Colin Adair may have the best job in the world. Not only is he an established and highly-respected professional snowboard photographer, and the former photo editor of Snowboard Canada Magazine, but he's paid to shoot full-time with the DC snowboard team. Yes, you heard me correctly: that's his job. He shoots with a handfull of the best pro riders in the world, day-in and day-out. And as a resident of Whistler, BC, that means his regular crew is Devun Walsh, Iika Backstrom, and Laurie Heisikari, plus the am crew and whomever happens to breeze through town.

DC, who previously just made snowboard boots and outerwear (not to mention skate shoes, of course), caused a stir many months back when an anouncement was made that DC snowboards would soon be available. This stir became a whirlwind when another anouncement was made: Walsh, Backstrom and Heisikari all left Forum Snowboards to become inaugural mambers of the team. On top of that, all three would shoot with the Mack Dawg video crew for parts in the Double Decade release.

Curious as to what it's like to shoot with such big guns, I peppered some questions at Adair to get the inside perspective. As it turns out, it's a good life indeed, but one that comes with early wake-up calls and enough pressure to produce world-class images (of world-class riders) that anyone with less experience and confidence would have entered therapy after one week on the job.

What’s an average day like, shooting with the DC team?

There are probably two varieties of an “average” day. A backcountry day and a park day.

Backcountry Day: Wake up really early; sometimes as early as 5 am. Load all my photo and snowboard gear into my truck (trying not to forget anything, but I've left boots, jackets, film at home before). Drive to the meeting place and grab a big coffee and sometimes lunch on the way. Meet with the crew and unload sleds, roll up to the alpine via a logging road or snowmobile trail. Once we are up there we scope around, build a jump or start hitting some cliffs. It's pretty much “go time” when we get to the alpine and we usually have a gameplan in place before we leave the parking lot. This usually happens the night before via 50 phone calls back-and-forth. Lunch is pretty much the best part of the day because we all sit around and tell stories, talk *** and brag about how great our lunches are. This year Devun bought me at Hot Pot, which you put on your snowmobile exhaust pipe to heat up your food. What a guy! I usually roll with pizza or a wrap of some sort. You wrap it up in tinfoil and put it in there on the way up in the morning and leave it in there until lunch; nothing like hot food on a gorgeous sunny day in the snowy alpine. After lunch we'll go to another spot and try to hit another jump or maybe just scope for the following day if it's going to be sunny. We leave when the sun goes down and all the slopes and peaks are in the shade. By the time we get down its dark and we’re exhausted. On the drive home I try to gas up for the next day, get my dinner, make some calls, and just reflect on what a great day we just had (hopefully). Once I'm home my work continues. I have to download all the day’s shots, back them up on an external hard drive and always, always, always have to check them out not matter how tired I am! That is the greatest part of the job--seeing your work at the end of the day.

Park Day: Park Days are easy compared to sled days. I love them, but don’t do them very often. I equate park days to studio shoots and I think they are a bit like skateboard photography. You have a set area to shoot, you can set up as many lights as you want and the riders can do it over and over again, giving you a lot of chances to try different exposures and angles. Backcountry shooting often leaves you with only a few chances to get the shot because the landings get bomb-holed, especially with someone like Devun who gets his tricks within a few tries a lot of the time. I like shooting park but I will take a backcountry day any time. There is nothing better than sitting on top of the mountains looking, out at the huge peaks that go on and on and on…Gorgeous! I'm old school, so I like powder over park.

So how did the winter go?

This winter was amazing; I'm really happy with how it all came together. I definitely shot more than I ever have in the past because there were no excuses or other obligations keeping me out of the backcountry. We just went up to shoot as much as possible. Devun is a machine, so you need to be ready to go at all times. The Mack Dawg cameraman in Whistler this year was Dominic Gauthier, who I've known for a long time, so everything went pretty smoothly among our crew. Not everyone was there every day, but it was at least three riders all the time. JP Walker came out with us a few times as well, and Wille Yi Luoma… Pretty insane line-up of talent. Some really crazy *** went down, so I think the video is going to be really good. I also got to spend some time working with Brad Kremer from Mack Dawg. He's the director and a really creative guy. He's super fun to hang out with and loves taking people’s money when they bet him to eat crazy *** or jump in frozen lakes/rivers/fjords. I’d hate to say it was the best season I’ve ever had, because that would be unfair to all the other riders I've spent time with over the years, but damn if it wasn't a ton of fun.

Where will we see your shots?

My shots will be in all the US mags, Snowboard Canada, all over Europe, Australia, and Japan. I got the first cover of Snowboarder Magazine, which I'm really happy about. I also got the cover of the Mack Dawg video box. I consider this a real milestone for me. I’ve been watching those movies for a long time, longer than I care to mention, and now on their 20th Anniversary my photo is on the cover and will be used for posters. I'm really stoked. It's huge for DC too because it's their first year selling boards and already the riders are getting some really good exposure. I'll be working for them again next year so I guess we'll have to try to top ourselves!

How was shooting with this crew unique?

Shooting with this crew is insane. It’s hard to believe what they are doing sometimes, and I’m always amazed. It definitely spoils you, because not only are they talented but they also work really hard and know when to get down to business and when to mess around. I just kind of sit back and let them take the lead, absorb it all and then go do my thing with my camera. Every now and again I'll see something I really like, and think will look cool, and try to talk them into doing it. With another crew who is less experienced, I have to lead a lot more and be much more patient in terms of my expectations. This has it's own rewards though, ‘cause when the less experienced guys does something they’ve never done before it’s really cool to see them progress, and you can see their confidence build.