Old man winter battled back and gave us some fresh powder on May 29th. Nick Poohachoff, Dylan James, and myself headed out to Blue Lakes, CA to get some of the last goods. Two friends sit on top of a mountain
Life
Crack The Whip
I just got off a 7 day trip. I now have 4 days to finish the photos before I fly to Mammoth for another shoot. It’s time to Crack The Whip.
Powder Explorer: The Truck
Part two of the Powder Explorer rig is the truck. My few requirements were as follows. V8, 4×4, and 8ft Bed. The 8ft bed really narrowed down my searching. Originally I was hoping for a manual with a diesel tank but missed out on buying the only one I ever found. Just not a popular
I get hit in the head
This is how I met my roommate Kyle Ryan. I was shooting the Rome Pre Jib at Big Boulder and Kyle caught his edge on the wallride. Needless to say it was a quick meeting with no time to exchange names. Kyle is a great kid though + he taught me how to play blackjack.
Powder Explorer: The Sled
Over the summer I have been formulating a plan to go mobil and chase the powder. Along comes Pow Explorer (site) and boost my desire to do so even more. At the end of last winter I bought at 2004 Ski-Doo Summit 800cc 144 track from my buddy Kade. It is the first part of
Shreddy Times
Shreddy Times is a crew ran by Conor Toumarkine out of Lake Tahoe, CA. Conor is shooting some of Tahoe’s biggest up and coming riders and producing great web edits. This year I met up with Conor and his crew through Sam Hulbert for a backcountry session deep in the wilderness of Tahoe. Conor brought
Winter in Summer: Big Boulder, PA
-Billy Keil AKA Bobby AKA Bobby Big Hands with a most proper backside tailslide Every year I like to make it up to Big Boulder Ski Resort in Blakeslee Pennsylvania to shoot their park for the various magazine’s resort guide issues. Big Boulder is host to a park that has been in the Transworld Top
Winter in Summer: Stowe, VT Part 2
For the trip we were about to take on day 2, we sure did not wake up early enough. Mike, Justin and myself were late to bed seeing the night before was New Years and consequently we were late to rise. Once we did get ourselves up, it was for a quick breakfast before we
Winter in Summer: Stowe, VT
The following took place between December 30th, 2009 and January 3rd, 2010. During the winter of 07/08 I lived in Stowe, VT and worked as Photo Editor at East Coast Snowboarding Magazine. My home mountain for that year was Stowe Mountain Resort and I fell in love with it’s woods and backcountry riding. Fast forward
Tahoe Video Part 5-The Last Chapter.
Tahoe Video Part 4…Reno
Reno will eat you and then spit you out. NSFW
Hanover, PA
During the fall of last year my girlfriend and I took a few walks threw the downtown part of Hanover, PA. We snapped a few photos, bought some cheap movies, added to our magazine collection/addiction, and passed away the time. Olivia Arden (FILM) Olivia Arden(Film) Olivia Arden(Film) Olivia Arden(Film) Hot Wheels(FILM) Sleeping Cat(Film) Smoke Stack(FILM)
Tahoe Video Part 3
I spent most of my free time at the Tahoe Donnor house that was occupied by a group of guys from PA who went to the local college in Truckee. This video features a mini interview with 2010 Trans Am winner Dom Luza, along with some backyard snowboarding, and jokes. NSFW
Tahoe Video Part 2
NSFW
Tahoe Video Part 1
NSFW
PA-CA 2010 The Video
NSFW
On The Road
Drove back to PA last week, only to fly out to Washington. I’ll be back home soon with some new blogs. Until then enjoy the sunsets in your life.
April Showers
Yesterday we awoke to two feet of fresh super light mid winter like snow. I went to Castle Peak with my roommates and friends from PA who go to college in Tahoe.
Kyle Ryan
I just came home to find this.
Powder at Northstar
My roommates and I filmed this earlier in the year. Edited by Eric Ryan.
Happy Birthday Sam!
Camping For Couloirs
Trying to go to bed at 10 PM to wake up at 2 AM and drive 8 hours to hike for another 2 1/2 is not easy. Spencer Cordovano called me telling me of big couloirs and even bigger plans but before all the details were out I was in on the trip. Waking up at
March Snow In Tahoe
I peeped threw my blinds today and saw snow tumbling down to the ground. What a great way to start off the month.
Tahoe Photo
Will Bateman and myself rode Alpine Meadows yesterday and I got worked so I took today to catch up on work.
PA-CA 2010
Justin and myself made our trip from Harrisburg Pennsylvania to Tahoe California last week for the second year in the row. I shot photos along the trip on the LX3, which you can view in this flickr slideshow. Justin also made a video edit from our trip.
7 Springs Resort Pennsylvania
Over the weekend Doug Usko, Mike Bennett, Jesse Stoneburger and myself went to 7 Springs Resort to shoot their halfpipe on opening day. I decided to film a bunch of our trip with my new Panasonic LX3, and here is the video result. It is a lot of fun filming with this camera and I
Stowe, Vermont
I left on wednesday morning for Stowe, Vermont with Justin Mullen and Mike Bennett. We stayed at the house of Stowe guide Pat Walsh. We rode off resort for two days and on resort for two days before leaving on Monday. We were blessed with some fresh snow each day. Here are some videos from
Snow in PA!
It started falling last night at midnight. Today at 6pm it was 15 inches and the forecast calls for more threw the night. Big plans for the next week.
End The Fed – New Book
Olivia bought me “End the Fed” by Ron Paul. I was a Ron Paul fan during the last election and was really excited when I saw his interview on Jon Stewart regarding this book. My plan is to crack it open over the Thanksgiving weekend.
STINK BUG CONTROL
Twenty four dead stink bugs all in a row. How many more will I kill? I don’t know.
Snow Leopard
Hello? Can you hear me out there? I’m reporting in to you from Mac OS X 10.6. Installation went perfectly and I’m trying out the new features. Stoked.
Burning Bridges
I was really excited when I found this movie still available on the Holden Outerwear website. I am not an impulse buyer by a long shot, but when I saw this I didn’t even think twice about ordering it. I have had a bootleg copy of the movie for years now but it has completely
Doug Usko: Portraits of People I Know
Doug is one of the first people I ever snowboarded with at Ski Roundtop when I was in my early teens. Now 7 years later we still skate in Harrisburg when we can and Philadelphia for my first time last month.
FDR Skatepark Philadelphia
I have not been to Philadelphia since when I was in middle school and went to a Flyers hockey game with my father. So when Alex Kinttle called and asked me if I wanted to go skate FDR park I quickly agreed and set a date for our trip. The hour and half ride went
Holga Stories
Might turn this into a new blog series. Just a roll of film through the Holga and it does not even have to make sense. Luckily most of these images were shot on my drive back from Tahoe to PA so it does have somewhat of a story.
Proud Papa
In a move to make more of my programs and music legal, I purchased my first copy of Adobe Photoshop CS4 & iWork 09. I have been using PS since CS 1 so it’s about time I send Adobe some money to show my support for their great products. I bought iWork over Microsoft Office
Polaroid of the Day
I ran out of film. See the older days on my flickr.
Vintage Tractors
My cousin Cody is somewhat of a mechanical genius I have been told and for his age it would really be an understatement to say somewhat. His passion and understanding of motorized vehicles runs in the blood according to the older ones in the family. My grandfather has this frankenstein of a tractor that he
I steal Polaroids
Olivia has a polaroid camera but refuses to ever use it. Last night I took it from her and snapped off three photos before she could rip it out of my hands. I now owe her $6 for wasted polaroids even though she has about 50 or so on her wall in her room.
Pennsylvania Skateboarding
Now that it’s summer and I don’t have a job I have been skateboarding quite a bit and have been getting better in the last 2 months then I have in the past 5 years. My total bag of tricks is as follows Ollie, Ollie off objects (I count that as a tick in my
Matt Roberge VS. Ben Birk
Battle took place on the TW comment boards.
April 4-29
The month started off with shooting the Academy Snowboard Camp at Boreal. Things then got serious as I shot with the whole Academy team for 5 day all threw north Tahoe. Sugar Bowl built Nick Poohachoff a large step up jump that we shot on for two days. Also Ryan Tarbell got shots on
31 Hours,
gets you this far if you don’t stop to sleep. Rock Springs Wyoming to York PA.
Feb 24 – March 6th
I am really behind on the updates so here are some photos. On the 24th, I went with Jordan Parks to shoot at this weird metal structure. She is a great rider and showed her dedication hitting this thing 25 or more times. On the 25th and 26th I went to the tree stump that
4 Days
Spent most of the first day looking at three rails, but didn’t hit a single one. Instead went over to Neri’s backyard and snowboarded for a little. I even strapped on Matty B’s board and tried a few tricks. Day two was spent at ASI where my roommate Justin Mullen was eyeing up a man
No Snow Tahoe
Things have been tough with this lack of snow we have been experiencing this winter. Although compared to back east it’s a lot of snow we have already, and I can’t even wrap my head about getting a 5-7 ft storm. Even with the disadvantages in snowfall I have been trying to keep myself busy
Salt Lake City, Utah
I went to Salt Lake City, Utah last week for 5 days with Matt Roberge, Matt Bothfeld, David Waltzer, Kyle Earl, Kade Madsen and Sam Hulbert. First day of riding was spent at a newly de-knobed down rail, and the night was spent at a brand new spot that we discovered. First part of the
Tahoe House
Well Justin, and myself made it to Tahoe a few days ago. It was a 4-day trip with our longest driving day clocking in at 18hrs. I was driving so I was not able to take any photos but I was able to shoot threw 3 rolls of super 8 film. There is no snow
New Buys: 2 of 3
Second box was at the door today. Inside was my new Hasselblad 500 C/M with a 150mm CF lens and an A12 back.
New Buys: 1 of 3
It was the end of 2008 the next day, and I was in need of some more things to write off for my taxes for the year, so I placed three orders on Dec 30th. This was the first order to come in. Canon 15mm F/2.8 Canon 24-70mm F/2.8L Canon 1.4x Extender II PocketWizard Plus
Coming Up
Just wanted to give you all a little photo as a hint of what I got to show off next. Let’s just say I made good use of the hotel we got at boulder. Not as good of a uses as Mikey B did, but then again my photos will last more then 10 min
Big Boulder
Mikey B and myself have been going to Big Boulder every weekend since they have opened on November 22nd or so. Needless to say I have been shooting for almost a month there now. Here are some photos from the last two weekends there, and one random skate photo from york.
Best iPod Accessory EVER!
OK, so we have all seen some great, and some really lame iPod accessories, but we have never seen anything that would turn that great little device into every girls best friend. You’re thinking it’s a mirror, or maybe an ” Am I Fat” app for the iPod touch. No No my friends this is
2009 Capita Snowboards For Sale
I have two brand new factory wrapped 2009 Capita Snowboards for sale for $250 each. They are a a Mid Life Lost 151cm and a Indoor Survival 154cm. Contact me if you would like to purchase a board. All money goes to my move to Tahoe.
Halloween at Big Boulder
Not a lot to say, Big Boulder has stepped up and killed it once again. With about a foot of snow fall on Wednesday to play with Ian Oliver pulled together a free hike-able park by friday. Mikey B and myself went up to fuck around, see a bunch of friends, and make a few
Dick at the Bottom of a Bottle
My tooth dissolved, and is now gone. To celebrate this moment I had Elena Jasic use me to test some lighting for an up coming shoot she had. Here are some photos of myself, and the new grin. Coming to a bar near you.
COURT-EXTREME
Click the links for animated .gif files Mike 1 Mike 2 Mike 3 Mike 4 (Rockets)
Mikey B
I spent most of the weekend with one of my best friends Mike Bennett. Mikey B has spent more time in front of my lens then anyone else. So much in fact, he accounts for 1/7th of all the photos in my library. I have not shot much this summer so we decided it was
Best Week Ever
That show is really stupid. Is it still even on? I have not done shit this whole week. Just check every photo website I could trying to get info if and when Canon will come out with the EOS 1D Mark IV. Oya, and hoping the “brick” from apple is something that will make my
Need Roommates
Justin Mullen and myself are moving to Tahoe, but we are in need of a few roommates. Here is a write up on the house. Email me at web@benbirkphoto.com if you would like pricing or any other info. Location: Northstar, North Shore, Lake Tahoe California, California, USA Accommodations: Condominium – 3 Bedrooms + Convertible bed(s)