No snow? No problem!

The second week of January in Minnesota is traditionally one of the coldest during the year.  This year, so far, has been anything but traditional.  With temperatures reaching near 50, it was unclear whether the Snocross Racing at Canterbury Park would take place, but as temps dipped below freezing at night, 3 million gallons of water was pumped through snow guns and the races took place.

I have seen many pictures of skiers, snowboarders, etc., jumping and doing tricks in which the entire action sequence is caught as the action unfolds.  Since the races were going on, I thought it would be fun to try my hand at capturing some of that.


You can do this type of sequence with just about anything that involves some sort of action.  A soccer ball into the net, sliding into home plate or a dog catching a frisbee for that matter.  Snow sports seem to lend themselves well because the whole body is the point of focus for you to watch the action.

Freestyle Jump Sequence (12 shots)

Finish Line Sequence (9 shots)

You'll need a tripod, or a very steady hand.  A camera that allows you to shoot continuously one frame after another while holding the shutter down and if its just you and a friend out doing this, then flashes are great.  My current camera allows for only 5 frames per second.  Shooting in RAW I can get about 18 before the memory card starts to 'buffer' itself.  Not to bad for this type of quick action.   After the shots are acquired you'll have to load them into some editing software, stack them up and mask away the unwanted parts.  It's not terribly difficult, a tad time consuming, but the results are pretty sweet.


Of course, you'll want to sit back and enjoy the show too and maybe you'll catch some close crash action which always gets the fans going.

Back Seat Driver

Dave