Recently I had the opportunity to be featured in American Photo magazine, as part of their “One to Watch” and “Skills” departments. Feel free to check it out by downloading the PDF’s here APH0210_017-019 and here APH0210_068-070.

2010 marked the 5th Annual Deep Winter Photo Challenge, and the 3rd time I competed in it. The competition format is comprised of 3 shooting days, where 5 photographer-athlete teams shoot on Whistler Blackcomb during operation hours, in-bounds (for the most part), and around the village any time. On the 4th day each team presents a slideshow in front of a 1000 strong crowd and a panel of 5 judges. It is always interesting to see how with the exact same conditions and time frame, the different teams produce completely different results. The last two years, my team was voted top spot, and this year, after working hard for three days my team mates (Dave Short and Chad Sayers) and I were voted top spot again. We tried to get creative as possible – climbing trees, rappelling down cliffs, amongst other things in order to get unique perspectives.

A huge thanks to Dave Short and Chad Sayers for their creative vision and hard work in front of the camera, and to John and Ange as well. I’ll post some behind the scenes footage in the coming weeks from some of the more interesting setups.

There was no better way to end 2009 and start 2010 than by visiting Great Canadian Heli Skiing at Rogers Pass, BC for a 3 day photo shoot. I was joined by Jamie Bond from Doglotion.com, and Dave and Dan Treadway who (as always) killed it in front of the camera. Stunning terrain (burn and pillow heaven), deep and stable blower powder, and warm hospitality made for a fantastic New Years.

Here is a video edited together from some video I took between shooting stills, with some additional footage provided by Jamie Bond.

Bringing in the New Year at Great Canadian Heli Skiing from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.

Thanks to Tim and Greg and our guide Paddy at Great Canadian Heli Skiing for making it all happen.

Here is a recent cover from the Swedish ski magazine Aka Skidor. The image is of Chad Sayers, taken in the Blackcomb backcountry.

Here is a recent cover from Skiing magazine, taken with Chad Sayers last spring in the Blackcomb backcountry.

December brings the most beautiful light of the year to the mountains – the sun never rises too high from the southern horizon. The first shooting day of the season on Whistler-Blackcomb yielded a fantastic sunset with friends before skiing down in the dark into the valley fog.

Since I was quite young, I have always spent a lot of time in the shop – designing, building, and tinkering. One of the things I love about photography is it gives me an excuse to continue being creative in the shop. Getting the camera out of my hands and into harder to reach spots is a goal that often guides my photographic process, in order to reveal a different perspective. This inevitably requires some sort of gadget, and I love the process of designing, building (at least in part), and tinkering with the eventual goal of using the boom, or rig, or mount, or whatever it becomes to help gain a unique and/or aesthetic perspective.

In this vein, and in the spirit of testing the video function of my new Nikon D3s, I put together this quick video of some recent time spent making some new equipment that I’ll be using this winter.

Workshop Time from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.

Some friends of mine recently have put a lot of work into making a calendar featuring talented female freeskiers, with the purpose of raising money for breast cancer. I contributed a number of images to the calendar, as I’ve had the privilege of shooting with some of these talented athletes. Check out radboob.com to order a calendar.

What a start! Normally we wouldn’t even be skiing by now, but the last week was one of the deepest weeks on memory for me skiing in Whistler. Here is a video of us enjoying it!

Cruise the galleries – I have put up some of my favorite images from the past 6 months taken my travels through British Columbia, the American west, and the French Alps.