december 18th marked a momental day for the Eastern Sierra and for Mammoth Mountain. after decades of hard work and persistence, the Eastern Sierra now has commercial air service by Horizon. this is a big deal. it affords us the opportunity to draw more people into our tourism based economy and allows for Mammoth Mountain to attract more skiers and snowboarders alike. my aunt has been a long time employee of the Mountain and has helped in making Mammoth a world class destination resort. i am so proud. so, she called me up to come a shoot the historical “First Flight” at the Mammoth-Yosemite Airport. i readied myself in a mere ten minutes and made it out to the airport in time so get some cool shoots of all the hub-bub and the historic arrival of the first flight. what fun. it was cold and breezy, but we endured the blistering winds to welcome the passengers to Mammoth, and to of course savor and celebrate the moment.

turns out that the marketing department liked my work and wanted all the images from the event. i happy obliged and excitedly accepted the opportunity to shoot even more for the Mountain. i am so excited. so tonight is the annual Night of Lights celebration up at Canyon Lodge, and they asked if i would photograph the par-tay. so i am headed up there in a bit to capture the Mammoth Christmas spirit. yes please. who knows, you just may see some of j. shipley’s photos in publication. 🙂 ahhhh. yay!