EXTREME PHOTOS OF THE WEEK XVII

Extreme Photo of the Week
By National Geographic, 7 September 2014.

See new extreme adventure photos each week featuring tips from your favourite athletes and photographers. And get the stories behind the shots.

1. Surfing Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia

“I was focused on not falling off the board because that was such a good wave,” recalls Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, who won the Billabong Pro Tahiti on August 25, 2014. “I was kind of nervous because the wave was too good.” Teahupo'o’s iconic left-hander lures many surfers - but with its beauty comes risk. “It's a perfect wave, but dangerous,” he says. “It's very shallow and near a reef break, so any mistake can be fatal.”

Medina's performance scored a victory over 11-time Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Champion Kelly Slater. “Kelly Slater is the best in my sport, and to beat him in the final was a childhood dream,” says Medina, who started surfing when he was eight years old. “He has always been an example for me, and today I still learn a lot from him. It was certainly one of the best days of my life so far.”

Getting the Shot

“Gabby took off and literally air-dropped out of the sky,” recalls ASP photographer Kirstin Scholtz. “I wasn’t sure if he was going to make it, but then there he was, standing tall inside the barrel, and I knew it was going to be a good photo.”

Big waves create big spray. “When the waves are this big, they literally spit on you, shooting a cloud of spray though the barrel that feels like a rain shower,” says Scholtz. “You have to finish shooting the wave and then just as quickly cover your lens before the shower.”

Scholtz photographs the ASP tour throughout the year and was struck by the perfect conditions at Teaupho'o this year. “The elements need to align to create days like this, and it doesn’t happen very often. We were just so lucky to have perfect sunshine, hardly any wind, and a massive swell that made for buttery conditions with not a drop of water out of place. It was one of the best days of professional surfing the world has ever seen.”

Scholtz photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens.

2. Riding Stevens Pass Bike Park, Washington, USA

Getting the Shot

“The vantage-point aerials seem to always be eye-catching," says photographer Garrett Grove, who made this picture at Stevens Pass Bike Park in Washington State. "It really isn't a view many people see often in their everyday lives. So when a good tree is nearby I always want to check it out.”

To protect the trees and get his shot, Grove used arborist and climbing gear to rig for the photo. “I am not a big fan of climbing with spikes due to the scars it leaves on trees, so I have done my best to use ropes and slingshots to access the canopy.”

Grove photographed with a Nikon D4 and a 17-35mm, f/2.8 lens.

3. Summer Skiing in the Beartooth Mountains, Montana, USA

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Getting the Shot

“When I saw this shot happening in my video feed, I knew I had to grab a few still shots as well,” recalls photographer and National Geographic Young Explorer Max Lowe, who filmed and photographed his 400-mile dirt-road trip with Brody Leven and Graeme MacPherson for our blog series "Montana by Dirt."

Local Beau Fredlund showed them how to find prime mid-summer skiing in the Beartooth Mountains. Racing the afternoon storms, the trio was scouting for skiing options and filming the terrain. “We had scrambled up this pretty loose ridgeline to get at the chutes we were looking to ski and had topped out on a nice high point, where I was standing to shoot this,” says Lowe. Between the fleeting sunlight, Lowe captured this dramatic still in the Beartooth Mountains.

Throughout the trip Lowe was focused on video as well as stills and constantly sought balance between the two. “Shooting stills puts fire to my creative soul a little bit more, because for me I can recognize a beautiful and well-executed still image from the moment I take it.”

Lowe photographed with a Nikon D800 and a Nikkor 70-200mm, f/2.8 lens.

4. Stand-Up Paddleboarding Havasu Creek, Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA

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“How could you not be blown away by that electric blue?” says Sara Butterfield, a Whitefish, Montana-based ski instructor and rafting guide pictured here stand-up paddleboarding in Havasu Creek. The 28-day Colorado River trip was her first time floating through the Grand Canyon. “It was great having the stand-up paddleboards with us - especially for instances like this where we could explore an amazing side canyon where rafts can’t go,” says Butterfield.

Getting the Shot

“It took me by surprise how vivid the water actually is in person,” recalls photographer Forest Woodward, who was traveling with his friends and father. His father had originally kayaked the river in 1970. Seeing Havasu Creek for the first time immediately enchanted the photographer, but the group continued downriver to set up camp for the evening. “As soon as we tied up the rafts, I set off, searching around for a perspective, knowing some of the crew was bound to explore the canyon with paddleboards,” says Woodward.

With a winter chill surrounding them, the group prepared with dry suits and Woodward decided the best perspective was above river level, even if that meant scrambling in a stiff dry suit.

“I was drawn to this particular spot because of the sense of scale it lends to the canyon and the richness of the colours. Lying on my stomach with the camera stretched out over the creek below, I was able to snap a few frames that I felt captured the sense of awe that we all experienced there,” says Woodward.

He photographed with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and a 14mm, f/2.8 lens.

5. Climbing Biographie, Céüse, France

Getting the Shot

“I could tell this shot was going to be amazing," recalls veteran adventure photographer Mikey Schaefer. "The location, the light, the colour, and the climber were all perfect at the moment.”

Schaefer set out with German climber Alexander Megos in Céüse, France, a famous climbing destination, to capture a unique look at routes that have been photographed often. Here Megos is seen on Biographie (also known as Realization), one of the most famous sport climbs in the world. When Chris Sharma first climbed this route in 2001 after years of trying, it was considered possibly the hardest route known. In the summer of 2014, Megos ascended the route in four attempts over a single day.

“Neither of us just wants to makes photos for the sake of making photos. If I'm gonna get my camera out, I want to make a great photo and do it right. If Alex is going to go through the effort to work with a photographer, he wants to also do it right,” says Schaefer.

To get the shot, Schaefer was fixed to an anchor above Megos. Most of the time, Schaefer anchors a second rope to the ground, but in this case he wanted a unique angle, so he tied a rope directly underneath himself, then walked the rope out from the wall a couple hundred feet and anchored it, allowing himself to be 25 feet off the wall to photograph.

“I'd seen many other photos of this particular route and they all looked pretty similar. I wanted to try and do something different and the key to that was getting as far away from the wall as I could. I knew the farther away from the wall I could get the more pronounced the texture and streaks would become.”

Schaefer photographed with a Canon 5D III and 16-35mm, f/2.8 lens.

6. Skiing Under the Aurora, Tombstone Range, Yukon, Canada

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“The trick with these images is that they're taken in complete darkness,” says skier Tobin Seagel, shown here in front of the northern lights in the Yukon's Tombstone Range. “The flash goes off for a fraction of a second - not long enough for your eyes to even notice. Imagine skiing into a line and you can't see anything!”

Seagel and photographer Reuben Krabbe departed from their base camp after a late dinner to capture this shot. “It took a lot of effort to put the boots back on in the cold after a long ski day and tour 45 minutes out to where we wanted to ski,” says Seagel, who lives in Squamish, British Columbia. The duo skied and shot for around three hours. Each attempt to capture the photo took around 40 minutes to set up. “Despite the minus 30ºC cold, it was easy to stay out under the aurora - one of the most indelible experiences I've ever had.”

Getting the Shot

“This single photograph of a skier and the aurora was the reason for a trip to these mountains,” says photographer Reuben Krabbe, who had been thinking about this photo for several years. “The Tombstone Mountains lie right underneath the ideal latitude for the aurora, so it offered a great place to try to capture this dream image.”

Just getting on location was a challenge. “When flying into the Tombstones our ski plane almost crashed, so we had to circle back to the airport, forcing us to walk for two days with 150 pounds of gear each. And when we finally got on the mountains, the avalanche conditions were terrifying,” says Krabbe.

Using long exposures, Krabbe constantly adjusted his lighting as the aurora light fluctuated. With a strobe set up below the skier’s mark, Krabbe was ready to trigger the strobe after a 20-second exposure, hoping Seagel would hit his mark while skiing practically blind in the dark.

The pair headed back to base camp at 2:30 a.m. thinking they didn't get the shot. It was only when Krabbe opened the file on his computer that he knew he’d captured the image he’d been hunting for years.

“I feel as though the chances of aligning all the factors - the aurora, clear skies, moonless night, south-facing perspective, aligning light levels when they are always changing, time of night, snow quality, and a skier - is like winning the lottery,” recalls Krabbe.

Krabbe photographed with a Nikon D700 and 17-35mm lens, along with two pocket wizards and an SB-800 Nikon strobe.

Follow Krabbe on Instagram (@reubenkrabbe), Twitter (@reubenkrabbe), or Facebook (@reubenkrabbephotography).

7. Summer Skiing on Mount Hood, Oregon, USA

“I couldn't stop thinking about how cool the sunset was,” recalls skier Tommy Ellingson, seen here doing a 360 on the summer solstice at Mount Hood's Illumination Rock. At 9,543 feet, the skiing conditions were still decent. “The snow was really soft, but it was a bit faster than you would think for summer snow,” Ellingson says. As the light faded, the Brightwood, Oregon, resident did a few more jumps, packed up his gear, then headed home for some much needed dinner. “I ski roughly 200 days a year on Mount Hood," he says. "I can't get enough of this amazing mountain.”

[Source: National Geographic. Edited.]