You may have heard me mention previously about obtaining media accreditation for the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 event that was being hosted up at Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver. It was the first opportunity for myself to go up to an event and photograph it without much restriction and being “media” is pretty cool too.

The plan was to obtain a Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens for the event and try my hand at using it. Though due to various circumstances I was unable to obtain the lens and had to shoot with the gear I currently use. A bit disappointing but the experience itself would easily make it all better.

Boardercross (SBX)

I took a ton of photos during the SBX event. It was a grueling march up the ski slope in my Burton snowboard boots to where I was allowed to shoot from. Since this was my first media event they suggested I head to an area near the finish line of the race. I could have opted to take my snowboard up the chair lift and ride down to various spots but I decided to follow their advice.

As long as I stayed within the area enclosed by a blue line I was able to shoot from wherever.  It was pretty cool seeing the boardcross riders speeding around the track, going over berms and taking jumps.

Lighting was alright, though in some parts I was shooting towards the sun which typically isn’t a good thing to do. I tried my best and had fun with my camera.

I moved around a bit in the area I was situated in. I talked to some of the other photographers (who had $10,000+ gear) and tried to get some advice. I moved up the course a little bit so that I could shoot the riders fronts and not their backsides. The SBX event was fun but I was looking forward to the next day which was the Half-Pipe event.

Half-Pipe

The Half-Pipe is probably the most exciting and popular event to watch for snowboarding. As a media accredited photographer I got to get closer to the deck’s edge than the spectators around me. Granted some spectators had better glass than I did, but that’s beside the point. This I thought was really cool and I was excited to go shutter crazy with my camera.

I talked to a couple of the photographers who shot around me. One guy (Mike) owned an agency from France and follows the WorldCup event around the world. He also shoots for Burton. His camera gear was Canon, which was nice to see as there was a slightly higher popularity of Nikon users. He had the 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens, a 300mm f2.8L lens for one camera body and what looked to be a 24-70mm 2.8L on another camera body.

He mentioned how he’s only home 4 months of the year but loves what he does. His advice was as long as I enjoyed snowboarding and photography I could continue getting media accreditation to various events. I definitely have a passion for both and I look forward to attending more and more events.

That being said, Robyn and I will be going up to the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival this April which is being hosted over at Whistler/Blackcomb.  Again we get to have Full Media Accreditation for the event and we’re both really excited to see such a festival.

If you want to see my little coverage of the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 Boardercross and Half-Pipe events over at Cypress, head over to WestCoast Alpine, a site that both Robyn and I Co-Author.

You can also check out some of the photos I took during the event and uploaded via my LG FIS WorldCup 2009 Flickr set. I took over 2000 photos of the Half-Pipe event and near that many of the Boardercross event.

I also have been using Lightroom’s Develop features to enhance the photos more. Colour corrections, cropping and even been playing with the Curve tool too. So far I am really enjoying Adobe Lightroom and learning new tricks everyday.

I have combined two new passions together and really enjoying both of them more than ever. Looking forward to what the future has in store for me in regards to both snowboarding and photography.