The Christmas Miracle Goggles

Children are expensive. Skiing is expensive. So humor me with a few minutes of your time to tell a providential story and we'll circle back on some tips to take the edge off of the double whammy expense of skiing and children (and yeah, we'll hit some photography tips to reward anyone who sticks it out for the entire post).

Most of our family was out of town during the Holidays so we figured we'd hit the slopes for a road trip to save on both the hassle and expense of flying. Who knew ski lessons could amount to a plane ticket or two? The expense of lodging, lift tickets, rentals, helmets, snow chains, all that cute puffy clothing that they'd out grow next season wore me and my wallet out. Then a friend pointed out that goggles were actually pretty important, but at that point it was too late to borrow or take advantage of any sales so I bit the bullet and bought the cheapest goggles I could find. Women goggles, however, were difficult to locate and being a photographer, the mental picture of my wife wearing the ginormous men ones was enough to make me fall over laughing. So with much disdain, I bought two goggles: a $50 pair and a $60 pair. My wife, with her good taste, took the $60 Bolle pair with a bold designer (and crazy) pink and yellow strap. For the women out there who think $60 is reasonable for designer glasses, mine were a third of the price. Yeah, I looked like a dork, but at least I had money left to eat (though not much apparently when it comes to Squaw Valley). Pretty hot snow bunny huh?

Fast forward to the day after Christmas where we were blessed with having private lessons (because no one else drove up on Christmas) with Jason "the Black Diamond ninja" ski instructor. Though his skills were mostly wasted on the likes of me, his way with kids came in handy when Zoe broke her instructors in the kids class (there goes another $150). Jason was so good that we requested him the next day and boldly proclaimed that we'd ski down a long green run (2000 ft elevation decent) on our own afterwards. A couple of wrong turns later and we found ourselves stranded on Mountain Run, a blue intermediate (but might as well have been a cliff) run. Those who ski know this was a disaster for a couple who barely mastered the wedge going straight and for those who don't, the difficulty was akin to having twins when you only expected one.

The funny (as in ha ha, you took all my money and didn't give me my money's worth) thing about Squaw Valley was that you had to pick up your kids from their half day lessons by 12:15. This deadline was ludicrous since the adult lessons finished at 12:30 on the top of base camp several miles away and 2000 feet up. So we skipped out an hour (and $100) early but as I alluded to, we were stuck on this blue run. By 12:15 it was clear that it'd take another hour (or three) for us to get down together so I broke the ski buddy rules and left my wife with a new friend (as in hi there, please take care of my wife) Heather. With mental images of my distraught kids below and pangs of guilt for my abandoned wife above, I blazed down the hill somewhat recklessly figuring if it's my time, then the sweet sleep of death and choir of angels would provide a welcome break from the exhausting duties of parenting.

Well by God's grace I made it down safely and collected the kids who were actually enjoying themselves. As for my wife, it turned out Jason spotted her goggles, the blessed, worth every single penny, goggles and gave her a hand and eventually a snowmobile ride down. While always a believer in the ultimate plan, it's comforting to see God take an active role in life's little details as well.

Some Children Ski Tips:

Assuming you've already had kids, there's not much to do but keep them. Here are some other ideas though that might help keep things within reason:

1. Goggles are worth buying (used ones can be pretty scratched up and/or the foam gets ripped) and have better coverage, tints (get filter 2 for the most flexibility which provide enough contrast on overcast day but are dark enough to prevent snow blindness on sunny ones) and anti-fogging than regular sunglasses. If the whole Christmas miracle story wasn't enough, note that if your spouse goes blind or falls off a cliff cause they can't see, all the child rearing goes to you.
2. Clothing, helmets and sleds are great things to borrow since they outgrow the former and the latter doesn't get that much wear and tear.
3. Whatever you do have to buy, buy early (Costco has sells a bunch of stuff in the fall), on Black Friday (if you like that sport) or later in the season for the best deals. Sorry, this advice is a little late in coming.
4. Rent the children's skis locally at Any Mountain. The kids will get used to them before their lessons (by skiing off your furniture), children boots/skis are small enough to transport easily and it ends up being cheaper (you pay one fee for the whole season) as you can trade up each season as part of the rental program.
5. Try skiing at Tahoe Donner. Any ski resort that has a picture of a kid playing in the snow (versus a couple of parents stuck doing wedges at 8200 feet) on their homepage is going to be kid friendly (and a whole lot cheaper).
6. These chemical hand warmers are nice when you want to keep your hands/feet warm, entertain the kids with magic tricks or need to keep you camera battery warm to fire off a few more photographs.
7. Audio books of say Harry Potter, are a great way to kill time in the car and kick off a conversation (read, stream of a thousand questions) from the back seat.

Baby Photography Tips: The thing about snow is it's white. Earth shattering I know, and you're probably thinking that oxygen deprivation at altitude killed off a couple of my brain cells. The problem is that your camera doesn't know the difference so it'll underexpose the snow and just about everything else and you'll get something like this:

Sure grey snow isn't as bad as yellow snow, but if you want better results try this (in increasing level of difficulty):

• Set your exposure compensation to +1. The right value could be more or less depending on what else is in your background but this is pretty safe setting and you do want to err on the safe side so you don't clip the whites.
• You may want to go black and white on the image since there isn't much color information on a snowy photograph unless of course your subject is wearing a neon yellow and pink set of goggles.
• Increase your local contrast (up the clarity setting in Lightroom) and do crazy stuff with your tonal curve (in Lightroom or Photoshop). This isn't for the casual baby photographer, but it really makes a big difference, especially if the day is overcast making everything rather flat. Remember how you thought I was brain dead and said snow is white. Well if you do "over expose" your photos, they can end up looking like you were standing in a white photography studio in ski gear (i.e. you won't see any texture from the snow). So you want a curve something like this:

It's a double S curve that gives you nice contrast in the snow as well as in the subject if everything is exposed correctly (and makes a bloody mess if it isn't). Alas, I fear I've said too much and an angel has lost its wings.

Related Posts:

San Francisco Airport - Every Boy's (and Girl's) Dream - A cheaper weekend activity.

Bright Smiles and Lights Out - Using exposure compensation to deal with bright lights.

Parental Field Trip - Using exposure compensation for backlit subjects.

Camara Action Boo - Look, even a two year old can use the exposure compensation!

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