The 5th Annual Hammers Inc Art Festival - A Success

The Rio Gallery featuring the 5th Annual Hammers Inc Art Festival - Life by Passion

We did it.  The Hammers Inc Art Festival is up and the opening night was a success.  It was a great gathering of the outdoor and art communities.  We have some great art on display, the space is awesome, we had some excellent music, and we raised some money for the Utah Avalanche Center.

  Music for the evening was provided by both Amalia Smith and Eric Rich

As the night progressed we had more and more people show up.  The Rio told me this was the largest gallery opening they have ever had.  Psyched.

It was a great event and I look forward to doing it again in the future.  For those of you who were not able to make it down on opening night, the exhibit is still on display at the Rio Gallery until January 6.  Be sure to stop by and check it out.  They are open Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.

The 5th Annual Hammers Inc Art Festival - Life by Passion

A close friend of mine, Garrett Smith of Hammers Inc Photography, had a three-fold mission when it came to his art: to create, communicate, and curate the best possible art he could be involved with.  He created with his unequalled passion for photography and the places and sports he shot.  He communicated by offering workshops (formal and informal) to anyone interested in listening.  And he curated with his immensely successful Hammers Inc Art Festival.



I am honored to have been invited to be involved the past couple of years with the art festival.  Garrett gave me a chance early on in my photography path that I would not have been afforded otherwise.  I owe a large part of where I am at creatively today to his support and all the times we were able to get out and shoot together (which was a lot).

When Garrett passed away this March many of us were determined to not let the art festival fade out.  He had started a strong legacy with a ton of opportunity.  With the help of a great team of friends, artists, etc. I am excited to announce the 5th Annual Hammers Inc Art Festival this upcoming Friday, December 2, at the Rio Gallery in downtown Salt Lake City.

We have teamed with the Utah Avalanche Center to help raise money for its ever-diminishing budget.  The UAC provides a service that is invaluable to anyone who spends their time in the mountains in winter.  Those of us who spend a great deal of time up there watch the reports daily and rely heavily on the information they provide.  We felt like this was the perfect organization to partner with this year given the work they do and our personal connection given recent events.  We are asking for a $10 donation at the door, although you are welcome to give as little or as much as you like.  The art featured in the show will all be for sale with a commission of each piece going to the UAC.  We will also have a silent auction and other events going on to help with the fundraising part of this great event.

The show this year will feature the art of Adam Barker, Trent Call, Kandyce Groesbeck, Flossie Kehr, Chuck Landvatter, PJ Mannion, Sarah Mannion, Kristin Marine, Zachary Proctor, Garrett Smith, and Matthew Turley.

Here is the link to the event on Facebook.  I hope to see you there.

Backyard Fun

Spent some time in my in-law's backyard yesterday with my dog, my nephew, and my wife. Decided to take pictures of it.

Kaleb didn't seem to mind having his picture taken.

I liked how these two images (one of Bowie and the other of Kaleb jumping off the deck) turned out to be awesome even though they were more or less shot from the hip.

Then I had Stacy come outside for a few photos since she is 8 months pregnant and the kid is someday going to want to see what she looked like.  She looks great.  I would have liked to have done some more creative pregnancy photos, but we didn't have access to a full length mirror at the time.

Thanksgiving is great.  I am thankful for lots of stuff.  Especially my wife... and skiing.  I need to go skiing.

New Website

I have recently done some work on my website and the new version just went live minutes ago!  Check it out to see some new photos, new galleries, better navigation, bigger pictures, mobile friendliness, and a bonus bio page for those paying attention.  Let me know what you think.

dbutcherphotography.com

Peace.
Dust

And as a bonus for reading this post and checking out the new website, I am going to share this video with you.  Remember winter?  Yeah winter can be pretty great.  Video by Jed Whittaker.

VIDEO - Roc Trip Mexico

My primary purpose for attending Petzl's RocTrip in Mexico last fall was to shoot the video.  Petzl RocTrips have always had a strong video component that accompanies them.  It is a way to take an event that originally only reaches some people in a very specific geographic area and expand that reach to anyone on the internet.

I was psyched to have the opportunity to shoot and direct this piece.  I was able to enlist the help of one of my best friends and one of the strongest photo/video guys I know, Garrett Smith, as Director of Photography for the project.  We also had camera help from two guys from the Petzl France team that were more accustomed to the RocTrip and Petzl video scene.

As we planned for the event, we developed a video concept that involved more story-telling than RocTrip videos had previously highlighted.  The idea was to parallel the Mexican climbing scene with the rich culture and history of Mexico.  We felt like this would reach a larger audience than your standard climbing video.

I was set to really dive into editing the video after OR in January.  This just happened to be the same time I had decided to make the move from Petzl over to Gregory.  This has been a great move for me, but I was a little bummed to have to hand off this edit to someone else.  Thankfully, the project was taken over by two people who are very capable in the outdoor video scene - Mike Call and Guillaume Broust.  They took the loads of footage that we had shot down there and made a strong video.

It is not exactly the story Garrett and I had in mind while shooting, but it turned out rad nonetheless.  It is cool to see all the work we put into it taken over by some strong editors.  The final piece is below, and I am proud to have been a part of it.



You can find my full write-up of RocTrip Mexico here:
http://dustinbutcher.blogspot.com/2010/11/petzl-roc-trip-mexico.html

VIDEO - New Gregory Travel Gear

One of my responsibilities here at Gregory is to handle the video side of things.  With the launch of the new travel series this fall we wanted to create something that would compliment how rad the bags are.  With the help of Nate Balli and my sweet wife, Stacy, I think we did just that.  I am psyched with how it turned out.

Here is the long version (3 min):


And here is the short version (40 sec):

Medium Format - Mamiya 645

A good friend of mine recently came to town to visit.  It was good to see him and talk about photography with someone equally enthused.  Much to my surprise, a few days after he left I found a package on my front step with his return address.  Inside was an old Mamiya 645 medium format film camera with an 80mm and 150mm lens.  While directing a shoot this past weekend with another photographer, I took the chance to start shooting with it.

I don't know anything about film.  But I do know that medium format is rad.

Caroline Gleich

Caroline and Pat

My nephew, Tate

My nephew, Curtis