Making Ski Photographs

Making Ski Photographs

by William Lulow

Note: I just returned from a long-awaited ski trip to Okemo, Vermont. As I hadn’t been skiing in a few years, I took it slow, helped the grandkids and shot some pictures when I wasn’t actually skiing.

I usually take a camera or two with me whenever I go just about anywhere and since skiing has been a passion for the last 60 years or so, I love to make skiing images. The best advice I can give for those interested in making good ski shots is to separate the skiing from the photography.

These days, however, with the advent of really great camera phones, you have the ability to have a good camera with you at all times when you are skiing. There are things that the camera phone cannot accomplish successfully though. One of them is to get really good close-up pictures from a distance. The new iPhones actually have three lenses, but the telephoto one is only 3X magnification, not really strong enough to bring you into the action from the grandstands!

If you are going skiing to challenge yourself with a more difficult run, that is not the time to think about taking pictures. That’s the time to concentrate on your skiing technique. So, I make a few runs in the morning and try to scope out spots from which I want to take pictures. I look for scenic vistas, close up shots of snow on trees and of course, the lighting. Then, I’ll go back to those places and spend some time just taking pictures. Sometimes this means having to sideslip down a slope to get to a particular spot. Sometimes it may mean actually taking the skis off and walking to a spot.

I keep the regular camera locked up inside the warm base lodge and just take it out when I’m going to take pictures and I often carry the camera under my ski parka. Sometimes a good point-and-shoot camera is handy, but I’ve found that if I concentrate on taking pictures, I’ll need some filters, maybe even a tripod to get the shots I want. I can remember actually snow-shoeing up a slope on Berthoud Pass, in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, with my 4×5″ view camera gear in a backpack and a tripod strapped to the outside. Those are shots you can’t always get with even a good point-and-shoot camera or an iPhone. This is one shot obtained on a hike:

Here’s a shot of me actually skiing at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I was with some friends and I had scoped out the trail and knew the shot that I wanted to get. I set up the camera with the right exposure and handed the camera to my friend who snapped this shot as I came down the slope and glided to a stop.

A shot of a couple of trails and a lift at Vail, Colorado shot from a hotel balcony in town.

Scenic view of Telluride, Colorado from one of the trails on the mountain.

When I’m shooting scenics on skis, I have a fanny pack with some padding that I use to carry one camera body, one lens and a gradient filter. Sometimes I will pack a red filter for shooting Black&White’s. The red filter makes a clear blue sky reproduce as a dramatic black tone.

So, if you want to make good skiing images, concentrate on taking pictures not on skiing. Leave the actual skiing for when you’re not carrying a camera. (Although, these days, the newer camera phones, which are always in your pocket) are really good at doing these kinds of shots). Here’s a new one of the kids going to their ski lesson, made with my iPhone 13 Pro:

Taken just this past week-end. Look at the beautiful detail, snow flakes and all!

Out in the snow with my old view camera, circa 1972.