Why
In
The
Sky?
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They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but some of the best images in the history of snowboarding are actually worth 1003, when you include the photo credit Dean “Blotto” Gray. Blotto’s uncanny ability to conjure not just an image, but a cover worthy shot, out of the most meager circumstances, led some of his peers to turn his name into a verb, as in, “There isn’t any deep snow, sick setup, or scenic backdrop, it looks like we’ll need to Blotto this.” That gumption turned Gray into one of the most prolific shred shooters of all time with hundreds of covers to his credit. – Pat Bridges

Interview excerpts from my conversation with Pat Bridges at Slush Magazine:

What motivated you to take on the third rail of snowboard photography, which is the “guy in the sky” image?
I’ve enjoyed sports publications and newspapers because I watch a lot of basketball and baseball. When a guy is throwing down on a basketball court with a massive dunk, that is the apex, that’s the moment and it is perfectly captured. You see the emotion and the good style. The determination.

Once snowboarding started going to the Olympics and whatnot I would see these photos of our friends and the shot would be before the apex or after, and they looked terrible. In a way, I wanted to correct that, at least within our industry. You can punch in really close and show nothing except the pure style of the rider. That’s why I started moving in on these tight crops. Also, there are plenty of photos in the magazines that show takeoffs and landings so I thought there would be room to have just the rider in the sky. And the riders like it because snowboarders and skateboarders all uphold style and that’s purely what I am capturing. That’s what I want to translate. 

As you went through this process did you learn anything that you didn’t expect to?
I learned that it’s kinda hard to shoot “guy in the sky” shots. You’ve got to be tight on the rider and they’re flying, and you are using a zoom lens, so it is hard to keep them in the center of the frame. Props to these AP guys and girls who can keep the rider in the frame and not have them bleeding off any of the 4 sides. It was also hard to chop out everything (reference point of take-off and landing) because it just went against everything I have tried to uphold within snowboarding photography, to keep it real.

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