I shot the state finals of the tree climbing comp. a few weeks ago, and man was that hard to shoot. The lighting was horrible and contrasty most of the day and my shooting angles were not very pleasing either. I guess you have to take what you can get :wink:

First image... a guy doing the airial rescue of a 170 lb dummy that is unconcious in a tree. You need to talk to him, get the rescue squad called, climb up and lower him down as if he was seriously hurt wihout injuring him further. He is strapping "joey" to himself via a safety strap and then will lower both himself and "joey" down on seperate ropes as smoothly as possible.

BTW..He took 8th in the airial rescue part of the comp and overall comp..... not too shabby considering the top 5 guys are the incrowd :wink:

Here is a too tight image of my middle brother Bill doing the "work climb" . I was having trouble keeping up with him and was moving around to get a clean angle that wasn't too contrasty.

The work climb basicly simulates pruning a tree. You have to climb up the 90ft pinoak tree(no spikes) via a rope then hit all 5 "work stations" . Youneed to have very little slack in your rope at all times and use a safety strap before ringing the bell that simulates making a cut. That is not real work tree work and he blazed through it, but not to the judges likings so much. He got a 16th in this event, while my brother Mike(the youngest got 14th). Both did the event far faster than the majority, but had slack or didn't use a safety stap once.

Both good shots! I think the first one in particular has great interest due to the striking pose of the dummy and the fact that you see the rescuer's face as he's working.

First image... a guy doing the arial rescue of a 170 lb dummy that is unconcious in a tree. You need to talk to him..

Hmmm, I guess you would have to be a DUMMY to be unconcious up in a tree... :D

BTW, I won't ask why they have to talk to him if he's unconsious, I'll just assume those are "da rules".:p

Interesting pics. I think it'd be really fun to watch this type of competition. Especially if they were rescuing cats!

Here is one of my brothers' bosses(Burt Kuhn of Action Tree Service). He is in his late 40's and showed those yound bucks how it done! He placed 3rd of 5th in all of the 6 work stations but 1. He placed 6TH overall in the whole state! This guy is by far the hardest working guy I have ever seen and everyone there was cheering him on and giving him praise. The newpaper article the next day had an image of him repelling that I thought was OK at best image wise.

Burt is coming back into to the trunk of the tree from just previously ringing a bell 30 feet from the trunk. Notice he is pulling up the slack in the line as he goes :wink:

Thanks Seb and Steve

Steve, My brother bill actually had to be rescued from a tree by his other boss about 12 years ago. A 500 pound+ branch fell from another tree far above him and smashed his face in. He was in a coma for awhile. Knowing such skills is a part of the business.

You need to say term such as " he's unresponsive" "rescue squad was called" "here come the rescue squad , go flag them down" "johnny are you ok" "he's breathing, but bleeding from his mouth" or " looks like heat exhaustion".....

They want you to know everything you need to do if you have to go up a tree and get an unconcious coworker.... god forbid.


Yes, that comp was amazing to watch, but 95% of those watching were related to the business. Anyone could have shown to watch, but few did. Having done tree work(even at Action ) for 17 years on and off, I was still amazed at the skill level of many of them.

I will go back to "The Work Day" when all of the companies who's guys entered go to the location and put in a days work. That is in december I do believe and the Action guys work circles around the rest of them :D Every company comments how hard they work and how much work they do. "Action?, oh you are those guys that tackle the big trees "

Paul,

These are really great shots! They're very effective. My fav is the first one - it's very strong - striking actually due to the content.

Thanks for posting these. They were refreshing to view.......not the usual. Also, the "behind the scene" story you shared certainly added to the interest.

Liz

Paul these are really unique images. the thing that gets me is you just can't help yourself can you. Even when your taking photos of people you get them in trees. A real bird nerd at heart.

Same bat time , same bat channel :lol:

10 seconds after the first. Here you can see that Jim is supporting the dummy with his legs while he repells. You can't really see to well , but the safety strap is running around the dummy further securing the dummy. The strap runs from the purple thingamabob(never knew the name of that part of the safety strap) on the right of his "saddle" underneith the dummy and back to a sudured chip on the other sice of his "saddle".

Paul,

I forgot to mention - and it's very noticeable here - that the composition is excellent especially in this one - and the first. Also the color is great. I could follow the purple from your explanation. Thanks for posting this. These are great images.

Liz

My images of my brother Mike(the youngest) were not so good. I had very harsh lighting as it was 4:45 pm and the sun was low and very directional.

Here he is doing his "work climb" and he was flying through it with great skill! He wasn't liked by the judges though because...... notice his rope has alot os slack :D That's how real tree men work BTW.

My images of my brother Mike(the youngest) were not so good. I had very harsh lighting as it was 4:45 pm and the sun was low and very directional.

Here he is doing his "work climb" and he was flying through it with great skill! He wasn't liked by the judges though because...... notice his rope has alot os slack :D That's how real tree men work BTW.

This image isn't as good as the others; however, give yourself some slack. Considering the sun - and the fact that you had to focus toward the bright sky, I think this is pretty good. The subject (your brother) is sharp - the rope can be seen quite clearly. Good job, Paul.

This is an interesting series (the story part is great too).

Liz

why thank you... everyone!

interesting photos, you did a great job considering the conditions.
I just heard about this comp driving in to work today on NPR...seems that the guy that wins the nationals the last couple of years, practices by rescuing cats as a side job.
They were also saying that this activity is becoming more popular and that a lot of people were finding it more pleasing than rock climbing...and future competitions could have non-professionals entering. Grand prize - a chain saw!

Cheers.

Paul the images are fine, even the last one looks pretty darn good as well.

Fine photos Paul. I am always interested in these kinds of competitions and photographic situations. Shooting with the sky as a background when you have no choice as to time of day pretty much means you cannot worry about that part of the photo.

Also I'm intrigued as to the number of your brothers involved.

Again, good shooting and glad to see this event 'covered'.

That would be last years INTERNATIONAL champion... Dan Kraus from Seattle. He beat out a guy from Germany who has won 5 out of the 6 prior years.Bernd Strasser of Germany won....1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 & 2004 ITCC Champion. Mark Chisholm of NJ won the internationals in 2001 and 1997. Mark teaches airial rescue and other techniques of arborist related work.

I know at the state level you win a Stihl 200 tree saw and a few other climbing related things, but you'd think the International winner would get more...right?

http://itcc.isa-arbor.com/champions/champions.asp

http://itcc.isa-arbor.com/results/results.asp
Notice Mark Chisholms name alot :wink:
He held the world record for the footlock until last year.... his record was beat by like .3 second I think. I seen Mark run up a tree (60 feet up) in 25.25 seconds and he footlocks faster! squirrels can't get up that fast!

These are very cool images Paul. I bet this type of competition would be a blast to watch. There's only one thing missing from your photos tho... where are the BIRDS?:p

I kept hearing an indigo bunting all day and a nesting cooper's hawk "kacking" every once in awhile :D


[ EDIT DUE TO FINDING THE LOCATION AND DATES ]


If anyone is in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area The INTERNATIONALS are there this year!

They are held at the "International Society of Arboriculture's Annual Conference" in Minneapolis, MN.

July 29 - August 2, 2006 is the comp dates.

http://www.isa-arbor.com/conference.aspx

That's only about a 4-5 hour drive from here.

Book a room :wink: