Full gallery located here. This weekend (February 21-22, 2009) was the USCSA Northeast Regional competitions (college alpine ski racing) held at Waterville Valley, NH. A two day competition featuring both slalom and giant-slalom events featuring racers from several states and schools. For those of you who have ever taken snow sport pictures before, you know how hard it is; for those that haven’t – count your blessings. Not only do you face the problems that you normally would with people flying by you at 40MPH, but add to that sub zero weather with 20MPH winds (cold hands + small shutter button = problems), a slippery steep incline, and limited access. Here are some tips for those of you planning on shooting and continuing to shoot perhaps one of the most challenging subject – ski racers.

Warmth – Your New Best Friend - It goes without saying, where there’s snow, there’s cold. Normally, this isn’t a problem, but it certainly becomes when once you’re trying to photograph in it. I recommend a few different pairs of gloves. A heavier, bulkier glove is the best selection for the hand thats just going to be sitting there holding the camera, while a lighter and perhaps more nimble glove (I use a fleece) is a better choice for the hand dealing with the buttons. Hand and boot warmers are also a good idea – sometimes even taping them to the spot you’ll be holding most often. It may not feel cold just walking from the car to the lodge, but on your 4th hour, you’ll feel it.

It is important to also not take your equipment from inside to outside (or visa versa) very often. As anyone with glasses can tell you, coming from a cold place to a warm place causes all sorts of fogging issues. Similar problems can easily happen to lenses and sensors if the transition is too rapid. I recommend allowing the equipment to heat up as slowly as possible – leaving it in the bag, handling minimally, etc.

A Leg To Stand On - Unless photographing night skiing, it’s rare that you’ll need a tripod or monopod to reduce blur. It’s far more common that you’ll want some kind of support to save your sanity. As if holding a heavy zoom for several hours wasn’t bad enough, doing it on an iced over incline in freezing weather makes it a nightmare. While a monopod is a must, a tripod (an unusually convention) can be a lifesaver, as its ability to stand on its own allows you to take the hand that would otherwise be holding the monopod, and place it into a warm pocket, out of the wind and cold. A water resistant tape should be applied to the last foot or two of the leg, to prevent water and snow from getting into contact with the leg. A spiked foot (available from most manufactures) should also be used to prevent movement of the feet.

Blinding White - Snow will almost always be brighter then your subject (unless it is your subject) – it acts like a large mirror, reflecting every ray of light that hits it. It’s better to underexpose then overexpose an image. If you have a blown highlight (an area too bright for the camera to capture), you will never be able to recover what was there, however, there is always a way to make something too dark brighter. Setting your EV to around -2/3 steps will help minimize blown highlights. Setting your camera to RAW can help as well by allowing for more data to be captured, which could in turn, possibly contain information that would otherwise be a blown highlight. Also, insure that metering is done on the person, and not on the snow. Use center weighted or spot metering to minimize samplings from areas that will cause your images to be overexposed.

Think “Where” Not “Was” - Tracking a fast object is always a hard thing to do. While you can crop later on, doing so drastically reduces the print quality of the image. Try to predict where the racer will be going rather then where he is or was. Chances are, by the time you find out where he is, he’ll have already moved forward. Get a feeling for the course and its movement. Also try to frame loosely, as you can always do a bit of cropping later, but you can never spontaneously insert image. Using a faster focusing lens and a continuous focusing mode is almost a requirement, as doing otherwise is going to drastically decrease your keeper rate.