Playing Paparazzi
posted 1/30/07

Our friend Andrew called us with the news last Friday. A big session was going down, and we had the inside scoop. International Slopestyle pro Trond Hansen was in town meeting up with the infamous Aptos Crew to session their local trails. As I have been scrambling to get more photos for my portfolio, I was hyped.

I hate driving solo, so I made some calls and gathered a posse to come with. The Fronj and my friend John came along for the ride. Unfortunately, today was one of those days that just didn't pan out. A late start, and trouble navigating was just the beginning.

We finally reached our destination, but it was after a good deal of time in the car.

When we showed up, the session was already underway. It was going down too.

There was already a few photogs out there; I can't say they were happy to see us. I guess it was to be expected, but it was still a bummer. With the session in full force though, I set my bag down and pulled out my gear. The harsh sun made for tricky lighting conditions though. I recently picked up a set of the infamous Pocket Wizard radio transceivers and tried to get my flash out put dialed.

AT represents with a clean no foot can-can.

Today was not a good day to dink around with new gear though. I ended up missing a considerable amount of shots I normally would have gotten. After a bit, I put the pocket wizards away and utilized my speedlite to fire my remote. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late, as the session ended up wrapping up much more quickly than I would have imagined.

that's a table top. Cam McCaul gets inverted.

The guys headed off to get some food, and we began the long drive back towards home. The next stop was a giant step-up somewhere, but at this point, it was almost four, and the window of good light for photography as nearly upon us. We made an executive decision at this point to go ride our bikes. I was frustrated, and decided that I needed to ride more than scramble like crazy to possibly get one more photo for my photography book.

Fortunately, the post office jumps were in good shape, and we had a good time riding there until dark before heading home a bit disappointed. I guess you can't always get the shot.

Thanks to AT for the heads up. Next time..