Riding shotgun, with camera, in Utah's Cottonwood Canyons for a four day ski-photo competition

If skiers are the heroes of the ski world, then ski photographers are the unsung heroes. These are the guys (and gals) who are out in the field at all hours questing for that idyllic image that is usually a confluence of chance, free will and necessity (or so says Melville)... which is to say a lot of hard work and creativity, and a little bit of luck. Sure, some photographers are heroes too, but the majority of them are trying to scratch out a living and get published.
This week, for the Ski Salt Lake Shootout ski-photo competition, Powder.com has been embedded with a different photographer's crew each day, at Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude. Each of the seven participating photographers is charged with coming up with the best portfolio of (8) images, two from each resort-so it adds a deadline component to the already well-known difficulties of banger image-creation in the first place. Based on what we've seen already, the final product will be impressive-thanks to some of that luck, including 16 inches of new snow on the eve of Day 1.

There will also be winners... to be announced at a party in downtown Salt Lake City tonight, and later we'll be rolling out a selection of the top photos from each photographer's Shootout portfolio. There's also a Facebook fan-favorite contest that will be ramping up on Visit Salt Lake's page (linked above) that we'll keep you posted on. Now, the behind the scenes stuff... - Tim Mutrie, text/photos

Update: Feb. 12, 7:22 p.m.:
Winners: 1. Garrett Grove, 2. Andrew Strain, 3. Steve Lloyd; "Urban Meets Mountain" category: Lee Cohen.

Grove quote: "It was a great week and we had a super strong team. I haven't spent too much time skiing in Utah, so without the help of Nick [Russell], Jason [West] and Forrest [Coots], I would've been clueless. I was there to capture the zones that they took me to."