BLATT!

After France it was a quick stop on the East Coast before I got the call to head out to Aspen for Winter X Games…

Winter X is a bit of a media nightmare — with everything set up to ensure that ESPN gets the angles for TV, security is out in force making sure that the hundreds of journalists, photographers, and filmers from outside publications stay out of the way. This means that getting an original angle takes a whole lot of legwork… From hiking to hiding, winter X was definitely a challenge to shoot.

For my winter X post, I selected some photos of the lensmen at winter X… and of course some close up of Shaun’s pants…

Photos Below: Numerous 3D cameras on hand (they look like Wall-E!) // Gabe L’Heureux runnin’ that lean over the pipe for first hit photos of you know who.. // yoshida, gettin’ that gram!! // Sean Aaron broke out the bad boy RED cam for winter X + Burton’s new powder board for follow cams… //  Shaun’s incredible pants // Shuan’s incredible backside air…

For full coverage of winter X including some more of my images, Hondo’s words, and Justin Gunson’s video work checkout some of the last posts on tranworldsnowboarding.com ..

Later -

A

Travel Day yesterday – Geneva>Dublin>Boston – Window seats and sunlight all the way through… the Sun chased me down form early in the morning and finally caught up and passed me as I landed in Boston in the evening.

Here’s some photos from over Northern France – there was this crazy low lying cloud layer, a bit of a mist as far as I could see…

Glad to be Home, even for a short moment -

Heading up to Killington tomorrow for contest coverage..

Stay up -

A

With reports of epic snowfall in the Alps, Justin Meyer made the call a couple weeks back to head to Europe with a crew from Videograss. After a last minute flip flop between Austria and France, the crew ended up heading to Avoriaz, in the French Alps. I was hyped to cruise along to document the mission.

A few B-Rolls Below..   Dirks in the trees // The King, Nico Droz hoofing the bootpack // Jordan and Danny enjoying sips off a Konnenburg (”the worker’s beer”) after a long day in the alps

After 10 solid days of shooting from the backcountry to the villiage of Avoriaz, we’re jumping on a shuttle to Geneva to catch flights back to the states.

I had a sweet time getting to meet and work with some new people – such a fun crew. Big thanks to Justin Meyer for the invite, TWS for the support, and a Huge thanks to Nico Droz, King of Avoriaz, for showing our crew around his home mountain.

More soon -

A

I pulled the trigger on a quick trip up to the Bonnie Belle Hut in Silverton Colorado for three nights over New Years. Crazy to spend New Years up at 11,500′ with no one around for miles and miles…
Fast times, a bit of boardin’, clay pigeons, and shotgun rounds rang in the new year for myself, Andrew Burns, Hunter Wood and Randall Stacy.

Despite some less than ideal snow conditions we got some snowboarding in and stacked up some photos – below are some of the b-roll selects // Solid sunrise on the way into the San Juans // Some sled action // Lighting off some rounds // A bit of pre-snowboarding activity // And a New Years Eve Starscape over Mountains..

Hope everyone’s New Year was sweet — welcome to 2012!

- A

12/28/2011 — Out on some trips shooting photos for the next few weeks (months?).. I shot some motion while loading up today and figured I’d put together a short flick…
Still a rook with this video stuff… but I’m having fun with it when I get the chance…

A couple of frames shot on Fujichrome Provia 100 up at the Bone Zone earlier this month…

I love this little hideout in the Wasatch… Get back to boarding in the late fall/early winter, lunch over the fire, etc.. Perfect.

Chris Carr Portrait + Hiking // Austen Granger + Steaks

Happy Holidays.

-Blatt

I jumped on the 70 and took the drive to Salt Lake from Breckenridge yesterday… I snapped some photos as the pines of Colorado turned into sparse hardwood outside of Grand Junction and finally disappeared all together in the desert of Southern Utah  . There was a bit of snow while driving through Glenwood Canyon (possibly the best 12.5 miles of highway in the USA – check it out on the I-70), turning into clear skies while crossing the border into Utah…

eyes on the road, hands on the wheel

-A

Nike backed the first of the three Dew Tours for the 2011/12 winter season at Breckenridge, CO — I cruised out with my pal Hondo to meet up with filmer Justin Gunson and cover the event for Transworld Snowboarding. It was sweet to take a drive through the desert from SLC up into the Rockies, and awesome to hang with some friends that I don’t get to see that often in CO.

I enjoyed getting back into the groove of hustling to get the right credentials, hustling to get the shot, and the strict schedule that goes along with shooting these events.

Shaun White — I hadn’t seen him ride in person in a few years, if anyone was talking trash about this A-List celebrity, he shut’em up. The kid was absolutely blasting.

While Shaun and Kelly defended their reputations as pipe supertars topping the mens and womens podiums, there were also some fresh faces putting down some incredible runs. Maddy Schaffrick’s Method was among the best I’d ever seen in the pipe – style aside, maintaining double overhead airs fourth hit in the pipe will set her apart from her competition.

With Shaun, Kelly, I-pod, and more bringing back the method in this pipe competition, Maddy Schaffrick’s most definitely stood out from the crowd, pretty impressive style from this young Colorado Local.

Expect the unexpected at the first big event of the year… Jamie Anderson, who has dominated the woman’s line up in past seasons couldn’t put down her run, and was not present on the podium – she’ll be back… On the men’s side of things Norway’s youngster, Gjermund Braaten put down an unstoppable first run which the judges awarded a 96.  In practice he was clearly having a good time, and told us that he couldn’t wait to ride in the contest the next day – if he can keep this attitude and not let the pressure of competition get to him, he’ll be a force for years to come.

Torstein hoisting Gjermund after the win was clinched.

A few of my selects from the event are below — for more details, photos, and videos – check out the new Dew Tour posts at TWSnow.com.

Top to Bottom: Gjermund for the win // Charles Reid to the moon // Eric Willett laying one out at the end of a throw away run for his hometown crowd // Pipe Crowd // SHAUN!!!! // Iouri Podlachtovich hanging it out in afternoon sun…

That’s all -

A

(Note: 4 of 9 photos in this post were of Methods… the best air in all of snowboarding.)

Brighton opened it’s doors (or lifts?) to the masses on Thursday, so I cruised up the Canyon with some pals, boarded a bit and shot around… Here’s a few photos from opening day at Brighton…

Quick stop at the 711 at the mouth of the canyon is always in the program on the way up to Brighton... This shirt speaks the truth.

Though the lift line was pretty hefty when we got to the parking lot, it eased up quickly.

Boardin' ensued...

Borland also ensued...

Scott should just be sued... fast leg lift, slow sign.

Bogart shooting himself out of a solid spray conjured up by Tucker Andrews...

A good time was had by all -

For more, checkout this post I put together at TWS: click right HERE.

Later -

A

Added a couple of images to the ‘Snow’ portion of my portfolio. Portraits and action of both Chas Guldemond and Bode Merill, all shot up at Mt. Hood during the Summer of 2011.

Slides are below, or check out the Snow gallery on my portfolio at aaronblatt.com …

Always awesome to shoot with either of these two – hyped to have these images included in my work…

- A