XC Ski Lesson With MVB Coaching

Yesterday afternoon was a lot of fun. It started with a group cross-country ski lesson with my friend Martin of MVB Coaching. Martin is an endurance sports coach who offers coaching to folks all over the world, through the magic of the internet. I've shot many photos of him for his website and social media, and Martin gave me my first XC ski lesson last year.

The group lesson was great for beginners, and it was good to be reminded of the basics as I know I've developed some bad habits... After the lesson, the two of us got out for a long ski and we tried to find a nice spot for a sunset shoot. There actually wasn't a lot of nice lake views at the Nevada Nordic ski area, but we did find a couple decent spots. For some reason, my Garmin watch did not record the activity, but it was a lot longer of a ski than I'm used to, I was exhausted when I got back to the car.

The sunset was not as explosive as we had hoped, but we still got some nice shots with Lake Tahoe in the background. Here's a couple of them below.

Both of these photos were shot with the Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens.

The shot above was ISO 400, the lens aperture was f/14, and the shutter speed was 1/320 of a second.

The shot below was ISO 1000, the lens aperture was f/5.6, and the shutter speed was 1/200 of a second. A flash was used for this shot, or else Martin would have been looking very dark.

Martin was giving free hour-long lessons all day, my group was a fairly small one compared to the other big groups. He was passing out business cards in hopes to get some folks signing up for his lesson/training packages. It was a smart idea!

And of course, the obligatory selfie with the camera, lol.

Thanks for looking and I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

Cross Country Ski Photoshoot with Martin Benes MVB Coaching

 

Join me on a quick photo adventure with Martin Benes of MVB Coaching. Martin offers in-person and online coaching for nordic skiing, backcountry skiing, marathon running and more. If you participate in endurance sports, you could benefit from Martin's guidance. Check out what he has to offer at https://mvbcoaching.com.

The "keeper" photos from the shoot can be seen at the end of the video. Camera settings are briefly discussed but this is more of a "plug" for Martin. I truly appreciate the new skill he has taught me and it has been fun getting out to winter locations with the camera, further and faster.

We met up at a nearby higher elevation location that still has plenty of snow. Really, it's kind of ridiculous that there is still this much snow in Truckee/Tahoe this time of year... It was very foggy at times yesterday, and the sun popped out a few times. This made for some very different looks and Martin ended up with many new "keeper" photos for his website and social media. Here are some of them:

These were all shot handheld with a Canon 5DSr and a 24-205mm lens. No flash was needed as the light was pretty flat and the shadows on Martin did not need to be filled in with a bit of extra light like is sometimes needed on sunny days. The ISO was 400 and the shutter speed was 1/400th of a second. The camera was set to shutter speed priority, so the aperture varied depending on the light.

Martin coaches everyone from olympians to beginner goof-balls like me. You can really see it in the photos that he knows what he is doing. He had perfect ski posture in every shot. Martin also shot a little video of me and you can really see that I am a beginner, lol. My technique and posture need a few more lessons...

 

Thanks for looking!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com