The Ski Life Blog

The 2010-2011 ski season started off slowly, without a lot of natural snow. In our corner of New York — the southern Adirondacks — we only had ten inches of snow by New Years Day.

But sustained cold through the entire season ensured that what we got stuck around, and NY ski mountains made steady progress covering trails with manmade snow.

My season included a nice lists of firsts. I skied the opening days at Gore, Hunter and Plattekill. And my day at Hunter was the debut of New York’s first six pack chairlift, the Kaatskill Flyer.

Continue reading →

I continue to think about the challenge of digitally capturing ski days. Powerful, imaginative images can be a source of joy forever. But I don’t want shooting to diminish the ski experience for myself or others.

There’s something I like about this sequence of images. They’re sharp enough, the conditions were decent, and Rochester Mark is a great skier.

But there’s more to it than that. The series was taken with a continuous shooting feature. If you (click to) enlarge the panel above and glance from image to image, you can almost imagine Mark in action. When I run quickly through those photos in a digital album, it’s very evocative of skiing. In a rudimentary way, it simulates movement.

Continue reading →

In the spring of 2007, I started skiing with a camera. The next summer, I realized how enjoyable it is to look back at photos from the winter, and since 2008, I’ve carried a camera whenever I’m out on snow.

I’ve always considered myself a skier, with a camera, as opposed to a photographer on skis. My primary goal has always been skiing, with photography serving to enhance the experience and memories.

But this year there’s been a shift in my thinking. Especially when I’m skiing alone. I’m starting to see skiing and photography as an integrated activity seeking out images — sometimes to the point of interrupting a great string of turns to pull up and capture the moment. A few times, like in the photo above, I’ve relinquished first tracks to capture a shot. It’s not unusual for me to take 150 pictures in a day.