After photographing the red barn in Washington, I drove around for another hour or so and found a few other spots to shoot, including another red barn (it turned into a theme that winter). But before heading home I saw a sign for a ski jumping meet in Salisbury, CT in a couple of weeks.   I mentioned in an earlier post that I played sports growing up.  I’m still a fan and play a few sports once in a while, so I took the opportunity to photograph the jumps as a self-made assignment to see how I might fare in sports photography. I even managed to get a media pass after the nice man stopped me as I was walking up the press only area next to the jump (I must of missed the sign).   After signing the media pass paperwork, I was free to wander around and shoot. One by one the jumpers slid down the ramp and soared through the air towards the mass of people at the bottom. I’m afraid of heights, so just being on the very steep stairs near the top made me uneasy and wondered if I could ever do what these young men and women were doing.

2011 Jumpfest Weekend – Salisbury, CT

Well, we are 2 weeks away from the 2013 Jumpfest Weekend and I am finally making good on the story I told the man to get the pass.  I told him I wanted to shoot for my blog.  I already owned afterthe9to5, so it could have been true. I did send a CD with all of the images from the day to the head of media relations for SWSA (Salisbury Winter Sports Association) though. I really did just take them for practice so I was happy they might be getting some use.   Shooting that day was a lot of fun. I would climb the stairs all the way up so I could get a good perspective of the crowd below as the jumpers landed.

Half way down the stairs, I took photos looking up at them as they rocketed through the air, learning that for me to get the best results (for my camera at the time) I needed to use one jumper to lock focus on and then shoot in manual focus and snap away as the next jumper passed the same spot. I think the autofocus on my newer camera would have been able to handle the speed of these high flying daredevils, but I didn’t have that luxury then.

The bottom of the stairs allowed me to capture the jumper’s often less than graceful landings, but when they were smooth, the crowd would go wild, electrifying the cold winter air.

And if the crowd or the hot cocoa couldn’t keep you warm, the large bonfire certainly helped take the edge off.

A little hill near the concession stand gave me a nice vantage point for my final shot of the day. Well, not really; I stopped to take another red barn photo on the ride home (I can’t drive passed them without stopping).

If you want to attend this year’s jumpfest, take a look on www.jumpfest.org for the full schedule of events.