Just a few more minutes of winter: tips for shooting snow sports with photographer Brett Wilhelm

 

 

Winter is finally over. That’s great news for most of us, but winter sports fanatics might still be looking for ways to stay slope-side just a little bit longer.

Here are your last two-and-a-half minutes of snow for the next six months. Photographer and videographer Brett Wilhelm regularly covers skiing and snowboarding events (among others) and he’s filmed himself working a couple of snowboard halfpipe events for your edification.

Like many sports photographers, he keeps two cameras on and ready to shoot at all times. Both bodies are Nikon D4s, one with a wide-angle or fish-eye lens for close-ups as the athletes approach his position on the side of the pipe, and the other with a 70-200mm f/2.8 to shoot up, down, and across the pipe.

Interestingly, he spends more time in the first clip talking about the cleaning equipment he keeps in his pockets than he does about expensive glass and other gear. It’s a great point—the snowboarders get pretty close to his face, and when the snowflakes hit the lens, it’s pretty important to clean them off fast. All you need is a cheap cloth to clean the front element, but without it, you aren’t taking many great pictures. Also in one of his many pockets is a shammy, to absorb melted snow from the rest of the camera body.

Check out the clips and more of Wilhelm’s work at his website.

(Via ISO 1200)