I’ve known Blatt for a few years now and he is one of the most humble/laid back photographers I know. Which is surprising for his age and the quality of his work. Only 22 and coming out of VT, Aaron has already started to make a name for himself in the snowboard world. Currently, he holds the spot as the photo editor for East Coast Snowboard Mag, on top of shooting for multiple different clients. I’m expecting big things from him in the future…. no pressure Blatt. Check out his portfolio- adblatt.com. Or follow his blog. Read the interview after the jump.

Personally, I think costumes can make any situation more interesting…. even halfpipe competitions where most of the riders can barely get above the lip. And on Saturday in Mammoth at the Roxy Chicken Jam, that is exactly what went down. For the past three years, as part of the Chicken Jam, Roxy has had this open competition where anyone, and I mean anyone can compete for a first place prize of $3k. It was entertaining to say the least. Since a lot of the riders were barely even airing out of the pipe I decided to take a different approach to how I shot it. Without boring you with too much detail,  I shot most of them so the snow is very over exposed, creating almost a completely white background for the costume wearing creatures to stand out against.  I wanted to do a series of shots that all looked pretty similar just showing the riders costumes… and then there are also some action shots at the end. Tons more photos after the jump… and many more posts from my weekend in Mammoth to come.

Last week I made my way back to Vermont for the 28th Burton US Open. Temperatures reaching the 60s, good friends, and great riding made for an incredible week. It wasn’t all fun and games for me though, I spent a majority of my time there hiking through the wet snow shooting photos… which I definitely can’t complain about. I picked out some of my favorite shots for this post, plus there are links to full galleries where my photos were posted after the jump.

Last fall photographer Shem Roose got ahold of me about assisting him in a shoot with Jake Burton… the creator of this company. Canadian action sports magazine, SBC, was doing an interview with Jake at his house in Vermont so they asked Shem to get some shots of Jake around his property. I was honored that Shem asked me to come along to help out, Shem is an OG in the game, and it is always cool to see how other people work. He definitely came away with some great shots that day. For more details on the shoot check out Shem’s blog. More of his photos after the jump.

Rome is doing another live Twitter interview this Friday… this time with designer Shawn Dumont. This guy is responsible for the design of a lot of the stuff that gets pumped out of Rome including gloves, art on the outerwear and bags, tees, the Postermania graphics… the list goes on. Anyway, hop on twitter on Friday, type your question to Dumont and end it with #Romedesign and he’ll answer em. They are going to pick a random person out of the entries to be hooked up with a 2011 outerwear kit that the man designed himself. So fire away, and make em juicy. For more info go here.

My friend and filmer Sean Mehen has been sending over videos he has been making with skater Tom Ryen and photographer “Jeffrey Moustache“. The last one they did was on TomTom’s 25th birthday where Tom did 25 different flat ground tricks on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. To check out more of their videos go here.

Mike Basher… this guy has a lot to say… and he should after working for Snowboard Magazine for the past six seasons. He was one of the guys who helped create the magazine and since then has gone through the ranks as photo editor and most recently, editor, of the mag. But as of January 2010, Basher took a step back from his spot at Snowboard. He decided it was time to move on since, with his new position as editor, he was spending much less time doing what he loved, shooting photos. Included in this interview are his reasons for moving on, why he thinks Colorado sucks, and his big plans for what is to come. Read the what he has to say after the jump.

To see more of his work check out his site and follow his blog.

Poster I designed for Quiksilver’s Cluck Off comp going on the same weekend as the Roxy Chicken Jam (March 25-28) at Mammoth in Califonia. Should be a good time, see you there I hope.

The other week two of the guys I work with and I took half the day off and went up to Venice for an “inspiration field trip” to see this art show about the evolution and art of skateboarding in California. I didn’t really know what to expect but it turned out to be pretty interesting. There were these 4 older ladies who were volunteering as the tour guides, which I thought was amazing. The lady that gave us the tour (in the picture above) was so enthusiastic, but obviously didn’t know too much about skateboarding. I thought it was refreshing to get a tour from someone on the outside… not a know it all that was just rambling off facts about who rode this board and who they were sponsored by at the time. Instead it was more like, “Can you believe this kid glued a pot leaf to their skateboard?! Those rebels!” It was less about naming names, and more about the art and culture behind it. Which I liked a lot. Anyway, enough of my rambling. The show is up till May 30th, so if you are in the area check it out. More info here.  Tons of photos from the show after the jump.

Pretty sure the whole world is behind you Kev. Thanks to the Frends crew for the video.