Thursday, August 15, 2013

Snowy August

Ahhh August. The perfect time to shoot some snow. It’s perfect winter weather in the Southern hemisphere, but won’t be for much longer. So if you’re promoting snowy holiday times or winter Olympics extravaganzas, times a tickin’! September/October marks the black hole of “no snow anywhere except for really annoying places.” (Technical term.)


Our resident snow expert, Klaus Obermeyer, knows this all too well. He’s a native of Aspen, Colorado and grew up skiing and snowboarding from the time that he was knee high to a grasshopper. (At 6’8 I don’t believe he was ever that small… but suspend disbelief for the sake of my metaphors….) Klaus’s father, Klaus Sr, was the founder of Obermeyer ski wear and inventor of the parka, so the whole family has snow in their genes (and often in their jeans, too).


Klaus Sr and Klaus Jr

Klaus starting shooting film on the side of a mountain. Shooting his daredevil friends and working with filmmaker Robert Fulton (who’s remarkable and has his own amazing life story .) This isn’t tripod and dolly work—this is Klaus skiing down a mountain without poles, holding a film camera. Often backwards. Klaus has shot an Olympic skier on a slalom run. The skier looks amazing and the technique makes even a veteran skier think, “Amazing!” But then you think about the fact that Klaus was skiing right beside him, holding a film camera, going backwards… without poles, and thinking about framing. There’s no Olympic category for that.


Of course the Klaus Cam was also born out of necessity for shooting snow. Being able to shoot action close ups with out touching virgin snow was impossible—until the Klaus Cam with its ability hang a camera on a long line from a helicopter and get full 360 pan, tilt and roll that’s all gyrostabilized. (Imagine a technocrane, steadicam and a helicopter had a love child.)

See the best of the best here


Obermeyer Ski Wear




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