A few weeks back I was able to spend an afternoon shooting with an athlete who I have had my eye on for some time now. I have known George Boutsikakis for years from the kite-skiing community and finally got him out for a kite-sesh near Crossfield. The area close to where I live on the foothills is amazing for field kite-skiing (when there is snow) and I wanted to get George out for a test shoot and try something new with the strobes. Sometime you need a real athlete or someone who is really good at what they do so that you can achieve exactly what you are looking for.
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| George Boutsikakis soars at dusk near Crossfield, AB |
I love working with pros, especially when they take that extra step and go hard for the camera. This day was no exception. The temps were coming up fast and we could see the snow melting in the warm chinook wind. This would be the last day the foothills would see snow from the fall and by the end of the session there was almost nothing left.
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| George Boutsikakis styling it up as the sun goes down. Crossfield, AB |
This meant that the snow was supper saturated and wet. Wet snow can cause suction under a snowboard and George kept telling me it was slowing him down. Mix that with high gusts up to 40km/hr and things start to become dangerous. Never the less as the sun dropped below the western sky, George pushed himself and blasted a few jumps over the 10 foot tree along the fence line. I realized I would have only a few frames to do this and managed to get the money-shot on the first one. What a great feeling.
Thanks again to an amazing athlete, George Boutsikakis for pushing the limits...even on a test shoot. Awesome.
