Right now I’m in a photo class at the University of Colorado at Boulder focusing on “Fine Art Photography.” My professor (Albert Chong) asked the class to create a series of photos focusing on the subject of beauty.

For my project I asked a series of three people what they considered to be beautiful. However moving away from the typical ideal of beauty, I was looking for something that would be considered only beautiful to these specific individuals.

In addition, I chose to work with photo collage, making each image by placing together over 300 layers in Photoshop. Here’s what I came up with:

We just finished up shooting some interviews for the project. Unfortunately, Keri is home in Minnesota for the summer, so it was just Kimmel and I…

Our studio for the shoot was my basement, with an elegant Blake Kimmel design canvas backdrop. Despite the mom ‘n pop wood panel walls, it certainly did the trick.

The project is coming along great. Our original plan of releasing the series by the end of July, looks like it was rather farfetched. However, we’re shooting for the end of August by the latest. Its been rather difficult to balance school, life, and Just Passing Thru.

Here’s a view of the Just Passing Thru office, which also serves as my room. As you can see, we’re equipped with a brand new Mac Pro and other electronic trinkets. Also, our trailer should be ready in the near future, so check back at justpassingthru.tv to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in our neck of the woods…

Last Monday, July 20th, we made a trip to Woodward at Copper to shoot the closing segment of the project. Our original plans consisted of an earlier trip to this summer ski destination. However, due to some conflicts, we had been unable to stop by and check out what Woodward had to offer. As a result, we pushed our visit to Copper back to late July; nearly one month after the end of the trip. This also coincided with Woodward’s grom week, which was sponsored by Jiberish.

Interior view of “The Barn” at Woodward…

Our trip began on Sunday, July 29th, when Pete Drago (one of the owners of Jiberish), picked me up from my home in Boulder, Colorado. Venturing up to the camp, we met with the kids who were attending Woodward this session (ages eight through ten). 

Woodward’s staff led a stretch amongst the kids prior to letting them loose in the barn. Safety first here at Woodward…

This could quite possibly be one of the best bowl cuts I’ve ever witnessed…

Following the orientation session on Sunday night, we found our home for the night at “The Edge,” Copper’s staff housing. Here, Drago seems a little tuckered out after a fun filled evening of playing in the Barn at Woodward…

The following morning, we awoke to a beautiful day and sunny skies, something we aren’t typically used to here at Just Passing Thru…

We jumped in a bus and made our way up to the hill. Sadly, being the end of July, much of Copper’s snow had already melted, leaving the park severely diminished…

Here is Copper’s jump line as of July 20th. Had we been here a month earlier (as originally planned), we could have found a much more significant jump…

A view of the lower half of Copper’s run, late July. Blake gives a friendly wave…

Kimmel slides one of the down rails with his boots. One word: progression…

Here’s an example of some of the skiers attending grom week here at Woodward. The little guy is working that pizza stop…

Following our morning on snow, we ventured over to the barn to continue our day of play. Kimmel signs his life away prior to heading up to the trampolines…

While we arrived a little late to hit some of the larger features of the summer, we still had a great time throwing on our gear and making a few turns. Stay tuned to www.justpassingthru.tv for some more updates on the project.

Sunday, June 21, Keri and I dropped Blake off at the Portland airport. He’s off to work a week at the LA Film Festival, chasing celebrities around the red carpet and beyond. With only the two of us in the car, we certainly felt significantly roomier. However, Blake certainly will be missed.

At roughly 10:00 AM, Keri and I began our adventure up to Whistler, BC. Rather than doing the originally planned coastal route, we did a straight whole shot up to Seattle, WA on route 5 to visit with my good friend Amelia “Wheels” Burns and some of her family. Arriving in Seattle by 1:30 PM, Keri and I had some time to kill while we waited for Wheels. Having never really been to Seattle, we immediately directed ourselves towards the Space Needle and the surrounding Seattle Center.

Keri stands below a towering tower of fun.

We found parts of the Seattle Center rather interesting as we crossed paths with robots and other strange sites. After some time exploring the area, Wheels made it to Seattle and encouraged us to head down to Freemont to check out their Summer Solstice event that was going on.

Boy, oh boy, was the festival exciting. We roamed the streets for a few hours, taking in the sites to be seen, and exploring the Summer Solstice. Ian at the Cliff Bar stand recognized us and was nice enough to award us with a few packs of delicious bars for the road. Thanks Ian!

Check out this interestingly decorated dog; he was great (Sorry for such a mediocre photo, I was stumbling around in a hurry to snap this image).

After some time in Freemont, Wheels led us to the ferry dock en route to her lovely home on Bainbridge Island. We jumped on our vessel and feasted on some Ivars Fish ‘n Chips. 

The views of Seattle and the surrounding area were exquisite.

Simply stunning…

Here’s our tour guide for the next day, Amelia “Wheels” Burns.

Keri takes a quick photo of Wheels as we cruise towards Bainbridge Island.

Once again, simply stunning…

After a short ferry ride we reached the shores of Bainbridge Island. Wheels and her parents gave us a tour around her house, it’s absolutely magnificent. 

This is the view from the back of their house. Not bad at all…

Wheel’s mother Darden, shows off her beautiful garden to us. I’m rather jealous as my measly garden back in Colorado looks nothing like this.

After a nice little tour around the Burn’s family abode, we cozied up and had our first good-nights sleep in quite some time. This morning we head off to fly around in a B-24 Bomber from WWII. Yep, you read that right…

Check back at justpassingthru.tv for more updates in the near future!

Looks like we’re about done with passing through the Mt. Hood area. It certainly has been quite the mixture of weather as we’ve experienced everything from sun, rain, wind, and fog. Our first two days started off great with sunshine and some great skiing.

Here I am just passing through the Timeberline parking lot en route to a lovely day of skiing. 

During our time here we skied with “bunch” pros. Here’s Mike Hornbeck ready to drop into the public park jump line.

The Flanagan family was on site with us for the week, making it happen on and off the slopes. Here are Seamus (age 12) and Paddy (age 10).

For the first part of our stay in the Hood area, we camped by the shores of Trillium Lake. Our neighbor, Jeff Java, was a professional musician and let us record a few tracks for our upcoming video release. 

Keri is so into mustaches…

Unfortunately, on the third day of our adventures in Hood, our stay at the shores of Trillium Lake were interrupted by severe rains. We awoke to a leaking tent and a messy campsite. After a two hour clean up, we found ourselves at home inside the Cozy Cabin Cafe in Welches, Oregon for a day off. It was the perfect place to be with free public wi-fi, delicious mac-n-cheese, and other wholesome comfort food.

We quickly bunked up with the Level 1 Productions crew where we spent much of our time at Da Hood House.

Level 1’s Kyle Decker goes through some shots with Phil Casabon, Mike Hornbeck, and Henrik Harlaut.

We also made a pleasant trip to Windell’s to do some skating in Bob, which is the indoor training facility at the camp. 

Henrik Harlaut skates the mini-ramp…

Mike Hornbeck drops ‘er down…

Kimmel and I get the shot of Level 1’s Freedle Coty. Notice the shotgun mic. I’m totally meant to be a grip… 

Bob is home to indoor trampolines, skate parks, and foam pits. All around it’s just a pretty darn good time. In case you’re wondering what that floating grey ball is around the middle of the frame, that’s Tom Wallisch. Yep, the actual Tom Wallisch. He can double flip, no big.

Tomorrow morning we take Kimmel to the Portland Airport so he can catch his flight to the LA Film Festival. There he will be doing some video work on the red carpet and dealing with “bunch” celebs. Keri and I head up to Bainbridge Island for the night en route to the Whistler area and some more skiing. Stay tuned to justpassingthru.tv for more info on the trip…

We arrived at Mt Hood around 8:00PM on Tuesday evening, just as the last tendrils of daylight were leaving the Oregon pine sky line. Finding Seamus Flanagan and his family who were lingering around Government Camp, the squad headed down to find a camp site at Trillium Lake. There were plenty of sites available, and we were able to snag a nice one just 10 yards from the water. This would be our home for the next three days.
Wednesday we finally got to embrace real snow under our feet at Timberline Ski Resort. In the lift line we found a gaggle of shred bots, many affiliated with Jiberish, Salomon and Level 1. Windells brings up a plethora of top notch talent to coach campers stacking the hillside with the whos-who of ski and snowboard industry talent.
We spent the next two days chasing the likes of, Matt Walker, Liam Downey, Tom Wallisch, Tanner Rainville, Phil Casabon, Henrik Harlaut, Adam Delorme, Nick Martini, Sammy Carlson, TJ Schiller, Mike Hornbeck, Anna Segal, Corey Vanular and Jiberish snowboarder Justin Norman, to name a few. The high speed quad accessed public park was a morning favorite featuring 5 jumps in a row. In the afternoon, the newly installed Windells rope tow cycled shredders through a small rail and jump garden that was fun for the whole family.

Yesterday, after a short break from shredding, we met the Level 1 crew in the Timberline parking lot at 4:45PM to head up to the biggest jump on the glacier for their traditional Mt Hood spring shoot. A long, bumpy ride in an archaic snowcat, brought us back to the Windells lane which was now being whipped by high winds. Sun was come and go. Adam Delorme, who can never sit still, took some speed checks with Mike Hornbeck, trying to feel out the feature and make something happen. Delorme finally got the speed dialed and got off the ground, straight airing with perfect speed. With Hornbeck in tow and one more test run, the wind continued in its ferocity. Nothing was getting done on that mound in those conditions, so everyone packed it in and headed down.

This morning we awoke to heavy rain at our campsite, and fumbled to get our soggy gear into our car and leave. With bad weather up top, we didn’t bother skiing. Perhaps a day trip to Portland… Stay tuned.

A brush fire we stopped to watch in the Columbia River Valley on Tuesday.

Trying to look excited about a car ride.

Mt Hood in the distance.

Keri pulling a sneaker roadside before we set up a choice road shot with Mt Hood in the background.

Corey zoning into the camp fire at Trillium Lake. Keri and Paddy Flanagan playing the logic game “Rush Hour” at the table.

Ticket pass off, use your voice and holler loud!

Liam Downey and Tanner Rainville riding the Magic Mile lift.

Tom Wallisch riding a snow cat that is at least twice as old has him up to the Level 1 jump.

The Level 1 launcher with ’space ship’ clouds on the sky line.

Delorme and Hornbeck fuxin wit it.

Casabon, Clarke, Harlaut and Wallisch swinging in the wind.

On Tuesday, we woke up groggy from late night editing and rushed to the Salt Lake City airport to find John Symms. A fun day of activities awaited us in Ogden, UT.

We started with a tour of the Salomon North American headquarters with Jenny Naftulin. We gave dog pounds to staffers and poked around the triumphant vaulted ceilinge’d office zones. Good folks, cool building.

Jenny slated our next stop, the Jib Yard indoor rail park in downtown, complete with fun rails and boxes accessed by meat packing rollers and surrounded by snow like carpet. Kids were going OFF when we showed up throwing all sorts of switch up variations as well as fakie ons and tip dips. Symms, Clarke and Keri stepped in to their skis and tinkered with some of the features.

The next stop was the Salomon Center where a myriad of indoor adrenaline sport simulation mechanisms awaited. We chose the Flowrider, an indoor standing wave. Symms forgot his swim trunks but was thankfully comfortable enough to session in his pink undies anyways. Although Indoor Skydiving was slated, we ran out of time as the wait for the air tube was over an hour long. We jumped in the car instead, and murked up to Boise where Keri and I found pull out beds at Symms’ house and Clarke pitched his tent in the yard, one last dress rehearsal for our big Mt Hood camping adventures scheduled to start in Hood tonight.

We just pitched camp at the Trillium Lake, a much less computer friendly spot than the comfortable conventional abodes that we have been frequenting. We will do our best to get stuff up as much as possible. First day of shredding at Mt Hood tomorrow and the whole crew is syked. Direct from the Huckleberry restaurant in Government Camp, OR, Just Passing Thru Crew, out.

Jenny, the Salomom, was our tour guide for the day.

John Symms joined us for some fun as well, adorned with only his blackberry phone, a camera, a string cheese, and a pear. Always prepared.

Keri and I do our best to reenact this glorious mural.

Our first stop was a trip to the newly opened Jib Yard.

Keri and I are ready to go hit the indoor slopes.

The Salomon Center is home to a continuous wave pool, an arcade, a bowling alley, a mini putt course, and an indoor skydiving tube.

Our first adventure in the Salomon Center was a ride on the continuous wave pool. Blake Kimmel lines up a shot.

Symms dressed to impress in pink. Nice looking muscles.

We’re ready to rip.

Symms lines up his drop in. Looking good…

Symms getting after it.

I wasn’t too great at the surfing, so I stuck to the boogie board.

Getting sprayed down on our walk back to the drop in ramp.

Rock climbing!

We made the drive to Boise en route to Mt. Hood. We arrived in Boise just in time for a perfect sunset.

It’s 4:24AM and Clarke and I can’t stop dweebing out on pictures/music/video. We continue to have 5 hour and less sleep nights but haven’t given in yet. Too much excitement in the air, especially when the humble digs gracious hosts offer to you are equipped with epic rooms like the attic at Dylan Ferguson and Matt Flesher’s house. Accessed by a creaky ceiling drop down staircase this soundproofed geek out den is kitted out top to bottom with awesome music toys. A sturdy homemade wood counter sports a recessed, bolted in DDM 4000 mixer to accommodate walk up collaborators. 

Clarke and I landed in here a few hours ago and haven’t left. Video treats from this upstairs laboratory coming soon. 

Clarke working in Final Cut, 4:02AM. 

Layed deep in the plywood, for ergonomical access.

The last day and a half have been a long, long adventure.. with a three hour nap..

After a slow start to day one, we finally picked up Keri Herman in Breckenridge, and hit the local City Market to snag some grub for our first day.

Our slow pace continued as we managed to leave Breckenridge by about 6:30PM on route to Moab. Keri decided the children’s cart fit her  best during our stop at the supermarket.

By the time we reached Glenwood Springs, we decided it was time to pull over at the local Conoco and whip up some turkey and cheese sandwiches.

After a tasty meal, Keri palmed some jugs while Blake took a look at some time-lapses that were shot during the drive.

We managed to reach Moab by roughly 1:30 AM. Earlier that day, the kind woman at the information desk informed us that we could easily find campsites in a variety of areas around the park. Unfortuneatly she was quite incorrect on her assumptions as nearly every site was taken as we meandered around the area. By the time 3:00 AM hit, we realized that we had driven nearly forty miles and were out of luck on finding a site. This was when I realized that my car’s empty light had just popped on, meaning roughly thirty miles till we were stuck on the side of the road without a campsite or gas. Fortunately enough we were able to coast in neutral to the nearest Mavericks. Remember to always check your gas gage before adventuring into the wilderness at two in the morning..

With that being said, the gas station attendant was nice enough to point us in the right direction. Our tent was pitched and we were ready for bed by 5:00 AM..

The following morning we awoke by 8:00 AM. Even a three hour nap in the wilderness is quite refreshing..

Blake and Keri were peacefully sleeping when I awoke..

We quickly rose from bed and grilled up some steaks for breakfast. Nothing like a piece of beef in the wilderness. I felt like a real man..

We took a quick photo prior to packing up the Subaru and heading out. Not a bad site to wake up to..

We then ventured towards the Arches National Park where we got to see Utah’s license plate in real life. There were spectacular vistas in all directions, with plenty of senior citizens soaking it up with us.

Apparently these women thought it would be a good idea to take a photo of Keri..

Just Passing Thru..

Blake and Keri leap beneath an enormous arch..

That’s all for now. We’ve made it to Park City where we’re staying with US Ski Team member Dylan Ferguson. We’re going to join him on one of his typical training days tomorrow..