Deepwater Soloing the Musandam Peninsula, Oman

Deepwater Soloing the Musandam Peninsula, Oman

Photograph by Jimmy Chin

Getting the Shot
“In some ways, shooting someplace new is great because you see everything fresh and with new eyes,” says photographer Jimmy Chin. Chin, on assignment for National Geographic magazine, photographed
climbers Alex Honnold (pictured) and Hazel Findlay as they put up new
deepwater soloing routes on the knife-edge seaside cliffs along the Musandam Peninsula, Oman. See the story, "Impossible Rock," in the January 2014 issue.
Chin had photographed Honnold climbing in Yosemite for a previous assignment for National Geographic, but this story was on a much tighter time line. “I had a lot more time to shoot the Yosemite story, and I was also much more familiar with the area," Chin recalls. "I had less than three weeks to shoot the Oman story, which isn't a lot of time to shoot a feature story, especially when I'm going to a completely new and remote area. It's great to shoot a place you know well, but I also love the challenge of showing up to a place I've never been and diving straight in."
To get this photo of Honnold, Chin positioned himself on a ledge to the side of where Honnald was climbing. “I knew the light was amazing and that I better nail the shot. I wasn't sure if Alex was going to be able to get out to the same point again,” he says. “I had imagined a shot like this, but got really lucky to get the perfect light and cool body position. Alex contorted and strained every muscle in his body to keep himself on the route.”
Chin photographed with a Canon 5D Mark III and Canon f/2.8, 24-70mm lens.