Jake Welch with the pull start
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Describe your first published photo.
I believe it was the back cover of SNOWBOARD Magazine, January 2006. It's a Mission Six ad for my homie Dirk Dye.
Who/what inspired you to become a photographer?
It happened on a cross country trip with my best friend Scott in 1999. I never really thought about photos or shooting photos before that, but seeing new things made me want to capture it and remember it. I could recognize that it was special and fleeting, and that's the magic of photography.
How has snowboard photography changed over the course of your career?
It's changed a whole bunch. When I decided to go big and get my first pro camera, it was a Nikon F5. The whole game was still shooting film back then. Then it started changing and the industry began questioning, along with the rest of the world, whether digital was good enough. Now, I'm at another cross road. I have accepted digital's place in photography but feel a personal emptiness, so I have began reverting back towards film. I feel there is a balance, not all one way or the other.
As a Forum team photographer, what have been some of the highlights from the last couple of seasons?
I feel privileged to be one of the two photographers that gets to travel with this team on a year round basis and I try and take it very seriously, yet, at the same time, light-hearted. It's become more like a family than a bunch of dudes that you shoot to get a paycheck, and that makes it all special. As far as specifics, I had a great time documenting John Jackson's season last winter, our summer trip to Camp of Champs in Whistler was all time. As far as moments, it's hard to pinpoint, their riding level is so high that you see insane things all the time.
From best to worst, list who from the Forum crew you’d most like to share a hotel room with; Stevie Bell, John Jackson or Kurt Heine and Why?
I'm pretty mellow on the roomy situation. If you play guitar and don't go to sleep before 8pm, those are bonuses for me. Nic Sauvé, Austen Sweetin and John Jackson are at the top of the list.
How much time do you spend behind the lens vs. waiting around for good weather?
This year it was quite a bit of downtime. In a six week period in the backcountry, we saw four sunny days. In the streets it doesn't matter as much. Beyond the waiting, there's the planning/scouting and construction factors that have to be added in along and your shooting percentage goes down significantly. This year, I felt like I got caught up a little too much in the managing aspects and not enough in the photography. Every season presents its own challenges and no matter how much you think you know, there's always room to learn.
The Redeemer Mario Käppeli
What is the best thing about your home zone, South Lake?
South Lake and Tahoe in general is a great place to live. The summer is the best! It's never too hot.
Do you look up to all of the old guys from South Lake or does it start and end with Ian (Ruther) and Nathan (Yant)?
Jimmy Halopoff, Shawn Palmer, Ian Ruhter and Nathan Yant are for sure OG status here in these parts and have influenced a generation of riders. There's been a slew of riders and media type that have come through here and made an impact. Chris Edmands, Chris Wellhausen, Kevin Winkel, Leland Macnamara, The Arrex crew, etc.
I am very influenced by Ian Ruhter's work and see him as an artist in the truest sense. I remember seeing him shoot with a 4×5 Speed Graphic and I had to get one for myself.
Are you, hands down, the best at Photoshop of all of the snow photographers?
I doubt it. I was in a unique spot during the transition from film to digital. For some reason I just got it. You ever see your parents trying to post a photo on Facebook? Well, that's what the old school photographers were like with Photoshop. Haha, I just got it right away and was hired by Ian to work on the Vans project "A Lucid Dream," which required a serious knowledge of Photoshop.
I have been tested in many ways and have done Photoshop work for Heavenly, Conner Sport Courts, Celtek, Vans, Forum and even did all the post on Ian's Chile story and the cover of Transworld Snowboarding's 2008 Photo Annual. I don't get quite as crazy today and try to take better pictures in the first place.
What do you like to shoot the most: Action, Portraits or Travel?
I've been loving taking lifestyle photos a lot lately. The other moments in Snowboarding. Cole Barash is a big influence here. He's really good at it.
What is your go-to camera/lens combo right now and Why?
I just picked up a Chamonix 8×10 camera with a 300mm Schneider Symmar-S lens. I am looking forward to a summer full of analog photography here around the lake.
What do you like about heavily produced shoots (ie. team shoots, catalogs etc.) vs. spontaneous shots?
They both have good qualities, although I love the journalistic sensibilities of photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliot Erwitt. That level of photography is amazing. To create order from the chaos of life in such an unobtrusive fashion is incredible.
Catalog shoots can be fun also, but it's more of a technical process in which you are lighting very specifically and you're generally working with many other people to reach a collective agreement on an idea. It's fun to take nice pictures no matter what your process is.
