2. On the road... On the job

On the road... On the job

I have always worked extremely hard at my career as a shooter; yet my job has always remained fun, exciting, entertaining, rewarding, enlightening, liberating, strengthening, and sometimes frightening and even tragic… Pretty much everything but boring.

Here is a collection of images that a few friends, colleagues, and even some total strangers have taken of me that represents a small slice of what my job, and my life have been like.
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Four of the most miserable, and amazing weeks I have ever experienced were living on a Russian Airforce base in Anapa [near the Black Sea] for the World Team ’96 Skydiving Freefall Formation World Record attempts. Here, Henry Boger and I capture some of the 300+ canopies descending on us from the sky.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Jan Davis
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Four of the most miserable, and amazing weeks I have ever experienced were living on a Russian Airforce base in Anapa [near the Black Sea] for the World Team ’96 Skydiving Freefall Formation World Record attempts. Here, Henry Boger and I capture some of the 300+ canopies descending on us from the sky.

Photo credit: Jan Davis

canopies

  • In all the years I’ve chased Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart and his Toyota truck across the deserts of Mexico and the South West, he always told me that the next time I was hovering over him in my helicopter that he would put on a show for me… that is if he wasn’t in the lead with the race on the line. The problem was that every time I would find Ivan out on the race course, he was in the lead. Still, he was gracious enough to hold pose with me at a buck.20 for this shot. My pilot mounted a 35mm camera with a fish-eye lens looking backwards out the open door and over my shoulder.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Craig Dyer
  • We’ve all played P.I.G. with a basketball, but how about with a snowboard, or a motorcycle, or a BMX bike? Here I am at Woodward West in the hills near Tehachapi, California shooting BMX P.I.G. in Hi-Def for Rush HD.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Wink, Inc.
  • There are few experiences [on this planet] that are comparable to living and working on the endless salt flats of Bonneville, Western Utah during the World Land Speed Record Trials of “Speed Week.”<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Michael Callen
  • While on the job, my camera gear and I have had to rely on numerous ways of getting around the event, and the world. Some of those modes of transportation include by airplane, commercial airliner, airforce jet, helicopter, bus, taxi, rental car, hovercraft, powerboat, sailboat, kayak, canoe, raft, Jetski, snowmobile, snowplow, motorcycle, ATV, bicycle, snowboard, skateboard, ski, horse, mule, rickshaw, and here a bullet train from Lyon to Paris.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: David Stanfield
  • Four of the most miserable, and amazing weeks I have ever experienced were living on a Russian Airforce base in Anapa [near the Black Sea] for the World Team ’96 Skydiving Freefall Formation World Record attempts. Here, Henry Boger and I capture some of the 300+ canopies descending on us from the sky.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Jan Davis
  • While in Anapa, Russia, I had the honor of serving up some of our Western culture for our Eastern hosts by preparing a meal of hot & spicy burritos for our KGB comrades at Anapa Airforce base. I can’t say they all enjoyed it, but they pretended as if they did.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Jan Davis
  • Austrian Sebastian Vitzthum is an alpine racer familiar with having my lens in his face. The South American leg of the World Pro Ski Tour in Beriloche, Argentina was no different. The price of winning races.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: David Stanfield
  • Just another day at the airport… high in the Argentine Andes.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: David Stanfield
  • Some would say that working at the beach is a cush job. There’s nothing cush about shooting professional surfing, especially after the surfing ends and the real competition begins.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Los Angeles Times
  • Standing under the tail of a Thai Airforce C-130 as it taxis on to the runway at the Airforce base in Ubon, Thailand during World Team ‘99. I just love having the access that a press pass gives me.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: David Stanfield
  • GT [Greg Tomlinson] and I interviewing AI [Andy Irons] following his victory in the 2005 U.S. Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach, California.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Event Program
  • Searching the skies for four Russian Mi-26 helicopters carrying 300+ skydivers 5 miles up during World Team ’96 in Anapa, Russia.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Wendy Smith
  • Morning checklist: Camera... Headset... Oh!, and Harness.<br /> <br /> Departing the race helipad in Ensenada, Mexico en route to chasing down Trophy Trucks in the Baja 500.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Ivor Shier
  • Urban Runoff: On the awards podium for NBC with the men's and women's winners of the 2004 Los Angles Marathon.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Unknown
  • With the roof rack loaded high with skis and camera gear, and David Stanfield riding shotgun [he always gets to ride shotgun], all we need is our driver to take us up the switchback mountain trail to La Parva, Chile.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Unknown
  • David Bounds keeps my microwave pointed at the catcher [receiving antenna] while I shoot Ralph Shaheen interviewing the winners of the World Superbike race at Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey, California.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Heidi Bounds
  • The Russian Mi-26 helicopter. The biggest in the world. It can carry 100+ skydivers in the hold and a dozen more crew and passengers in the cockpit. And the Russian Airforce loaned us four of these to use for our jump ships and camera platforms during World Team ‘96. Thanks comrades.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Dave “Clem” Major
  • Southern Hospitality… South Korea that is.<br /> <br /> Our liaisons during the World Pro Ski Tour’s stop in Damyung, South Korea.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: David Stanfield
  • A testament to how daring [A.K.A. stupid] I can be in order to get the shot. Here, David Bounds and I fly down the mountain on Coal Grade Road in San Diego County aboard our modified Honda CB1100F while shooting Land Luge and GPV races for the television show “Guinness Book of World Records.” We clocked our own record during one of our runs at 142 MPH.<br /> <br /> Photo credit: Heidi Bounds
  • Having dinner in Russia with some of the best freefall photographers in the world. L-R: Kiwi-Wendy Smith (the most dangerous woman in the world), the late Jan Davis (still my guardian angel), Henry Boger (rare photo of him wearing clothing), myself (with a clean-shaven face), Drop-Dead Ted (our chute packer), and Dave “Clem” Major.<br /> <br /> Photo Credit: David Stanfield
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