Ski

A car lover's equivalent to a boob shot, yes?

What are you most interested in shooting? I guess that's the first question. The best possible internship for new photogs that aren't sure what they want is at a newspaper. At a decent paper, you do sports, a little fashion, a little spot news, and some editorial illustration. For now, I'll assume it's sports, since that's where you're working. Firstly, when I say something totally obvious, don't be offended. I don't know you and don't know your work. Okay, here goes: The longer the lens, the less depth of field. Your foreground and background will be out of focus, which makes your subject 'pop', or stand-out. Focus is tougher with a long lens in some respects, since it's more critical to be exact. But easier in that you know when you have focus. Longer lenses from 300mm up also compress and image. Your eyes are the equivalent of a 55mm focal length, btw, which is why 50mm lenses were considered "normal" and packaged with SLR's. The standard working lens for sports is 300mm. For baseball, for instance, that gives you a fairly full frame of 2nd base plays, as well as full frame of home plate, while standing behind the first base coach's box. It gives full frame QB to running back handoffs in football, etc... For skiing/boarding, it's a length that allows you to be far enough away from the action to not be an impact, while also able to see and anticipate with your own eyes, prior to shooting. But great photographers make their mark with the wide angle lenses. Anyone can shoot long...when worked for a paper in central Jersey, I covered all the Yankee and Mets weekend home games. At Shea, I'd be sitting in the photo pit, which is beyond first and third base, right on the warning track. I'd have four camera bodies. One would be on a mono-pod, with a 300mm lens; a 24 around my neck for plays that came at me; a 400mm 2.8 mounted to a tripod head and attached to the railing; and, a 600mm lens on a swivel bracket mount prefocused on the centerfielder. I looked like a one man band. The 400 and 600 were wired to foot releases, so if there was a play at 2nd base, I'd just step on that release button; a play in center I could hit that foot release. I'm writing this because a monkey could have gotten those pics. It's the wide stuff that separates the good from the great. Here's an example of that same old double-play shot seen every day in newpapers (unknown photog): The biggest mistake with wide lenses though is too much information. A painter creates art by addition; a photographer creates art by subtraction. The wider the lens, the more difficult that is. The first skateboard half-pipe comp I did was also the first one I'd ever seen...this was a long time ago. All the shots from the top of the pipe were okay, with the boarders getting air and the background showing the scene. But then I put on an 18mm 3.5 lens, set the focus on about 4 feet, and put the camera down by where the boarders were doing whatever the one handed hand stand with their boards over their heads is called...so I was shooting up, with their hands in the forground and their faces looking down at the camera. It was also a very clean background of sky. Here are some samples (by other photogs) of wide lens photography taken to the next level: These pics are great because they are close, yet clean. They bring you into the action, despite their imperfections. There's a real candid nature about them, even the baketball shot that was fired from a remote to a mounted camera. Sports is an excellent way to break into photography because so much of their shooting principles apply to other kind of shooting, such as concerts, spot news, and feature photography. Remember that our eyes are instinctively attracted to the lightest part of a photo, secondly to people, and subsequently to eyes and mouths. A portfolio should be an emotional experience, not a catalogue of stock action. When I talk to a class or lecture group, I usually go into abstract features, too. Getting people to theink about color or tone, such as firey red, calming blue, natural greens, and foreboding black. The relationship between color and feeling. Then we move into shapes: soft curves, hard edges, and sweeping lines. A photog gets to manipulate each of these by by searching for shades and shadows, shifting intensities of tone and hues. Walk around a subject before you shoot it, whenever possible. See how it changes as the light changes. And how does it feel? Bring texture into your photos. Experiment with soft, smooth, and rough textures. Do you know what the Golden Hour is? One hour after sunrise and the two hours before sunset is refered to as the Golden Hour. When the light has a golden texture and there is a natural softbox effect. National Geographic photogs often shoot 90% of their jobs during this time. A great time to do portfolio work... So that's a quick outline of what I've put about 50 interns through, as well as classes. Post some pics and I'll gladly talk to you about them, if you want. Hope this helps...

You want us to honestly critique his life's work...and he might be joining this MB? I've had students intern to me with portfolios similar to his. He gets it, works well with a 50mm range, seems to understand the sports he shoots (a lot of photogs don't). To get to the next level, I'd tell him to pull out a 24mm lens and get closer when shooting things like the little kid sitting on the skateboard and bring out the depth. And work with a 300mm+ lens and start hitting the emotion of sports. There's a huge difference between people posing and people expressing. He has the posing stuff down; the expression (pain, triumph, etc) isn't shown in that collection. Photographers go through a learning process where they start by copying work they like. That's fine and usually the best way to get better. When I did model work, I'd even ask girls to bring me clippings of photos they liked, then we'd use them as a starting point during our shoot. Then we'd progress from there to make it special to them. Your boss has the tools, so what signature-unique-look does he put into his photos?

Congrats, Sib! Just FYI, I've never had a set of skis damaged from shipping. Did you get them from a high volume ski seller? I've bought from four different ones and might be able to tell you if they package well...

Here are the NY State early season point chaser dates for J1/2's and second-year J3's: 12-15 Whiteface SL 12-16 Whiteface GS 12-22 Gore SG 12-23 Gore SG#2 12-23 Swain GS 12-24 Brantling SL/SL http://nyssra.org/

Just FYI, this is season will be my 5-year-old's fourth season pass. The first year at CB, they told me I'd have to take her to guest services every time despite buying three other season passes for my family, as well as the CAT program fee. I told them to rethink that decision...and they did. Why the hell would I want to stand in ticket lines EVERY Saturday and Sunday, when I've bought season passes for the rest of my family? I told them I'd pay for the plastic holder. They finally gave in and spent 30 seconds taking a pass picture for my littlest one. The next year, we moved our home mountain to Montage...and they said the same thing. Buy season passes for your whole family, but stand in line every day for your toddler. They finally gave in, but wtf? Why isn't it just a given? Anyway, my point was just to be persistent and common sense seems to finally win out.

In the years I was at college in Northern VA, they never managed to open until mid-December...but I imagine they've upgraded snowmaking quite a bit in the last couple of, uh, seasons. Actually, the place had just opened a few years before and was absolutely jam packed every weekend.

It's all about the altitude, Discord...there's skiing in Hawaii when the fronts line up just right.

Take the wiper arms off -- you do this by looking under the wiper arm where it mounts on the linkage post (pivot point). There's a bent over piece of metal that is attached to the backside of the arm (toward the rear of the car). Lever it downward with a flatbladed screwdriver. It may help to squirt a bit of WD-40 in the backside of the wiper arm where it mounts over the pivot hub coming through the cowling. This metal piece will come down about 1/2" and is part of a piece that slides up against the pivot hub and holds it in place. When it's in the downward position it allows the arm to pull off the hub.

Yeah...but just think about it. Pocono ski areas do some amazingly high percentage of their business during XMass week into New Years. I believe it's 60% of their entire annual revenue. A lot of casual skiing/riding families are going to be making serious choices this holiday season. Who gets hurt the most? Certainly Montage could suffer...and Tanglwood and Alpine. Montage's lift lines are short enough already. IDK---just have to see what happens.

I don't think so, 'Mom. I bet this year will have the shortest lift lines since before snowboarding began.

That guy's gonna go postal. Jeez, he hates ski areas, the government, the weather... And it all started because of those damn wickets.

I get 26mpg in a Wrangler; about half that in 4WD. My daughter got low 20's in a Grand Cherokee, but that was doing 80mph everywhere.

"If you truly belive that a liftie checking your pass is "accusation of theft," you need to get your head out of your puckered anus." ---DHarrisburg Excellent! DaveK would have banned your ass for that one.

DHarrisburg's right. Blunt, but right. But I also think the good folks of New Orleans shooting at cops and rescue helicopters should find a better outlet for their frustrations. Other people around the world don't have Walmarts to loot and are in much worse circumstances: http://www.unicefusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=duLRI8O0H&b=277164

Zaldon is somewhat crazy. He'll charge all-b*lls-out at a blind headwall lip that could easily have snowcats or small children on the other side. I have no idea if he even knows how to turn. He has my full respect for whatever time he has left on Earth.

And the money Jeep spent on this little promo to tie in the Rubicon:

I have an friend that works at a pretty big Jeep dealer near here and he claims both NE and nationwide sales are above industry average because of the latest downsizing trend. Jeeps have always been a little smaller in the SUV class and the Wrangler and other really small lines have been steady with sales. There's also the loyalty factor...ever watch two Wrangler drivers pass each other? They are obligated to wave or make a peace sign. It's the club. There's even a secret Jeep owner meeting being held somewhere in America...can't say where or when. Jeep, as he explained it, has an entirely separate operating/advertising budget from it's parent company. Okay, so this is from a car dealer type guy, but he always seems to be just getting back from a golf vacation. Jeep had sponsored the King of the Mountain Tour for a couple of years. They took old, retired World Cup downhillers and raced them down shortened DH courses in front of 20 spectators. Quite a challenge to promote the athletic prowess of guys that look lumpy and slow when they are standing still. Nature Valley was pretty stingy with the Pro Mogul Tour. And they sponsored NorAms races a few years ago and demanded infommercials during broadcasts from Sunday River races, where Todd Brooker had to talk about the quality of the bars. The best ever sponsor, IMO, was Captain Morgan Rum. They threw money at USSA until some parents complained that it wasn't appropriate for a liquor company to be involved with a children's program. Pffffft, I say. Oh, and I forget the name of the US Ski Team racer that landed a deal with Playboy. He was getting an undisclosed sum for wearing the little cartoon Playboy girl on his helmet, but the team CEO Bill Marolt nixed the deal.

Trtaylor should get a sticker for finding that... Very cool.

Jeep has money to burn, so it's not a great sign. Any ski related sponsorship in the US isn't very high profile.

Bode is the epitome of the current USSA program. He is a product of USSA and an eastern ski academy. Bode is as "old school" as they come, unless "new school" is simply defined as "oddball". But the newest crop of USSA kids that are competing in FIS (Ligety, Mancuso, Kildow) all have outgoing personalities... It's interesting that some people want to embrace Bode as "new school". Why? Credibility for the "new school" term? There might seem to be a "my way or the highway" attitude. But it's the same way for every serious sport that has people trying to make a buck on the perimeter. There's a local indoor batting cage where a camp instructor was teaching the kids to wag the bat like Gary Sheffield. Sort of like teaching a kid to drive a car with two fingers. Now, if someone just wants their kids to learn enough to play pick-up league softball, then by all means...but if they want their kids to learn lifelong skills that could take them to the World Cup, then they better learn the right way.

I'd match you up with the Atomic SX:B5, Sib, or last season's SX:11. I think with your strength, you'd benefit from the extra snap. The SX:11 will drop in price and start showing up on eBay at wholesale as shops clear them out.

Right. No circles. NHRA of winter then?

Nothin'!! The NASCAR of snow sports!

Have you seen a USSA race, Papa? Have you watched a USSA practice? Exactly what is "old school" about the best all around skiers on the planet? I can show you a list of 200 USSA kids that are better all-around skiers than any of the very top "new schoolers" on the various little circuits... Bode Miller "old school"? Oops, gotta get back to my X Games new schooler shovel racing tapes.