FREESTYLE SKIING: Aerial jumps

This was another first for me, never having photographed ariel ski jumping before. It was fun to shoot images of these guys flying off the jump and catching major air. I did find that the big challenge in photographing this sport was trying to find a unique perspective. They did let some of us credentialed photographers climb up to the launch area, which gave us a better shot of the skiers, but once they launched into the air, it was all skier and sky.

You can see that the day was ending and we were transitioning from day to night. This is my favorite time to shoot pictures, and the deep blue sky helped to make some cool shots. But, of course, with the setting sun came really cold temperatures and tougher shooting conditions.

I really liked the trail of snow left behind by the skier and tried to use that element in some of the proceeding images.

Believe it or not, this was one of my favorite images from the hour and a half of shooting. In between each skier they have to repack the snow on the landing area and check the jump. But in this case, in between heat one and heat two, they did a major repair. This guy came out to re-freeze the jump and I saw the smokey effect that it was creating. I quickly grabbed my camera and shot this image. I wish they could have this effect when the skiers were going off the jump!

One other note: Yes, I chose to shoot this sport instead of going to Ice Dancing. Yep, hard to believe huh? But as I wrote this blog entry and the one before it, I am barraged with TV coverage of the Canadian's who won that event. They have replayed their performance so many times that I think I am going to scream!