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Skiing Again
January 2004
Every winter we receive a collection of striking photographs of skiing, snowboarding and hiking in the snow-covered Catskill Mountains, and we find it hard to resist devoting one of our portfolios to the best images we receive. This year is no exception. We have chosen for our cover a striking image of an experienced snowboarder floating in the air, appropriately dressed with a helmet and gloves, waving to us as he passes us by. It was a bright, sunny day when the photographer captured this image with a high-speed shutter, beautifully capturing the shadow of the skier on the snow and the flakes of snow flying in the air.
Next we see two skiers beginning a long descent. The sky is clear and we see shadows on the snow while the skiers make their way from the high point of a slope. The snow seems heavy and crisp, and our skiers have every reason to anticipate a great slide ahead of them. In the next spread we see two red-coated skiers who appear to have stopped for a minute to look around them and think about what their next step might be. In one scene the skier seems to be looking at a distant valley, and the other is in front of a grove of trees planning to follow a path in the snow.
In the next spread a skier is moving through a grove of trees, presumably looking forward to reaching an open space, while on the opposite page a skier is making tracks on fresh snow alongside a forest that lies ahead.
The last photograph shows a frozen waterfall covered by snow and ice. A figure is standing below, looking at the mass of frozen water before him.
We can feel the cold as we look at these images, but also enjoy the sharpness of the air and the pleasure of winter sports. They help to show the joys we feel in the mountains when January brings in the winter weather.
--David Finn
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