Best Beta Ever?

For the last Beta episode of the season I went to my favorite boulderfield in the world, The Stone Fort (formerly known as Little Rock City). This gem of a climbing area is actually part of the Montlake Golf Course.

I interviewed a true local, Ron Nance, who lives on the mountain and has only been climbing for two years. Last year he won the Triple Crown’s Stonemaster division at 45. Hell yeah man! The beta he gave on two classics, Manute Bol (V5) and Art of the Vogi (V4) was so good. If you want to do this problem, watch this video:

The Beta – Manute Bol from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.

Last year I shot some footage of 3-year-old Layton Laeser, son of former Climbing Magazine web editor Luke Laeser. The kid can crank. On a whim I dug through the footage and struck pure climbing gold – the best one of the series? You decide:

The Beta – Long Ways Down from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.

Some behind-the-scenes notes:

I shot Long Ways Down on the Nikon D3s in video mode, with onboard audio, handheld. Not much to say there but that is a convenient way to go and the footage holds up reasonably well for grading, even given my sloppy work and exposure. I shot Manute Bol on the Panasonic HPX170 P2HD camera.

(Photo by Rachel Tucker)

Gareth Nichols ran sound. Rachel Tucker (of Rock/Creek Outfitters) and Holly McMullen helped with the lighting, which was mostly ambient plus bounce from a Westcott Scrim Jim. That thing throws some damn light around.

During the interview I experimented with a Lowell Omni through an umbrella, powered by the new Profoto BatPac portable battery. Its fancy, expensive, and meant to provide clean power to strobes, not continuous lights. But it put out 500w of power for about 10 full minutes for most of the interview. I was impressed, but I probably won’t do that again unless I am shooting with LEDs.

By the way, I get everything at Showcase Camera in Atlanta. A full-service camera and video shop with actual human beings with real knowledge who will let you touch their equipment. Lots of pros hang out there too. Go touch some stuff.