birchblazephotography.com » The Photo Blog of Kerry and Taylor Struble

There is a well known photographer from Seattle named Chase Jarvis (check out his website and work here). The guy is amazing. You may not have ever heard of him, but it’s likely you’ve seen his work. Volvo, Reebok, Apple, REI, Microsoft, Jeep, McDonald’s, Columbia, Red Bull, Nikon…these are a few of the companies Chase calls clients. Not bad, huh? A few months back another guy by the name of Russell Byrne (Russell’s blog) asked for, and received a pair of Chase’s shoes. Huh? What? To quote Russell, “Photographer Chase Jarvis once told an audience that anyone who walked his walk would find success, which led me to wondering what walking a mile in his shoes would really be like. So I asked Chase to send me a pair. And he did!” Russell wasn’t about to keep Chase’s soles to himself, so he posted the following challenge on Flickr: “I would like to see the shoes shot in as many ways as possible… let me know if you are ready for the challenge to….SHOOT CHASE JARVIS’S SHOES” (visit the project website) His well-traveled, Adidas Muhammed Ali Classics, to be specific. And I was. I was ready to put our Birch Blaze, White Mountains of New Hampshire stamp on those shoes. And what better way to represent than sneakers sporting snowshoes? This was definitely a team effort. In fact Tay actually snapped this pic. It was a lot of fun and we hope Chase might happen upon our effort and maybe actually even like it (if you have an extra minute, after the pic you might find the story of how I received the shoes mildly amusing):

This shot was taken in the ‘shadow’ of Mt. Washington, a mountain which, on April 12, 1934, recorded a wind speed of 231 mph, which is “the highest natural surface wind velocity ever officially recorded by means of an anemometer, anywhere in the world.” A record that still stands to this day (I can Google with the best of ‘em). You can check it out for yourself at MountWashington.org. The Presidential range continues north from Mt. Washington, so I’m guessing it’s probably Mt. Jefferson or Mt. Adams in the background. We took this with the Canon and a 50mm. No flashes involved here, this was lit with nothing but the strengthening March sun—camera-left—and a pop-up reflector—camera-right. Those are my legs and feet, by the way…fitting tho, I think I’ve found my calling, “Kerry Struble; Well-worn sneaker model.”

How I Got the Shoes
I signed up to be a part of this project a few months ago and had no idea when or even if I would actually get the shoes. I’m ashamed to admit that I actually kind of, well, ok, did forget about them. So… one day Taylor and I pulled up to the house to see several boxes from UPS on our step. They had actually delivered some packages we were expecting to the wrong house the day before, so I was pretty relieved. But wait, here’s a box that I wasn’t expecting, in fact, I have no idea who it’s from. Tay told me I better be careful opening it. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but then I noticed the box wasn’t packed professionally, like you would get from an online retailer, say. Taylor’s words and thoughts of mail bombs and bio-terrorism began ringing in my head…Cut to me opening the box (which is now sitting on our front step) with a 2×4, peeking out from behind our front door. Boy, did I feel foolish when I saw that darn pair of sneakers looking for all the world like a puppy waiting to be claimed by it’s new owner. Shhhhhhh! Don’t tell Chase!

…And since one picture is never usually not enough, here’s 2 or 3 more we took that day…

enjoy!
-k