Surfing the Wall of Snow
Category - Sports
[BPA2021-306]

Aaron Blunk (USA) skilfully surfing the top lip of the enormous vertical half pipe wall in his second run of the Men's Ski Half Pipe Final on 23rd February 2018 as part of the Winter Olympic Games. I wanted to show his skill on the top lip with the vertical drop of the half pipe wall. I was based beyond the finish line looking up the half pipe shooting with a 500mm F4 lens to get close to the action. The distance from the skier required a long lens but also meant fine control was needed when tracking the skier. The bright white snow meant I had to use exposure compensation to raise the exposure to allow for the bright conditions. Due to the speed of the skier, continuous servo focusing is necessary with centre cross point focussed on the body. This image just exemplified the elite level of the skier able to control his speed and direction to delicately surf only the edge and not be too low or jump the lip.

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