Opening Day at Baker

Mt. Baker shines with a coat of fresh snow and bluebird skies on opening day


Wow! That's all I can say right now. I'm still getting over opening day at Mt. Baker. After last season's late opening I hadn't even got my brain wrapped around any chance of riding this early in the season. Then, all of a sudden the temps dropped and precipitation started falling like crazy and before I knew it Baker had recieved 70 inches of new snow and was opening on Thursday. I managed to clear my schedule and get a crew together for the big day. When I woke up and there wasn't even a cloud in the sky I knew it would be an epic day.

Of course, I wasn't alone in imagining that Baker was going to be epic and arriving at the border at 7:30am we were greeted to a massive lineup of vehicles adorned with ski's and snowboard's. The wait was worth it though, as we pulled into the upper parking lot at the ski area and were greeted to snow levels that you usually don't see till mid season. It turned out to be the deepest opening day in Mt. Baker history(that's saying a lot for the ski area that holds the world record for most snowfall in a season) and we rode hard all day, right till last chair. By then, our legs had nothing left so it was a welcome relief to get back to the truck.

Now I'm sitting here looking at these photos and all I can think about is getting back up there. Unfortunately, it is still early season and the weather can be unpredictable so we are now being treated to high winds and warm temps that have shut the mountain back down. That's the luck of the draw this time of year but it can't take away the greatest opening day ever. Bring on more pow!

Here's a few shots

Mt. Baker rises above the morning sunrise. It's going to be a great day!

The parking lots were packed with powder fiends like us.

 

The crew was ready to shred

 

Basking in the morning rays.

 

Endless snow everywhere you looked. This doesn't seem like mid-November.

It was a winter wonderland.

 

A freshly dusted Mt. Shuksan glistens in the sunshine.

 

With conditions like this people came from near and far to lap the bottomless pow.

 

Fishing

Bridge over the Dewdney Slough, Mission B.C.


Last week I had a chance to go fishing with my good buddy, Pat O'Connor. Now, I haven't fished in probably 15 years so I couldn't pass the chance up on such a nice day. Plus the light was perfect as it was just before dusk so I knew I could probably get a couple decent photos as well.

We headed out to the Dewdney Slough, just east of Mission and along with Pat's two year old son Nick we had a great time, hanging out, telling stories and just relaxing for once. With both of us traveling the country doing the motocross gig all summer, the fall is a nice time to kick back and enjoy the great place we live. I even managed to snag a couple fish but I lost both of them. I guess I'm a little rusty.

Here's a couple shots.

James


Pat goes for a cast


While little Nicky scares off the fish by throwing rocks


Peaceful time on the water

My Best Work

Kyle Beaton freeriding in Beaumont, California


I've been revamping my website a bit lately and I finally got a chance to update my portfolio. For the last two weeks I've been scouring my archives looking for what I feel is my absolute best work. I'm excited about this, I wanted to show not just my best motocross images but some of the other stuff I shoot as well. Of course moto is always going to be at the top of my chart but as I expand into more of the wedding and stylized location portaiture work I am looking forward to adding more of those style images to my site.

It's good from time to time to look through your stuff, looking for your best work. Sometimes, when you're drowning under a mountain of images you start to wonder if your stuff is any good but if you step back and look at your best stuff only and not just the latest shoot you did you get a better look at what makes up you and your style. It really reminds you how truly low percentage photography really is.

Check out my new portfolio at www.lissimorephoto.com. The slideshow will start as soon as you get to the page. Thanks for checking it out!

James



Brock Hoyer blows out a berm while shooting the 2008 Leading Edge Kawasaki press photos.


Chris Griffiths and Cody Bradley of Destroyer Films. Portrait in front of Nairn Falls, Pemberton B.C.

Down on the Farm

Sunrise with Mt. Baker on the horizon, Abbotsford BC



About 6 months ago I moved into my Grandpa's old farm house on his farm in Abbotsford, BC. At the time I couldn't have imagined how much time I would suck up as I dedicated myself to the home improvement cause but now I'm finally getting things closer to finished and I've had a bit of spare time to actually use my camera again. The place is great for photography, I have an amazing view of Mt. Baker from my front window and everywhere you turn there is farm stuff just begging to have a camera pointed at it. I will definitely be blogging more from the comfort of my own place as I explore and find different stuff.

Last week, I found myself home with a glorious sunrise cresting the horizon so I went out and played around a bit with a new lens I've been using. It's called a 'Lensbaby' http://www.lensbaby.com/ and it has a movable front element that allows you to manipulate the focus point. I like the look it gives, you can draw attention to a single point of the frame and the possibilites are endless. I'm excited to keep trying stuff with it but for now I thought I'd share a few frames that I liked.

More to come.....

Game Changing Bike

Dusty Klatt introduces the all-new YZ450F


I just got back from a whirl wind trip to Montreal this past weekend. Flew in Thursday and flew out Sunday morning which is too bad because I like hanging out in Montreal. I was in town to shoot the all new Yamaha YZ450 and then the supercross the next night.

Usually a new bike intro isn't that big of a deal as the bikes don't change much from year to year but Yamaha dropped a bombshell this year with their new 450. Instead of minor refinments, they threw the entire concept of a motocross bike out the window and started from scratch. The new bike has a backwards facing and slanting engine with the gas tank under the seat and the air box where the gas tank used to be. Yamaha decided to roll the new bike out inside Montreal's Olympic stadium and let the press ride it around the supercross track. I was hired to shoot everything and produce ad images with the Blackfoot team riders as well.

From the looks of it, Yamaha has a huge hit on their hands. No one seemed to have anything bad to say about the new bike which is rare for an all new model. Usually an all new model has some flaws that take a year to work out but Yamaha seems to have got their kinks worked out with this model.

Here's a couple shots of the game changing machine. No doubt we'll be seeing these up front this year at races everwhere.



The all-new Yamaha YZ450



Troy Adams came and took the bike out for a spin on behalf of our website
www.directmotocross.com Look for a review soon.

Abbotsford Heat

My hometown of Abbotsford was recently awarded an NHL farm team and on friday, the Calgary Flames new farm team, the Abbotsford Heat, played their first ever game, an exhibition game against the Vancouver Canucks farm team, the Manitoba Moose. Since the brand new Abbotsford Sports and Entertainment Center is only 10 minutes from my house, myself and Pat O'Connor decided to check out the inagural game and with 3rd row seats only 25 bucks it was a great way to get close to the action. The new arena is state of the art and the action on ice is exciting so I'm sure I'll be taking in a few games during the season. In the end, the new team hammered the visiting Moose, 5-2. Here's a few shots from the game.

James

Green Gables and Tanks

The 13 km long Confederation bridge spans from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island

It's certainly been an action packed week here in the Maritimes. After catching up on photo stuff on Monday, we made the drive out to Prince Edward Island yesterday. I made a short trip out to PEI a few years ago with Milo Christie and FXR's Aaron Wiebe but we pretty much just drove across the bridge, got a hotel and drove right back the next morning so I was excited to actually get a chance to explore the Island that had always fascinated me.
The bridge itself is half the excitement of going to PEI, it's 13 km long and quite the feat of engineering. Apparently it's the longest bridge in the world that crosses ice covered water but on a hot and muggy day like yesterday it was hard to imagine that the water actually freezes over in the winter. A word of caution though is that they don't charge you to drive the bridge over to PEI but they ding you 42 bucks to get off. Those sneaky Prince Edward Islanders!
Another thing I like about PEI is that they still sell pop in glass bottles, though this time I had more trouble finding them. Last time we came over you litterally couldn't find pop in a plastic bottle. It's too bad but I guess it's a sign of the modern times that the glass is slowly fading away.
We ended up driving right across to the eastern side of the island and the town of Cavendish, which is home to the Island's biggest cultural export, Anne of Green Gables. Nick, being an American, had no idea what we were talking about when we mentioned this and couldn't figure out why an entire town was dedicated to tourism about a fictional character.
For a westcoaster like myself, it was pretty cool to get to go and stand on the beach of the Atlantic ocean, it's been a true coast to coast adventure this summer and the first time in my four years of coming here to the east where I actually felt like I was getting a bit of a vacation in.
After putting in a little practice for the Walton Golf Tournament at the local mini golf we made our way back to New Brunswick and paid our 40 dollar toll. But of course not before getting some more glass Cokes.

Today I had a chance to meet up with my cousin who recently got stationed out here for the Military. He's my closest family member so it was really great to see him and he took me on a tour of the facilities at his base in Gagetown, New Brunswick. I've never been on an active Army base before so it was quite the experience to see how everything works. As an infantry soldier, he's on the front lines and he was quite insightful into how all their training works and how all the different groups work together. Quite the experience, that's for sure.

Now, I'm just packing my bags and getting ready for the big drive tomorrow. We're heading out bright and early to drive to Ottawa and it's time to get back to racing. See you in Sand Del Lee!

James





Group Hug in front of the longest bridge around

A west coast kid meets the east coast

We found this mock up of a Space Shuttle rotting in this field in PEI

Avonlea, home of Anne of Green Gables

Brock had fun with these jelly fish that washed up on shore.

Then he went for a jump off the pier.

Lighthouse and the Atlantic Ocean. A cool sight for a boy raised on the Pacific.

Nick makes sure this ladybug stays hydrated.

Note to self: This photo needs more Monster logos.

The whole reason we came to the east coast. Brock gets ready to tear apart a Lobster.

Strang's MX in Port Elgin. We stopped here on the way back and it looks super fun. We'll have to bring bikes next time.

Off to the Gagetown Military Base

My cousin Dave is probably shipping off to Afghanistan next spring. Hopefully not in one of these.

Here's Canada's largest tank. Don't think I'd want to be staring down the barrel of one of these guys.

An Artillery Group goes through a drill.