Christian Brecheis // Fotograf // Photographer // Sports, Action, People - München

SELF PORTRAIT

2012-01-28T10:52:00.003+01:00

There's this running gag among snowboard filmers / photographers that the only riding we get to do is photobackpack sideslipping. It wasn't like that on our recent Catboarding trip to Canada. We did so little hiking but so many runs that I got to ride my snowboard quite a bunch. To bring home some proof Shayne Pospisil gave me his GoPro for a run, so here're two screengrabs of me in action. Good times!

TRAVEL SEASON

2012-01-14T18:41:00.001+01:00

Travel season began. A few snaps from the road going from Germany to Canada.

meals (really?), airports and a honest laugh at a passport picture

middle of nowhere, small towns, grocery shopping (543$) and the couches at our place

TORSTEIN HORGMO

2012-01-05T10:44:00.002+01:00

// ENGLISH VERSION BELOW... //

Torstein Horgmo Portraits für das Pleasure Magazin. Fotografiert in Frankreich gegen 23.30 Uhr auf einer Toilette, die während dem Shoot von drei Leuten 'besucht' wurde. Erst leicht verwirrte Blicke wegen unserem Blitz Setup, dann der beißende Geruch des Sprühlacks. Nervöse Geschäfte. Wir haben so lange draußen gewartet. Was einem eben drei X-Games Goldmedaillen und Triple Corks so einbringen, mehr Torstein Fakten gibt's auf Wikipedia.

The latest issue of Pleasure Magazin (no 'e', it's German) just hit newsstands, featuring Torstein Horgmo's interview. We shot the portraits at around 11.30pm in a restroom in France. We had three visitors during our shoot who gave us some nervous looks when entering the toilet. We had some lights set up, then there was the smell of the spray paint, all kinda suspicious. We patiently waited outside. Triple X-Games Gold, Triple Corks and some more facts about Torstein can be found on Wikipedia.

TORQEEDO

2011-12-27T21:23:00.001+01:00

I had the pleasure of shooting images for Torqeedo on locations (read: in and on the water) in Germany and Croatia. I'm totally hooked on their product - electric boat drives, powerful and efficient. No fuel, no exhausts even anywhere close the water, brilliant. If you like go ahead and download the entire catalog from their website Torqeedo.com here're some tear sheets for now. New website, packaging and advertising images coming up. Lot's of highlights during those days, thanks to Stefan, Christoph, Susanne, Maja, Uwe and everyone involved.

vs YOU

2011-12-27T21:01:00.001+01:00

vs YOU is a pretty exciting little brand, keep your eyes peeled for them. I recently shot some images for their lookbook and other goodies yet to be formed in the hands of designer Flatau THESIGNER.

ISENSEVEN CLOTHING AD

2011-12-27T20:41:00.001+01:00

The latest Ad for Isenseven Clothing. Shot in Munich, thanks to Alex, Philipp and René Reno.

ISENSEVEN CLOTHING AD

2011-12-12T10:51:00.001+01:00

the 2012 Isenseven Clothing Ad

Isenseven Movie Ad for Japan

SNOWSTYLE COVER

2011-12-03T14:30:00.001+01:00

Had this in the mail the other day, the latest issue of Snowstyle Magazine, Japan. Stoked to see my photo on the cover. Freddy is riding a "I ride for Japan" board, a little message he and the designer of this one-of graphic came up with.

EISBACH

2011-11-27T19:33:00.001+01:00

Munich's meanwhile famous river wave hasn't lost anything of it's appeal and still serves as scene for all kind of filming and shooting. One exciting project by Tom Prior should be on his website and blog anytime soon, keep an eye out for it. I find myself keep going back there, here are some shots from this summer. Far and close. The view from above is also the photo on the opening page for the Eisbach chapter of the "River Surfing" book - and yes, I chartered a helicopter to get this photo.

Die mittlerweile recht berühmte Eisbachwelle in München hat nichts von ihrer Faszination eingebüßt, so verwundert es nicht, dass dort noch immer viel gedreht oder fotografiert wird. Ich selbst gehe immer wieder gerne hin um dort zu fotografieren. Hier sind ein paar Bilder von diesem Sommer. Das Luftbild ist übrigens auch der Opener des Eisbach Kapitels im "River Surfing" Buch. Ein Projekt auf das ich sehr gespannt bin, ist das von Tom Prior, es gibt bereits die ersten Bilder auf seinem Blog zu sehen und hoffentlich bald auch das ganze Projekt.

ISENSEVEN FEATURE

2011-11-25T16:58:00.001+01:00

Isenseven is a creative force in Snowboarding, they make things happen and have quite some impact on the scene. I'm thankful for being friends with the guys and stoked on this feature they did on me on their new website isenseven.tv, check it out.

OLDIE

2011-11-14T09:05:00.001+01:00

Despite the early iTunes release of The Art of Flight, I thought I'd wait until the movie theater premiere to watch it the first time on the big screen. Eventually I didn't make the premiere and had to watch it on my computer screen anyways. Regardless. One part that stood out to me was Travis Rice and Nico Müller riding natural terrain. I remembered this photo I took of them back in 2005. We just cruised Zurich that afternoon and came across this pile of junk, they quickly posed, I took one frame and we moved on. Shot on a roll of Kodak Portra NC with a Nikon FM, 50mm. A small camera with all the functionality of a big SLR (i.e. F5) minus the motor drive. There's still no equivalent in the digital world, neither to this type of film.

Nicolas Müller and Travis Rice in Zürich, 2005.

HIGHSNOBIETY 03

2011-11-14T08:47:00.001+01:00

If you get the chance to grab a copy of highsnobiety, do so. It's a real well done high quality print mag, a pleasure to read. To get an idea what it's all about, you can flip through the pages of issue three online.
This are some shots of mine that made it in there.

MENS HEALTH POND SKIM

2011-11-12T20:03:00.001+01:00

Über mein Foto in der aktuellen Dezember Ausgabe der Men's Health freue ich mich deshalb besonders, da es schön zu sehen ist wenn Snowboard-Fotografie auch in "Mainstream" Medien einen Bildaufbau haben dürfen. Leider viel zu oft sieht man Actionbilder bei denen der Fahrer möglichst mittig und am besten formatfüllend angeordnet ist. Centered all around quasi. Kompliment also an dieser Stelle, wobei ich sowieso Fan der Men's Health bin die viel hochwertige Fotografie zeigt.

Men's Health, Dezember 2011, Pond Skim statt Sixpack

Zum Thema Centered all around eine kleine Anekdote: Ich war einmal auf einer Portfolio Review wo ich folgendes Feedback bekommen habe - dass das besser ginge. Wie? Also... (die Hände decken alles auf dem Foto bis auf den Snowboarder ab) "so! Jetzt ist der Betrachter gefragt - wohin, woher - so kommt Spannung in ein Bild"

Es hätte also auch so aussehen können, Glück gehabt ;-)

EVERYDAY DIFFERENT

2011-11-03T16:41:00.000+01:00

There is no typical day, everyday is different. One of the many reasons I love my job. I'm happy to have had the chance to be working on so many different projects recently. From editorial to catalog work, advertising, lookbooks and portrait shoots, swimming in the mediterranean sea with the camera in a water-housing to the more equipment friendly environment in a photo studio.

Here are some snaps and behind the scenes....

GOLF MATCH

2011-10-19T20:24:00.002+02:00

// ENGLISH VERSION BELOW... //

Eine Runde Golf sorgt für neue Bilder in meinem Sport Portfolio auf meiner Webseite. Die ganze Geschichte zu diesem ernsthaft unernsten Match zweier Spieler gibt es in der neuen Rubrik "Projects" zu sehen, eilige folgen einfach diesem Link.

There's a new section on my portfolio website called projects. I recently added a (not too) serious golf match. A huge thanks to everyone involved!

AS SEEN ON TV

2011-10-02T11:50:00.003+02:00

I shot this image in New York, across 66 Perry Street, famous for the exterior shots of Carrie Bradshaw's apartment building in Sex and the City. Figured this location would do for my running shoot as well. Just kidding. The whole neighborhood is amazing and Perry Street is beautiful. One of the better shots just happened to be in front of Carrie's house.

Running NYC location: Sex and the City, Cat Found, Range, Bike, Vespa.

WATER

2011-09-15T11:20:00.001+02:00

I know..., this is another water related blog post. This time it's no one jumping, no swimming dog, no fountain - it's water surface from below. This is the kind of photo I take for myself. Personal photo fun. I started to show this kind of personal work on my website, go check it out if you have a minute.

DRINK WATER

2011-08-29T15:08:00.001+02:00

drink

water

SWIM

2011-08-15T16:36:00.000+02:00

My camera's water-housing didn't see water for about half a year now. Time for a check up and see if it's all working. A subject was easily found, my dog Pepper. I'm using an ewa marine, it's affordable and most importantly you can use different cameras and lenses. I know some people don't trust these things too much, but I've taken my D3 into waves (see here) or been diving with it about 4 to 6 meters (20ft) a couple of times (see here) with no problems. It just needs some preparations like locking the buttons and dials of your camera. Super simple and works just fine.

FOUND

2011-08-15T16:20:00.001+02:00

Some of my photos just went 'live' on the Found Folios sourcebooks website, check it out here and take a look around, there's some great work to be discovered.

YAY

2011-07-29T12:46:00.000+02:00

NOT WINTER

2011-07-29T12:41:00.002+02:00

This winter I spent a lot less time wearing my avalanche receiver than in other years. Instead from early April on it was summer shred mode for whatever shoot I went to, Germany, France, US - it's always been wet snowboard socks, suncream, thin gloves, slush snow, travel chaos, too many people staying at one place, badminton tournaments, no jackets, swimming in the lake and snowboarding at the same day, ...

SEPALOT

2011-07-12T22:17:00.003+02:00

Album art and cover shoot for SEPALOT's upcoming Album "Chasing Clouds"

Making Of:

SEPALOT STUDIO SHOOT from Christian Brecheis on Vimeo.

BLUE MAN

2011-07-07T15:10:00.000+02:00

casual lifestyle, happened and snapped it, love it.

NOT WIMBLEDON

2011-06-30T21:38:00.001+02:00

// ENGLISH VERSION BELOW... //

Einen Tennisplatz in Manhattan zu mieten ist nicht gerade eine günstige Gelegenheit. Es gibt allerdings jede Menge Wände an denen man sich selbst zu einem Duell herausfordern kann. Den Tennisschläger haben wir aus dem Müll gezogen, Bälle für zwei Doller aus dem nächsten Sportgeschäft geholt und los gings.
Mehr gibt's auf meiner Seite unter Sport...

Tennis courts are at a real premium in NYC, but there's plenty of walls everywhere that you can hit with a ball at no charge. We dragged the racket out of the garbage, got some cheap tennis balls from the next sports store chain and there you go.
Check out the Sports section of my website for more...

BARBERSHOP

2011-06-27T15:03:00.001+02:00

// ENGLISH VERSION BELOW... //

Im New Yorker West Village bin ich an einem sensationellen Friseurladen vorbeigelaufen. Dort gibt es nicht nur perfekte Rasur und Frisur sondern auch Espresso, Whisky oder Bier dazu. Und ist schon deshalb quasi ein echtes Männerpflege Eldorado. Wer dort sein sollte, unbedingt mal vorbeischaun und jetzt schon mal auf Facebook Freund werden.
Das und mehr gibt's auch in meinem People Portfolio zu sehen.

Ivan

I was cruising around in The Village in New York and walked by this amazing barbershop. Ivan is the coolest dude and you'll get a perfect haircut or shave from him. On top of that you'll get espresso, whiskey or beers - pretty damn cool, hu? Get your next appointment there and become friends on Facebook.
Check out my People Portfolio for Ivan's Portrait and more...

WINDOW SEAT

2011-06-25T20:53:00.000+02:00

switching seats with the filmer

DRIVE NOW

2011-06-17T00:58:00.000+02:00

Für DriveNow, das neue Carsharing von BMW i, MINI und Sixt, ging es mit dem Helikopter über München um einige Luftaufnahmen zu machen, unter anderem habe ich die Fahrzeugflotte fotografiert, die auf dem Odeonsplatz aufgebaut war. Mehr zu sehen gibt's auf der DriveNow Facebook Seite.

PLANET SPORTS

2011-06-11T20:32:00.000+02:00

//ENGLISH VERSION BELOW...//

Kürzlich gings noch einmal in den Schnee, auf Deutschlands höchsten Berg die Zugspitze. Dort und in Garmisch haben wir für Planet Sports Action, Lifestyle und Portraits fotografiert. Jetzt zum Launch des neuen Logos finden sich einige Bilder auf deren Team-Webseite und Facebook. Einen Neuzugang im Team gab es auch zu feiern - Marko Grilc!
Planet Sports hat eins der stärksten und interessantesten Snowboard-Teams, um mehr Fotos und Videos zu sehen, lohnt sich der "Like" auf Facebook auf jeden Fall.

David Benedek

grilo.si

Bowling

Behind the Scenes

Recently I had the pleasure of shooting the fine snowboard team of Planet Sports. Summer snowboarding on Germany's highest mountain the Zugspitze, fun times bowling with the guys and some portrait shoots in and around Garmisch. Good times, thanks everyone involved!

Red Bull Illume iPad App

2011-06-01T21:45:00.001+02:00

This beverage company with the ~~horse~~ bull had this photo contest where I made it into the semi finals. They now released an iPad App Photo Book, you'll find my shot in the sequence category where it belongs - it's more frames morphed together in one shot than a roll of film could hold. Yay digital! Get the free app from the iTunes Store.

And... my portfolio website is fully iPad compatible, swiping and all, just visit christianbrecheis.com from your iPad.

ROCK BOTTOM

2011-06-01T19:45:00.002+02:00

A couple month ago I started working with Wonderful Machine which has been great so far. If you're not familiar with them, check out their website, bookmark it. Here's a brief description what they do for people looking to find a photographer:

Wonderful Machine provides art buyers with the most comprehensive source of high quality photographers doing all kinds of work, all over the world. We’re selective about the photographers we show, we list them only in locations where they actually live, and only in specialties in which they are highly proficient.

Here is (link) a recent emailer where I got featured and this is how the current feature of a rotating specialty category on their website looks like, called Rock Bottom:

SPRING SHRED

2011-05-04T21:28:00.000+02:00

Yes, it's spring. Warm, sunny and not snowing. Well, this doesn't really concern you if you're into snowboarding - a lot. And even more so if into a subculture that is happening rather in urban areas than on mountains. Apparently these guys have no clue anyways how a mountain looks like in winter. At least no one was complaining at the HEAD Jib Factory 2011 presented by Alex Tank. No complains, good vibes, fine people and great snowboarding.

Alex Tank himself

this guy filmed this in this sneakers: http://vimeo.com/22950430

More shots over at Head's Facebook site, become friends!

WORD

2011-05-04T17:10:00.000+02:00

pt. 2

2011-04-26T20:50:00.000+02:00

SUMMER IS EARLY

2011-04-22T14:05:00.001+02:00

It's been a nice couple of days with great weather in Munich. I hope you enjoy the early summer days as much as I do.

RECENT WORK

2011-04-15T11:11:00.031+02:00

WHITEOUT GOLFING, Issue 1, Cover

Blumentopf for Planet Sports & Adidas

FUNSPORT Magazine, IT

Nike 6.0 Lifestyle Image

HEAD Sportswear

here's some recent work, find more at my work blog

FRANCE DEUX

2011-04-14T12:07:00.000+02:00

After a complete downday we had some catching up to do and got up the mountain early the next morning and ended up staying late. We still had some fine-tuning to do, salt the take-off, wait for the sun to soften the icy landing, etc. Enough time for the riders to have a little photo challenge.

The sun-set shoot was tricky due to quickly changing snow-conditions but a success after all. I can't post any of the action images at this time, I hope you'll find some in your favorite snowboard mag next season.

rider's photo challenge pt. 1 - checking angles

rider's photo challenge pt. 2 - getting the most out of each angle

little fine-tuning in between...

FRANCE

2011-04-12T12:40:00.000+02:00

My bags and gear were sent to my designated destination some days ago, which left me traveling lightweight and for a nice change not schlepping heavy bags to the airport. It's mid april and the poor winter in europe didn't leave much snow for spring shoots. I hope we'll manage the snow conditions, because we decided to build a pretty big jump here. Let's see how this week will look like...

window seat. this is not new zealand.

we decided to buid a jump, big and steep take off

DAILY BUSINESS

2011-03-16T15:36:00.002+01:00

The news from Japan are unbelievable. My thoughts are with the Japanse.

Japan is a great country with great people. We had a really good time on every single trip there. This year we had amazing snowconditions, a lot of bad weather days though and a one of a kind bluebird day. We went snowboarding on every day since our arrival and don't get me wrong, it's not boring at all, but you'll develop some routines being on the same schedule each day. And this is how our days mostly looked like.

hiking, hiking, hiking. Lot of work goes into making it look effortless

a little backside air in the morning to get in the right mood for the day

deep snow, sprayed faces

back at the hotel, drying clothes and camera gear, doing some reading

get into the supplied socks, slippers and ninja suit and hit the spa

Asahidake bluebird. White smoke is in full effekt. Ready for some action on the Vulcano.

Stop. Turn.

Fresh snow, sun is shining, dropping cliffs.

JAPAN EARLY BIRD

2011-03-09T23:16:00.003+01:00

The view at 5am from my hotel room. Ready to go to the spa and for a day of hiking through waist to chest deep snow. Not the worst thing in the world, but it will burn calories faster than a European stomach can digest traditional salmonella hot pot made in Japan.

OUT-TAKES DAY 1

2011-03-05T10:10:00.000+01:00

I fell behind with updates from our trip to Japan, I'll be catching up with some posts during the next weeks. To start things off, here's a out-take from day 1.

Japan arrival

2011-02-24T23:14:00.000+01:00

On the way to Japan I got paged a few times between flights and had to prove that my Profoto flash is travel safe. That's nothing new, but this time I had to go through the procedure way too many times. Highlight was a committee of five persons standing around my bags with rules and regulations for a good half an hour.
But now, I'm off to Hokkaido to shoot some snowboarding, dang!

Air and Style and ISPO and Air and Style

2011-02-15T21:58:00.000+01:00

A lot of people working in the snowboard industry had a busy time with one Air & Style Contest in Innsbruck, the ISPO tradeshow the next couple days and the Munich Air & Style following up.
Here are some shots and captions:

the legendary venue in Innsbruck

ISPO, entrance West - my photos printed big, right over the entrance, on the inside and the outside

the HEAD Snowboard booth had a lot of my photos hanging on the walls. Top right is the shot that's at the entrance as well. Bottom left is Christophe's beer and bottom right are some travel photos setting the mood for the travel bags corner of the booth.

the setup at the Air & Style in Munich

Top left to bottom right: Jamie Nicholls stoked me, first killing it on the jump in Innsbruck and then getting second in the Rail competition in Munich. David Benedek came to witness the double cork craziness that he started three years ago in the same stadium. Peetu must have knees of steel or how do you explain his stomp while having the flue? The deserved winner and Sepp Blatter of Snowboarding, but in a good way. And the iconic Munich stadium.

LET'S HAVE A BEER

2011-02-02T15:22:00.000+01:00

Now that's creative use of a photo, Christophe Schmidt has his own signature beer. Swing by the HEAD booth at the 2011 ISPO in Munich and have a drink with us!
I shot this last summer and was surprised to see the photo now in use. Props to HEAD, it's such a rad brand!

Looks like I'm having a Bavarian theme week here on the blog, first the music now the beer.

frequency - The Snowboarders Journal

2011-01-24T15:49:00.001+01:00

The above page is taken from the current issue of frequency magazine, a photo I shot in April with Christophe Schmidt in Park City.

I'm a big fan of the mag, okay, it costs about four times more than the average magazine, but it's really worth it. Great photo editing, interesting stories and an overall different approach. Definitely something I appreciate a lot. And it's only published four times a year, so actually you don't spend more money on it than for another mag, it's a win-win situation. ...right?

RECORDING

2011-01-21T13:32:00.000+01:00

Vor ein paar Tagen habe ich die Jungs von Blumentopf im on3 Studio des BR besucht. Dort haben sie einige Songs von ihrem aktuellen Album zusammen mit einer Blaskapelle aufgenommen. Das Ganze wird es schon ab dem 11.02. in Form einer vollgepackten Single im Handel geben, vorab munkelt man taucht sogar noch ein exklusiver Download-Track auf. Ein Auge auf die Facebook-Seite und den Blog zu werfen lohnt sich. Für die Kapelle wurden die Lieder eigens umgeschrieben und anstatt Samples gab es Notenblätter. Hier ein paar Bilder...

Blumentopf mit der Blaskapelle Münsing

Blumentopf on stage usually looks like in this video. Every live show is an amazing experience.
As true artists they're onto something entirely new and recorded a Single together with a Bavarian marching band. I tagged along and shot some photos of the recording session.

NEW WORK

2011-01-19T11:40:00.001+01:00

There's some new photos added to my snowboard action portfolio @ www.christianbrecheis.com

Fredrik Evensen in Folgefonna, Norway

Es gibt einige neue Fotos in meinem Snowboard & Action Portfolio auf www.christianbrecheis.com

PHOTO FLASHBACK

2011-01-12T11:46:00.001+01:00

I was just going through some snowboard shots from the past few seasons and came across the photo below. I thought I'll blog it as a homage to finish photog Pasi Salminen's photo flashbacks on ettala.com where he actually just posted his 33rd(!) well known picture of Eero Ettala. Well wishes go out to Eero over the internets, he just had his acl surgery. Watch him here getting the diagnosis while setting a new Doodle Jump record on his iPhone.
//UPDATE: check out some footage from his surgery(!) and another Doodle Jump highscore(!)

Eero Ettala in Talma, Finland. The little sunlight on the trees in the background is the most light you're getting up there in January.

Visit the snow & action section of my site for some more snowboard photos...

WORK IN PROGRESS

2011-01-08T16:08:00.001+01:00

Recently I stopped by David's place where he was working on his book and shot a few frames.

Personally I can't wait to see what he's putting together, it's an exciting project. Here's some general info:

CURRENT STATE: SNOWBOARDING is a book that will be released in 2011.

Attempting to document the sport's current state and potential path into the future it will feature interviews with some of the most influential characters of the past 2 decades. Designed and curated by David Benedek.

Make sure to get your hands on the first run and pre-order the book here...

DIGIT MAGAZINE PORTFOLIO + INTERVIEW

2010-12-27T17:03:00.000+01:00

I got a little portfolio and an interview in a german photography magazine called digit!

In der aktuellen (06/2010) Ausgabe des digit! Fotomagazins habe ich ein kleines Portfolio sowie ein Interview. Der Artikel blickt etwas hinter die Kulissen des Alltags der Action Sport Fotografie, im Interview beantworte ich einige Fragen zu Material oder den besonderen Umständen wenn man am Berg fotografiert.

WINTER IS IN TOWN

2010-12-20T17:40:00.001+01:00

I'll keep it short with this post, but since everybody is blogging in 2010 you can get a full 360° iPhone view on this trip on these guys blogs: Alex Schiller, Peter König and Tom Klocker.

We went to east germany to shoot some urban snowboarding. The new: a winch and a bungee rope opened up new spot possibilities. The old: the police sent us away quite a few times. And that's actually getting really old. It's funny how one activity is "allowed" and another isn't, reminded me of this brilliant clip by Nike, check it out here.

bungee

preparing the in-run with the winch

first try Klocker

the talented Mr. Schiller

pain + checking shots (in pain)

and even signing autographs, hey!

HAWAII pt.3

2010-12-12T12:22:00.000+01:00

Hawaii travel photos part three. I guess this will be part 3 of 3 and I'll start posting about my winter season as soon as the traveling does start.

rainbow + surf

the pain + the surf

sea + cows

doc zapalac would have loved this scene

some drinks

no rain no rainbows is what they say

early morning + backflips

surf + style

SHOOTING GOLF

2010-12-02T12:12:00.000+01:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN... //

I've been shooting some Golf again. It was great fun shooting it, quick decision based on how the weather is going to look like in a few hours during sunset. Got to the course, took a cart, raced to the location, set up and fired a few frames away before the sun disappeared. Sometimes I really enjoy working that way. I can't post the actual photo, but here's how our little setup looked like (people love that stuff):

quick and easy light setup with two Profoto strobes

Vor kurzem habe ich wieder Golf fotografiert. Nachdem das Wetter für den späten Nachmittag gut aussah sind wir schnell los, unkomplizierter Aufbau und los gings bevor es zu dunkel wurde. Das eigentliche Bild kann ich leider noch nicht zeigen, das muss noch vier, fünf Monate warten. Hier unser Aufbau - zwei Blitze, Schläger und ein Eimer Bälle.

HAWAII pt.2

2010-11-29T12:12:00.002+01:00

Okay, here're some more (or less) randomly selected shots from Maui. Maybe I'll post a few more of these before I'm switching to full-on winter mode...

sunset session

SUP or stand up paddle

take off(s)

superman

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

2010-11-26T12:31:00.000+01:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN... //

I get a lot of questions what exactly happens in this photo. Well, it is pretty unusual. You can get a better look at it on my website christianbrecheis.com. First of all the basics, it's shot under water with my trusted Nikon D3, I'm pretty close to the ground. The guy running on the ground is my buddy windsurf pro Flo Jung. He's carrying a rock for additional weight so he can actually walk / run under water. Why all that? He's preparing for big wave surfing and for a potential whipeout. If he gets knocked off his board most likely the wave will hold him under water for quite some time. To cope with that you pretty much do the exact opposite of what apnoe divers do. There's no time to bring down your pulse, to take a deep breath, etc. You have high pulse and can't be sure if you can take another breath before got hold under water. So this is a way to prepare yourself.

Seit ich die Sommer & Surf Fotos auf meiner Webseite habe, bekomme ich oft die Frage gestellt, was genau in diesem Bild vor sich geht. Es ist auch ziemlich ungewöhnlich. Das Ganze ist unter Wasser fotografiert, mit der Nikon D3 im Wassergehäuse, recht nach zum Grund. Der Typ der auf dem Meeresboden läuft ist Windsurf Profi Flo Jung. Er bereitet sich auf Big Wave Surfen vor, beziehungsweise auf den Notfall. Nämlich dann, wenn er "gewaschen" wird und ihn große Wellen lange Zeit unter Wasser drücken. Logischerweise hat man hier keine Zeit den Puls runter zu bringen und nochmals tief Luft zu holen. Hier wird man unter voller Belastung erwischt und dafür trainiert man das Luftanhalten am besten unter großer Anstrengung. Man schnappt sich einen Felsbrocken für zusätzliches Gewicht und läuft einige Meter tief unter Wasser auf dem Sandboden. Tiptop Konditionstraining.

HAWAII pt.1

2010-11-22T10:10:00.003+01:00

Some random shots from the first days in Maui...

In Maui everything is casual, even the Coke cans wear flip-flops! I think I should get a membership card for Rent A Wreck, I would have the Golden Wreck Card already.

The daily scene, the car full of the necessary equipment.

The über pimp house we stayed at with our own coconut supply. The garage full of all the toys that sponsor money can buy. And hey look, even the hummer got aloha seats, love it!

First test for my water-housing. Everything worked fine, except I almost lost my camera in this tiny wave.

The old man and the coconut. Bold head, coconut, so good.

NEW WORK ONLINE

2010-11-20T11:11:00.001+01:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN... //

I added a new section to my portfolio website christianbrecheis.com called Summer & Surf. A mix of windsurf and surf action shots together with some lifestyle. Additionally I updated a few photos here and there in the other galleries.

Auf meiner Webseite christianbrecheis.com gibt's ein paar neue Bilder zu sehen. Neu hinzugekommen ist Summer & Surf, ein Mix aus Windsurf und Surf Action Photos sowie Lifestyle. Außerdem sind in fast allen anderen Kategorien neue Arbeiten zu finden. Viel Spaß beim Durchschauen!

LOST

2010-11-06T11:24:00.000+01:00

My Oceanic flight had a smooth touchdown in Hawaii. 10 days trying to shoot top notch Windsurfing can make you feel LOST...

...but of course we had a good time and got some great photos. More to come...

HEAD Newspaper / Catalog

2010-11-05T18:21:00.001+01:00

Grab yourself a copy of the latest HEAD Snowboards catalog / magazine, lot's of photos and stories in there. I'm happy I could contribute a good amount of pictures.

ICE HOCKEY SHOOT

2010-10-28T08:48:00.001+02:00

My recent assignment for Pleasure Snowboard Magazine read: "Ice Hockey". Yes, shooting ice hockey for a snowboard magazine. At this time of the year all the snowboard movies get released and hit the shelves soon after. So this usually turns into a deadline nightmare for the editorial staff. They need to watch the movies, write the reviews, unwatch them again and everything goes to print pretty quickly. Pleasure stepped up the deadline fun and came up with the concept of a K.O. system where movie reviews compete head to head, the better one advances to the next round. We were shooting to illustrate these "fights" for the thirteen page article. Here's the opener page of the article, some photos and a behind the scenes video.

See some more photos of the shoot in my Active & Sports portfolio or pick up the new issue of Pleasure mag.

Kürzlich laß sich ein Auftrag für das Pleasure Snowboard Magazin so: "Eishockey". Klingt möglicherweise zunächst seltsam. Hintergrund ist der, im Herbst stellen die Snowboard Film Produktionen ihre neuen Werke der Öffentlichkeit vor und schon nach kurzer Zeit stehen die DVDs im Handel. Für die Redaktion bedeutet das immer imensen Stress kurz vor Abgabe des Magazins. Denn die Bewertungen durch die fachkundige Redakteure sollen ja dann am Kiosk stehen wenn auch die DVDs gerade in die Läden kommen. Um dem üblichen Stress noch eins draufzusetzten wurde beschlossen den dreizehn seitigen Artikel mit eigens produzierten Photos zu illustrieren. Und warum nicht mal das K.O. System in dem die Filme im Artikel sich der Kritik stellen müssen, per Eishockey illustrieren?

MARKKU KOSKI FOR PLEASURE MAG

2010-09-30T13:32:00.000+02:00

My portraits of Markku Koski taken this summer in Finland are running in Pleasure Mag #88 (GER). Here're a few tearsheets of the 12 pages interview:

Für das 12 seitige Interview von Markku Koski war ich im Sommer in Helsinki um die Portraits zu fotografieren. Jetzt liegt die Ausgabe #88 des Pleasure Magazins endlich am Kiosk.

ONLINE - PLEASURE, HEAD & ORTOVOX

2010-09-27T22:22:00.001+02:00

Just recently Pleasure Magazine, Ortovox and HEAD Snowboards have re-launched their websites. I'm happy to link to all of their sites here on the blog. Not only can you find many of my photos on each of the sites, they all provide a lot of content that is really worth checking out.

ridehead.com

ortovox.com

pleasuremag.com

IN PRINT - HEAD SNOWBOARDS

2010-09-27T16:10:00.000+02:00

The ads from our HEAD Team shoot in Norway (see here) are currently running in snowboard media across Europe. Here are two examples (click here for more):

Ende Juni war ich mit dem internationalen Team von HEAD Snowboards in Norwegen. Die dort entstandenen Anzeigenmotive sind derzeit in den Snowboard Medien zu finden.

ISENSEVEN CUSTOM CLOTHING 2011

2010-09-20T09:24:00.000+02:00

The Isenseven Crüe just released their latest movie Don't Panic (click for teaser) with a kick ass party in Munich. Soon their new clothing line will hit stores as well - here's one of the ads for it:

Isenseven liefert mit Don't Panic nicht nur einen hammer Film ab, es gibt auch in dieser Saison eine Klamotten Kollektion. Hier ist eine der Anzeigen dafür.

LIFE IS GOOD

2010-09-12T11:56:00.000+02:00

Life has been everything else than monotonously lately. Among many other things we went on vacation and had great food as you can see over at cbp unofficial, check the blog sidebar for updates.

the Oktober Fest is just around the corner, prost!

ORTOVOX iPhone App, Katalog und Poster

2010-08-24T20:06:00.000+02:00

// ENGLISH VERSION BELOW... //

Eins der schönsten Projekte im vergangenen Winter war die Produktion für ORTOVOX. Fotografiert wurde beispielsweise Schneeschuh, Skitour, Hochtour und Freeride. Die Fotos werden für Kataloge, Poster für Shops, Anzeigen und eine iPhone App verwendet. Hier ein paar Beispiele, mehr gibt's hier zu sehen. Haltet außerdem die Augen auf, die neue Webseite von Ortovox geht bald online.

The production for ORTOVOX was one of the great projects I shot back home in the Alps. These photos will run in print advertising, catalogs and shop merchandise as well as in an iPhone App. Above are some examples - catalog and posters, see here for some more.

SWISS SNOWBOARD AWARDS 2010

2010-08-17T19:37:00.002+02:00

The Swiss snowboard magazine Whiteout is putting together the Swiss Snowboard Awards for the third time now. I'm really stoked to be nominated in the category "Best Photographer". This years award show will be off the hook - hosted by Drew Stevenson and Fredi Kalbermatten will be DJing the after party.

If you got a minute, check out the photographers, each one was required to send in an action, landscape, creative and portrait image. If you happen to like my pictures, vote for me and help me get to this party.

...kurz auf deutsch: Das schweizer Snowboard Magazin Whiteout präsentiert bereits zum dritten Mal die Swiss Snowboard Awards. Ich freue mich immens in der Kategorie "Best Photographer" nominiert zu sein. Ich würde mich über eure Unterstützung in der Abstimmung freuen - vote for me. Danke!

Markku Koski

2010-08-10T22:57:00.002+02:00

// Deutsche Version weiter unten... //

Recently I had the pleasure of shooting with Markku Koski in Helsinki, Finland. We shot two different settings. One was a studio set-up the other series was shot later the day when we were cruising around in Helsinki, available light, one lens only. A nice change when considering this a part of 'snowboard photography' - shooting portraits in summer, light gear and flip flops. More on that when the photos got published and I can put them here on the blog.

Kürzlich hatte das Vergnügen mit Snowboarder Markku Koski Portraits zu machen. Wir haben zwei verschiedene Serien fotografiert, eine mit Studio Aufbau, die andere ist einfach beim Herumlaufen in Helsinki entstanden. Die Kamera mit nur einem Objektiv geschultert und losgelaufen. Wenn Athleten Portraits ein Aspekt der Snowboard-Fotografie sind, dann insbesondere im Sommer ein sehr angenehmer. Keine schwere Ausrüstung, keine Lawinen. Mehr dazu hier auf dem Blog wenn die Bilder veröffentlich wurden.

BICYCLE

2010-07-23T09:23:00.000+02:00

Rad von Fixie Inc.

Pipe Trip pt. 3 // THE MINI MAKING-OF

2010-07-19T21:15:00.001+02:00

Nach Olympia und endlos vielen Wettkämpfen sind wir im April losgezogen um Halfpipe Snowboarden zu fotografieren und filmen wie es Spaß macht und man es gerne sieht. Abseits der Tricks und Bewertungspunkte. Es ging für uns in etwas über einer Woche durch mehrere Staaten zu den besten Pipes der USA.

Fotos habe ich schon vor einiger Zeit hier und hier gepostet, jetzt habe ich noch einen Videoedit mit ein paar Erklärungen von mir, wie sich der Shoot zusammengesetzt hat. (Beat: Sepalot) Das komplette Video sollte man nicht verpassen, dass gibt's hier.

snowboard halfpipe shoot mini-making-of from Christian Brecheis on Vimeo.

FISHING

2010-07-18T19:43:00.002+02:00

Shayne Pospisil

Okay, after some sunset snowboarding (see previous post) some sunset fishing.

Beer, sunset, mellow.

Make sure to go to Vimeo and watch a video edit of our trip to Norway, turn HD on.

NORWAY SUNSET SHOOT

2010-07-05T22:02:00.000+02:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN... //

Finally, on the last day of our stay in Folgefonna we've had a sunset shoot. From 11PM to close to midnight, the light got epic. The sky was bleeding.

I can't post all the goodies from that session yet. Here's a glimpse of what it looked like:


Tom Klocker

Féfé Pellacani

this is the parking lot right at the lift and the shapers storage. props to those guys.

Erst am letzten Abend hatten wir endlich unsere Sonnenuntergangs-Session. Gegen 23 Uhr wurde der Himmel blutrot, unglaublich. Ich kann noch nicht allzuviel von diesem Shoot posten, hier zumindest ein erster Eindruck.

FISHING

2010-07-03T22:39:00.001+02:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN... //

What do professional snowboarders do before hitting big jumps at a sunset session? Exactly - go fishing. At least in Norway. Good style. Atti Holst and Fredrik Evensen taking care of dinner.

Fredrik Evensen und Atti Holst, professionelle Snowboarder in schwerer Vorbereitung auf den Sunset Shoot. Mit, genau - Fischen. Norwegen zeigt sich wieder einmal von seiner besten Seite.

JONDAL, BASECAMP

2010-06-24T22:36:00.000+02:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN... //

We're in Norway shooting some summer shredding at the Folgefonna Camp with the guys from HEAD Snowboards. Here're some snaps from our neighborhood in Jondal:

Jondal, Norway

Wir sind gerade in Norwegen mit dem Team von HEAD Snowboards. Hier sind ein paar Snaps von unserer Nachbarschaft in Jondal.

WINDOW SEAT

2010-06-23T19:15:00.000+02:00

Die nördlichste deutsche Insel: Sylt. Gesehen am Flug Hamburg - Bergen (Norwegen).

the northernmost island of Germany: Sylt

00:00 // JUNE 21 2010

2010-06-22T01:01:00.001+02:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN... //

That photo doesn't look very fancy hu? Consider this is exactly midnight - June 21.st, the shortest night of the year. Location: Folgefonna, Norway.

ISO 100 / 1/1 / f.10

Sieht nach nichts Besonderem aus? Das hier ist um 12 Uhr Mitternacht aufgenommen und es ist so gut wie taghell! Heute ist die kürzeste Nacht des Jahres / der längste Tag des Jahres. Das Foto ist genau um 00:00 Uhr aufgenommen.

TRAVEL DAY

2010-06-22T00:43:00.000+02:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN... //

I went to Folgefonna in Norway to shoot snowboarding one more time this year. Two flights, one ferry and some miles with the rental car. It's around midsummer, should be interesting. But from what we've heard they got very little snow this year. Let's see...

from top left to bottom right: first flight in munich, second flight was hamburg to bergen, rental car (from rent a wreck) and the ferry to our final destination.

All photos taken with iPhone + the best camera app

Diesmal ging die Reise nach Folgefonna in Norwegen um ein weiteres Mal Snowboarden zu fotografieren. Es ist rund um Mittsommer, es sollte also ganz interessant hier werden.

YANKEES GAME

2010-06-21T18:21:00.001+02:00

We went to see a Yankees game. It was mellow getting there by train, no super big crowds and yet the stadium filled with masses of people in quite a short time. Was impressive to see.

Everyone was having a good time, family picknick style. We had a blast!

NEW YORK - the craziest anthill in the world

2010-06-14T23:33:00.002+02:00

// DEUTSCHE VERSION WEITER UNTEN //

I went to New York recently, first time actually. Definitely not the last time. This city left me with so many impressions that still sink in ...weeks later, it's hard to break it down in a few sentences.

Anyways, the most impressive thing of all - the diversity, more - the contrasts. Rugged, posh, loud, quiet, busy, mellow - an endless list.

Open eyes and ears, cruising the city most of the time and soaking it all up.

gotta love the hot dog stand with the red / white umbrella

church, empire state bld, 30 rock, central park

every building for itself

and suddenly Manhattan unveils a quiet corner

lady running, men fishing and lady liberty

Kürzlich war ich in New York. Zum ersten Mal, sicherlich nicht das letzte Mal. Aus der Stadt der Städte, oder wie ich finde - der abartigste Ameisenhaufen der Welt, bin ich mit dermaßen vielen Eindrücken zurückgekommen, dass ich selbst einige Zeit später noch nicht alle verarbeitet habe.

Am beeindruckendsten sind einfach die Kontraste dieser Stadt - von runtergekommen bis schick, laut, leise, geschäftig, entspannt - man könnte eine endlose Liste starten.

Mein Programm war also mit offenen Augen und Ohren die Stadt zu erkunden. Karte raus, Stadtviertel aussuchen und loslaufen...

WINDOW SEAT

2010-06-11T10:40:00.001+02:00

Für mich nach wie vor eine schöne Sache - im Flugzeug am Fenster zu sitzen. Wegen der Vulkanaktivität sind wir nördlich über Island hinweg gefolgen, was recht außergewöhnlich ist. Für kurze Zeit konnte man in der Ferne sogar den Vulkan sehen. Hier jedoch zwei Bilder von beeindruckenden Wolken und im Meer treibenden Eis.

Iceland's north shore

crushed ice

Due to the volcanic activities, we got re-routed way up over the north shore of Iceland. We got to see a very impressive scenery. Window seat, loveyoulongtime.

Pipe Trip pt. 2

2010-05-27T16:51:00.001+02:00

on the way to Mammoth Lakes

Air to Fakie // Mammoth

Random Gas Station

Night Session in Park City

beautiful Bay Area

hier geht's zum Teil 1 mit den ersten Bildern des Trips

Zwei Snowboarder, ein Filmer und ich - so sah die ziemlich entspannte Besetzung für den "Pipe to Pipe" Trip im April aus. Der schon etwas anstrengendere Teil hat sich wie folgt gestaltet: 1 Woche Zeit, 3 Halfpipes und ziemlich genau 3.000 Kilometer zu bewältigen.

Die Route: Northstar at Tahoe, Park City und Mammoth

Die Mission: Video & Photo für die Sponsoren FIAT und HEAD

Viele Stunden und Kilometer sind auf der Straße liegengeblieben. Wir sind kreuz und quer durch Kalifornien, Utah und Nevada gefahren. Dafür hatten wir innerhalb kürzester Zeit sehr gute Sessions an den besten Pipes die die USA zu bieten hat. Und die Autofahrten tagsüber sind durch die Wüsten, abwechslungsreiche Landschaften und vorbei am Salzseen sowieso ein Erlebnis.

// English Version
The little text I'll write for each post hardly justifies an additional language version, but whatevs... hehe
Our timeframe was one week, added 3.000km on the rental and spent endless hours, mostly at night, on the road and stayed at the pretty random Motels. All in all a fine roadtrip mixture.
Our stops were Northstar at Tahoe, Park City and Mammoth.

Pipe Trip pt. 1

2010-05-02T21:27:00.000+02:00

First Stop - North Star at Tahoe

Next Stop - Park City

in between - filming the rental car a.k.a. heavy dust test for the cameras

one of the many Motels we stayed at.

We were glad that no dead bodies were found in the pool while we were there.

Here's the first of two posts on our recent road trip through California, Nevada and Utah. My almost annual spring snowboard trip to the u.s. turned into a halfpipe mission this year, plus lot of time on straight roads. More info, photos and video soon to follow.

iPad online photography portfolio

2010-04-25T14:54:00.002+02:00

You're already sporting an iPad and need one more reason to justify your purchase? ;) I got you covered - my online portfolio christianbrecheis.com is iPad ready. Just point your mobile safari to my regular url and you'll be automatically taken to the iPad version. Much love to all you early adopters, nerds and fellow gadget lovers.
Thanks to APF for putting together killer photo and film portfolios.

March 2010 wrap-up

2010-03-31T23:02:00.001+02:00

For shooting snowboarding the weather is a crucial factor. The past month was special, cause to sum up the weather conditions we had on all our trips, then I'm left to say it was consistently bad. But I've been on the road with great people, it was a lot of fun, good memories. Check out some photos from this month on the road.

Shayne Pospisil, Niseko, Japan.

Click the "Read more" link to see more photos...

Japan was tricky, we had different snow conditions every day: pow, hot-pow, rain, fog, ice, you name it. Japan can never be a bad trip though, we had a great time. I hope you'll get an idea in the Japan Slideshow I've put together. Check it out if you haven't already.

Right after Japan we heard it got good snow in Austria, so we ~~paniced~~ headed to Arlberg the next morning. Bluebird for a change. But the snow was so windblown, impossible to hit jumps there. Improvising again, we found a little wind lip to shoot on and the results actually look nicer than it was.

Marco Smolla, Arlberg

The next mission took me to Verbier to shoot for Swatch. The "Verbier Extreme" competition had to be postponed day after day, due to... you got it, bad weather. I had the chance to grab some of the riders there and shoot lifestyle and portraits.

Phil Meier

Next up was a week-long road trip for Pleasure Magazine. We traveled around in South Tyrol and checked out some of the resorts there.

Tobi Strauss, Backside Rodeo in Kronplatz

Photo above: Tobi Strauss with a backside rodeo. One of the best days of the trip and as you might guess from the clouds, we had to wait it out to get "shootable" light.

One highlight for sure was the 700(!) years old barn we stayed over night one time. Let me know if you want to shoot a creepy movie, I got a location for you ;-)

the barn, some details

the barn from the outside in midnight moonlight

the bed, looks nice, but is actually way to short for a person from the 21st century

the place was small, check out Freddy in comparison to the door behind him

roadtrip - our trunk, filled with wet clothes, wet boots, ...

Fredrik Evensen, as always great fun to hang out with

drying boots, reading mags, eating snacks and tanning - the upside of spring traveling.

SWATCH ProTeam

2010-03-31T21:57:00.005+02:00

Every year the elite freeride skiers and snowboarders gather in Verbier, Switzerland to compete at the Verbier Extreme. It's a pretty insane show they put on, much respect! I went there to shoot the SWATCH ProTeam, but not while actually competing. My mission was to grab the athletes when ever possible / appropriate and shoot portraits and lifestyle. Not an easy task, they have a very tight schedule during the competition. Once they're done competing all the pressure seems to fall off them and they party like it's 1999. And there you are the next morning with some hung over guys in a random hotel lobby shooting portraits... haha

Here are some examples:

Seb Michaud

click "Read more>>" to see more photos

Cody Townsend


Phil Meier


Xavier De Le Rue

Xavier is insane if you ask me... check out his winning run Xavier De Le Rue, Verbier 2010.

Japan Trip Slideshow

2010-03-13T11:05:00.005+01:00

travel, city cruising, fog, pow, endless hours in cars, hot pow, night shred, icy conditions, food adventures. We had it all on our trip to Japan, but most of all we had fun. Many thanks to the riders Fredrik, Christophe, Shayne, Ai and Massa and of course Bernd and Testuso.

Slideshow HEAD Snowboards Japan Trip from Christian Brecheis on Vimeo.

for maximum awesome,
go fullscreen and turn on the sound

Update - Just received the link to the little video we shot there. Camera & edit by Felix Urbauer and additional filming by the entire crew since we had a bunch of nifty GoPro cameras and Flip Cams. You can see me high five'en at 1:37 ;)

HEAD Japan 2010 – Exploring Nippon from HEAD Snowboards on Vimeo.

Hokkaido Snow

2010-02-25T15:40:00.009+01:00

Our first day on the mountain. We met the rest of the crew and went riding today.

(click to enlarge)

stuff explosion, Fredrik and Christophe checking out some runs,
read those instructions!, Asahidake (probably?)

Christophe on the first run of the day...

(click the "read more" button)

the usual shopping scene, bright lit stores, colored stuff,
weird mags that come with panties inside

the crew - Christophe Schmidt, Fredrik Evensen & Shayne Pospisil.

taxitaxi

arrived in Sapporo

2010-02-25T11:48:00.002+01:00

The trip to Vancouver was great and seeing the Olympics was all time - but now it's about time to shoot some fun snowboarding with lot's of pow! Christophe and I arrived pretty late in Sapporo and went to the city for a little food adventure for dinner. It was fun walking around, lot's of snow, sounds, signs...

Tomorrow we're going to meet up with the rest of the crew and go shred!

Olympic Snowboard Men's Halfpipe

2010-02-18T18:13:00.010+01:00

So that was the big day: the men's pipe event. I went up to the venue early to see the training. After a bus, boat and another bus ride I arrived in Cypress, bluebird and spring like temperatures. It was a long day for everyone who has arrived early and especially for the riders who hadn't had time to get out their boots for the entire day. It took until 8pm for the final to start (prime time on TV).

Vancouver, early morning

The pipe.

Fans; Tony Hawk was there too (bottom left)

Yep, Shaun stood up to the expectations and won.

What a week for the riders. Instead of getting 5 hours training for 5 days, they ended up having 3 days and 1,5 hours each max. Just 3 days before the event the pipe got rebuilt entirely. It was amazing to see how the guys flipped the switch to contest mode and went big regardless the little training time. Completely unacceptable was the TV coverage. Amplitude is a major judging criteria, the framing and the camera angels that were going on didn't help anyone watching to get an idea of what was happening exactly.

For me it was a great experience being at the games. I'm super stoked for Peetu winning silver.
Over and out for now, I'm heading on to the next trip.

Victory Ceremony

2010-02-17T06:09:00.004+01:00

Good vibes in Vancouver. I went to see how Seth Wescott got his gold medal tonight for his win in Men's Snowboard Cross. The people cheered for everyone, but of course cheered like crazy for Canadian athletes. Great atmosphere.

Tomorrow is the day! Olympic Snowboard Men's Halfpipe. It's going to be interesting for sure. The riders couldn't get as much training as scheduled and the standing room area for the spectators got canceled. So it's going to be 3.000 people less watching and I bet a lot of them traveled far to see it. Anyways if they get the pipe in a good condition we're going to see outstanding snowboarding. Stay tuned for an update on tomorrows event.

arrived in Vancouver

2010-02-15T04:18:00.008+01:00

After a 30h+ trip that included a lot of hanging at airports, I finally arrived in Vancouver at 3 at night. I took it easy and cruised town today. The entire city is like one giant event, banners and people everywhere.

Some street scenes from today...

Click the "read more" link below for more photos

Met my homie Christophe Schmidt today. He was stoked on the opening ceremony yesterday, we had a little chat before he left for the first halfpipe training.

The "German House" in Vancouver. Prominent picture of a Bratwurst. Way to go! ;)

The people here are pumped on the Olympics, so fun to see. This store was closed "to support the Canadian athletes".

Shooting Outdoor Sports

2010-02-03T13:52:00.012+01:00

Deutscher Text weiter unten...

I was shooting for a great new client recently, Ortovox - a company for mountain sports equipment. They're very dedicated to high quality products and R&D. So the several days shooting on location naturally took place in authentic environments. That meant serious hiking, iced up photo equipment, ropes, crevasses and so on.

You'll see the results during the winter 2010/11 in print advertising, catalogs and in store merch. Check out my work-blog to see a couple of pages of the catalog or check my website for some images in my new "Outdoor" category.
Thanks to everyone at Ortovox!

Catalog Cover

Ski Freeriding

Alpine Tour

Für den Bergsport-Equipment Hersteller Ortovox habe ich verschiedene Image Photos produziert, die für Katalog, POS Material und Print-Anzeigen eingesetzt werden. Die Mitarbeiter sind alle beigeisterte Sportler und testen die Produkte selbst. So war auch der Wunsch, dass die verschiedenen Shoots unter realistischen Bedingungen stattfinden. Das hieß stundenlanges Aufsteigen, eisüberzogene Fotoausrüstung, anseilen, Gletscherspalten und so weiter.
Die Fotos sind im kommenden Winter 2010/11 im Katalog, Handel und Anzeigen zu sehen. Einen Vorgeschmack mit ein paar Seiten des Katalogs gibt es auf meinem Work-Blog und auf meiner Webseite sind einige Fotos aus den Shoots in der neuen Kategorie "Outdoor" zu sehen.

Munich Snow

2010-01-31T17:09:00.003+01:00

The first half of January had it all - 4am wake up calls to shooting until 4am, backcountry hiking to urban jibs. As for the urban stuff I tagged along with Marco Smolla and Fips Strauss to shoot trademark buildings and other fun stuff in downtown Munich for Red Bull. Check out Marco's blog and this clip by Vince (Isenseven).

German readers, go to Snowforce for a online article about this shoot.

Auf Snowforce gibt es einen Online-Artikel mit noch mehr Bildern.

Arosa Pipe

2010-01-26T20:21:00.004+01:00

While the European Open finals were in full swing in Laax I needed to head over to Arosa, which is close by, to shoot a "Tool Time" article for Pleasure Mag with Mario Käppeli. Right above our jump was the pipe and the sun set beautifully right in the center of it.

While the issue featuring the Arosa shoot won't come out until March, Pleasure #84 just hit newsstands with another set of photos that I shot in Laax back in December: Portraits of Ethan Morgan for his interview, get a preview at the Forum Snowboard Blog or grab a copy.

Pleasure Photo Special 2010

2010-01-20T14:48:00.003+01:00

Pleasure Snowboard Magazine's annual "Photo Special" just hit newsstands. It's a great issue, grab a copy if you see it. The image above is one of my photos I got in there. It's also available as a custom order poster. I'll update my post with the link where to order as soon as I got it.

010110

2010-01-10T13:21:00.004+01:00

I went to London for New Year and the following weekend. It was great to have a few days off and cruise the city. It actually was in between a job and I wasn't sure if it would be good to get away from the camera for those few days. I decided not to hunt for my tourist photos and try to get everything perfect. So I ended up shooting some stuff out of focus. Here's my Big Ben, of course not the way I remember it, but that's the fun part.

NEW YEAR NEW WEBSITE

2010-01-01T13:19:00.003+01:00

My portfolio website christianbrecheis.com is updated with new photos, new features and a new design. The photos load way faster and you can go through the galleries using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Of course it's still iPhone, Palm and Blackberry compatible.
There's a new category Outdoor Sports, check it out.

early season - Laax

2009-12-01T19:34:00.004+01:00

click to enlarge the photos

Recently I went to Laax, Switzerland for a few days. The pipe is already open for some national teams to practice for the Olympics. The snow is man made and even though it's the last weekend of November, due to the warm temperatures it still feels like very early in the season on the mountain.

ON NEWSSTANDS NOW...

2009-11-23T17:52:00.005+01:00

With snowboard magazines getting published mostly during the early season, at times you can have a lot of your work floating around out there at the same time. Here are some tear-sheets of what's on newsstands right now and what I've been blogging about earlier so I wanted to get some of the results up on the blog as well.

Whitelines, #86, GB
Rider: Christophe Schmidt

Slammer Magazine, 04/09, FIN
Rider: Sami Saarenpää - I wrote about our shoot here...

Free Magazine, December, CZ
Multi pages article about Talma, wrote about it earlier...

Document ,#59, GB
Rider: David Benedek. This shot and double cork sequence from one year earlier. Really good interview with David that highlight some special moments in his career.

Snowboard Magazine, December, USA
Rider: Eero Ettala. Some portraits for his interview, initially shot for Pleasure Mag in Germany.

Left page: Transworld Snowboard Magazine, USA. Shaun McKay in Arlberg, read the blog here...
Right page: Pleasure Magazin, #82, GER
A "how to" article with Christophe Schmidt. A multi page sequence massacre shot in Mammoth, check my travel post here...

It's good timing to see your photos printed and get motivated for the winter. Soon it's going to be early bird missions and hiking. And in a year from all the sweat and travel it took to take these photos is forgotten and magazines hit newsstands. People, buy more magazines!

Winter is around the corner

2009-11-02T23:07:00.004+01:00

With some early snow falls it's already full on winter in the higher regions of the Alps. Being in the city you wouldn't expect this at all. You even get funny looks when carrying snowboard equipment through Munich.

The other day I was shooting at a pretty unique location...

...the next day back in Munich looked like this.