Wednesday, I went to the Deep Summer Photo Challenge. If you haven't heard about it, it's a competition between teams consisting of a photographer and riders plus an editor and/or assistant. They have three days to shoot in the Whistler bike park and edit a slideshow before they are played at the Fairmont hotel in front a huge crowd and judges.

It really must have sucked to be a judge. I seriously can't narrow one down to being my favorite. I liked certain things about each one: the banana peels slipping shot and the primary plus remote camera manualing shots in Tim's slideshow, the straight down arial angle of a big boulder with a rider coming down singletrack to the left of it in Margus's, the way the Glitch Mob song fit the editing in either John or Justin's slideshow (I forget who's it was), the close up splash/spray shots in Robin's, etc. On the creative side of things, Dan and Tim's slideshows had some really funny themes that make me laugh each time I see them. Events like this and the Deep Winter Challenge (which this event came out of) are really pushing the progression of sports photography, technically and creatively.

You can watch most of the slideshow's here: http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Deep-Summer-Contest-Top-3-Slideshows-2011.h... . Check out their sites as well.