As a waterski fan, I will start this piece with one thing. When the pro's ski shortline in a tournament such as the Masters, it's impressive. Thousands of people watching and lots of pressure to ski your absolute best. But when you have the opportunity to just show up at a small lake and watch someone like Chris Parrish destroy 39 or 41 and it's just you and like 5 other people on site, it's a pretty cool feeling. It's almost like getting a private show by your favorite band for you and a few friends. These guys are that good. It's not just the noise of the announcer or the crowd cheers or the banners hanging up that make these people suddenly turn into super athletes on the water. To be able to photograph them from the water and see every move they make when they aren't in a tournament is absolutely spectacular.
Anyway, lets get into the shot. So this photo was taken in August of 2015 at the LaPoint Ski Park in Orlando. Chris and I weren't exactly scheduled to shoot, but we were there and I had my camera, so we gave it go.

I used my Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 VRII, during this shoot to allow me to get nice and close on CP. To get this particular shot, I took a kneeling approach on the bank to get low to Chris's level, but not underneath him. The composition in this photo is nice, but I would've like to have had more sunlight on CP's face to show more of his eyes. What I do like is how everything is super crisp and perfectly in focus. The bright Miami Nautique gloves also set off this photo really nice.
The funny part about skiing at the LaPoint site is the FedEx trucks that are directly behind it. If you can see the fence directly behind this photo, to the left out of view are about 300 FedEx trucks ready to go to work. I shot several photos of Chris stretching out on his onside turn with the trucks in clear view and the FedEx logo displayed. So to name the shoot, it's very simple "The FedEx sessions with CP".

This shoot also started a friendship between us and I'm stoked to call this guy a friend.
Thanks for checking out this weeks Story Behind the Shot featuring Chris Parrish.
If you like this shot, leave a "like" and comment in the section below! I love hearing from you.

Spencer Shultz • 2screative.com