@VistitTruckee Instagram Takeover /  by Hazen Woolson

This spring I was asked by the coordinators of the @visittruckee Instagram account to take over for a weekend, giving me full reign of their account! The POWER!!! Luckily I used it wisely and got a unique opportunity to share with fans of Truckee (hard not to love this place, right?) exactly why I chose Truckee as my home and what it means to me. Here are my posts from that weekend.

Castle Peak Timelapse /  by Hazen Woolson

I’ve always been fascinated with time lapse photography - it’s such a simple and beautiful way to show the fluidity of time. We only perceive it in our daily lives at one speed or scale, but things are happening on different levels that we may never notice - and time lapse photography can help to illustrate that.

This summer I bought a large battery pack to extend the battery life of my cameras, and in this case attached it to my Sony a6500 and left it on all night capturing the Milky Way as it traversed the night sky above Castle Peak outside Truckee California.

South Lake with Josh Daiek Part 2 /  by Hazen Woolson

The film #7StagesOfBlank by Blank Collective Films is going live this fall and there’s a ton of things to share! First, the trailer that Jeff and the Blank team have put tons of work into is up, check it out.

Second, it’s been chosen as a Banff Film Festival Finalist!

And third, I’ve put together 2 videos sharing a behind-the-scenes look at Josh’s mind-bending road gap over Highway 50 in South Lake Tahoe, California this past February.

Josh Daiek South Lake Filming // Blank Collective /  by Hazen Woolson

Snow kept falling, day after day with few breaks. The storms were strong cold and relentless, often dropping 4-6 feet of light powder on the mountains at a time. Travel was treacherous, whole neighborhoods buried, snow removal became comical, and locals were generally in a perpetual state of euphoria and utter exhaustion. February 2019 proved to be one of the snowiest months on record - Squaw reported 300”+ on the upper mountain, which averages out to 10.7 inches of snow per day.

It was in the midst of this that I got the nod from Blank Collective Films of Whistler to film with Josh Daiek, local South Lake Tahoe shredder/sender and document some of the most incredible skiing conditions I have seen in the 8+ years of living in the greater Tahoe area. Over the course of the month I made 3 harrowing trips down the East Shore of Lake Tahoe in some of the worst driving conditions - Hwy 89 through Emerald Bay was closed for weeks straight due to snow - and I had the pleasure of working my butt off documenting Josh and Blank Collective athlete / producer Alexi Godbout skiing DEEP powder, untracked tree runs, pillows, and steep faces throughout the South Lake Tahoe area. In short: it was a dream come true.

Okta Identity - Chris Niggel /  by Hazen Woolson

This January I had the pleasure of working with Drew Kelly Photography and Okta to help produce a short video highlighting Okta employee Chris Niggel’s volunteer work with the Tahoe Backcountry Ski Patrol. We spent a day ski touring up and into the north-facing bowl of Castle Peak on Donner Pass, drawing parallels between his work as Head of Security and Compliance at Okta and his work in Tahoe’s backcountry, providing a safety net to those he serves where ever he may be.

I filmed the entire day on the Sony A6500 with the Sigma Art 16mm f/1.8 and Sony 18-105mm f/4 lenses and the Evo Rage gimbal, making for a light and nimble setup in the mountains. Near the top I was able to fly the DJI Mavic Pro drone for a few minutes as well, capturing the stunning views from the top of Castle Peak.

Boreal Pop-Up Park! /  by Hazen Woolson

January in Tahoe can be a hit-or-miss month with snowfall - often times it’s dry with very little snow and lots of sun, but not so this year. A stormy pattern set up over California delivering 150 inches of snow across the resorts. One such storm threatened to cancel Boreal and Woodward Tahoe’s PopUp Park video shoot, but the skies cleared and offered up a gorgeous, cold and sunny day with fresh snow lots of smiles. I was lucky enough to be invited to capture the day-long session in a unique terrain park with a short one week lifespan - this park was littered with creative features and destined to be taken down after 7 days.

Riding with Cole Johnson, Braden Schroeder, Graham Gray and Ryan Martin, I used a Evo Rage gimbal for most shots, in addition to a lot of wide-angle handheld shots.