Shooting dirty...

( soda straws )

 ( cave worm )

( miniature horse bone ~10,000years old )



Just another day at the office...or a day at yet another office?

Caves are not a friendly place to shoot. They are humid, they are dusty, they are dirty, and they are dark,,, really dark. Though with enough lights, a relatively sealed camera, assorted accessories and enough hardened/padded dust-proof cases to drag it all in with, they are quite photogenic, a lot of fun, and well worth the exhaustion.

Swirling Mist cave is located on private property and is gated to protect its fragile formations and unique elements such as the ancient bones and cave worm. Because of its its status as a private cave it is still accessible through the proper channels unlike those on public land in Colorado which are closed to mitigate the spread of White Nose Syndrome, an illness responsible for the death of millions of bats. (even in caves which have never been bat habitat...)

With a total of 65lbs of gear brought in for the shoot, I am quite thankful for the help from both Steven and Ron in carrying some of the gear to and from the cave, and most especially for their help in shuffling the gear up and down the chimney section. Not only was their help transporting gear appreciated, but I could not have done without their assistance maneuvering and adjusting my speedlights and light modifiers for the photos of the soda straw forest, mushroom canyon, and the bone yard.

Dan O'Sullivan Photography... and graphic design!

Above is the first advertisement for my photography business which will appear in the next issue of Peak Region Cyclist. It is bike-centric (as expected for a bike mag) but I feel it conveys quite well my own style and is applicable to anything I have shot or have yet to shoot. This advertisement is the newest addition to my graphic design portfolio, which though informal, now includes my photo website, my adventure photography fliers, and of course my first batch of business cards.

To me graphic design is a blending of photography and sketching. Similar to photography there are pre-existing elements which are brought together requiring balance and composition. I find the metaphor of sketching in the process beginning with a blank "canvas" and then being completely dependent upon the artist to interpret pre-existing elements and to create entirely new ones. Ultimately this combines in the formation of a unique piece so that the end result is greater than the sum of its parts.

You may ask "why?" I ask "Why not?"

There can be more to mountainbiking than just riding trails...

and being adverse to simply replicating what everyone else has already done, I felt like dabbling in novelty when shooting a new photo of myself. Any adventure photographer worth his or her ascenders has a photo of themselves with their camera looking, for lack of a better term, "adventurous" in the middle of a rock face or frozen waterfall. Maybe it was sleep deprivation or maybe it was insanity needing to get outside after shooting almost exclusively indoors for the past several assignments, but for whatever reason I ended up setting up a scenario so that my conscripted assistant could mostly point and shoot shots of myself photographing while riding my bike on the face of a cliff.
D700+2speedlights w/Radiopoppes

Bike races don't need to be outside...

So as it turns out, I again find myself shooting the indoor version of an outdoor pursuit. The above photos were taken this evening for Peak Region Cyclist magazine and are from an indoor bike race at Carmichael Training Systems... Yes a stationary bike race.

For as unorthodox as it may seem, this was rather fun to do as a quick shoot and there is certainly something to be said for a photographer not needing to be concerned with getting hit or causing an accident.

I promise, there will be a majority of outdoor shots...soon

Yup, new gym shots. I expect these will be the last for a while, and I am very much looking forward to getting out more, in the most literal interpretation of the phrase.

There is not too much to say, just hoping that I took what is generally a challenging vertical environment and did justice in capturing an active sport in this expansive inside space entirely devoid of natural, or other worthwhile light.