Disaster in Innsbruck

A little story about how my son Tom broke his arm, on the last day of our trip in Tirol, Austria, and literally 2 hours before we would leave the slopes. Luckily the camera's were rolling..!




Camera's used: Sony RX100 and a GoPro HD2

Riding the snow (and eating it)

This was the first time I skied in decades and the very first time my son Tommie went snowboarding. (and our first 'father and son vacation'!) The GoPro was a little disappointing this time: hard to get steady shots from my helmet. (I pasted one of the sticky holders on the side of my rented helmet) I think there is some chest-mount that will yield better results. Had a great time skiing and snowboarding with some great people! (There were many more shots I wanted to try but that would have been at the expense of precious skiing time...)

Skiing and snowboarding with the GoPro HD

A STILL FROM THE GOPRO FOOTAGE (FOLLOWING TOMMIE, MY SON)

I'm in Austria: skiing for the first time in 15 years and Tommie, my 10 year old son is snowboarding for the first time in his life. Naturally the GoPro had to come along and capture us descending the slopes beyond the speed of light ;-)
I shot some great footage the first time out, circling around my son while he was sliding down the hills, low angle stuff just above my skies and high speed stuff just blasting down the hill by myself. But when I came back to the hotel that evening, I discovered I had made beginners mistake #1: not checking your gear before taking off for a shoot. And so I learned there was no SD card in the camera... (and I also understood at this time why there was no light blinking when recording...)
Yesterday was better but my MacBook Pro 1st generation will not play back these MP4 files without stuttering. Transcoding to ProRes does not help. I'll just have to wait until I'm back on my Mac Pro in Amsterdam.

SMILE! YOU'RE ON HD CAMERA... (OUR HOTEL)

 Tomorrow I will try and attach the GoPro to my helmet because going handheld is far from ideal when you're racing down a hill and need to keep your eyes open in all directions...
I can still ski after all these years and it's so much fun to see my son has a talent for the snowboard. Too bad I screwed up my (already bad) knee trying to see how fast my friends and I could go downhill yesterday. (normal pace: about 15 minutes. suicide speed: just under 5 minutes) I banged it around so bad I now have a swollen, pulsating knee and am taking a day's rest. My son went rolling in the snow naked after we went in  the jacuzzi last evening and he is in bed next to me with high temperature. Both of us should be good to go tomorrow. Got some more sliding & shooting to do... (hope to show you the result soon!)