For any skier worth his salt, when it dumps 3 feet of snow, that usually means it’s a “powder day”—time to ditch work and hit the slopes. But for me, a powder day means it’s actually time to go to work. Fortunately, that work means going up on a mountain, skiing with my friends and using those rare, blissful conditions of fresh-fallen snow to make epic ski pictures.
Having spent a number of years shooting the still assets for one of this country’s premier ski resorts—Kirkwood Mountain outside of Lake Tahoe—I’ve learned a few tricks for shooting skiing. As part of my ongoing tutorial series for Adorama TV, “Getting the Shot with Corey Rich,” I recently produced this Tech Tip on how to shoot a ski photograph using a long Nikon lens.
Creating a good ski picture is all about opportunity and managing variables. You have to be up at the crack of dawn when that storm strikes and unloads three feet of fresh snow. From there, you have to beat the public before they ski away the fresh snow and begin making pictures. One of the most important tips is to keep shooting no matter what. It’s a myth that you could ever shoot a single action frame and be done. In reality, it’s all about shooting till the skier is out of frame, and you capture that decisive moment that tells a great visual story about your most epic powder day.
For more on this topic, check out “Story Behind the Image: Getting the Shot in Powder”
