Photographer Jonathan Crosby

I did a stop motion video of my friend Liz for a summer art class that I’m taking. I’m pretty happy with it considering it was my first try at stop motion photography.

It’s oppressively hot in Athens so I thought I’d post something from my winter interning at the Aspen Daily News. The frame is of a gnarly crash at the Adaptive World Cup downhill event at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, CO.

Up until this point, Aspen has been struggling with an unusually low snowpack. The Roaring Fork Valley was operating at about 70% snowpack average, and that personally feels like a generous statistic. My rock skis were the choice ski all season because dodging rocks and gravel wasn’t uncommon. Luckly, in the past 3 or so days, we were blessed with 3 feet of fresh snow. Although it was pretty heavy snow, it was well needed and breathed life into town.

The town is now awake. I got to the gondola at Ajax before it opens at 9 A.M. in hopes of getting first bucket and was surprised to see the line weaving out the corral and down the stairs. It was worth the wait. Over the next few days I skied myself into to the ground. My body hates me, stairs are the enemy, and the Ritz-Carlton hot tub next door is my saviour.

I’m spending the winter in Aspen, CO to complete an internship at the Aspen Daily News. So far its been fun getting to know a new town and working for a paper. While driving home from grocery shopping in Basalt, I drove by Buttermilk ski resort where a snowcat was doing the daily prep on the X Games superpipe. I went back later at night thinking it could be a cool feature photo for the paper. The light fall off made for pretty dramatic photos of the Olympic-standard half-pipe that has 22′ walls.

On the 2nd day of driving to Aspen my Dad and I stopped at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore park on Lake Michigan. It was snowing decently hard and felt completely abandoned which made for some interesting high-key photos.

I’m currently completing an internship at the Aspen Daily News in Aspen, CO for the winter season. I loaded up my car and left Lincoln the morning after Christmas with my Dad. On the first day of driving we stopped at Niagara Falls to get a break and stretch our legs.

While home for winter break, I went for a walk with my friend Amanda to a location that has been dubbed “the spot” among friends. I’ve blogged photos from this past summer at “the spot” before so I thought I’d share one from the winter. This secluded clearing on a local pond in Lincoln, MA has become one of my favorite places to spend time with friends and relax.

I went back to Congo, OH to visit the families that I spent much of my time photographing this spring. I photographed 3 different families in Congo that were all neighbors and friends that overlapped to make their own community within the small town. The families were part of my documentary photo project on the Little Cities of Black Diamonds which is a name for former coal mining towns in southeast Ohio. The towns were set up the mining companies in the late 1890′s and 1900′s and were once booming communities with thousands of citizens and operational businesses. But the current day situations is much different. The coal industry all but left in the 1950′s and the mining communities have been struggling to survive since then. As businesses either leave or become bankrupt and the elders of the communities pass away, poverty settles in and the youth become the bleak. The Little Cities battle and live with poverty situations daily but hope to save their communities from becoming ghost towns.

This photo documentary is an on going project but a current edit can be found on my portfolio website in the next month.

Below is a frame that I took during my first visit back this fall since the spring. Enjoy

Its great to be back in Athens for my senior year. The 4 years have flown by and I can’t believe it’s almost over.

So far, the fall has been great but busy. My picture story class is eating up much of my time along with a few other classes. I wish I had more time to get out and enjoy the Southeast Ohio fall because its beautiful down here this time of year. At least the foliage makes driving around to complete photo assignments that much better.

Below are some frames from the beginning of fall quarter 2009  with friends in Athens. Enjoy

I’m learning to ride a unicycle. My family had one collecting dust in the garage at home so I thought I’d bring it to Athens and try to learn. Friend and fellow photojournalist Tyler Sutherland as been unicycling since the spring and helped me get started. It’s been a fun challenge and am getting better at it but still have a ways to go.

Athens Bicycle Co-op manager Eric Cornwell also rides a unicycle. unicycle gang?

CPOY editing

I’ve decided to start blogging my photos in an effort to keep friends and family up to date with what I’m working on. I’ll do my best to update the blog as much as I can.

To get the ball rolling, I’m going to make a few posts to recap my summer break. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by.

Oh and please, I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and critiques.

-Jonathan