WRITTEN BY Kyle James
The long wait for snow seems like a distant memory now. We’ve had weeks of consistent snowfall and plenty of powder laps with a good crew, in my case at least—I hope you’ve been out there getting the goods too!
For this shot I boarded with my camera backpack all day and shot a bunch of exciting powder photos. To tell you the truth, I would usually take a few warm up laps, scope the terrain and snow out before grabbing my camera, but I knew it was going to be a special day thanks to pristine conditions and awesome riding buddies! Luckily for us my new lens arrived the day before and you can safely bet I was excited to try it out.
We shot a couple of ideas in the trees, off jumps and, of course, powder slashes. For me, this photo is one of the best from the day, showing off the energy we all had while riding some of the best powder I have ridden here at Sun Peaks. The stoke was high! I won’t tell you exactly where I took this photo, but if you ride one of our green runs and take a detour off the groomed piste, you might just find it…
One of the biggest tips I could offer in taking a similar shot, or any snow sport shot, relates to positioning. Knowing the sport will help you lots here too. Keep in mind if the rider is regular or goofy, or, if skiing, which turn side is their preference as you want to ideally be photographing the front of the rider/skier rather than their back. You should position yourself downhill, slightly to the front side of the rider, far enough that your rider can get enough speed for the maneuver—you’ll know this by riding the terrain first to get to your spot to take the photo. After that it’s all down to timing. A good starting point is “burst mode” which will allow you to fire off a number of shots per second to capture the action.
See you on the mountain!
Settings: 1/1250 – f8.0 – ISO 400 | Shot using a Sony A7iii + 70-200 lens. Rider: Zuzy Rocka
Kyle James is a photographer & filmmaker from Sun Peaks.
To see more of his work visit www.kylejames.co
Contact:
kylejamesimages@gmail.com
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