Graham Gephart Photography & Writing Blog

After investing in glass the last few years, I finally upgraded camera bodies recently, and it’s been amazing. I had a ton of great photos and adventures with my 30D over the last 6 years, but it was time to move on to something with a bit more power. After shooting on a crop sensor, I decided to forgo a little of the burst rate in favor of going full frame with a Canon 6D. Wow. I know things had changed a lot in the last few years, but the difference between bodies was staggering. Staggeringly awesome. I know I’ll lose a little off the top end for zoom and action stuff, but the full frame with my wide angle lenses is amazing, and the clarity, color, and low-noise/high ISO abilities are fantastic. Not to mention wifi for using my iPhone to control or download and post photos immediately…

A couple images from the first evening out with the camera  with some friends on Lake Union.

Lulu waits for the boat to pick us for an evening

Floating BBQ along Lake Union with friends & kids!

The Slot Couloir on Snoqualmie Pass is far from a secret, but it still holds a fair amount of wonder for me. One of the most aesthetic lines in the area, the Slot cleanly cleaves through a massive cliff wall off the back of Snoqualmie Peak. Skiing both north and south aspects, it’s what Charlie termed the Ying/Yang Tour for snow. Today was definitely the entire mixed bag. Starting up Snoqualmie, Matt, Charlie and I were shortly neck-deep in sporty climbing. Yesterday’s sun in the mountains glazed the southern slopes with a slick, breakable crust, making for challenging climbing. Expectations of good snow on the north side kept us moving upward, and we weren’t disappointed in the line.

Matt heading up the Phantom in the early dawn of a beautiful day.

Snack break looking out with Alpental Backcountry in the background.

Looking down into the Slot… just need to mind the giant cliff exposure out of sight to the left on your entrance.

In the gut of the line, ready for leftover powder.

Charlie riding the steep, smooth snow of the Slot.

Matt under the sheer walls of the Slot, headed toward the Middle Fork basin.

Matt heads toward the exit, last climb up held sheltered snow, kind of tease for the descent back down to the car.

There was no avoiding the return to the southern snow on the way out, and we all knew what was coming. Still psyched from the Slot run, the descent down the Phantom became an exercise in comedy, using hyper-exaggerated turns down breakable sun crust on anything in the open. Searching out tight, shaded trees, we found a few good turns, but were mostly happy to make it back out unscathed. All in all, a pretty solid adventure.

Our local ski area, Alpental, wound up right in the crosshairs of a big snowstorm last weekend. With local convergence centered right over Snoqualmie Pass, it started snowing hard on Friday night, and didn’t let off until well into Sunday. By the time the storm ended, our hill had received almost 40 inches in 36 hours.

The Sunday timing was perfect for a ski photography clinic that I’d signed up for as part of Outdoor Research‘s VertFest. While Lulu spent the morning working on steep skiing techniques, I went out with professional photographer Grant Gunderson and Outdoor Research ski athletes Zack Giffin and Molly Baker to get tips and techniques from the pros. Hearing Grant’s input on metering and composition was awesome, and the perfect conditions let Zack and Molly go after just about every feature in sight, putting on a show for us.

Here are a few of the highlights from the day:

Zack Giffin boosts a small pillow in the old growth trees outside Alpental.

Zack sends the pillow for a tree-tap backflip on his second attempt of the morning.

Molly Baker busting through the deep trees.

Zack finds a nice spine on the lower mountain.

Smooth, floaty 360 over classic Alpental terrain.

Molly reaping the rewards of the weekend.

Zack launches through the snowy pines.

More snow on tap for this weekend. Now time to get a little more practice in and maybe tune up the gear before we take our ski trips to Jackson and Europe this spring. In the meantime, enjoy…

Well, it’s been long overdue, but a new site is on its way up. Really long overdue, in fact. The last photos posted were almost 5 years old, pre-Seattle, pre-current camera/lenses, pre-a-lot-of-things.

Photo by Paige Elizabeth, a creative wedding RSVP depicting Lulu and me from our friend Julia.

A few dreary weekends in early summer in Seattle was finally all it took to get things rolling. It’ll still be a little while before I get the site fully buffed out, but I aim to start uploading much more frequent content, that’s for sure. Keep checking back, this is where I’ll be posting our adventures.

Thanks,
Graham