Yesterday, accompanied by my friend Hans Helder I ventured out to Lake Louise to watch some ski racing. Every year, Lake Louise hosts two World Cup Ski events. This weekend it was the men’s downhill and super G competitions; next week, they’ll do it all again with the women competing in the same events. It was a beautiful day, about -3 deg C (27 deg F), overcast with intermittent light snowfall. Many others agreed as evidenced by the large crowd in attendance.
I begin with two pictures to set the tone. The first scene is one that caught my eye as we walked down the hill toward the lodge. The photograph portrays a part of the resort’s main lodge, with the imposing presence of Mount Temple emerging from the mist behind.
The next photograph was taken in the opposite direction, looking up the mountain. In the foreground, you see the finish line for the race course where a number of spectators have gathered. In the centre of the picture you can see a number of people taking advantage of the day to ski and take in the race. Skiers can watch the race at locations along much of the course’s length. On the far left, is the race course, cordoned off from Easy Street, the ski run to the right. I’ve inserted a red letter “A”, indicating a racer about to reach the finish. I’ve placed another red letter “B”, indicating the area where I took many shots of the racers in action. That location is the last turn on the course, the intersection of the Juniper run and Easy Street. This is a great turn, almost 90 deg following a long straight stretch. Downhill racers attain top speeds in the order of 140 kph (87 mph) so they enter this turn with lots of momentum. The turn is very challenging, banking downward to the skier’s left as he turns to the right. To make it even more interesting, the course drops precipitously, launching the racers into a long jump.
The winner of yesterday’s race was Dominik Paris of the Italian team, who completed the course in 1 minute, 49.9 seconds. The course is 3.06 km (1.91 miles) in length, so his average speed was 100.5 kph (62.5 mph). Here’s an action shot of Dominik negotiating the last turn before the finish.
I conclude today’s post with a slideshow of action shots taken mainly at the course’s final turn, featuring racers from a number of countries including Erik Guay, Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Jan Hudak of Canada. Click on the right side of the photos to advance; on the left to reverse.
Wonderful shots, Peter. Speed & Aperture for the skier shots? Must have been a great day for photographers!
Hi John, thanks for your kind comment. Here are the settings:
ISO 400
f5.0 to f6.3
Focal length 150-400 mm, mostly 300 mm
Resultant shutter speeds 1/640 sec to 1/3200 sec
I was trying for speed, so I used the largest aperture available at all times and I was able to do it with ISO400. Most were done at f5.6, focal length 300 mm and shutter speed of 1/2500 sec. Some were taken at a slightly different location (closer) which caused me to use a wider angle. This in turn enabled me to get a larger aperture and more speed. I used a 100-400 mm f4.5-5.6 telephoto lens. It has the drawback that the maximum aperture available diminishes as you increase the focal length.
Not too hard, light was good. Challenge is tracking the skiers at the speed they travel. Technique is to use a wider angle, increasing the facility of capturing them in the frame. It compromises image quality a little; I would have preferred taking them all at 400 mm.