Michelle Leroux

Deep Summer Photo Challenge with Scott Markewitz

During the Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival here in Whistler I was contacted by photographer Scott Markewitz to help edit his Deep Summer Photo Challenge slideshow. Scott is a stalwart in action sports photography with over 400 covers to his name. The format for the competition is that 6 photographers have 72hrs to shoot photos and a day to compile their slideshows before being judged in front of a raucous crowd of mountain bikers. Having always enjoyed the event as a spectator it was fun to be on the otherside of the equation. The capture was all Scott and it was a blast hanging out with legends like Brett Tippie, Richie Schley along with Katie Holden, Cam Zinc and the inseparable Bernie Kerr and Eliiot Jackson. Be it standing in the forest listening to Tippie's jokes, trying to write haikus, or trying to record voice overs of said haikus, I haven't laughed that much in a long time. Putting the slideshow together was arduous at times, more so because of a lack of sleep and an imminent deadline. It wasn't without it's glitches either as we previewed the final export 20mins before the deadline only to have an issue with the music. We resolved it as we drove to deliver the file and made the 6pm deadline.

The next evening the show went down outside at the Olympic Plaza and was joined by 5 other really great slideshows. In the final washup we claimed second behind rising star Rueben Krabbe

I'd like to thank Scott for the call, the athletes for the good times and Michelle Leroux for creating and putting on such a great event. Finally, a massive shoutout to Dave Petch for the rocking tune to bring the images to life.

Enjoy the show!