ashley's 410

2010 © brian adams

Ashley and I decided to take the day off and drive out to my grandfather's house in Bird Creek, Alaska. My Grandpa has always been a gun collector; he gave me my first 22 when I was nine. Today, he gave Ashley her first gun, a 410 single-shot shotgun. While we were visiting him, Ashley and I were telling him of the last time we went shooting. We merely mentioned that she enjoyed shooting my 20 gage with buck shots, but soon after, he bluntly asked Ashley if she would like to have his 410.
I love my Grandpa; he looks out for us.

shishmaref in anchorage

2010 © brian adams

Today, Ashley and I photographed Nellie K Forbes. Nellie was one of the original elders featured in the 1951 Eskimo Cookbook on which our project is based. She is originally from Shishmaref, AK, and she moved to Anchorage from Barrow in 1972. We now have four other elders to track down in Anchorage, and after that the portraits for our project will be complete!

waiting on film

2010 © brian adams

Photos from Shishmaref will be limited for the next couple of days until we get the film back. So stay tuned!

shishmaref - day three

2010 © brian adams

As you can see, I have been focused more on photographing with film rather than digital on this trip. Above are a couple of photos I had taken yesterday of the Shishmaref seawall and Edna, the daughter of Justin Eningowok, our house mate.
Ashley has been sending the Tundra Telegraph daily article updates, so if you would like to follow us on our trip go here.

Tomorrow is our last day in this beautiful village. We are sad to go, but we are also excited to get to work on all of the post production.

shishmaref - day two

Didn't shoot much digital today, but we finished up our interviews in Shishmaref! More soon.

shishmaref - day one

Ashley on her first snow machine ride.
2010 © brian adams

Ashley and I are in Shishmaref! Photographing and interviewing has been wonderful. I can't wait to get my film to the lab. The school has been great to work with and very helpful; today, the students wrote all of their favorite native foods on the board and delegated who would write which recipe. We have only been able to have one full interview with an elder from the original book, But we have more lined up!

shishmaref

Gifts.

Chosen gear.
2010 © brian adams

A couple months ago while on a assignment, Ashley and I came across the Eskimo Cook Book. The book was made in 1951 by children of the Shishmaref Day School in Shishmaref, AK. The book inspired us to go to Shishmaref to interview and photograph the children featured in the book--now elders in their late 60s and early 70s--as well as work with the school to retrieve recipes from the current students to create a new multi-generational cookbook.
Tomorrow, Ashley and I will be leaving for Shishmaref for five days. Above are a few photos of our preparations, along with the cookbook that has inspired this project.
Wish us luck! We will be blogging as much as we can as the trip progresses, and you can follow our travels through daily articles on the Tundra Telegraph.

marian call - something fierce

2010 © brian adams

A few days ago, I photographed my old friend, Marian Call. Marian is working on a new album called Something Fierce, projected to come out in April. Above are a few photos from the shoot, with hopes of a cover for the album. Marian and I have been shooting together for years, and I believe that this is the first time we actually planned out a shoot. Usually, we just call each other up when we think it's a good day to shoot; having some order and a concept was nice for a change.
You can listen to Marian here.

four-time repeat iditarod champion

2009 © brian adams

Lance Mackey of Fairbanks has done it again! This is Mackey's fourth time in a row to win the Iditarod. He pulled into Nome today at about 3pm, completing the 1,000-mile race in just less than 9 days.

I was lucky enough to visit him at his home last year, where I look the photos above.

iditarod trail cuisine

Here is a quick video edit of our interviews with the mushers of the Iditarod.

oscar avellaneda

© Oscar Avellaneda

Today, Orion Collective salutes our own Oscar Avellaneda for landing the cover photo of Willie Hensley's book, Fifty Miles From Tomorrow.
Oscar is currently on a bike tour that started in Washington and will end in Colombia. He is currently in LA. More on his trip here.
Oscar is one of my oldest photo buddies, and I am so happy to see him doing what he loves!

what they eat

John Baker


Lance Mackey

Martin Buser


2010 © Brian Adams/orion collective

Ashley Skabar and I did a piece together on what the Iditarod Mushers eat on the trail. The story was published today on the Alaska Dispatch here. We were very happy that we were able to make portraits of our favorite mushers Lance Mackey, Martin Buser and John Baker, to name a few.

iditarod ready

photo. ashley skabar

Tonight, I was trying to think of a way to have the 120j flash connected to the Hasselblad bracket. I wanted the flash to be adjustable and easy to remove from the bracket for off-camera lighting. This is what I came up with.
Hasselblad 500cm
80 mm lens and 50 mm lens
90˙ viewfinder
hasselblad bracket
sunpak 120j
micro sync radio slave

The Iditarod is coming up this Saturday, so this is what I will be shooting with.