Category Archives: Announcements

Announcements, Au, This Just In

Au Vol. 7: Connections

Our photographers are solitary in many ways, and their adventures are often only shared with one or two others. Despite the number of solitary subjects in Au Vol. 7, there are connections being made in every image, on every page. The moments captured reveal the triangular nature of outdoor photography: the connection between the subject, nature, and the photographer. When Rob Hammer captures a solo trail runner cutting across a lonely ridge, or Alasdair Turner photographs a young couple sharing a first canoe trip on an Alaskan lake on their wedding day, Aurora contributors connect us from our far away places to the beauty of man (and woman) exploring nature, and making connections of their own. It’s why Michael Wilson hiked the Appalachian Trail and took portraits of the people he met along the way, and why Craig Moore goes out to stand up paddle on Lake McDonald at sunrise. They take us where we’d like to go and introduce us to who we’d like to meet, and in that way, we are all connected.

Au Vol 7 Cover Large

Immerse yourself in some of our best imagery: https://issuu.com/auroraphotos/docs/au-vol-7

Announcements

Image Requests

Clients often come to us looking for something very specific, and our sales team combs through the archive to put together a lightbox that fits the research request. Sometimes, however, a client is looking for something ultra specific OR they have a broader, conceptual feeling they want the image to invoke, that we can’t currently match from the archive. At that point, we’ll send out a brief to our extensive roster of photographers to try to bring in exactly what the client is looking for. The results are often incredible, and even if the images aren’t purchased by that specific client, they get added to our archive for future requests. Here are some of the most interesting briefs we’ve received, and the amazing images that arrived as a result.

An electronics company was looking for “amazing action based images,” of a person in a “go for it” moment. Think shots that illustrate motivation, anticipation or the start of an adventure, like a BASE jumper running towards the edge, or a snowboarder about to hit a jump.

Adam Roberts jumps a massive ice cliff while skiing the technical North Face NW Ridge of Mount Adams. Clouds hover below, the sun above and Mount Saint Helens hides in the distance.

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Due to the lack of snow in the West for the past few years, many of our clients were hard pressed to find recent winter fun images at resorts. One ad agency was looking for a deep pull of images from Tahoe in the winter.  The idea was to highlight all of the different things you can do in Tahoe, from skiing and snowboarding to building snowmen to hot tubs to landscapes to admiring the scenics to roasting marshmallows. Photographers were told to imagine it was a shoot they were doing for a resort when pulling photos to send.

Reine Barkered and Jaclyn Paaso on top of Red Dog Ridge deciding where to drop in at Squaw Valley Mountain Resort.

One female snowboarder looking out over Alpine Meadows Mountain Resort at sunrise.

Group of friends taking selfies on the way up the gondola at Squaw Valley Mountain Resort.

A magazine / nature conservancy was looking for images of birds for an ongoing, extensive visual journalism project to show the relationship between birds and people worldwide.

Volunteer scientists and conservationists monitor migratory Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) as a part of the Hummingbird Monitoring Network. Birds are aged, sexed, weighed, and tagged at a banding station in Widgeon Marsh Park Reserve, British Columbia,

Volunteer scientists and conservationists monitor migratory Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) as a part of the Hummingbird Monitoring Network. Birds are aged, sexed, weighed, and tagged at a banding station in Widgeon Marsh Park Reserve, British Columbia,

An ad agency client wanted modern, candid photography of millennials, with REAL and RELATABLE being more important than the expected “hipster” or “cool/creative” crowd. As the brief we got was very broad and could cover a lot, we tried to narrow it down for our photographers. Style and age is more important than action, but some ideas to think about: adventurous travel, connections with people, glimpses into every day life, fitness outside of a gym, waiting in line at a food truck and talking, people at work, etc. You can also think about some potential archetypes, people of certain professions or hobbies like: beer brewer, carpenter, personal trainers, etc.

Amy Harris starts the morning off right, Reno, Nevada.

Joel Oberly tries his hand at the local dominos game, Havana, Cuba.

A carpenter works on a piece of wood with a hand planer.

If you’ve got an image that you’re looking for that you just can’t find anywhere else, or just want some help with a research request, try our new Photo Request form. We’d love to hear from you and get you the image or images that you need.

Announcements, Highlights

Their Favorite Winter Pics

Aurora’s contributors are a rare breed, always willing to go the extra mile to capture an amazing image. They thrive in the winter, a season during which many give up on the outdoors and stay inside, sipping hot cocoa and catching up on TV. We wanted to get to the heart of why Aurora photographers connect so profoundly with the harsh conditions and stark beauty of the coldest of seasons. So we asked our photographers to choose their favorite winter image and tell us why — here’s what they said:

Airborne skier flies above clouds

“I’ve skied Mt. Adams in Washington 50+ times, and there’s always a risk, either from chance or the failure to recognize dangers. And on this day, I almost got wiped off the North Face by an avalanche. I had climbed the North face North West ridge and halfway up decided to turn around because it was getting too warm. Suddenly, a wet slide was triggered a few thousand feet above me (on a route we had just skied the day before) and came down, missing me by inches. It was only about 20 feet wide, but it was heavy snow and was going very, very fast on a very steep slope. It was a scary moment.” – Jason Hummel

2013

“Mont Blanc is the most famous peak to ascend in the Alps. For me, this image shows how the mountaineers put their lives in the service of the mountain.” – David Santiago Garcia

Underwater Iceberg, Antarctic Peninsula

“I’ve spent years photographing glaciers and ice on six continents, but this is one of my favorite images. It’s shot from a small zodiac inflatable boat in Antarctica, and captures so much of the graceful lines and cold beauty of the massive icebergs there.” – Paul Souders

A man ice climbing a frozen waterfall through a sandstone arch in Utah.

“This unique frozen waterfall, in a remote area of Utah , rarely forms ice solid enough to climb. You have to hike in a ways to find the frozen falls, which keeps the crowds away. “ – Whit Richardson

Two people are climbing a frozen waterfall in Sounkyo Gorge, Daisetsuzan National Park, Hokkaido, Japan.

“The combination of people enjoying adventure sport in a spectacular landscape is what photography is all about for me.”  – Andrew Peacock

A snowboarder soaring in the air at sunrise in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe, California.

“I’ve been snowboarding most of my life and this image always reminds me of the freedom you feel when you launch into the air on a perfect powder day in the backcountry.” – Rachid Dahnoun

Moonbow, Lake O'Hara and surrounding mountains, Yoho National Park, Canada

“It had snowed all day at Lake O’Hara in Yoho National Park, a beautiful park in the Canadian Rockies. After the sun set, it cleared and I went outside. A full moon had risen, and because of the icy particles in the air, a moondog or paraselene was visible. I had often seen a sundog, but I had never seen the moon variety before. It lasted for several minutes before more clouds appeared.” – Peter Essick

Snowfall at Cradle Mountain National Park.

“I went into Cradle Mountain National Park, in Tasmania, with this specific idea: to shoot a pandani plant lit with warm light against the blue cold snowy scene.” – Heath Holden

Big mountain skiing in Haines, Alaska

“I love the vertical symmetry of lights and darks. I love the shadows on the left that mimic mountains, pointing towards the skier. I love the fly-on-wall perspective, along with the speed evoked by the flying snow left by the skier’s wake. And the skier… that’s Seth Morrison, far and away one of skiing’s bigger-than-life legends for the past 2 decades. It was shot in Haines, AK, via helicopter access. It just feels as thought the stars aligned on this one.” – Gabe Rogel

A snowshoer taking in a wintery scene

“This picture taken in Mammoth Lakes, California, is of my brother from Texas, snowshoeing for the first time. It’s my favorite because it captures the wonder and majesty of being out in a snowstorm, when the snow muffles all sound except the crunch of your steps and the quiet patter of snowflakes on your jacket. .”  – Dana Felthauser

Grand Tetons, Wyoming

“This image of the Tetons was a look at an old friend in a new way, a position a bit more north than I had seen before. The breaking storm gave the black and white image an even more commanding sense of the balance of the mountain.” – Joel Addams

See more of our photographer’s favorite winter images here: http://www.auroraphotos.com/index.php?module=result&webseries_id=17499

Announcements, This Just In

New Images for September

Hiking White Mountains

We’ve got all the running, basketball playing, hiking, climbing, cycling, motocross racing, skateboarding, surfing, exploring, outdoor relaxing and watermelon-eating-while-on-a-southwest-USA-journey you could want! For those excited about the shift towards colder temperatures, we’ve got skiing, snowboarding, mountain climbing and alpine survival. Or perhaps remote travel and exotic adventures is more your thing.  We’ve got that too.

Click here to see what else we’ve got, in our new images for September gallery: http://www.auroraphotos.com/result?webseries_id=14734

Announcements, Instagram

#IAmAurora

Who are Aurora’s photographers? Who are they beyond the surface? They’re the men and women who capture the fantastic images we are fortunate enough to represent on our site. Who, day in and day out, go on amazing adventures and see things many of us have only ever dreamed of seeing. They are our backbone, the foundation of our company.

The artists behind the lens are as interesting as the images they capture. They live the life they document. They have hobbies and interests like rock climbing, competitive sailing and stamp collecting. When they’re not campaigning to conserve salmon, doling out medical advice as a ship’s doctor in the Antarctic or climbing mountains, they may be watching Real Housewives of LA or Storage wars. But probably not.

Earlier this year, we asked our photographers to upload selfies of themselves, to let us see a little bit behind the scenes. They included the hashtags #OutdoorSelfie and #IAmAurora. These are those images, with a link to their instagram accounts.