I was covering the Winter X Games again this year in Aspen  (Co.) and as part of my preparation I thought I would take a glance at the weather forecast for the week of January 18. We had  a wonderful stretch of weather here in Colorado the week before the games so I was looking forward to a less hostile environment that had been part of the event the past several years-bitter cold and lots of snow.

Wednesday the 21st appeared to be the best day of the week weather-wise so I planned to be there ready to shoot that day hoping for good results. I am glad I did because the weather went in the tank from there. Snow flurries and thick overcast skies were the back drops for the rest of the week’s events. Fortunately it was mild, in fact too warm part of Saturday as a rain-snow mix fell at the lower base of Buttermilk.

Good light complimented this snowboard slopestyle shot at Buttermilk

The other challenge served up was the majority of finals were at night since the X Games are a made for television event. Good for tv but not so good for still photography.

One tends to lose a lot of of dimension and environment shooting into a cloak of darkness. ESPN contracted with Musco lighting again and its crews do a good job of lighting the near impossible. The lighting appeared to even be brighter this year but the stanchions were lower creating mega flare in many of the images.

So after one of the first evenings of grousing about the conditions I just took a deep breath and thought to myself ,”it is what it is.”

Snow flurries and Musco's made this shot.

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