I’ve known Scott since I moved back to Utah about 18 years ago, and knew of him before that through his photography.  As far as I know, Scott was the guy who invented the genre of skiing photography where you see a tight frame of a skier completely engulfed in a sea of raging powder, with perfectly lit up details and the person is calming looking through his/her goggles directly into the camera.  Photos like these are the embodiment of speed, action, details, nature and humanity all rolled into one, which is probably why Scott has had several hundred magazine cover shots.  And skiing is just one of many things that he shoots.  There’s a photo on his website of girls throwing snowballs at each other, that makes it look like such fun that I want to give it a try.

My personal photography style is best described as “Point & Chute” where I carry a small Point & Shoot camera set to full auto with the burst mode on, pull it out when things look interesting, fire off a bunch of shots and hope for the best.  This usually yields about a 1 in 1,000 ratio of good to crap, and from working with professional photographers, there’s no doubt that carefully setting up the shot is 90% of the game.  In that regard, I’m very psyched that Scott is teaching a clinic and willing to share some of his techniques.

The clinic is Feb 4-7 at Snowbird and for $1,250 includes food, lodging, ski tickets and the workshop, although there is also a locals deal available if you just want the workshop.  Contact Scott at scott@scottmarkewitz.com or book through Snowbird at 1.800.453.3000.  It should be fun.

The website is back up thanks to a ton of help from Valentin Secades who lives in the skiing hub of the world, Costa Rica.  The camera is back up with special thanks to my Visa card and B&H Photo Video. 

Over the years my photo modus operandi has devolved into a style best described as “Point & Chute.”  I try to find the best small camera I can in the sub $400 range, which is the arbitrary price where I won’t be tempted to leap after it if it swept into a glacial moulin or dropped on the forth pitch of a climb.  For each camera, I sew up small, padded case which can be secured to the shoulder straps of a pack.  The case can be opened with one hand, and I also attach a lanyard to the camera so I can open the case, extract the camera, turn it on and take a photo all one handed. 

From a skiing perspective,  this is great as it means you don’t have to stop, take off gloves, remove lens caps, etc..  From a photographic perspective, it is obviously not as sophisticated as using a big-gun SLR, but you learn your way around it.  Because it is always ready to go, I try to capture “of the moment” photos,  and for action shots, try to get the person fairly close.  Of course, most importantly, set it to burst mode and shoot lots of photos.

My latest camera is a Canon G9 which I decided on after having two professional photographer friends recommend it and seeing a whack of them being used for climbing and skiing.  Each new camera I get seems to be a big improvement over the last, but this one is a quantum leap better than any other P&C camera I’ve ever owned and I’m looking forward to using it.  Now if it would just snow around here…
________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and get a trim little MountainSmith Cyber II Compact Camera Case from Backcountry.com! Click on the photo below…