course Jen caught some air!

We headed out fairly early with a plan to ski either Trorey or Pattison but Decker was looking mighty fine, and the clouds were rolling in as we headed down toward the lake. We could see Jen's tracks from the day before and they were still the only ones in the line on the left, so we chose to ski that one first. I've been eyeing that one for a while and it didn't disappoint.

Jen looking out at our destination.

Finding some fresh turns after no new snow in a looooong time.

Jen skinning up Decker.

The snow was fast and smooth and a lot of fun to ski. We had originally planned to head home after the first line because we were both exhausted from skiing all week, but it was too good. We headed back up the long way (the wrong way) and skinned up forever to ski the line on the right. It ended up being worth it though, as proven by the POV footage that Jen and I took.

On the skin up we had the chance to check out the view and suss out some lines on other peaks, and we'll hopefully have some more trip reports for you soon.

Taking a peek at our line.

Jen Ashton showing me how to ski big mountains in a big way.

Ski Ski a Go Go

2010-01-05T07:54:00.001-08:00

So I came back to Whistler after the holidays and it had snowed a fair bit- I went for a walk out to Corona Bowl with Ryan, Mike, and Yu, and took some photos on my Panasonic LX3 point and shoot camera.

Another Decade Past

2009-12-31T22:05:00.000-08:00

The Hood Internet - The Mixtape Volume Four by hoodinternet

Some tunes to relive 2009, which went way faster than I could have expected.

Thinking back on the past year, the standout moments were as follows:
- champagne around a bonfire
- cat-skiing near Revelstoke
- moving to Whistler again (for good this time I swear)
- finally getting some shots and writing published
- winning school (well, winning best portfolio, best editorial shot, best photo essay, and best photojournalist)
- ... then not really doing anything photographer-y for work
- finally got my own website:
- joined a bike gang
- experienced the snowiest November of all time at Whistler/Blackcomb

Come to think of it, I didn't do nearly enough in the past year. My resolutions are to explore the Duffy backcountry, shoot more photos, and visit Sweden. Nuff said.

The year in photos (click to enlarge, otherwise they're cut off):

No snow?! No problem!

2009-12-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

So it hasn't snowed in a bit (after I was complaining about all the precipitation, oops.) So we hike.

no sunshine no take photo

2009-11-25T23:26:00.000-08:00

So, what with all the crazy precipitation we've had lately, and being a fair weather fan, it's been hardly inspiring to go out and take photos as of late. I've also been rather busy with my various jobs, and that sucks. So until the rain lets up and touring season gets rolling, I think I'll be taking self portraits inside the home.

Pump, pump, pump it up.

2009-10-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

"I think you should have a date, you have nice handwriting." Says JJ, in response to the note I left him that said "Dear JJ. Thank you for building that pumptrack. It has provided me hours of enjoyment. Have a lovely day. Sincerely, Amy."

So we've obviously been having fun at the pumptrack lately. DH bike has a broken fork and my pumptrack bike fork is barely holding it together, but when you can't ride the park it has to do. This time we were playing a little closer to the village. And I obviously still suck at flash, and my remote trigger stopped working, so I had a buddy press the trigger for the shots of me.

As it stands, none of us seem to be ambiturners.

Rocktober

2009-10-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

Wow so I guess I haven't had a lot of time to shoot photos lately. Either that or I'm riding my bike too much. Let's blame the latter. The only solution to the problem is to do both at the same time. Easier said than done, especially when the remote trigger decides to stop working.

That's me in the blue pants, bike gang sister Johanna in the blue hoodie, hmmm, blue must be our gang color. Watch out Crips.

My bicycle gang has a skiing problem

2009-09-18T09:51:00.001-07:00

As fun as it is to ride your bike alone, it's better to ride with friends. They're the ones with spare tubes when you've forgotten one, they're the ones that take you down a trail you've never ridden before, and they're the ones you create a gang with. A bicycle gang, obviously.

The most important part of gang formation is the initiation. Our initiation was to survive a ghost-busting, cougar-slaying adventure to Parkhurst, an abandoned logging town in the greater Whistler Valley.

Gang names are almost as important as the initiation. They often form naturally based on the behaviour of the gang member to whom it is given. Our gang names: Slayer, Thrasher, and Sniper. Johanna is Slayer because of her love of death metal and Schleyer in the Whistler bike Park. Jess is Thrasher. She is so called because of her kidney-bruising, muscle-tearing, rip-snorting good time ripping down In Deep and taco-ing her front tire. I am sniper. (Probably because I snipe photos.)

Future gang initiates will have to do a far more heinous initiation- slug licking. If a girl wishes to join the gang and get themselves a really sweet bike gang name, a slug will have to be licked. Cougar slaying and ghost busting is only for the top tier of bicycle gangsters like Slayer, Thrasher, and me.

Anyway, we survived the initiation and are a full-fledged bicycle gang. We're looking into matching jerseys. Here are some photos of Team Bike Gang:

Feeling Musical.

2009-09-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

After spending time on High Note, the next week I played (on) the Musical Bumps with the girls. Here are some shots:

Frolicking in Flowery Fields

2009-07-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Christian, Antoine, and I traveled up Whistler mountain to hike the High Note trail. The sign said it should take 3-4 hrs round trip and we managed to do it in a little over 2, including a number of photo stops and stopping to smell the flowers.

hrmph.

2009-07-23T00:44:00.001-07:00

bike park fail. washed out on a super dusty corner and turned my elbows into mulch. 6 stitches, woohoo!

anyway, here are some more shots from Momentum this summer:

(alex mathers, mason mashon, darren rayner, jeff schmuck, jessica warll, colby west, sarah burke and mike riddle.)

WAP Graduation

2009-06-19T16:46:00.000-07:00

It's finished. In the past 10 months I schoolworked, homeworked, starbucksed (worked), seattled, oregoned, calgaryed, whistlered (x 1 million), revelstoked, trout laked, lake louised, omahaed, tofinoed, jordan rivered, and maybe some more.

All of that fun and not so fun culminated in a diploma in journalism and photography from the Western Academy of Photography.

The hard work paid off, too, and I was fortunate to win some awards for my work. In my program, called Written Image, I won Best Feature Editorial Photo, for a shot of a roadblock in Squamish where a young man was pulled over for drunk driving. In an open category amongst all of the students I won Best Photo Essay, titled "Joey: Age 2.5" (the one in the video of the little boy, all photos are black and white.)

Finally, in my program I won both Best Portfolio and Best Photojournalist. All in all the year paid off! Phew!

Enjoy my book:

Amy McDermid Photojournalism Portfolio from Amy McDermid on Vimeo.

I love dirt.

2009-06-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend the Off-Road Rebels rally association put on an amazing rally event in between Pemberton and Whistler, right by the motocross track. Some guy saw my camera and said "hey, come with me," in a husky smokes too much and drinks too much voice, and I followed, knowing that nothing bad could come of following a stranger.

He brought me and another fellow with a video camera out onto Sunday's course and brought us up in a Genie hydraulic lift, which he suspended out above the final - and might I add massive - mud pit at the finish of the course.

I ran into a friend later that afternoon who said "hey ames, I saw you at the rally, you were up in the genie with a guy who recently got off house arrest!" Ummmm... awesome.

I love the smell of hot garbage...

2009-06-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

In Victoria the best place to ride a bike is at the Hartland Land Fill. Most riders lovingly refer to it as 'the Dump,' and that's exactly how it smells, especially when it's 30 degrees C even at 5pm.

The other day Bryan and I went out for a ride and I brought my camera. Here are the results, I don't shoot a ton of XC, and only had a 50mm and fisheye, so... yeah. There's a little self-portrait action in there too:

World Badminton Championships of the World.

2009-06-01T10:50:00.001-07:00

Redundant? Perhaps. Hitting a shuttlecock back and forth over a lo-budg net for 4 hours? Surprisingly not redundant. So un-redundant, in fact, that we didn't even notice how much time had passed until Nicole and I (team pasty white) were burnt to a crisp. Oops.

After the championships were tied by all, we went camping at Jordan River for the night. No complaints here.

Thirsty, Chuck?

2009-05-26T21:58:00.001-07:00

Bryan and I went for a quick mountain bike ride at the Dump today. Bry brings water for Charlie the Safety Dog so she doesn't get thirsty. Charlie is probably the antithesis of 'safety,' however. Yes, she's great at retrieving either one of us if we get too far apart, but she also likes to come rescue me when I'm picking my way down a gnarly section of trail, or about the jump off of something. I think I'll now refer to her as Chucky (due to her murderous tendencies.)

Anyway, this is a one shot post:

Failblog.

2009-05-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

A group of skier girls have decided to get together and make a fundraising ski calendar to raise money for breast cancer research. Each month will feature one ski girl, with a lifestyle shot plus one or two ski action shots. We went out shooting tonight for lifestyles, and since we're trying to keep it on the down-low, here are some out-takes!

The calendar is coming to a ski-resort or ski shop near you, so keep your eyes open for them in the fall. We'll also be traveling around to various resorts to distribute the calendars and offer ski clinics in exchange for donations toward breast cancer research.

Featured in the following failures are Tessa Treadway, Kirsten Lyle, Sarah Frood, and yours truly.

We came, we gapered, we conquered, we spiral fractured our tibias.

2009-05-19T03:05:00.001-07:00

Hey all, remember how I went climbing 2 days ago with the Treadways? Dave broke his tibia today, spiral fracture, ouch. Over fifty amazingly outfitted individuals gave'er on Blackcomb today after a leisurely 11:00am meeting time at the Longhorn.

There were mullets, skullets, skinny skis, and even figure skating uniforms. The pictures really speak for themselves. I'm pleased to announce I won Gaper Day 2009 Female Best Trick for some fun pond skimming action on Zig Zag in the afternoon. It's just like waterskiing... I made sure not to drown my cellphone again.

By the way, I'm pretty sure the chairlift takes only 4 people, oops. Oh, and I blew up a picture of my boyfriend and had him silk screened on the back of my vest. Just saying...

Baloo the Adventure Cat

2009-05-17T17:41:00.001-07:00

The littlest Treadways are trying to convince me to move to Pemberton. It won't take much convincing, because the place is amazing. We went climbing yesterday somewhere in the valley near the train tracks, and of course the Treadways brought their cat, Baloo. He had a good time chillin in the bushes watching everyone try to be spiders.

That was Product-ive.

2009-05-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

We had an assignment to do some product shots for school. Our instructor had this really epic/fancy setup that he showed us, complete with a fancy black synthetic surface to shoot on, and a table-top mini studio... OR a massive scrim tilted 45 degrees away from a big window, all of which I don't have at home.

So, being the thrifty daughter of a home economist that I am, I got creative. I stopped by Home Hardware to buy some veneer (wood, black or otherwise) to shoot on. They had none. They did, however, have white sticky drawer liner. It was sold in a 9' roll for $6. How could I resist?

I had to move fast because the assignment was due the next day and I was quickly running out of daylight. I figured I could use the drawer liner as both a scrim and surface to shoot on. I ended up sticking one half to a table that I placed in front of my window, and stuck the long end up the window (so it ended up like a studio backdrop would look, but miniature sized.)

Thank heavens for photoshop, because I was getting raindrop shadows on my background and tiny bubbles on the 'ground,' as it were.

Here they are:

A necklace, shot with daylight

My Grandpa's (my) 1955 Leica M3

I won't quit my day job, but if I need to sell stuff on Ebay, I may use that again.

Fresh (prince of Bel) Air.

2009-05-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

I spent Thursday evening and all afternoon Saturday snapping photos at Jordie Lunn's fantastic new dj course. He held a rider-judged competition called Fresh Air, sponsored by Blackbox Labs.

There were lots of other photographers there, including Adrian Marcoux, Ian Hylands, Dan Barham, Baxter Redfern, Reuben Krabbe, Mike Reid, and many more. Check out their sites if you get the chance.

Jordie and the boys.

The winner, Brandon Semeniuk

Some other snaps

Okay that was fun. Again, again!

My teacher stole my bike, so I shot him.

2009-05-08T08:44:00.001-07:00

This week was action sports week at Western. Ian Hylands, a mountain bike photographer, enlightened us to the secrets of sports photography. I finally got my pocket wizards working so I played with flash + action + outdoors for the first time. It was fun.

We didn't have anyone willing to ride the muddy trail so Hylands ponied up and did it, on my bike. He's 40lbs heavier than me and kept mentioning that he was bottoming out my fork. The bike is good though, I went for a ride after class and it was working fine.

I am aware that one of them is crooked and the rider is sketching out on the corner. oops.

Afterward we checked out the new dirt jump course in jordie lunn's backyard and I sniped some shots:

So, you got my back and everything, right?

2009-05-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

"Napoleon, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter."

"Take a look at what I'm wearing, people. You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I'm wearing these bad boys? Forget about it."

Architecture, Omaha, and Bill Gates.

2009-05-05T09:15:00.001-07:00

So last week was fairly eventful. After returning to Victoria from Tofino, I had 1.5 days of classes then a quick turnaround to the airport for a weekend adventure. At school we went to the provincial Legislature building to snap some shots, as seen here:

Then, on Thursday evening I flew back to Calgary to say hi to Mum and Dad, then Dad and I woke up at 3:30am to head to the airport to fly to Omaha, Nebraska. We had a stopover in Chicago and arrived in Omaha in the early afternoon. The airport is ridiculously close to downtown, and we were at our hotel within 20 minutes of landing.

We looked around and checked out the Old Market and Durham Rail Station, then my older brother and sister flew in from London (via Chicago) to meet us.

The highlight of the trip was going to the Woodstock of Capitalism, the Berkshire Hathaway AGM, where I sniped some photos of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Both of them are, undubitably, righteous dudes.

That curvy shot is a bridge that crosses the Missouri River, which divides Nebraska and Iowa. We walked to Iowa and back. It was thrilling.

Look mom, I joined a gang!

2009-04-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

I got forced to miss Festivus in Whistler last weekend. Bummer, I know.

Instead, I got dragged up to Tofino (Canadian surfer's paradise) for the weekend. I had to be there for class on Monday and Tuesday, so my surfer friend Logan picked me up in his VW camper van and we hit the road. I'm not a surfer and only really like to be cold when I'm in my ski gear, so I stayed on dry land and shot for five days straight. It was fun. Tofino is cool. The swell was virtually nonexistant and I sadly don't have a 600mm telephoto lens:

Logan... action sucks but the colors are nice.

In our camping spot in Bella Pacifica Campground, we couldn't help but notice the amazing tunes going down at the camp just across from ours. We could hear a plethora of instruments and a song about Silence of the Lambs. Intrigued, and a bit creeped out, we headed across to introduce ourselves to these guys (and their friends.)

Eric and Mark. Members of Deathpedal the bicycle gang. Three nights of uproarious campfireage ensued.

Logan making the best of a bad situation

... and finally in class on Tuesday morning I had to shoot some tide pools at rosie bay. It was interesting I guess.

Best day of my life. Basically.

2009-04-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

So today I woke up at the leisurely hour of 9:30am. I peered outside of the Batcave and saw some absolutely disgusting weather outside. Batman, however, was somewhat optimistic about the snow report. He told me there were 7cms of fresh waiting up there to be skied. I saw rain. I dawdled. I missed out on some decent turns first thing in the morning, I think.

Batman and I headed up Blackcomb and ran into Jenn and Hojo on lap 1. I skied Diamond while the others had a delightful time skiing down Ruby. We lapped it again, this time Jenn and I skied one of our favorite chutes into Diamond. It was delicious, kinda like Diamond Shreddies probably are.

Unfortunately on the ski out Jenn hit a gap to flat (or something,) tweaked her back, and they had to head down. By that time, however, Batman and I had met up with the littlest Treadways and the owner of Biglines.com so we had a fantastic shred posse for the rest of the afternoon. Tessa and I got some tasty turns in Secret Chute and Purple Haze, and then it was time for lunch.

I enjoyed a yummy cod fajita. Cod, odd, I know. Next we headed up to catch the Horstman t-bar. All this time it was puking. Magically the clouds parted right as we arrived at the top, so we all headed over to Chainsaw Ridge to see what was waiting for us. There was maybe one track in the entire bowl. Tim pulled out his video camera and we dropped in- the snow was perfection. Since we couldn't go into the high alpine anymore, the day was finished off with some cafe cliffs to Jersey Cream lift line laps!

Erica and I went for sushi at the new restaurant at the Blackcomb base, and it was AWESOME. Then, all that blathering above is leading to this... we had a very quick photo shoot outside her house, cause that's what the cool kids do on Friday nights.

Springtime at Lake Lousy.

2009-04-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Last week I headed home to AB for the 2009 Lake Louise Big Mountain Challenge. I picked a line where I could charge all my drops but alas, on drop #2 there was a sizable dent in the snow I was planning to land in and it chucked me onto my hip. I carried on my merry way but the little hiccup in my run was enough to knock me out of qualifiers since the other girls skied more cautiously (a good idea since the conditions weren't very desirable.)

I was stoked though, because it meant I got to shoot photos the rest of the time!

Slideshow of my images:

Lake Louise Big Mountain Challenge 2009 from Amy McDermid on Vimeo.

Enjoy. The song is 'Walking on a Dream' by Empire of the Sun.

First, survive. Next, take people on an adventure.

2009-04-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

This coming July, I will be going on a 13 day adventure from Calgary down to SE Oregon to kayak the Owyhee River. The trip is organized by Mikey and Bonnie Lang, founders of Survive and Thrive Adventures Inc. Mikey has just finished treatment for Hodgkin's stage 3 Lymphoma, which manifested itself as a grapefruit-sized tumor in the middle of his chest. Interestingly enough, it was when a doctor asked Mikey if he was feeling itchy, that cancer became a possible diagnosis for the asthma-like symptoms he was suffering from.

Mikey and Bonnie are really positive and optimistic people, and they want to expose the struggles of young adults with cancer, so they are taking 7 other young adult cancer survivors kayaking for the first time. The challenge of kayaking in whitewater needs to be faced in the same way that cancer should be: with optimism and courage.

I'm really excited to photograph this journey, and just today I got a sweet new pelican case to keep my camera gear dry while kayaking down the river. I met up with Mikey and Bonnie today to take some photos, here they are:

Gnomely.

2009-04-02T08:36:00.001-07:00

Done the project, uploaded it on youtube... and it looks like garbage. The photos are now not in time with the music... but you'll get the idea, nonetheless.

Enjoy:

Many thanks to the gnome in my kitchen for being such a good sport. He's in a better place now.

Gnome with the Wind.

2009-03-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

As usual, class time is spent watching music videos with no volume turned on. In my search for sweet music videos, I discovered this.

I'm only part way down the page, and I don't know if the song sucks, but this video is rad:

Gnomes are still rad... not done the assignment yet...

Gnome-ing About Town

2009-03-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the traveling gnome phenomenon, I'm using one as the subject of a multimedia presentation.

Hey nice fash, I mean face.

2009-03-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Did my fashion shoot for school this afternoon, and I had 2 very different types of models to work with. One was the awkward, awesome, haute couture unusual kind of girl, while the other was a beauty/commercial/small town local model look. It was interesting working with the both of them, but I definitely found it harder to come up with shots for model #2:

And model #2:

Grey Skies.

2009-03-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

The weather here is disgusting. No wonder I don't like this place all that much. I find Victoria's grey skies to be one of main reasons I'm so uninspired to go out and snap photos on a regular basis. When skies aren't grey, they can be quite nice. Here are some of the other snaps from Friday:

Epic.

2009-03-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

This snap got called epic so I suppose it deserves a blog post.

Not much to say except there was some winter waiting for me when I rolled in to Whistler on Friday night. There was also a group of rambunctious Yankee friends, and a million bazillion people in the resort wanting to share the snow with me. Bah. Humbug.

Oh, and my favorite mountain had it's face ripped off. Ouch. Crown looks massive, look how far the runout goes.

912.5 Days

2009-03-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Photo essay complete. That was fun/hard because I was shooting at super high ISOs and the kid moves so fast! Good times though.

I now present... Joey:

Work it.

2009-03-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

"Hey ______, I think you're really interesting. Any chance you'll let me follow you around for a day and take pictures?" "No..."

Yeah, so it's kinda tough to find someone who will agree to star in a photo essay. I had to get creative... I had to find someone who wouldn't say no. So, starting this evening, I'm shooting photos of my cousin's 2.5yr/old son. He doesn't even know what a camera is. This will be fun.

Some of my friends like to cause mischief and make movies. They also like to enter contests with their movies. Watch, and, if you like it, vote for them!

Voleurz Goes to Coldwater

Enjoy!

Aaaaand... another photo from Sunday

I've lost the feeling in my fingers... can I have yours?

2009-03-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

Did a little Blackcomb shred on the weekend with the girls and the occasional boy. It was a lovely time and face shots were had, whether or not they were on purpose or accidental we may never know. The snow was fantastic and I took some photos of the happenings on Sunday:

I also got seasick on the drive home. How often can a person say that?!

Polar Opposites.

2009-03-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

When one wants to become a fashion photographer, one should probably practice. Therefore... practice I did. Models = me (ginger and obviously not a model) and Jesse Holland (Far classier and classmatier.)

Then it got dark. So subject matter changed to non human objects. As seen below. Models = tree. Victoria BC.

Monday = Nofunday.

2009-03-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I'm looking for inspiration I like to check out various photo essays. David Alan Harvey's Burn magazine is consistently updated with new, really interesting photo essays. I especially like the Rodeo one, and one titled Teen Pregnancy.

I've been listening to Matt and Kim a lot lately, and here's their song Daylight. It's been snowing here on the Island, and I could use some more daylight. From the sun, please.

A photo... remembering the good times. Mathieu and I skied Fissile Mountain Banana and then Saddle Chutes over a two day period this time last winter. I wish I was playing in the snow right now. Well, other than the no centimeters of snow that have fallen in Victoria today.

Still reveling in the stoke.

2009-03-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

So, I'm still on holiday/real life mode and can't get my mind off of the Revy good times. This time, enjoy the pictures to music:

Linds and I went for a night time adventure and inbetween jumping jacks and postholing through the snow, I captured these beauties. Composition cred goes to Lindsay for the Smokestack one.

Peace out homies, I have some homework to get back to.

Revel-stoke!

2009-03-05T22:30:00.000-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to bust a move down to beautiful Revelstoke, BC, to do some RMR pow-slaying and Great Northern Cat-Skiing. I spent one day skiing the resort with my lovely friend Lindsay, and we were lucky to run into a Whistler friend, Ryan, while were were there:

Then I spent three days at Great Northern with my dad, brother, and sister for some pow slayage. It had snowed a meter the week before and that left the avalanche danger at a slightly unsatisfactory danger level. We dealt with it by sticking in the trees or staying on fairly mellow terrain or short steep pitches. We had fun:

I am tired. Long drive. More later.

2009-02-24T12:08:00.000-08:00

I try not to take pleasure in other peoples suffering. If other people, however, are my friend Jon, I don't necessarily take pleasure, but I do take photos. Or 'make' photos, as it were. Jon made this picture. He smoked a boulder with his head and a tree with his thigh. Subdural Hematoma or something. He couldn't walk for a week. Looks painful:

As I sort through my best photos, I realize that I get my best photos when I'm adventuring. I should probably adventure more.

Currently listening to new K'Naan, can't put one of his new videos up, so this will have to do for now (from his last album, the dusty food philosopher):

I made some blue muffins, muffin.

2009-02-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

I put some blueberries in my honey bran muffins tonight... the muffins came out blue. Hazards of the trade, I suppose. Blue tastes good and broken. Silly things won't stay together = massive muffin fail.

4:30am start tomorrow, gonna serve coffee to Satan and watch her steal the Globe and Mail.

Troubadour, K'Naan's newest album, came out today. I purchased it on handy dandy ole iTunes and it's terrific. Good music to ski/bike/run/homework to.

Hey Carlos, I dare you to propose to that girl over there.

2009-02-21T18:54:00.000-08:00

I think daring people to do stuff is really great, and after we get out of junior high, it doesn't happen often enough. Today I witnessed my new friend as he proposed to a girl on her stagette in Whistler. It was terrific. She almost left her future husband for him.

I have much admiration for people who can't back down from a dare, I'm unfortunately not one of them. One day, perhaps. I'm a dreamer, afterall...

K'Naan is a dreamer, his new album says so. Troubadour comes out on Feb 24th in Canada. Stoked:

A photo. I likes this dj, he has good style.

This song sounds like math. If math... was... music.

2009-02-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

If you get the chance, take a listen to this.

It sounds like math, seriously.

I haven't taken any photos in a few days, too busy working/running/sleeping/biking/hardnewsfinding.

So.... an oldie (but a goodie.)

2009-02-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

So I'm sitting in class learning about keyboard shortcuts. It would be sweet if there was a keyboard shortcut, like Command + E = End Class. I'm going to program my compy 686 to do that.

To help pass the time, I was watching music videos without sound on YouTube. I came across The Presets new video. I still haven't listened to the song, but judging by the vid it must be awesome:

... I hope the song is good. Sorry if it isn't.

Aaaaand. A photo:

Linda on her wedding day

Get Your Fash. Put It On.

2009-02-18T23:53:00.000-08:00

Wow. They (not sure whom) say that if you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it. They (whomever they were) were right. I'm busy, and therefore I get stuff done. For the most part at least. For example, I got a splash page done for my website. I'm obviously not a web guru.

On to more interesting things...

I'm really excited about this band lately, it might be because I bought a mandolin to occupy me in my free time. It's sitting gathering dust right over there in the corner.

Tallest Man on Earth

I shot a fashion show a few weeks ago, here's a sneak peek:

I'll try to be more responsible about posting on this, since my website only has a splash page thus far. Is there an herbal supplement I can take to increase wittiness? I like witty blogs.

Hey you Guys....!

2008-11-14T22:47:00.001-08:00

Off to Oregon... the ferry is a time machine transporting us back to 1959, stairs watch your step use handrail signs use fonts not found on computers these days.

Conversation drifts from adventures to route planning to school to snow.

Five days and no set schedule = Heaven. Land Ahoy! Claire sees lights, we see good times. Oh, another ferry, but first - Norway. What? Norway in the middle of Washington? Poulsbo? Coolsbo.

I can fly Jack, I can fly! Pulling in on a spaceship smooth sailing until Mia begins the sound effects.

Pouring coffee into tea is an easy mistake when you're blonde. This hot chocolate isn't warm enough. Drink fast, too fast, full. Baileys warm? Hmmm.

A troll lives under the bridge on Troll Ave. He's crushed a VW bug in his troll hand. Susie sticks her head up his nostril as punishment. Punishment for whom, Mia wonders.

Alarm goes off at six in the morning. The coffee shop will be closed tomorrow for reasons that are none of your business.

We've caught up with the rain, turn around to stay dry. Gumboots are life preservers in a puddlesome world. Bye boys, perhaps we'll see you on the way back home from this obamanation.

Yurt. A dry oasis in the middle of a soggy forest. Maybe one will be available. WE can eat yogurt and dessert in the yurt. Or something.

All hoodies should come with thumb holes. Wait- what city is this? No way we're in Portland already. Oh no! We're in Portland, we don't want to go to Salem, that's South! Exit exit exit!

Saturday Market in the rain. Torrential downpour. Fork ring, forking awesome. try the cashews and kettle corn, sorry sir we'll come back later. Not. Get lost trying to find Mia's art school, so, kids aren't allowed coffee but adults are? That means us, I think. Drink up. No milk, sugar cube tastes square. Don't be a square, sugar.

So, you're saying there are no yurts? My life for a yurt! What's a team awesome bike gang to do? The tent is home, and sweet. Home sweet tent.

Here comes the sun... just kidding. No sun here. It's alright, we'll go for a hike. Rubber boots. Dry and clammy when schmucking through mud and guck. I have a chocolate headache, eat no drink more wine - no I want water help.

Drink chocolate water after a long walk down the beach. It looks like someone dumped laundry detergent in the water, it's like the world's biggest bubble bath. Shut up Babushka. Is peeing contagious? It seems like I do it more often when I'm around you Susie, Mia cries.

If I ever see a picture of a box of crabs- I'm taking a picture of it, I swear! Are you certain you want a picture of a picture of a box of crabs, really?

Tillamook is way down there, did you realize it's only 8:30? Bed time pretty much. After last night at least.

Wind burnt cheeks and organic supper. Are jet puff marshmallows organic? Scratch that. Land of the Goonies... Haaaay you guys! None of us have one eye bigger than the other thank goodness.

The motel room is a mixed up mess of gumboots, wet and dry clothes and girls. We ran forever this morning. All the way to the spit, two hours seemed like two minutes in howling wind and stationary driftwood.

Rock hard loaf fortunately doesn't taste like rocks. My teeth thank you, sir.

I'm full of mystery... and botulism - says the tin can with a missing label. Yum, I wonder what botulism tastes like.

The sisters went surfing so Susie and I are left with time and potential adventure. Caffeine, locals and a carefree girl working in the book store. For some reason I feel the urge to buy a book every time I enter a bookstore. For the sake of my wallet I should probably stay out of them.

Of course I bought the Elements of Style book. Of course. I'm pretty excited now that I've finally got concrete proof that nauseous means sickening, and not sick-feeling. Take that, all you haters! Hate on, haters. Take a sip of some more haterade, why don't you. Nauseous. Now I feel nauseated.

We bought a dragon kite to fly, haven't had time yet and it may not survive the journey. Too windy for the frisbee too, bummer. The lady workign the front desk at the sunset surf motel is a living (barely) breathing smoking poster girl. Like you see her on a poster and you'll never smoke, ever. She also keeps some pretty interesting company. We got back to the motel to see her int he back room with a tall, rather Alfred-Hitchcockesque character, freaking out at her, his bottle of booze cleverly disguised in a paper bag. That's legal here in lovely Manzanita.

Big Buck Hunting. Small Fish Retrieving?

2008-10-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

Had a most delightful anti-thanksgiving celebration. Black Kids concert, outlet shopping, breakfast eating, ski movie premiering and spooning (but no forking.)

Loving this guy lately:

Some pics of the awesome:

2008-10-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

4 day weekend. Seattle. I love dinosaurs and photo adventures. Dinosaurs chomp my nose. Teeny tiny chomp, doesn't hurt much but leaves a mark. Dinochomp.

Damn I have hot friends!

2008-09-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is my partner in crime, Nicole. The subject of the photo is my badass leather jacket. Can't you tell? We like to do photo shoots on Sunday afternoons.

I've been interviewing an archaeologist in town about this amazing site her firm spent the last year excavating. In a 50x50m area they've discovered almost 8,000 artifacts dating from 2450-2800 years old, pretty rad!

2008-09-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

I have been listening to these guys nonstop. It might be the name, because all I can think of is winter, and sleep is something I can't get enough of:

Newspaper writing has got to be the most uninteresting subject ever. At least paper writing in the greater Victoria area. If we had an amazing instructor I might feel differently, but the woman at the helm of my future has got to be the dullest person on the face of the planet. I guess you would have to be if you want to work on a tiny newspaper in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Speaking of nowhere, this place isn't all that bad...

2008-09-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

New TVOTR has come out. It's grood. Oops, I started to say great but then I said good. Or grood, rather. Oh well; let's roll with it:

I need about three more hours per day. The math doesn't work out, however, because I don't plan to sleep any less. Sleeping is a pain in the butt sometimes because the other night, for example, I was absolutely positive that I owned a Leica M8. It was incredible, its b&w photos were perfection.

... Then I woke up.

Speaking of black and white...

midnight in the city of good and evil

2008-09-21T00:58:00.000-07:00

Cause you've been nighttiming baby...

Everyday is Saturday night... but I can't wait...

2008-09-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

Slowly adjusting to the pace of things here in Victoria. Snail's pace, ant's pace, slothlike and relaxed. Homework? Check. Job hunt? Double check. Adventures? Check. Night time long exposures are good as long as worries of crackhead thieves are kept at bay. Precipitation here is not cold enough, frozen is better. Swollen wood and a lousy paint job means the window won't close. Duct tape and cardboard should work for now.

Months in Italy are not conducive to staying atop the music scene. Forgetting where to look. Youtube: