WHITEWATER’S GREATEST SHOOTERS SHARE THEIR MOST ICONIC IMAGES BY VIRGINIA MARSHALL


1 RYAN CREARY


CANMORE, ALBERTA age: 38


3 ZAK SHAW


MURCHISON, NEW ZEALAND age: 30


A full-time outdoor photographer for nine years, Creary likes to “show- case the athlete within the larger context of nature” and capture “moody moments when I can find


them.” KNOWN FOR: Introducing tilt-shift lenses to the river, capturing dirtbag lifestyle, ski photos in the off-


season. ICONIC SHOT: Sam Ewing charging off B.C.’s Raft Falls has graced the pages of Rapid and the cover of Kootenay Mountain Culture. “Sam boofed off the falls perfectly from the shadows into the light, which gives great separation between him


and the water.” FAVORITE RIVER: Clearwater, B.C. www.ryancreary.com


2 DARIN McQUOID


DAVIS, CALIFORNIA age: 29


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Famously selling an image to National Geographic Adventure just months after buying his first “real” camera eight years ago, self-taught lensman McQuoid says whitewater photography as a full-time gig has been the product of persistence,


“pure luck and a natural eye.” KNOWN FOR: Richly saturated High Sierra landscapes, unique up-close


perspectives. ICONIC SHOT: Matt Thomas stroking into a rapid on Cali’s South Fork San Joaquin, as featured on the cover of Eastside magazine and in an Ameri-


can Whitewater ad. FAVORITE RIVERS: Salmon and South Fork Yuba, California; Lohit, India www.darinmcquoid.com


3 30 RAPID SUMMER/FALL 2011 4


Voted Photographer of the Year by fellow paddlers for the 2010 Rider of the Year Awards. Boomer’s talents extend beyond the river to portraits and documentary work, including living as a homeless person last


winter in Washington, DC. KNOWN FOR: Elegant portraits; ferocious tenacity in the face of beyond-gnarly whitewater, earning


him the epithet Honey Badger. ICONIC SHOT: Tyler Bradt dropping off the brink of Washington State’s 186-foot Palouse Falls was a finalist in Red Bull’s 2010 Illume photo contest. “I shot the drop from a distance, as tight and straightforward as possible, to show Tyler paddling with the sheer power and majesty of the falls.” www.eboomerphoto.com


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“I love documenting my work and missions,” Shaw says of guiding, instructing, paddling and shooting


continuously for the past 12 years. KNOWN FOR: Spectacular landscapes, people, paddling and wildlife in


exotic mountain and polar regions. ICONIC SHOT: In the boxed-in can- yons of NZ’s West Coast, great light- ing is “all about timing.” Shaw says he knew when the shutter released that Eden Sinclair reveling in sunlit spray in the Upper Hokitika’s Gate- way Gorge would be “an image that told a story.” Wilderness and Kayak


Session magazines agreed. FAVORITE RIVER: Kokatahi, New Zealand www.passion4adventure.blogspot.com


4 ERIK BOOMER


HOOD RIVER, OREGON Age: 26


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