Tommy Penick Photo

More Spring Sporting

Tommy Penick — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:41:13 +0000

Click for Spring Gallery

The weather over the past weeks here in Boone has been questionable at best for the minds of most–but for paddlers it’s been great. Full size consecutive storms in the area have dumped enough water in the area to have some seldom seen areas run, including North Harper’s Creek, a technical sloping 35 footer with a 10 foot lead in boof. A few friends and I hiked in for some shooting.

However, with a few breaks in the clouds, we managed to get up into the Linville Wilderness to get a little bit of trail running done with my marathon running friend Teagan Miller. It’s hard to elaborate in words about what the photos convey already. Linville is beautiful. It might even make running fun for those that find it to be torture.

This past weekend I got the pleasure to check out a new scene for me–BMX. I was invited to a BMX dirt jump jam in Raleigh, North Carolina, and it was a pretty rowdy and exciting event. It had all the happenings of being a miniature Skatopia or something out of a mid-90s punk inspired movie. My background as a mountain biker proved to be worthless on tight-transitioned dirt jumps, and I’ve got the bruises to show it. But hey, can you really shoot anything without doing it?

I know this is a short post for now, but keep an eye out for some big stuff coming out later this month, including a move to California, a huge new client, and a lot of motion work!

Steph and Rob’s Asheville Wedding

Tommy Penick — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:56:33 +0000

Click for Wedding Gallery

If you told me a year ago that I’d be standing in an elevator with a soon-to-be married bride and her entourage of bridesmaids at any point in my life, I would’ve laughed. Even if you just told me a year ago I was shooting a wedding, I would’ve chuckled. Actually, my friends still are.

But last Saturday I broke the ice with wedding photography while working with the wonderful Sarah Whitmeyer, and you know…it was really enjoyable. Granted, everything went well. The weather was great, the wedding party participants were awesome, and everything fell into place logistically. While it’s a total change of pace from hanging off of a cliff shooting a waterfall, it was enjoyable, and perhaps brought me back to my Old South roots of formal wear.

This past week has been full of a more normal schedule of shooting with some guys firing it up kayaking, and with another front moving in currently, good things will be happening in the High Country. I’ll be putting a few teaser shots up on the new Facebook Page, which I’ve decided to go ahead and set up. Check it out and let me know what you think!

The Two Month Hiatus, Explained

Tommy Penick — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:53:46 +0000

It’s amazing what can happen in two months, despite the lack of blogging and updates being sent out to the wild world of WordPress. Although I haven’t been posting, it is definitely a sign of me being busy with work, adventures, and photographing, not the lack thereof. Showing my blog to a curious friend this evening, I was bewildered that I hadn’t posted in nearly two months. So here’s an unorganized, Faulkner-style snapshot of the past 56 days.

Click for Tuckerman's Ravine Gallery

Early in the leave of absence, I took a pretty awesome adventure bumbling across New England. It was my goal several years ago to knock out all four corners of the United States before leaving college–the Northeast was still luring me to check out the scene. Within 10 days I hit 11 states, roughly 2,100 miles, and got in some incredibly sketchy skiing. A long-standing tradition of New England skiers is to make the seasonal pilgrimage to Tuckerman’s Ravine, a west coast style bowl on the face of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire(highest recorded windspeed on earth at 231 MPH, by the way). The ice headwall builds throughout winter, and as it deteriorates, somewhat resembles skiable snow.

A typical winter season would require skiers to wait until Memorial Day weekend to fire it up off the cornice, but due to the abnormally warm winter and even warmer spring, Tuck’s was good to climb and send in mid-March. We started the climb with 65 degree blue skies, and as I topped out the climb, it was near 35 and raining with a solid wind.

Click for McFarland and Seattle Times Gallery

After returning from the ever long journey, photo work seemed to flow as well as all the rivers around here, which posed a beautifully busy month. While most of the publications haven’t been printed yet, one of my proudest has been. I was fortunate enough to work for The Seattle Times, a paper I’ve had a crush on for years. I was brought in to shoot a story about McFarland, a small specialty non-fiction book publisher located in the tiny town of Jefferson, NC, just down the hill from us. I was thrilled to see the great designers at The Seattle Times gave it quite a bit of play in print! I’ll have to say that this has to be one of my favorite clips to date.

McFarland is a small publisher in the grand scheme, but houses roughly 50 employees in their converted ranch style home in Jefferson. I was amazed to see the mass quantity of titles that are constantly being pushed through their system–most revolving around baseball, chess, and scholarly film. The vibrant and happy atmosphere was even a pleasure to shoot in, with all of the walls adorned with local and folk art, while the workplace buzzed with friendly energy. I was excited to learn, yet jealous, that the reason the assignment time moved back was to ensure there was enough time for a few employees to get back from playing disc golf down the road. After nearly 40 years of being in business, Amazon is trying to anonymously demand a higher discout, which could cripple McFarland’s business. Check out the beautifully crafted article by Amy Martinez here, which is part two of four regarding Amazon’s questionable tactics.

Click for Southeast Paddling Gallery

Between the assignment work, the April showers in the Southeast has brought happy boaters. Not only have the natural flows procured some great paddling, the scheduled annual releases of the Cheoah and Tallulah have made for some great road trips. It’s been pretty photogenic time, but I’ve been stepping up my paddling– somewhat in preparation for my next move in life which will be taking me to the Sierras in California. More on that to come, but exciting things are in the making.

For now though, the great road trips to the Smokies will have to suffice…and they do more than just suffice. With personal descents of Compression Falls, The Veil of Stateline, and Tallulah, I’m pretty jazzed on paddling!

Highlining Hebron

Tommy Penick — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:56:21 +0000

Click for Hebron Highline Gallery

Over the past year I’ve become quite jaded on Boone from time to time. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut here; being a small town with limited social circles, Boone can become a little monotonous. But Friday afternoon while Mike Holley was setting up his high line above Hebron Rock Colony, a Appalachian favorite outdoor chill spot, I had a rejuvenated sense of love for the area. Hebron already is a beautiful place, but just knowing that this is what my buddies do on a Friday afternoon after they get out of class is powerful. After talking with friends from other universities about the non-curricular recreation opportunities in their areas, I’ve once again remembered how lucky I am to get to do things like this on a regular basis.

Years ago when I met Mike for the first time, he instantly was put on my short list of people to photograph after hearing about his adventures. He is constantly bouncing around the world going on climbing and surfing adventures, and is truly inspirational. I’m glad we finally got together to shoot some of his athleticism.

It’s Finally Here (Winter)

Tommy Penick — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:26:02 +0000

Click for Appalachian Ski Mountain Gallery

Winter, that is. Hopefully. Maybe it’s just another tease of a cold front bringing an all too familiar “arctic blast”. Our weather systems seem to be stuck in a rut, where anywhere between 1″-4″ of rain will drop over the area in about 24 hours (leading to some great kayaking) followed by a short, intense blast of cold air. After two or three days of cold, the system mellows out, and repeats itself. This has led to an outstanding winter kayaking season, but a horrible and inconsistent ski season, leaving the area recreationally and economically crippled.

So while watching the rain fall on Tuesday and watching the river gauges surge, I received a call from the Winston-Salem Journal asking if I can shoot a story about the less than successful ski season. No problem.

However after a few inches of fresh snow and a few inches of fresh gun snow, a thin facade was laid upon the area resorts. It couldn’t have come at a better time as they gear up for MLK weekend.

Tarheel Foodie

Tommy Penick — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:19:59 +0000

Susan Sink poses for a portrait while cooking in The Cookery in Durham, NC

This past week I had the pleasure of working with Susan Walter Sink of Tarheel Foodie in Durham at The Cookery, a community kitchen that caters to food truck operators and other cooks in the area. Susan runs a very interesting business, that teaches and produces food that has been grown both organically and locally. Susan differentiates herself by using at least 90% local materials–which when living in an area with full seasons, creates interesting logistical issues.

Susan works with several farms throughout North Carolina to provide her clients with the freshest ingredients year around. She will shop for a large amount of a seasonal vegetable, for example, and purchase and store enough to serve her business’s needs for the year. It’s definitely a unique process.

So in my best attempts to imitate Susan’s wonderful cooking, I attempted to roast some fall veggies this evening only to find a broken oven. I’ll leave it to the pros.

Best of 2011

Tommy Penick — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:41:30 +0000

Click for Best of 2011 Gallery

Seeing everyone’s “Best of 2011″ galleries this year made me even more reluctant to do the annual update, but after finding a yearly update I wrote to myself from 4 years ago, I remembered how gratifying it is to see progress, while it may not be evident on the surface. This year was great on a personal level, and shaky at best photographically. 2011 brought many transformations in my photography; mainly, the switch from a photojournalistic path to editorial and commercial. It still doesn’t feel right at all telling someone to move, or changing anything whatsoever.

I’ve had some cool opportunities such as working in Costa Rica, reconnecting on an old photo story, and hanging out with some pretty rad professional athletes, but I’ve had some downs too, such as getting all of my photo gear stolen, and my first budget-induced layoff.

So here it is. I’m not claiming this as my best year, but I hope to see it as a reinventing year. A rocky switch from one path to another, but I foresee this path heading to great places. Some big irons have been thrown in the fire in the past few weeks, I’m excited to see how they grow with time.

Video Editing

Tommy Penick — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:10:39 +0000

The powers that be of Appalachian State have granted me an entire month off from classes for winter break. I’m not much for sitting around, so I decided to pack it out with good stuff–skiing, paddling, biking, but mainly skiing. After snow totals across the entire country have been less than impressive, I’ve decided to post up and get cranking on revamping (or just learning) my video skills. Here’s an edit from this past weekend when we rode some downhill tracks built by Andrew Mueller of Elevated Trail Design in South Carolina.

Paddling Season

Tommy Penick — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:03:57 +0000

Mitch WerBell drops into a rapid along Boone Fork

As you may have noticed, posts have been a little slow in the past week or so. Yes, the semester has been rounding out to the final stretch with exams this week. And while everyone has been in a huge rush, we’ve also had tons of water. Two consecutive weeks we had storms bringing in 2″+ inches of water, making seldom seen creeks run. The storms also brought a sharp drop in temperatures, and some snow immediately after the rain stopped, which created some chilly, but great paddling. Here’s a little shot from Boone Fork, which runs between Julian Price Park along the parkway, down to the confluence of the Red Roof section of the Watauga River in Boone.

Also check out some of the stouts our boys here in the Southeast have been sending it on!

I’ll Go To Class Next Week by Clay Lucas

Nocculula Falls First Descent with Issac Levinson, Pat Keller, and Chris Gragtmans

Apps Fall to University of Maine

Tommy Penick — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:08:02 +0000

Appalachian State defensive lineman Chris Marshall (78) consoles senior offensive lineman Orry Frye (64) Saturday, Dec. 3 in Boone after losing to University of Maine in the first round of FCS playoffs.

Saturday ended the Mountaineers football season here in Boone, after losing to University of Maine. While it’s never fun to watch our team drown in sorrow, I’m looking forward to the other seasons to come. This week offered great paddling, biking, and mediocre skiing–but that’s what you get in the southeast.

Congratulations to the team from this year for a solid season, regardless of how it stacks up. Sure, we had a few more losses, trouble replacing players who have moved on, and had a pretty stagnant playbook, but that’s what makes football great, the ebb and flow of success and failure. The excitement of wondering how a game will go is unmatched by going into a game planning on winning.

Appalachian State receiver Brian Quick brings in a pass while playing Maine in the first round of FCS playoffs.