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Walkabout in the Smokies

A short film composed from two weeks I spent walking through Great Smoky Mountains National Park this past October. This is a preamble to a much larger project that I will be taking on in 2013: the Appalachian Trail.

Two Days in September: a rapid transit short

Here’s a new edit from two days spent on the river this fall. The river experiences were in high contrast: a traffic jam on a steep creek brown with dam released flow versus a clear fall day on a mountain river that ran brown from tannins leeched out of the autumn forest. Both days were excellent fun and very interesting for different reasons. I hope you enjoy the edit and stay tuned through the end to see an unusual wildlife encounter. Thanks for watching!

The Brewer (by Astral)

The Brewer is the new river shoe offered by Astral Buoyancy (a company renowned for its innovation in PFD’s and river rescue equipment). This shoe is awesome: lightweight, sturdy, and oh-so sticky on wet rocks. Horizonline Pictures collaborated with Astral athlete Chris Gragtmans to describe his experiences testing the Brewer ahead of the shoe’s official release.

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

Published: Canoe&Kayak, June 2012

I’m very happy to have my work featured in a winning spread within the pages of the June 2012 issue of Canoe&Kayak magazine. The picture came from a winter misadventure/hike with Pat Keller, Stephen McGrady, and Baker Davenport. Canoe&Kayak.com will be hosting a video slideshow of the day’s experience soon; so stay tuned!

Greenways Short Video

In April we were approached by Suzanne Hackett of Pollinate Collaborations to build a short marketing video for her client Connect Buncombe. Connect Buncombe is the county agency responsible for promoting and implementing greenways that will connect townships across the county. This is a cause that we wholeheartedly support; so it was a real pleasure to come on board and help tell their story.

The project presented Horizonline Pictures an opportunity to break out of documentary-film-making-mode and take a more scripted approach. We worked with Suzanne to develop a script and shot list that communicated the most important pieces of information about Connect Buncombe in a winning way. Then we filmed over the course of three packed days and edited the project in the following week. Special thanks goes out to Lullatone and Dehlia Low whose excellent music made piecing the edit together a breeze.

Enjoy this short film, and drop us a line if you’ve got a story you want our help in telling.

Stills from the project:

Winter? (photos from the not-so-cold season)

Here is some breaking news: it has been unseasonably warm for some time now. This makes me afraid for what will happen temp-wise in the months ahead, but for now I’m revisiting photo memories from the long stretch of cool weather, when Fall magically turned into Spring . . . and it snowed once. There was a solo hike to the upper reaches of Big Creek, a first visit to the amazing Cataloochee Vally in GSMNP (replete with elk, black bears, coyotes howling, & more turkeys than you could shake a drumstick at), a windy evening atop Max Patch with friends and a lightning show, and more adventures. I’m really enjoying shooting photos with my Nikon film body these days (F100, I think this was a roll of Ektar film). It’s expensive, but I feel that there’s a warmth and quality to the images that I can’t replicate with digital. Please enjoy these images, and let me know what you think:

Our first canoe trip: Section IV of the French Broad:

Cataloochee Valley:

This guy showed more curiosity in me than I was comfortable with. He walked out of the woods and directly at me without any sign of stopping. I picked up my tripod and backed away, envisioning the dive and roll maneuver I would make if he charged.

Max patch as the sun does down:

We went for a walk at Biltmore with our good friends the Ruch’s. Fiona brought her off-road stroller.

Keaton got tired of walking.

But he perked up by the end of the day.

The end. Thanks for visiting.

-CG

The River Artists series

For several years now I’ve been working on a series of video profiles featuring artists from Asheville’s River Arts District. This work has been a departure from the marketing-oriented camp videography I do during the summer. It’s given me an opportunity to try new things stylistically, and through the work I’ve developed many valuable friendships in the local creative community. This video is one example of my recent work in The River Artists series, a look at the work of artist Sean Pace. I hope you enjoy the video, and if you do, go over to theriverartists.com to see more episodes in the series.

Thanks,

Chris G.

Coming Home: the new kayak DVD from Rapid Transit!

This December my good friend Spencer Cooke and I released a DVD of kayak stories entitled Coming Home. The project incorporates four short films that Spencer and I produced over the years under the badge of Rapid Transit. We had a blast premiering three of the films to a local audience of friends and boaters at the Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company on December 22nd. We ran a raffle at the event to raise money in support of Our Voice and RiverLink, two organizations doing important work in and around Asheville. Check out the premiere ad below as well as the official trailer for Coming Home, and if you’ve got extra cents left after the holiday glut, maybe purchase yourself a copy of the DVD and enjoy some adventures in kayaking. Thanks, and happy New Year!

bloopers reel & premiere announcement:

Coming Home trailer:

2011 in Photos

It seems that the photo bug got started in my family with my great-grandfather, Charles Rudolph Luder. He opened a photography studio in Washington Indiana in 1907, when photography was still a fairly new technology, and he passed his love of capturing images down to his son, Carl, and so to my mother and to me. My first camera was a hand-me-down Nikon N8008 that originally belonged to my Grandpa Carl. Ever since I got that camera I’ve been playing with photography and trying to capture unique and engaging images. I don’t take a highly technical approach to shooting. The most important part of taking pictures for me is to plan a remarkable experience and then to take a photographic approach that does not get in the way. I love to capture people in their element, when they’re not distracted by a lens or posing for posterity. And so a lot of my images feature people walking away from me. I guess I’m just shy when it comes down to it.

This past year I’ve taken a lot of pictures and I’ve been on a lot of good adventures. Here is a selection of my favorite images from the year. Please take a look, and let me know what you think!

(all photos by Chris Gallaway, except where noted)

A January hike near Shining Rock Wilderness with my friends Anne and James.

Back to Shining Rock in February where I ran into some rabbit hunters.

Last of the fall garden produce: carrot tracks.

The Smokies: Punished into Ecstacy

In early 2011 my older brother Ben invited me to go on a multi-day backpacking trip along the Appalachian Trail through the Smokies. Ben was new to backpacking (had just bought his tent and backpack and was testing them out on weekend trips outside his native Austin, Texas). I had done very little backpacking myself, but I’d done enough to know that we were biting off a lot with the 5-day, 45-mile trek we planned for the first week in April.

Ben drove from up from Austin on April 2nd along with his friends Jason and Casey, who were even greener than Ben in backpacking experience. We met up in Cherokee, North Carolina and bought provisions for the adventure ahead. We talked and joked about how challenging the trek was going to be and how we would feel ourselves tested. No one in our group was prepared for the challenges we would actually face.

This is the story of that trip. I want to thank my partners in producing this project: Outdoor Sports Marketing (O.S.M.), Osprey Packs, Smartwool, Platypus, Vasque, and Therm-A-Rest. Visit the O.S.M. website to learn more about these great outdoor brands and to see more stories like this one.

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