Category Finalist 2007: new creativity

Marco Toniolo

Lake Garda, Italy, is one of my favourite playgrounds. You can do a lot of sports there: mountain biking, wind surfing, climbing, and skiing. I know nearly every spot there, like the old house in this photo — it’s blocked off by an iron fence with lots of warning signs because it will come crashing down sooner or later. Roman and I wanted a shot of him jumping, with the lake in the background, so we climbed over the fence. Roman went upstairs to the balcony, and I got in on the ground floor. It was very dark — my eyes took some time to adjust from the bright snow and sunshine outside. The floor I was walking on was falling apart — there was a huge hole in the middle of the room. I walked very carefully to a broken window; the shutters were closed and frozen, so I had to kick them open through the sharp edges of the window. When the light came in, I saw the ice on the broken window. It looked like a scene from a horror movie, and I was convinced the floor would crash under my weight while I was taking the photo. Roman’s jump was perfect, and we had the shot on the first try.

Athlete: Roman Rohrmoser
Location: Lake Garda, Italy

TECHNICAL INFO

• Camera: Canon EOS-D1 Mark II
• Lens: 16–35 mm f/2.8
• Focal length, digital: 16 mm
• ISO: 200
• F-stop: 9.0
• Shutter speed: 1/1000