Adventure

Photos from a recent trip in January of 2010 to Yosemite. This was the first trip that I attempted and successfully hiked up Yosemite Falls. It was not as hard as I expected but it was fairly brutal. Never ending switch backs for roughly 95% of the 2,600 foot elevation gain. I highly recommend taking a break at the semi-hidden mid falls detour.

If you go during the winter and take the detour you can watch the falls go from water to snow. Check out the photos to see the mountain of snow that forms.

View from the top of Yosemite Falls.

Random Leaf

Smooth rolling spring

I recently had the chance to head to Yosemite in the summer with my brother and Chris. I still think I enjoy winter the most. However, I might be a bit jaded due to the fires closing our normal hotel and ruining our Half Dome hike.

Full Photo Album

I have come to the realization I am great at nothing. While at the same time I am good at everything. Think jack of all trades if you will. I bring this up because I have been having trouble thinking about where I should go with my life, job, and hobbies. Which has lead me to a sort of depressing brick wall in which I have no clue what to do with my life.

However, I am starting to see the benefit of being the so called “jack of all trades”. For example, after my last week of learning how to use ableton live, I am fully able to record an HD video, create my own soundtrack and any graphic arts I might need. I am a one stop shop for making completed videos. I might not film the best video or create the greatest music but I can produce a solid 7 or 8 out of 10 quality production. Which opens a door for a side career. I have also come up with at least 8 different possible side careers where I am able to do 100% of the work. Which to me is an amazing accomplishment wether I do them or not.

So with all of these new found ideas and a short conversation with my friend Jeremy Lane, I have discovered what my real skill is. The ability to quickly learn and adapt to anything while not being hindered by past schools of thought and reasoning.

On the opposite side of things, this does present a problem. Staying at one job for a long period of time and furthering a single career is boring and difficult. How does a jack of all trades create the perfect working environment and thrive in the world, self employed?

On a side note, I will be in Washington this week, expect photography.

“Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy”

The time has finally come. It has been a long and fun journey with my old Red Jeep Cherokee. But, sady it is time to put her to rest and open the doors for my new 2005 black Jeep Grand Cherokee. That’s right, I finally broke down and bought something newer. So far the new rig is everything I expected it to be. My only downfall is I am contently thinking about how to mod it, louder, faster, sexier….

Also the old jeep is destined to land at Jeremy’s property for some future off roading excursions in Washington.

For the full screen version go Here

We woke up at the butt crack of dawn, roughly 4-5am Saturday morning. Only to find the sky completely covered in clouds. Yet, we decided to head to the mountain anyway. I mean why not, the weather report said partly cloudy and good hiking conditions. We filmed a little video and take off around 5:45am.

We took a pit stop on the way up for survival food and gas. Nothing particularly interesting about the food stop. However, the gas, wahoo was that intense. I have recently come to find out there is such a thing a “speed pumps” for semis. These things spit out gas a billion miles and hour and let me tell you, gas in the face is unpleasant in every way. Moving on…

We arrive at the mountain at around 8:30am. Walk into the ranger station to release the tension of last nights Mongolian grill extravaganza. On our way back to the car we ask the rangers how the hike is. He tells us, most of the hike is white out but around 8k elevation is clear. I say sweet, great for photography, let’s do it. So we head out at 9am.

One question was continually posed by the crew the whole hike up. “Do we really think the sun is up there?” The entire hike up we encountered many people who assured us the sun was coming only 1000 feet up to go. So we pushed on, and on and on. I would say we reached around 8500 – 9000 feet when we came across the only honest guy on the mountain. He told us, “nope, there is a small bit of sun at the top but it should be gone by now.” At that point we decided we were done. At 3pm Rob released more furry on the top of the mountain. Good thing we brought the toilet paper.

Next, was probably the most exciting part of our trip. Sliding down the mountain! Not only was it exciting, it was completely scary. Visibility was around 20 feet and there were crevasses all over the place. First Sean goes, then Jon, Drew, me, then Rob. Top speed around 20 miles an hour. The only breaks we had were our feet and they didn’t work. My method of stopping was bailing out and come to a rolling stop. We were able to do this for around 2 miles and then had to hike out the rest.

The final mile was the worst. The sky was clear, and the sun was out….

Here are the photos from the hike. These were taken by all of us with random cameras. The video will come in a week or so once I figure out how to edit videos.

Click here for the Full Screen Slide Show

Only one goal this time. Hike mt Rainier. So far the climb team consists of Rob, Jon, Drew, Sean and myself. We will be departing on Saturday Aug 30th at roughly 6am. Team members are being urged to camp out at my parents house the night before.

This trip will be documented using a canon 30d with sigma 15mm fisheye and canon vixia hv30. That’s right, this will be the first trip fully documented in both photos and HD video. We will be documenting the trip starting the night before we leave for the expedition.

Be sure to check back for the video and photos.

Recently I had the opportunity to rent two lenes from Lensrentals.com. A 35mm canon L, and 15mm sigma.

The short version, the 35mm shoots super sharp photos, but not very useful. The 15mm sigma. Awesome! Totally blew my expectations out of the water. I will be buying in the near future.

Below are some sample photos I took today with the 15mm.

Now for the story.

Christian said with fire in his eyes. Let’s skate board down to the bathroom! It’s a small hill, we can do it. I nervously responded with, uhhhh sure I guess. We haven’t learned downhill yet but why not…

Shortly after, boards in hand, we scout our path down the small hill. I say with a manipulative tone, Hey Chris you first. Eagerly, Chris smiles and heads down the hill. Not 5 seconds later his arbor board starts to wobble out of control. I ditch my board in fear of the inevitable crash and burn. Whoosh it nails a tree at near lightning speed. Then I look back up and Chris jumps off of his board. No words can properly describe what happened next.

He hits the ground running and just can’t seem to get a grip on the ground. He flies forward head first into the pavement. Flips heels over head, barrel rolls shoulder over shoulder and finally landing in an awakened butt in face ankles in the air position then stops. Silence rolls over the tourist as they watch in awe. He get’s up and says, “I’m good”. Jumps back on the board in an attempt to finish the hill. Not 5 seconds later his arbor boards starts to wobble. He ditches and lands perfectly on his feet. Pops a squat on the board and says I need a minute.

He survives with only scrapes, bruises and a new appreciation for hills and pavement.

You can the full screen Slideshow here

Just for today. I am attempting to throw up another feature of my site. A photolog. Not sure how it will turn out, but expect two rss feeds.

Most likely:

photo.jordanlarrigan.com
blog.jordanlarrigan.com

but also possible

jordanlarrigan.com/photo
jordanlarrigan.com/blog

We will soon see