Teddy’s mom approached me via email to see if I would photograph Teddy for his upcoming April Bar Mitzvah. Working around my ski schedule we set the date for this past weekend. After Devo I met Teddy & his friends Max and Harris Freedman (who are actually kids we know through our dear friend Tabi!). Never having met Teddy, never having shot freestyle skiing and with my new camera I was a little nervous but excited for the opportunity to see what I could do behind the camera.
They started out with the top rail (got a cool shot of him jumping on the rail).
Then to the jumps — too many trees and into the sun was going to be an issue, but continued to shoot hoping to get some good ones off the jump. Good thing Teddy knew what he wanted and from his regular training with the Devo Freestyle group had some great moves off the jumps.
With Harris
The behind shots were really cool too.
Then off to the big jumps — there was this one shot into Seasons from behind that came out great! Looks like the boys are on their way home!
Through the whole session the boys kept talking to Teddy about trying the front flip — maybe off the cliff? No – that was too lame, not a good choice for the air needed I suppose… we never did get any cliff shots. The last run — Teddy said he probably was going to go early (this was a 2 hour shoot) — and we headed down the hill. The boys came to the launch with me and I set up for the shot while others took their turn and Teddy was going through the motions in his mind prepping for the flip…. Harris had the video cam ready and gave me the call – “Here he comes!” —
And there it was …. through my lens….
The Exhilaration
I had to share this with all of you — I had tears in my eyes as Teddy looked toward the chair, his fans, whoever was watching and then to celebrate with his best friend who got the whole thing on video — and me who got it all “larger than life” to celebrate with all his loved ones at his Bar Mitzvah — those priviledged enough to celebrate this moment and his special day in April!
Cheers to Teddy!