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Take six professional ski and snowboard photographers, give them three days to put together a slideshow, limit all on-mountain shooting to take place within resort boundaries and operating hours and crown the winner the King of Storms. That, in a nutshell, is the Arc’teryx Deep Winter Photo Challenge, which took place in Whistler on Saturday, January 19th, 2013.
The photographers and their crews put a lot of work into this event, and I am super pumped to give you a behind the scenes look at what goes down while shooting for Deep Winter—or Shallow Winter, in this case, as the weather the entire time consisted of blue skies, inversions and no new snow at all.
The photographer: Andrew Strain. Strain placed third in the 2011 Deep Winter competition and has competed twice in the Ski Salt Lake Shootout, and says that his previous experience allowed him to stay focused and stay on track. "When you have such a daunting task in front of you, nothing compares to having experience on your side." Andrew was a last minute addition to the competition this year. Luckily, he happened to have a perfect theme in mind: a winter love story, inspired by a song he had heard (which he ended up using in his show).
I met a few Team Strain (or Steamtrain) members for the gondi ride up the mountain. The crew discussed the secret pow stashes they’d scouted out in the days prior to the competition. Fresh powder is a rare treat when it hasn’t snowed in a week or so.
I guess I had imagined action sports photography to consist of a bunch of buddies freeriding with a photographer ready to go, snapping shots of whatever might come up. That seems really dumb now because, as it turns out, that is not what happens at all. Things are actually very controlled and choreographed. The athletes know precisely what marks they have to hit and how they have to hit it in order to make it look exactly how the photographer envisions—for instance, making it look like there is nice powder when there is, in fact, not. There is also a lot of waiting involved, and not nearly as much playing around in the snow as I imagined.
Andrew knows the mountain inside out. He knew where and when the light would hit different areas throughout the mountain, managing the day to hit each zone at its optimal time. He seemed confident and relaxed, and the whole team was amped and in good spirits when I left them—definitely not the frantic, high-stress vibe I imagined at a competition like this. I later found out that Day 1 was rougher than it looked for Streamtrain. Andrew was still finalizing his crew while struggling with some flash issues, and late nights trying to shoot perfect star trails resulting in some very tired people. Things brightened up on day 2: "I got up early and was rewarded with an amazing sunrise, and found a magical snow/wind/light combo at the top of Glacier chair. I knew then that everything was going to come together."
The photographer: Reuben Krabbe. Reuben is no stranger to the “Deep” series—he won Deep Summer in 2012 and placed third in the 2012 Deep Winter competition, also nabbing the best image title. Having a few of these competitions under his belt, Reuben says that there was a lot less stress and anxiety than his first time around. “For myself, having a clear head for creativity is a huge asset”. Still, he notes that “each competition is wildly different based on snow conditions.”
The experience: With only four athletes, Reuben’s team was the smallest of those I followed but it was larger than he had initially intended. Reuben’s original concept had involved just one athlete, but he switched that up to accommodate for the non-stormy conditions. Seeing him in “the zone” was pretty awesome. He directed the shoot with great precision and no detail was overlooked.
The interesting thing about a photograph is that it captures a single moment in time and your brain kind of fills in the gaps and imagines the greater context. If I see a picture of a snowboarder going down a mountain in a cloud of snow, I imagine he is having some freeriding fun in some fresh pow. In fact, he might only have made three (very precisely timed) turns and the cloud of snow may be sprayed from someone who went down just before him to create the illusion of fresh snow when there hasn’t been a single snowflake in a week. Amazing.
I left Reuben’s team with a new appreciation for all the work that goes into the perfect photo. If it looks like the photographer just happened to capture an athlete in an impromptu moment of awesomeness on the mountain, then the photographer has done it right.
The photographer: Mike Helfrich. This was Mike’s first time competing in Deep Winter. He says, "I was not sure what to expect but in the end I had a great time shooting on Whistler Blackcomb and getting creative with the conditions." For the record, he would do it again "in a heartbeat".
The team: Team Helfrich was a legitimate posse, with a big group of athletes involved over the three days, many of whom had never ridden together. "I was suprised on how many people decided to ride with me," said Mike, "Very grateful." The team consisted of snowboarders Marcus Culver, Lenny Rubenovich, Gordon Emery, Spencer Kaleb, Andrew Would, Dave Rouleau, Jordan Wright and John Swystun. The team also had a "token skier chick" (as my dear roommate Marcus called her) Suz Graham.
I was trying to wrap my head around keeping a crew of a dozen people together at once, but Mike seemed to have it pretty under control. He pointed out that having a big crew let everyone throw down new ideas and opinions, which could result in unexpected awesomeness or just too many cooks in the kitchen. He’d been able to gauge when to let the creativity run free and when to reel it in to keep things moving.
I headed up Peak chair with Team Helfrich and watched them do some pretty cool team action shots. Mike didn’t have a particular storyline set, but he knew exactly what song he was going to use for the slideshow and planned to match the photos to the music’s story.
I squeezed my way into the sold out, standing-room-only show just before it started—pre-show dinner with Team Helfrich had run extremely over time. I had been so focused on my three photographers that I nearly forgot about the other three talented guys competing in the contest, Chris Christie, Nic Alegre and Russell Dalby.
The show opened with Chris Christie’s presentation of the three Ragin’ Cajuns. I think this show made everyone in the room want to run outside and get on the mountain immediately.
Reuben Krabbe’s presentation was next, and it gave me goose bumps. In addition to shooting some epicly epic photos, he had written a narrative to accompany the story. Way cool.
Next was Mike Helfrich’s phenomenal show. It sounded to me like his slides got the most hoots and hollers from the crowd. There were a lot of standout photos and people were loving it. I didn't notice it, but Mike tells me that some of the quality of his photos suffered because he tried to edit the show himself and it backfired a little. He says, "Do what you're good at and get someone else to do the rest." Lesson learned.
When it was all said in done, there was no clear standout winner in my mind—there were six totally different stories that each stood their own. I couldn’t help but feel a little biased towards the three crews I followed, and I’m pleased to say that each of my guys cleaned up. While Russell Dalby’s fantastic show came first ($5,000 prize), Reuben killed it with a second place finish ($2,500) and Andrew came in solid at third place ($1,000). The single photo that was determined to be the very best in the show ($500) went to Mike Helfrich and featured my very talented roommate Marcus. I’m going to have to get that made into a poster to go into our house.
High fives were aplenty at the after party at GLC, which was as insane as you would imagine. It was a truly unforgettable week for me, and I have a whole new appreciation for action sports photography and the amazing crews behind these beautiful presentations. Can’t wait for next year!
Andrew Strain: "Watch all the old slideshows, especially Jordan's – he's the master of the format. Know the formula for success. Don't enter until you know you can produce at the level of past winners. Pretend to shoot it one year. Use moody acoustic music with 4-6 second slide transitions. Do your edits every night. Drink a beer every night. Treat your team well – you're nothing without them. Most importantly, have fun. If you aren't having fun, you aren't really snowboarding. After all, that's what it's all about."
Reuben Krabbe: "Assist a photographer in one, before doing it. When you're standing on a big stage you want to be able to represent yourself well, so having the opportunity to observe the process before attempting it will be a huge advantage."
Mike Helfrich: "Just have fun and do what you always do on an expedited basis. Having a big crew can be a bit more stressful then having a small one but with that said if you can manage large groups, good things can happen fast."
There is a Reader's Choice vote going on for the top 3 photos from each participant you can check out and vote for HERE
Reuben Krabbe's Show:
Andrew Strain's Show:
Russell Dalby's Show:
[Editor's note – Although the last time I checked Dalbs is a snowboard photographer, for some reason I cannot comprehend he chose to shoot a skier for 95% of his slideshow. Since it was Dan Treadway though, possibly the most badass human being alive, he gets a pass in my book. Not that I believe for a second either of them could care less what I think! Haha.]
Chris Christie's Show:
Behind the scenes of Day 1 with Mike Helfrich:
Nic Alegre's Slideshow:
