India

Now that classes have started and my jet lag is officially gone I can start reflecting on the trip that I took this winter break to India. As part of the McDonnell Academy Global Energy and Environment Partnership (MAGEEP) we attended lectures, visited labs, and connected with students from December 28th to January 8th to better explore the global contexts of engineering problems/topics. Specifically we stayed in New Delhi just across the way from the India Institute of Technology (IIT) where we spent a majority of our time. It was exciting to see the research going on at this school as well as see how research from Washington University St. Louis was influencing their programs. I personally got excited with their air monitoring and clean air center of excellence. I always thought that water was the resource I wanted to work on but air and aerosols have definitely become a topic of interest.

The technical part of the trip was definitely fun but what I was really excited for was the cultural exploration part of the trip. For me if you miss the context for what you are studying then you miss the problem you are solving all together. If we were not explore this diverse culture then there would have been not point at all in understanding the technical. While we were there we visited Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. We also spent the whole weekend there exploring just about every site to see in Delhi. My hope is to share some more detailed stories and images as time goes on. But, as always school is a real bummer sometimes.

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For now here is a thought I had:

If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is; especially in this place. The noise, smell, motion, the cacophony of color and people force your mind into a dizzy spin. But, after some time you refocus and see the beauty in the complex energy created here. It’s completely overwhelming to those who are only visitors but, must be the fountain that fuels the frenzy of life.

Review on Saal Digital Professional Photo Book line

Last month was really busy with tests and school. As usual I was finding ways to use the creative side of my brain and as luck would have it I got an opportunity to make a book from a german company, Saal Digital! I have been working on a book depicting the time I spent in the Sawtooths last January for sometime and it finally got done.

This is my first photo book that I’ve made and I definitely learned a lot in the process. Being that I only had a month I am honestly impressed with what I made. But, there’s definitely plenty that I would change the next time around. All I can say is that I appreciate all the help from Saal Digital.

First and foremost this book looks absolutely beautiful and very profesional! This specific book is the 8 x 8 inch professional line photo book with matte photo paper option and the white linen wrap cover. I love the look and feel of this book and the layflat pages are quite nice. There is definitely no complaints on the look and craftsmanship of this book! I like the almost waxy feel of the canvas which makes me believe it might be gently cleaned if needed. Also, the paper is impressively heavey to the touch as well as resists fingerprints pretty well.

There are two things that I noticed however, and I’m not sure if it was my fault or that of the company. The first of which is in the darker areas of the two page spreads there is a slight blue line on the fold of the pages. Now it is very faint but I would say that it is noticeable in the right light. So I would try and make the fold areas on those spreads lighter if possible. The second, is with the rendering of stars in the images. In print there is very little to no definition of the stars which is frustrating when compared to the images on screen. This could totally be from the definition of the printer and possibly from the smaller size of the image, but I still feel like it should have done a better job.

I really loved working on this book and writing the excerpts that are all throughout. One of the things that I would change in the a future copy is using smaller sized font. For the most part it looks fine however I think it looks a bit corny with how large it is and with the paper’s matte finish. Finally, I definitely need to work on soft proofing and better understanding how to get the images printed to look the way they do on my screen. Soft proofing is a technique that involves color profiles and link/paper simulation in the attempt to make your pictures look better in print. I decided that the next time I make a book I am definitely going to get a proof made so that I can catch some of these issues before I get the final copy.

All in all I am very happy with the results and the help from Saal Digital to make it possible. I’ve also gotten some requests for a book and since this one set me back a pretty penny I’m going to start designing a soft cover version that will hopefully be more affordable.

Powder Skiing Continued

I was thinking about skiing the other day and all I could think about was getting those fresh turns in Stanley this past January. It’s so very hard to find any feeling quite like it and all I want is to do is get back to this place and make some fresh turns.

The crackle of white dendrites hitting your hard-shelled jacket and the cold penetrating your core means the snow is falling and you’ve been blessed with another extraordinary powder day. As you skin up the mountain through the Douglas Fir and Lodgepole Pine being buried in crystals, your inner child oozes through the oppressive goo of the realities of life. Worrying about grad school, homework, relationships, or even the day to day noise created by living dissipates as your lungs start burning, climbing, climbing up through the mountain air and into the blank monochrome forest. It’s only there where you can be so precisely played by gravity and snow. It’s only there one can truly understand the addiction to winter.

Being in the moment amongst the storm in the wildness of winter is more than challenging the innate human instinct to reject logic. It’s even more than being able to ski fast through the trees and thick banks of snow or being blinded by the pulsing waves of white as you turn. It is all of these things, but skiing powder is so much more because it is one of those times where one can focus so precisely that everything makes sense. A beautiful paradox of nothing that’s something, an out of body experience that can only be recreated in similar conditions. Deep light snow is not only rear but exceedingly fleeting a brilliant diamond that melts away almost as soon as one can start to appreciate it.

People run their lives around this stuff. Living in the back of cars, eating only noodle cups cased in Styrofoam and plastic it’s a dream for some and unbelievably stupid to others. The closest feeling of flight while still grounded to earth is worth uprooting your life. Dodging reality for just moments in the deep powder snow can turn the smartest of people crazy trying to fuel this endless addiction. Being in the backcountry being a slave to the element’s, crazy starts to make sense a virus just waiting to infect the next person on skis ready to climb 2000 feet vertical for just minutes of downhill freedom.

The crowded mass of people waiting to catch the cable line to the top of a manufactured mountain serves no purpose more than a guilty convince. Merely a pitiful pleasure grounded on a foundation of consumerism, perpetuated by the shameful ease at which powder snow can be skied. This is what the winter wilderness has done to me. It has opened my eyes to another experience that I did not see before, out of focus till I tipped my skies down a hill that I hiked up.

I was raised skiing in bounds dropping more vertical than anyone could hike in a day, but now when I sit in a chair in the mountain air, I feel something missing. Maybe it’s the risk that comes with the wildness of winter, a shared bond between friends catalyzed by tele turns, or even a longing to push yourself to a physical and metal limit. I will be forever changed by the winter wilderness and long for its claws to drag me in again.

Powder Skiing

As most people how are close to me know I am not the biggest fan of writing creatively on my own. Words for me have always be harder to create then an image, but after the winter wilderness course I saw the importance of this skill. Sometimes words can achieve higher levels of thought then even a perfectly composed images. So here’s my go at explaining skiing in powder accompanied by a picture of my good friend Beth Mixon getting pitted on a 24in bluebird powder day at the Glades near Stanley ID.

The crackle of white dendrites hitting your hard-shelled jacket and the cold penetrating your core means the snow is falling and you’ve been blessed with another extraordinary powder day. As you skin up the mountain through the Douglas Fir and Lodgepole Pine being buried in crystals, your inner child oozes through the oppressive goo of the realities of life. Worrying about grad school, homework, relationships, or even the day to day noise created by living dissipates as your lungs start burning, climbing, climbing up through the mountain air and into the blank monochrome forest. It’s only there where you can be so preciously played by gravity and snow. It’s only there one can truly understand the addiction to winter.

Being in the moment amongst the storm in the wildness of winter is more than challenging the innate human instinct to reject logic. It’s even more than being able to ski fast through the trees and thick banks of snow or being blinded by the pulsing waves of white as you turn. It is all of these things, but skiing powder is so much more because it is one of those times where one can focus so precisely that everything makes sense. A beautiful paradox of nothing that’s something, an out of body experience that can only be recreated in similar conditions. Deep light snow is not only rear but exceedingly fleeting a brilliant diamond that melts away almost as soon as one can start to appreciate it.