Red River Gorge: April 2013

Like every other climber within a 30 hour drive of the Red River Gorge, KY, I too made the trek to Kentucky for amazing climbing on the beautiful sandstone. I was in the good company of Matty Zane and Keith Nadeau, along with a family whom I had coached for two years. The climbing at the Red is fantastic and I had two days of great climbing before I ruptured the tendon on my middle finger, but luckily warm weather, good friends and witness amazing climbing, kept my sprits high throughout the trip. Being sidelined allowed me more time to photograph. Here are a few photographs from the trip:

Keith Nadeau on Hellraiser, 5.12c

Matty Zane on Bohica, 5.13b

Justin on Iniquity, 5.12b

Matty Zane on Stunning the Hog, 5.12d

For more photographs visit my website: travisrubury.com

Colorado: February/March 2013

This was the first year that the Burton US Open was held at Vail Ski Resort in Colorado. Growing up, March symbolized the coming of spring and annual trek to Stratton, VT for the US Open. Those March days at the Open were some of my first experiences photographing snowboarding. Making the steep trek up to the halfpipe to photograph my friends and world class riders created many memorable experiences. 

This year I packed up my gear and headed to Colorado for the US Open and to also spend a week snowboarding and photographing with my good friend, Tyler Troy. The US Open took place, but that same sense of excitement that usually surrounds the Open was oddly absent. Gone were the hometown crowds and the raw energy, but the Open lives on and I still found joy photographing on the deck of the US Open halfpipe. Photographing with Tyler is always great. His talent on a snowboard naturally translates itself to beautiful photographs. As a photographer, having a rider that can take an idea for a photograph and execute it on the snow makes getting shoots that much more easier and enjoyable.

The photographs below were taken both at the US Open and at Breckenridge. More images can be found on my website; travisrubury.com

Tyler Troy, fs 360, Breckenridge, CO

US Open, Vail, CO

US Open, Vail, CO

US Open, Vail, CO

Tyler Troy, fs slash, Breckenridge, CO

Tyler Troy, bs 180, Breckenridge, CO

Tyler Troy, handplant, Breckenridge, CO

Shaun White, US Open, Vail, CO

Israel

Here are a few photographs from my 10 day trip to Israel. The contrast in landscapes is remarkable; going from desert to snow covered mountains. I hope to get a chance to return to explore of the natural environments.

The Dead Sea before a storm

              

The view into Gaza

Cheese merchant

Old City of Jerusalem 

Pre-Jibulation Snowboard Competition

My snowboard season has official begun. Rome Snowboards' Pre-Jibulation at Waterville Valley took place this past Saturday. The sun was out and the warmish temperatures kept the unset of frostbit at bay. Waterville Valley did a great job creating a fun set-up despite the lack of natural snow. The competition went off really well with all the competitors excited to throw themselves at the various features.

Above: This snowboarder was gaping from the takeoff of the feature to the right to the down-flat-down

I am excited to be back photographing snowboarding and looking forward to the upcoming season. After some traveling in Israel and then working the presidential inauguration for NBC, I will be spending the next few months chasing the snow and photographing different riders and competitions around North America.

Still lifes

As a budding freelance photographer, I decided it was time to set up a studio and shoot some still lifes. After a trip to Target I was able to drape a white sheet over two chairs and light my stage with two cheap desk lights. I dragged up all my outdoor into my "studio" and started shooting. 

Southern Sandstone and BBQ

The last two weeks have been filled with bloody fingertips, sore muscles, bouldering on amazing sandstone, and southern cooking. The day after superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast, me and a friend packed a Prius to the brim and started out on a two week bouldering trip to Alabama and Tennessee. Upon arriving at Horse Pens 40 in Alabama, we quickly fell into the southern climbing lifestyle. Our morning would start slow as the fog lifted and the sun began to warm the rock.

The rock at Horse Pens 40 was amazing; combined with the fall foliage, hiking through the boulder fields felt like something out of a fairytale. The fantastic rock made for some incredible climbing, and the only thing that slowed us down was how the rock had a tendency to take off all the skin from your fingertips.

One of the main reasons we chose Horse Pens 40 was that the Triple Crown of Bouldering was going to be happening there. The Triple Crown is a great climbing competition that consists of three events at different southern bouldering destinations. The final leg was at Horse Pens 40. 300+ climbers descended and the event that followed was inspiring. The competition was there, but everyone was there to climb and have a good time. Climbing lasted a full day and the evening was filled with BBQ, pad stacking competitions and general merriment. If you have the chance, go to a Triple Crown event.

Once the Triple Crown finished, we spent another six days at Horse Pens 40. The first day we arrived, we began to hangout with a local, Terry, who had been camping and volunteering for the past six weeks. He first came to Horse Pens 40 forty years ago for a sling shot competition and since then has always found a way to spend time at the park. In a true southern fashion, he invited us to hangout at his fire every night. As our time at Horse Pens 40 progressed, we would find ourselves spending more and more time with Terry. Our last five days at the park, we cooked massive dinners with Terry and would spend hours by the fire listening to stories of his days in the Navy or touring around country going to bike rallies and music festivals. For our last night, I decided to cook BBQ ribs. I knew that it's a risky endeavor to cook ribs for a true southerner but why not. A simple meal of ribs and potatoes quickly evolved into a fest that included collard greens, mac and cheese, baked beans, grilled potatoes and BBQ ribs. Two of the boys that ran the park joined us, bringing the greens and mac and cheese. The meal was great, and the highlight of my trip was when one of the boys said that if he was ever on death row, my ribs would be his last meal.

The next day we drove to Tennessee to spend two days bouldering at Stone Fort. More amazing rock. Go to the South. Eat BBQ and boulder on amazing sandstone. More photographs are posted on my website: travisrubury.com

Rosa Mexicano

I attended the launch of Rosa Mexicano's fall harvest dinner menu and was able to get a number of photographs of the dinner. My photographs were used by Miami Culinary Tours for their write up of the event. Check out the link, http://networkedblogs.com/E4kyl.