Last week I got back up to beautiful Blue Mountain to photograph some spring skiing and lifestyle for them.  I shot this category last year as well and it was a super fun shoot.   Blue has done a wonderful job implementing the images into their 2011 winter campaign. Their graphic design team does great things with my photos and their finished product always impresses me.  I often see the ads and think they look great before even realizing it’s one of my shots.  My images are all over the resort – on TVs, window displays, brochures and billboards.  They all look great!

Like last year, this is a very weather dependent assignment. I know my blog often reads more like the weather channel than a photography blog, but weather controls the light and the light is boss.  The morning of the shoot I woke up to what looked like a great forecast.   What was going on outside however was high winds and overcast skies.  I decided to persevere and trust the golden sun radiating from the weather app on my iPhone.  How could it be wrong, right?  I met Brian Hunt, Blue’s videographer, on the north side of the hill to scope-out the location and conditions. Things were getting progressively worse and we decided to call it.  If this was an event, I would have pushed on but nobody wants miserable looking images for their marketing material.  We decided to get some breakfast in the village and wait it out.  The forecast still showed sunshine and bluebird skies but what we were seeing through the window of the Sunset Grill was ugly.  Things never improved, they got worse in fact.  By the time our tentatively rescheduled shoot time of 2:30 rolled around, we were in complete whiteout conditions.  We got skunked in the morning but I thought maybe, just maybe, I could get some shots in the terrain park later that day. I put a call out on my Facebook page and longtime friend Sue Markus came through with a ripper for me, Matt Konings.

Matt and I were texting each other back and forth trying to find a window to shoot in.  Even though the whiteout subsided, the high winds were relentless throughout most of the day.  The wind eventually died down around 6:00 and I met Matt in the park shortly afterward. Matt and his brother Kevin were great to work with.  They hit their mark and went big.  We were well on our way to getting some epic shots until my Pocket Wizards failed.  I got less than ten shots in the bag.  I’ve never had this happen and I honestly couldn’t believe it.  I have shot in all types of conditions with these and never had anything like this happen.   I was reluctant to pack up because I was in such disbelief that this could be the reason why my strobes weren’t firing.  I thought it was the batteries as they tend to drain quickly in the cold.  I swapped them out but it didn’t help, my strobes kept failing.  I fiddled for a while but it was cold and none of my changes were making a difference.  I had to pack it in for the second time that day. Once back in my toasty hotel room, I was able to confirm it was in fact the Pocket Wizards that failed.  Everything on the displays had gone haywire and read as eights, like a malfunctioning alarm clock (88:88).  Once they thawed out, the screens returned to normal.  Guess I’ll be in the market for some sort of Pocket Wizard cozy.  I have to admit, I have lost some faith in my trusty PWs.  I did manage to crank off this amazing shot of Matt before things went south.  As much as I like the shot, knowing what I could have got still bums me out.  We were just warming up.  Sorry I couldn’t spend more time with ya guys – next time.  Maybe I was being unrealistic, asking too much from my gear?  Here’s what my buddy @jdylandean had to say about it on my Twitter feed. “@FastTimesInc That’s just God sayin “get your ass inside! it’s too cold out” sick shot man!”

The next morning I woke up to the same forecast on my iPhone but, unlike the previous day, when I pulled the curtains open it was true.  I met the team at the marketing office and we were on the hill pulling frames in no time.  The shoot was going very well but it wasn’t long before our blue ski turned grey.  I decided to continue with the shoot and make the most of it.  I had a few tricks up my sleeve and knew I could drop in a blue sky in post if need be.  I made some exposure adjustments while shooting to ensure I could pull this off in post.

The athletes were terrific, worked hard and we had a fun shoot.  We got a great mix of skiing and snowboarding with individuals and groups. I was very fortunate that they were such great skiers and boarders, it makes my job a lot easier. The one thing I can’t do is make someone look the part.  Here are a few shots from our efforts.

We even made our way over to some of Blue’s impressive glades for a few shots.

Big thanks to Kevin, Dan, Aaron, Erin, Pat, Veronica, and Hal for their hard work and big smiles.  You guys were great!