Alpine skiing World Cup... once again :)

Hi guys

Instead of being in Val d'Isere for alpine skiing World Championships, I'm enjoying my well deserved 2 weeks of holidays Only weather doesn't play well with me, so instead of catching some skiing myself, I'm mostly watching clouds, rain and snow. But there's still almost 10 days left to my next races in Tarvisio, Italy, so I'm sure I will get some skiing till then... especially if my ankle, which I sprained last week just before really crazy day with 2 races in Garmisch, will get better too
But anyway... here's few photos from last few World cup races...
First a bit of fun, before women downhill race in Zauchensee, Austria.

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Your work is always top notch, but this set has so many of the "same" jump... I'd like to see a bit more variety. #5 is great. It gives a perspective of how steep the hills actually are. I wouldn't snow plow down a hill that steep!

Thanks for sharing,

John

Yup I agree about same jump. This "speed weekend" in Zauchensee had 3 races... 2 downhills and slalom. Actually officially there were just 2 races... super combined (downhill + slalom) and downhill. Downhill course is pretty crappy for shooting, with not many nice spots, and on top of that, we are much more limited on downhills. On SL or GS races, we can stand pretty much everywhere we want. Ok not exactly but still... On downhill races, speed is much bigger and so are safety concerns, so normally there's not many places where we can stay. And on top of that, we are not allowed to move around the course during race. This means, we are tied to same spot for all race, and on the end this results in 60 or 70 almost exactly same shots... Yes pretty boring, I agree
But please, don't consider this as me trying to find excuses. I'm not, and I totaly agree with you about this. So I really appreciate your honest comment, and I will take it into account next time when I will be posting more photos from ski races I still have on stock

Hi Primoz,

I think I have a pic of you at Kandahar downhill slope I was also waiting for the race to finally start and out of doing nothing just took a pic of people standing behind the safety wall just below the very first turn of downhill. Did not know you were going to Garmisch. Luckily I shot the first training day which was also quite foggy, so at least I have something.

So you were standing there all day long untill they finally cancelled the race
I could not stand more than one hour. The cold was really biting.
I tried out shooting both SL events as well. I will have more time later this week to put link to some of my pics.

Regarding the above pics, the last one is fine, but others are missing something. Just like ordinary pics. Will try to look at other pics onthe net and figure out what possibly could be done differently.

johndevane wrote in post #7286679
Your work is always top notch, but this set has so many of the "same" jump... I'd like to see a bit more variety. #5 is great. It gives a perspective of how steep the hills actually are. I wouldn't snow plow down a hill that steep!

Thanks for sharing,

John

contrary to popular belief if you only know how to snowplow...... you would never be there!
I agree on the variety though, I can never stand in one place for very long but unless you ski down while the event is going on (which is rare) and have a large lens and a few prime spots located in advance its hard to move to new spots in these conditions.

Go big or go home!

primoz wrote in post #7294160
Yup I agree about same jump. This "speed weekend" in Zauchensee had 3 races... 2 downhills and slalom. Actually officially there were just 2 races... super combined (downhill + slalom) and downhill. Downhill course is pretty crappy for shooting, with not many nice spots, and on top of that, we are much more limited on downhills. On SL or GS races, we can stand pretty much everywhere we want. Ok not exactly but still... On downhill races, speed is much bigger and so are safety concerns, so normally there's not many places where we can stay. And on top of that, we are not allowed to move around the course during race. This means, we are tied to same spot for all race, and on the end this results in 60 or 70 almost exactly same shots... Yes pretty boring, I agree
But please, don't consider this as me trying to find excuses. I'm not, and I totaly agree with you about this. So I really appreciate your honest comment, and I will take it into account next time when I will be posting more photos from ski races I still have on stock

Kind of off the topic here but what precautions do you take with your gear to keep condensation to a minimum when warming up from the cold or does it not seem to make a difference. I have heard people warm it up a little at a time or use a plastice bag to allow it to warm without forming moisture?

Just curious never really taken my gear out for long periods of time in the snow.

Not much of it in the desert!

primoz wrote in post #7286324
Hi guys
Anja Paerson of Sweden skiing in downhill of Zauchenee women super combined race of Audi FIS Ski World Cup 2008-09

That's all for Zauchensee speed weekend In next few days, I will post shoot or two from Schladming and Garmisch races, but before that, I would love to hear some of your opinions... any kind of them

Till later,
primoz

I like this one, but I think it Slalom or GS would make for more and better shots.

Kind of luck of the draw in Super G or downhill. everything happens so fast and is gone before you know it.

Unless you have a tree stand in a perfect spot you may get only one chance at a shot for the entire run.

Great job though!

To be honest... I don't really worry I normally put stuff in backpack, take cards out and close backpack again. And then I leave it like this until I come back to hotel, where I need to charge batteries for next day During this time, everything gets a bit warm already, so normally there's no condensation at all. Temperature changes inside of backpack are not that extreme, and they change slowly. Until now, I never had problems with this, even though I did run back to press center straight from medal ceremony with camera hanging over my shoulder, and when I left camera on table in press center it looked like someone would pour water over it.
I guess cameras and lenses are not all that sensitive

Karver wrote in post #7294227
just took a pic of people standing behind the safety wall just below the very first turn of downhill.

Damn you should come by and yell Yes I was exactly there! Standing for about 5 hours on that same spot, except once when we went for a bit of skiing with one of Slovenian coaches.

It would be this spot:

You get used to cold, so to be honest, it wasn't really all that bad. Sunday's women SG was worse. I was standing in middle of the hill and it was really cold I was shaking on the end already, and it was really great to come down to sunny finish area, just to catch medal ceremony after the race. And then panic started, sending photos and trying to catch second run of men's SL on other side of Garmisch

Please post your SL photos, and if you don't mind, my photo from DH too I'm always on other side of camera, so I never have any of my photos

And next year, I will let you know when I'm in Garmisch, so we go out for a beer.... or three Unless you will come on Ofterschwang too. I will most likely be there too

Great photos again Primoz. The picture of you, is that where you were shooting the headwall jump from and with what lens?

Yes I was shooting jump from this position. Ok about 5m further behind that banner which you can see behind me. I was shooting with 500/4.