On July 19th, I had the chance to travel to Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin to learn from and profile a truly amazing hybrid photographer shooting her Lumix GH3 by the name of Carol Schlintz. Carol is the Wisconsin State Waterski event photographer. Arriving in Milwaukee I had a 4 hour drive up to Wisconsin Rapids filled with lots of farm land, cattle and wind towers. I have never been to Wisconsin before this trip or even a water ski show and was not sure what to be expected besides the famous cheese curds of Wisconsin. The state surprisingly is very much like Vermont in many ways like farm to plate food and too many different micro beers.
Arriving into the hotel in the evening I unpacked my gear quickly and met up with Carol as she was transferring the days media cards and backing them up, as I watched and we talked I noticed she had transferred over 9 cards and I thought to my self that is a lot of cards. Little did I know how MANY people were involved in this event. The Waterski event takes place over 5 days with over 25 teams and up to 70+ people per team, broken down into jumpers, ballet, swivel, sit skiing, wake boarding, bare footers, synchronized, doubles, pyramids and so much more. Each team gets 1 hour to display everything they have from skits, announcing, to dancing, getting on and off the water, boat driving and of course most importantly water skiing. The entire hour is judged and everything is taken into consideration, if the skit is not finished within the hour then they are disqualified. Start time for the first team was usually 6:30 or 7 AM and went every day until about 7-9 PM depending one number of teams for the day and injury delay.
Taking all that into consideration Carol really has her work cut out for her, she has to capture everyone and everything. This is no easy task when you have 6 boats on the water simultaneously while the announcer's are putting on a skit. It is not hard to shoot way over a 1,000 images per team because their is just that much going on at once. On top of that you multiply that by 8 team's per day, and well you have got to be on it 100% of the time to capture almost every moment and not miss anyone on a team. With all the being said you barley have enough time to change your camera setting, that is when the custom settings on the Lumix GH3 come in very handy. It was great to work alongside another action sports photographer and see there style of shooting. Carol has a method of shooting that gets the best results, she has a full proof method of light changing and getting a professional image every time. We got to chat about the mirrorless Lumix GH3, the camera that we both are proud to shoot, we traded knowledge on all our short cuts and favorite features. It was truly a eye opening experience to shoot alongside and learn from such and accomplished photographer as Carol Schlintz. The Wisconsin Water Ski Show was truly a unforgettable eye opening event. Check out Carol's work at http://www.mindworksdreams.com/
A pyramid of 28 water skiers.

Carol Schlintz using her GH3

Please check out the following short edits.
Waterski vol.1 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.
Waterski vol.2 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.
Waterski vol.3 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.
Waterski vol.4 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.
Waterski vol.5 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.