Corey Rich: Sports & Action Gear Guide

Snapshot
"As extreme sports entered the American mainstream, I was there to tell the stories...."

Point of Focus
"Get there when the sun's coming up; stay until it's gone down."

Cameras
D3, D700, D90, COOLPIX S600

Favorite Lenses
AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
AF-S Zoom-NIKKOR 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED
AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
AF Fisheye-NIKKOR 16mm f/2.8D
AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E II
AF-S Teleconverter TC-20E II

Why
"Each camera serves a different purpose. The D700 is fantastic—most of the time it's my go-to camera; full-frame image, a relatively small and lightweight body with a relatively fast motor drive, and for a guy like me, who spends a lot of his time in outdoor adventure environments where I'm carrying everything on my back for hours, weight is everything.

"The D3 is for situations like action ski photography. I can be out at three a.m., hiking in the dark up a 3,000-foot mountain and end up shooting skiing all day long, and it's critical to have fast, motor-driven sequences and big files that are full frame.

"The D90 is becoming the camera that's a lot of fun to play with. I'm shooting a lot of HD video on that camera, experimenting a lot with moving pictures and selective focus.

"The S600 I try to keep with me 24-7. There are situations where it's just too darned hard to have even the D700 out of my bag, but I can always have the 600 in my pocket, pull it out and make a picture. And it's getting to the point with the quality of these little cameras that I can actually publish a quarter-page image in a national magazine. It's about being there and recording moments, not about always having the biggest, most robust camera. It's about how you capture the emotion of the moment.

"I'm all about this 'less is more' idea, so I try to carry as little glass as I can. My two go-to lenses are the 70-200 2.8 VR, and the 17-35—by far my favorite workhorse lenses. Those zooms are so sharp. Ninety percent of what I shoot that gets published comes from those two.

"I bring the 1.4 and 2X teleconverters anytime I think I'll need more on the long side of things. Occasionally I'll bring the 14-24 for a wide perspective, and sometimes the 16mm f/2.8 fisheye for the exaggerated perspective.

"Occasionally I'll use split neutral density filters, but I use them in an unconventional way: I actually hand-hold them right in front of the lens—just pull one out, hold it in front of the lens, eyeball it and shoot 25 frames until it's perfect, because most of the time I'm moving—on skis, on ropes, hiking—and I rarely have time to slow down and put a filter on. I'll choose the correct exposure for the foreground for those I'm-in-the-shade, the-mountain-is-in-the-background kind of situations, and the only way to bring that exposure down is by holding one of those filters out there."

Priorities
"I'm in the photo-making business. I love to tell stories with a camera, and I'm always interested in using the tool that's most efficient. But overall I want to think about the creative, not worry about the technical."

Non-Photo Essential
"A headband light. I frequently have one on my head and one backup in the camera bag.

"If you're climbing at four a.m. and your light goes out, okay, you hang out and wait for sunrise; you might miss your shot, but you're not in danger. But when you shoot 'til sunset and you have a long climb down to the car, you don't want that headlamp to be the only one you've got, so that's one piece of equipment I carry in duplicate."

Recent Project
"We're working on a series of four videos right now for the website where we're profiling everyone in the office. It's a combination of talking head interviews shot on the D90, as well as a B-roll that's cool stuff about each person in the office. We constantly get questions about who we are and what we do, and it's a lot more compelling to answer with a camera than with a paragraph."

Recent Project Sidebar
"I'm using a local filmmaker and video editor to help us edit the D90 movies, and each time they see the footage from the D90 they call in all their associates and say, 'You gotta look at this!' It looks like film footage."

The Beginning
"I was a gymnast from seven years old. I won the pull-up contest in junior high and one of the PE teachers invited me on my first rock climbing weekend. I went climbing with two teachers from the school. I loved the experience, the challenge of it, and I also loved storytelling. I'd get back to school on Monday and want to share all these adventures, but the reality was that nothing communicated the story as well as a photograph. That was 20 years ago, and today it's my lifelong pursuit, going out there and trying to make story-telling, compelling images of the outdoor adventure world."

More About Corey Rich
www.coreyrich.com