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The more spectacular the images, the better. In no other sport is it as important as in freestyle for athletes to have spectacularly staged footage available for their social media accounts. Only the really cool photo makes the cool boarders and freeskiers really cool.
To do this, professionals are hot on their heels. One of them is the Valais Frederik Kalbermatten (42). «Frederik? A legend!” is almost every time the answer to the question what kind of guy Kalbermatten is. At least if you ask around in his hometown Saas-Fee USA. Kalbermatten runs a hotel in the village, competed in the halfpipe at the 2006 Olympics and has now regained his footing as a photographer. His specialty is the mountain landscapes on his doorstep – and freestyle athletes.
The Valaisan is booked all over the world to photograph snowboarders and freeskiers from the best angles. An art that is mainly practiced by insiders from the scene. Because photographing freestyle sports is fundamentally different from classic sports photography. “If the boarder does a little thing in the photo, the photo is unusable in my opinion,” says Kalbermatten, high on the glacier above Saas-Fee.
Prior knowledge is required
If you’re wondering what a Tindy is, here’s a little excursion into the world of snowboarding: With a Tindy, you grip the board with your hand behind the bindings on the edge of the board. The name is a combination of Indy-Grab (grabbing the board between the bindings) and Tail-Grab (grabbing the end of the board). And why are such photos worthless now? Well, because this grave is sometimes described in the scene as a mortal sin. “Someone can do that quickly,” the photographer explains. “You don’t have to reach as far and more accurately.”
On the way to the snow park – Kalbermatten on the board, looking at the skis – we drive past the alpine ski racers who are also training on the glacier. While I avoid the skis placed on the traverse, he casually jumps over the obstacle with his board. When he arrives at the halfpipe, the photographer immediately lies down on the edge of the pipe with his camera at the ready. The proximity brings life to the images. Kalbermatten ensures that the barrier is always in the frame. “Otherwise you don’t even see how high the athletes jump. Then they sail around somewhere in the air. Such photos are a nightmare.”
Close to the action
Kalbermatten calmly takes photos of the athletes who catapult themselves into the air a few centimeters in front of his lens, while I recoil a little every time the board scrapes loudly over the pimple-hard edge of the halfpipe. Sometimes the athletes fail to make a jump and hit the top edge of the pipe. I want to know if an athlete has never landed directly on him. Kalbermatten grins and says: “One time it was a bit tight and a boarder hit my camera. But other than that it’s not that bad.”
Wild – that is also the work of the videographers, who follow and jump the freestyle riders in the pipe or over the big kickers. One of them is Marinho Meyer (26). He used to take part in the World Cup himself, but now he puts the big stars of the scene in the best light. In order not to become a safety risk for the athletes, he must know the jumps practically by heart.
At high speed and camera over the kicker
“It is best to drive over the kicker a few times without a camera to get a feel for the speed and the jump,” he explains his work. This is followed by a conversation with the athlete: what trick does he show, how does he take off, where does he want to land? Under no circumstances should videographer and athlete get in each other’s way, otherwise things will end badly. “And finally, I have to think about how I want to film the shot. I have to jump deeper than the athlete, so that his trick appears higher and more impressive.”
As the videographer rapidly pursues the athletes, a drone buzzes in the pipe and attaches itself to the next runner. Many riders also film themselves or play the role of camerawoman for a colleague. Isn’t Meyer afraid that his job will soon become redundant? “No,” he says. The drones would indeed produce spectacular images. But: “Filming is one thing, post-production is another. Just because someone knows how a drone works doesn’t mean he or she can make creative videos.” As long as there is a demand for social media content, there will also be a demand for videos and photographers.
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
