Winging and Winning It

About three weeks ago I received a call from fellow photographer Mattias Fredriksson, invited me to a brand new competition he was organising in his home town of Åre, Sweden – the Scandinavian Photo Challenge.  Loosely based on the same format as the Deep Summer Challenge I competed (and lost to Mattias) in last year, it comprised three days of shooting in the fantastic Åre Bike Park, followed by two days of editing time.

I jumped at the chance, and made my way over there last week with very little idea of what to expect, where to go or who to shoot, but at least I knew who I’d be shooting – Robin Wallner, Linus Sjöholm and John Högman Alm of Sweden, and BC’s very own Mike Hopkins, none of whom I’d worked with before.  Add on to that the prospect of beating Mattias in his home town and I was rather skeptical of my chances, but figured it’d be worth a shot.

I needn’t have worried.  The guys rode to an incredible standard the whole time, and despite all the troubles of crappy weather, mosquitoes, me getting sick (again) and Mike’s bike not turning up till the last day, we somehow managed to put together a show that won the judges’ approval and top spot for the competition.

I titled the finished product “Winging It”, in reference to the slap-dash way in which we went about the task of planning, scouting and shooting.  It’s a technique that, while nerve wracking to say the least, definitely brings out a relaxed vibe, something that I think was appreciated by the audience as well as those making the decisions.

I’m working to make the slideshow available online very shortly, until then here’s a selection of images that didn’t quite make the ‘top quality’ spot.  Look for the real deal in a number of magazines very shortly, including Bike, Dirt, Freeride (Germany), Big Bike and Singletrack.  Super-maximum-Euro-thanks go out to the awesome people of Åre, the Bike Park, my team, Mattias and everyone else I met or who helped over the course of the week.  Here’s to next time, Skål!

Tags: Åre, Åre Bike Park, Bike Park, competition, contest, Europe, John Högman Alm, Linus Sjöholm, Mike Hopkins, photo challenge, resort, Robin Wallner, slideshow, sweden, winner

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 10:14 am and is filed under Professional Mountain Bike Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.