Winter is coming.  At home in Utah we had a early bout of winter but again, Fall has prevailed and it’s warmed up a bit before the next storm rolls through.  Hopefully that next storm will to flip the switch from fall to winter.  The seven months that lie ahead of me are full of snowy roads, planes, sharing two bed hotel rooms with four to ten smelly dudes, being stuffed into rental cars overloaded with gear, all so I get to shoot ski photos all winter.  Yes, I’m looking forward to this.

This time of year is always a mixed bag of feelings.  I’m excited to ski, shoot in the snow, spend a bunch of time with good friends and get my season going, but I’m dreading the long drives on sketchy, snowy, icy roads.  I’m pretty optimistic this season is going to be a good one for me though.  I’m coming off the best Winter I had with my photography and I’m getting my knee scoped finally and am super excited at the prospect of skiing without knee pain.  Actually I’m REALLY PUMPED about that.

I’ve already had a few super fun days out shooting some skiing this season, a bit of pre-season mini-shred with Alex Schlopy, Joss Christiansen, Giray Dadali and Will Wesson.  Unfortunately I didn’t get out to ski during the early October storms we had here but the mini-shred shooting in Park City, Alta and yesterday at Brighton.  We’ve done everything from backflip jumps on snowmaking piles, handrails, a pre-season jib park at Brighton and of course, we got kicked out of our first completely harmless urban jib already.

Lots of people did however get out and shred the early snow, and looking at the photos here that Teton Gravity Research cinemetographer Pete O’Brien got, I do wish I could have gone out and gotten some early turns in.  Check it out here.

Of course, in Colorado the snowguns have been pounding out the ribbon of death since September but this fall, Keystone Resort stepped it up huge and for whatever reason has been sending it with the snowmaking and the Area-51 terrain park opened with a top to bottom park complete with JUMPS!  Photographer Nate Abbott shot a bit of that and has a story about it here at www.espn.com/action website.

So here we go, Winter is coming.  Or, maybe it’s here already.  It just depends where  you call home.  My first shooting trip of the season is tentatively two weeks away.  It’s almost go time for me.  I leave you with a photo from my first shooting trip of last season to Grand Rapids, Michigan with Mike Hornbeck, Henrik Harlaut and Ahmet Dadali with Level 1 Productions about the same time as my upcoming trip in a few weeks.

This year I got lucky.  I was at the Halloween store on Halloween day looking for a costume and found the most epic wig ever.  I’m assuming every one of you has seen the Kill Bill movie series and remember the evil master, Pai Mae.  I was considering a few other mediocre costumes then I saw the “Japanese Sensi” wig.  Pretty easy choice, I then again got lucky at the thrift store and found a “Oriental” silk getup that completed the look.  I had never done Halloween as any sort of Asian character but at least I pulled it off well.  Needless to say I was pretty proud.  Here’s to the drinking holiday where everyone gets to forget who they are and have a shitload of fun!

Thanks to Jordan Harper over at Saga Outerwear for taking these photos of me in the new Saga video studio.  Check out his post on Saga’s website with a few more photos from the night.

This one is a bit different though, it’s a video with some of the action footage as well as an interview with the skier, Matt Walker.  This was straight up video game shit.  Sliding a lift cable.  It’s one of those things I’ve wanted to shoot forever and figured it would never happen.  Fortunately for me, I work with Pete Alport at Poor Boyz Productions.  Pete likes to come up with crazy shit for pro skiers to do.  This video was put together by Salomon as part of their Freeski TV series.

Making of the photo - Salomon Freeski TV - Episode 3 from Erik Seo on Vimeo.

My shot, Tom Wallisch, 2nd from the left.

I got to shoot a few portraits of Tom Wallisch and Dash Longe a week ago for the www.espn.com/action website with a Halloween theme that was pretty fun.  It’s been good doing portrait shoots lately with a concept and theme, it’s let me get a little further these days with my portrait work.  I was lucky enough to have a crazy Halloween set all ready for me to use in Dash’s shot, and experiment with some smoke for Tom’s shot, it was definitely fun.

Check out the gallery here

Check it out here at http://www.powdermag.com

I ran across this iPhone/iPod charge/sync dock / CF/SD card reader when I was at the Apple store yesterday getting my stupid iPhone fixed for the 5th time.  The Griffin Simplifi is 3 important computer accessories in one for photographers.  This thing is pretty epic and if you are anything like me, you probably have too many cords and accessories plugged into your computer as is.  Why not put two of the most often used ones accessories you have one place?  Anyways, I just ordered one and am pretty stoked to get it.  The one thing that sucks is it runs on USB 2.0 instead of Firewire 800 but for the convenience it’s not that big of a deal.

Here’s what you get:

• iPhone/iPod charge/sync dock
• CF / SD memory card reader
• 2-port powered USB 2.0 hub

Here’s a link to it at bhphoto.com

More info/specs at Griffin’s product page here

See Suz do a big huge backy off a big cliff.  This was another big one for me this year, it’s a first again, the first Freeskier Magazine cover for me so far.  I’ve been working with Freeskier since the start of my career, they actually ran my first ski editorial shot a while back.  Check it out on newsstands now!

Check out Suzanne Graham ski BASE jumping a 1,000 foot cliff in Alaska for a Japanese music video here and check out her website - www.suzgraham.com

I’m 3 for 4 so far on very fun weddings thanks to Josh and Lindsey.  Shooting a wedding for friends is always a great time because I get to be part of the wedding party and get to share a much closer part of my friends’ wedding than most get to.  It’s a great honor and of course tons of fun.  I took a far more journalistic approach to this wedding as those I have in the past and I have to say, it was pretty fun to do so.  Josh and Lindsey had their big day at the University Club in downtown Denver, Colorado.  The venue was very old and charming,  a small building surrounded by skyscrapers in downtown with photos of club members back to 1902 on the walls!  The University Club made for a perfect venue for the size of this wedding,  never too cramped, but the right size that there always seemed to be a great crowd everywhere.  Thanks to Josh, Lindsey and their families for putting together a great day!

Powder Magazine’s website is starting with the current October 2009 issue and doing a making the photo feature, interviewing the photographers featured in the Shooting Gallery of each issue.  We talk about the making of the photo and any other little tidbits from the day we shot the photo.  They’ve done one with me for each of the two photos I have in the current issue of Powder Magazine.  In this installment of it I talk a bit about the fence jib shot of Tim Russell and the shot of Wiley Miller on Rocker Gap at Guardsman Pass, Utah.  Check it out here

Also, similar to the making of the photos, I have an interview about my cover shot including some audio of the interview from the October 2009 issue of Powder, the same one with the Shooting Gallery interviews.  Check that interview here

The Poor Boyz Productions world premiere of Every Day is a Saturday has come and one in Seattle, as has the Rage Films Salt Lake City premiere of Pretty Good.  I had some prints up at both shows, thought I’d put a few pics of the prints up.  It wasn’t anything super fancy but was nice to have my work up, and see it big.  If the premiere of Every Day is a Saturday hasn’t come through your town yet and you want to see some of my shots big, then check out the premiere.  I have four prints travelling with the PBP Triple Threat tour.  For more information click  here.