Ultramega
Caine just after his flash of this wonderful climb on East Mtn. BTW this was Caines last climb of the season, so he was pretty psyched to get the flash. Nice job mate!

Ultramega
PSA – Ol Yeller is the shizzle
I <3 our trailer…..

Trailer on Gleatherland with North and West Mtn in the background
El Rancho and some Hueco
We went out for Caine’s 30th Birthday to El Rancho. Food was decent, but the company and the drinks were really good which is what is truly important. The next day some of us went out on tour to East and had a blast.

Andy Mann and the margs

Jason Kehl who thanks to google shall see this blog.

Man of the hour

RickyO and his plate.

Glenn Johnson Taco

Alex pysched to have cheese.

Jason Kehl and his stache

Rocco making it an official climbing party. Alex pondering the knee bar beta.

Who's this F#*k?!?!?!

Bday cake thing.

El Guapo y es nuevo novia.

Glenn sending Mojo.

Top of Mojo.

Glenn on Whispers of Mortality

Hamburger hand

Caine

Flash celebration

End of the day landscape photo
Butter Pumper
Went out with Heather Johnson last week and photographed her on one of her projects that she sent this season Butterpumper. Congrats Heather! Here is the image:

Heather Johnson on Butterpumper.
Hueco Take 3
Getting caught up with all of these… Here is the third set that I edited. Lovin it out here, even had some snow again last night. Enjoy:

Pictograph in the Kiva Cave.

Pictograph in the Kiva Cave.

Katja Vidmar on Choir Boys.

Katja Vidmar on Choir Boys.

Abbey Smith on 1969.

Abbey Smith on 1969.

Jason Kehl on a project.

Jason Kehl on a project.

Jason Kehl working the bottom moves of a project.

Jason Kehl happy to be taking out some slack.
Happy Birthday Caine!
So last night at Hueco, it rained, sleeted and snowed. This morning was super chilly, overcast and nasty, but the desert weather never ceases to amaze me. The end of the day turned out to be super beautiful, and I some how convinced Caine to climb on his North Mountain FA for a photo shoot on his 30th birthday. The Australian pulled through, and we got some killer shots. Happy Birthday Caine, and thanks so much!

Caine on his North Mountain FA Low Expectations.
Hueco Tanks – Part Deaux
So I was kind of waiting on approval to post some images that I took, but I haven’t heard back yet, so I guess I’ll skip posting those, because I want to show you some more of what I got. Hueco has been a blast, and it’s so beautiful out here. The days tend to fly by, even the days that I am resting. The trip is half way over now, but there still seems like there is so much more to do both climbing and photographing. Here is the second set of images I got out here taken about a week or so into the trip. Enjoy.

Caine looking cool, Jason looking... cool?

Caine matching up on High Ideals.

Jason Kehl high on High Ideals.

Abbey Smith on Dark Silouette.
Hueco Tanks – The first days
Ahhhhhhh…. Finally making my post from Hueco Tanks. All I can say is, other than the one day of rain, the weather has been absolutely amazing, the people here are great, and as you probably know, the climbing here is world class. It’s such an awesome opportunity to be able to be here for an extended period. Seeing old friends, seeing people come in and out and getting to know the area on an intimate level has been awesome. I feel so very fortunate to having such a wonderful and loving wife in my life who is allowing me to be here for so long because she understands my passion for climbing and photography. I love her a lot, and miss her tons. But enough with the mushy stuff, here are some images because that’s what you really came here for.

Ann Raber on King Cobra. Climbing with Ann on this day was super fun.

Caine Delacy from Australia getting in his target practice.

Glenn Johnson exploding the clay pigeon.

Heather Johnson and her .410 at sunset.

Ditch digging on the rest day.

Jaime Cavasos sending Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive.

Backside of North Mtn, looking at West and East Mtn.

Eric Quait on the classic Ghetto Simulator.
There’s definitely more, but I’m going to try to spread it out over time
Here are some more images from the trip:
http://merrickales.com/hueco020910/
Albert Pujols – Marucci Bats
I had the awesome opportunity to work with Marucci Bats again. This time we were shooting head shots of Albert Pujols as well as grabbing some photos of him training at batting practice. He was a really great guy, but as most famous people out there, he didn’t have a lot of extra time to give us for the photo shoot. We were able to set everything up before he showed up, and I think we were able to grab some really great content. I wanted these images to have a sort of gritty/photojournalist feel to them. I was shooting at pretty high ISO which got me some nice grain effect, and I applied a few actions that I created to help set the mood that I was looking for. Here are some images of Albert Pujols at the batting cages, and a couple of portraits I was able to get as well:

85mm - f/1.4 - 1/500 - iso 3200

85mm - f/1.4 - 1/500 - iso 3200

28mm- f/2.8 - 1/320 - iso4500

19mm - f/2.8 - 1/320 - iso4500

19mm - f/2.8 - 1/320 - iso4500

19mm - f/2.8 - 1/320 - iso4500

105mm - f/3.2 - 1/400 - iso1600

85mm - f/2.8 - 1/400 - iso1600
Rogers Park 01-23-2010
Well if you can’t tell, there hasn’t been to much rock climbing going on for me in 2010. There’s been a lot of rain, and not a lot of motavation, but that shall soon change…. Heading to Hueco Tanks in a few days and plan to spend the month of February there. Looking forward to the escape, and being able to photograph a lot, as well as catch up on some much needed reading. Went to Rogers Park last weekend and captured a few images. I love photographing rock climbing on days like this. Nice and overcast. Makes everything so simple. Here is a few captures.

50mm - f/2.0 - 1/640 - iso200

14mm - f/2.8 - 1/250 - iso500

14mm - f/2.8 - 1/200 - iso500
and we will exit out with a photo of G-dawg. She likes to come to the top and help me photograph.

24mm - f/4.0 - 1/200 - iso200