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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Features

Life in Focus: Getting Into Ski Photography with Mattias Fredriksson

Chris Gampat
No Comments
03/02/2014
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 03/02/2014 by Chris Gampat

Oversnowed house in Mt Baker, Washington, USA. Photographed in January 2012

All images by Mattias Fredriksson. Used with permission

Mattias Fredriksson is a photographer who grew up in Sweden and then moved to America to become a ski photographer. He started his career in print journalism which later evolved into wanting to tell stories through images. Mattias is now a senior photographer for Powder magazine–and has shot loads of their covers.

He told a bit about what it’s like to have worked in his shoes.

Be sure to also follow Mattias on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Phoblographer: You grew up with Sweden, which probably explains your love of skiing. But how did you first get into photography?

Life in Focus – E11 Mattias Fredriksson from f-stop || Gear on Vimeo.

Mattias: I was a journalism at a local paper, which was extra work when I was in college, and I knew about an outdoor photographer. I did a story about him and got interested in photography.

Phoblographer: How did you go about first building your career in the ski photograph industry and then into other genres?

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Mattias: I actually started to shoot mountain biking before skiing. That was something I had just outside my door step and I could do it all the time. I also shot a lot of mountain bike events which gave me access to good riders and lots of opportunities. It was a great start!

Phoblographer: You often like participating in the games that you shoot to get a better feel of what types of images you should take. Do you feel that’s important for every photographer to do?

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Mattias: Yes, very important. It is key to become good at this.

Phoblographer: Tell us about the gear that you use.

Mattias: I use Nikon cameras and lenses. F-Stop bags. Good stuff!

Phoblographer: What’s the most memorable photo that you’ve shot? Tell us about the experience.

Mattias: It was a photo of pro skier Henrik Windstedt sliding a S-rail in the terrain park at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah back in 2005. I almost left the camera in the car that day, but on the very last lift ride up before they closed the resort I snapped the photo of Henrik when he was sliding the rail right under the lift. I shot on film and did not know for sure, but felt it was a good one. It became my first cover shot of Powder Magazine – something I had been dreaming about since I started taking photographs!

Phoblographer: Ski photography isn’t really all about just shooting great images, a lot of it is about business. How much of your time in a given month would you say you dedicate to the business side, scouting locations, post-production, etc.?

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Mattias: The business side of things is definitely a big part of being a photographer these days. I am pretty on it with the communications; answering e-mails, keeping in touch with clients, athletes and locations. I am active with social media, but I have a full time assistant working with post production in the office. It is hard to say how big percentage of my time is business and out shooting, but lets say 40/60 (business/out in the field) in the winter time.

Phoblographer: How do you stay inspired and look for new ideas in order to keep your work fresh?

Mattias: I make sure to have a good work/life balance. That is very important to not burn yourself out. Especially since I am working with some of my biggest passions in life; skiing and mountain biking. It is extremely important to ski and ride without the camera so you can just enjoy once in a while. Other than that I love to read books and magazines, watch movies and travel. Through these channels I find a lot of inspiration.

For more, please follow us on Facebook, Google+, Flickr and Twitter.

images mattias fredriksson Photography powder ski
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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