"Norge team member A.J. Brown, left, speeds down the K70 hill during the 104th Annual Norge Ski Jump Tournament in Fox River Grove, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009. Brown placed third in the J1 division with a combined score of 228.4."
Trust me, I'm just as surprised as you are. I thought the staff was a little confused when they were telling me about this the other day. I mean, I'm from the mountains so it was a little difficult for me to take them seriously when they said I would be shooting ski jumping today.
Little be known to me Norge is the oldest ski club in the country having been started way back in 1905. You can clearly see the top of the hill above the trees from a few miles away. Who knew that that there was such thing as skiing at sea level.
The cold weather, 9 degrees with a 8 MPH WNW wind to be exact, made covering the event a challenge for both me and my camera batteries. I only got about 90 minutes of shooting in before all my 1D batteries died even though I charged them the night before. I tried my best to keep them warm but even that was a task. Luckily I'm familiar with cold weather and I held up ok.
The paper covers two to three events there each year including summertime competitions so trying to come up with something different was a real challenge. I browsed through other staffers' work from the events in years past to make sure that I didn't duplicate the same looking stuff. I always strive to be different than other shooters so I really had to think this one through before I started hammering away on the shutter. Sure, I shot the same mundane stuff to be safe but then I tried some different things. I knew that I wanted something that didn't involve a competitor flying through the air as I've seen that more than I care to mention.
I worked the above image for a few moments before the layers disappeared. I was shooting into harsh backlight most of the time so I converted this one to black and white to bring more focus to the image itself instead of the (lack of) color in the sky. I sure wish I had a nice deep blue sky to work with like Chicago Tribune staffer Scott Strazzante had back at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino seen at the bottom of the page here. That image is probably my favorite image of the sport that I have seen.
Sporting News photographer Jay Drowns suggested that I find an established photographer whose work I admired in the Chicago area to help guide me along during my time here in the windy (read: utterly freezing) city. I contacted Scott and despite his busy schedule at the Tribune and at home he has agreed to help me out. Scott's stuff is top notch and from what I hear a really personable guy as well so I'm really looking forward to getting the chance to meet and work with him.
-JCE
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