Outdoor photographer Reuben Krabbe is a fan-favorite, and his images have appeared in FREESKIER magazine countless times over the years. A duo of shots can be labeled as, arguably, his most famous: a 2013 image he shot of Tobin Seagel skiing under the aurora borealis in Canada’s Yukon Territory and “Eclipse,” the shot of Cody Townsend descending a line in Svalbard, Norway, in front of a total solar eclipse.
The third installment of his celestial series of photographs is “Nebula,” which features pro skier Nick McNutt descending a British Columbia powder field at night, with Reuben utilizing the help of a telescope to capture the distant Orion Nebula, seen here:
Krabbe and his team have produced a film to document the difficult process of achieving such an “impossible” photo, which is available online for $2 today. Check out the intergalactic trailer, above, and visit nebula-film.com to catch the full film.
About the photograph, from Krabbe:
“Nebula is the first image to combine the disciplines of long lens astrophotography with action sports. Reuben pioneered a hybrid of techniques in night action sport photography, digital location scouting, and astrophotography. The Orion Nebula occupies a large part of the night sky, roughly similar to the size of a full moon. However, it’s dim light is too faint for the human eye. It’s literally hidden in plain sight.
With a 400 mm lens shooting for 20+ seconds, he could capture both an athlete and the nebula. Due to the earth’s constant rotation, a regular tripod is not suitable. Astrophotographers use an equatorial mount to counteract the rotation of the earth. These expensive specialized tools are required for all astrophotographers. Even with these specialized tools, Reuben is left with two major problems; how to freeze the action of the skier’s motion, and a location where it’s possible to shoot. The shoot location’s requirements are lengthy and detailed; avoid urban light pollution, shoot at a high altitude for snow quality, find a location on the north side of a mountain with a terrain feature that includes a ramp of snow when viewed from the east. In BC’s Coast Range that requirement frequently puts the photographer on a crevassed glacier, so a location near Bralorne, BC was chosen.
In Reuben’s initial attempt photographing Nebula, he used strobe photography to freeze the action but ran into a multitude of issues with signal errors, in the second attempt he chose to use an in-camera double exposure. A film photography technique possible on some digital cameras. The film (sensor) is exposed to light twice, with a single output image.”
