to move up and down
Danger Team Is Go!
Commercial photographer, professional adventurer, storyteller extraordinaire
dangerteamisgo.com
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Scouting the universe one ill-fated expedition at a time
Image from a test with a new MUA, Kelly Thorpe. The security guard here was okay with us, as we were neither hoodlums nor skateboarders.
JacobvanLoon.com giveaway contest
The prize:
This is a surface texture photo taken of Madison & Kohlhase, a painting I finished in 2011. This photo was taken of a section on the finished surface, which has been a theme in the documentation of my work for a few years now.
The photograph is printed at 8x10” on glossy archival paper, and comes framed.
To enter:
To be eligible to win this print, you must:
1. Reblog this post, intact
or
2. Promote both jacobvanloon.com and blog.jacobvanloon.com in a post on your website (not exclusive to Tumblr), and submit the post url to me for verification.
The contest closes Tuesday, December 25 at 11:59p. The winner will be announced here and contacted directly. Good luck and enjoy!
This artist is fantastic and deserves to be known
Mission Beach, San Diego CA -
My first sunset on the Pacific coast. The water is all jewel tones and sea foam. It sounds like the word ‘wash’, repeated endlessly. Emphasis on the ‘shhhhhh’.
There are colors here I’ve never seen before. Liquid orange and gold glitters across rolling glass as the sun eases itself down into a warm bath. Around me everyone is still. No one moves an inch, every face transfixed. We have this experience both separately and together, as one.
I am watching. We are watching.
Eventually the display is over and cool winds blow in to drive us back to our homes, and I grasp a tiny bit more of why this coast has drawn so many for so long.
My ladyfriend was applying for a job that explicitly asked for someone who can ‘wear many hats.’
We sent them this.
15 minutes later she had an interview scheduled.
Flagstaff, AZ -
A lump of cloud settles on a mountaintop. It takes up residence there, like it owns the place and it’s time for a little rest.
Cathedral Rock - Sedona, AZ
The view here is incredible. Awesome. And not in that ‘everything is awesome now’ use of the word. Truly awe-some. I stood at the edge of that cliff for at least 20 minutes, listening to the wind whistle through the endless canyons. The place feels as old as time itself, and that is a rare thing.
The legends say there is a ‘vortex’ of energy in this spot. What that means exactly I couldn’t tell you. What I *can* tell you is that I felt a pull, on a deep, deep level. Something happens to you up there, something tangible. I wanted to burn everything I was seeing into my memory for the rest of eternity. I wanted to sit and never leave. It was power of a sort I’ve never experienced in my life, and it was beautiful.
The pictures are like a bland white bread and I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Butter sandwich compared to the sheer visual torrent of majesty sprawled out in front of me.
If you ever get the chance to go to Sedona (as in, you’re within a day’s drive of the place) just go.
You’ll thank me later.
Canyon Road, Santa Fe NM.
Meandering between open-air galleries and wealthy tourists, we find a quiet spot in this strange little mountain town. Like much of New Mexico it manages to be both beautiful and ugly at the same time.
I don’t photograph much here. It’s too crafted to its clientele, bursting with its own importance. Very little here is genuine, it’s all been gilded and tagged for sale.
Step off that bright path and New Mexico is still one of the most depressing places I’ve ever been.
Sunset on the road to Santa Fe, NM.
I always wondered where the inspiration came from for all those purple paintings with mountains and buffalo and all that jazz. Driving into town, trying not to careen into the guardrail, I found myself thinking ‘Oh. That’s why.’
Making my mark on the Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, TX. We stopped here on our way out to California, paying homage to my birthplace and the wide open spaces I grew up in.
Going back ‘home’ is always a little strange.
More to come later, as I recount our travels out west and the adventures therein.
New Orleans was magical, fantastic, strange…full of old houses and old hands, grifters and sharks. It feels as if the whole city is playing the longest con in history to anyone gullible enough to listen. It threatens to eat you whole and spit you out a dazed shell of a man. It is very nearly a caricature of itself in a way, but like any good city worth its salt if you venture off the beaten path you’ll find some wonderful gems.
I recommend the ‘Twelve Mile Limit’ for all your late-night chocolate cake ball, cocktail, and delightful conversation needs. Ignore the fact that Yelp says it’s a bakery and the bartender has to buzz you in. You’ll thank me later.
