As a photographer, you have to be almost as fit as the athletes you are shooting in order to follow them in their playgrounds. Craig Kolesky is challenging himself every year with extensive training and recently competed at the Cape-Epic, one of the toughest mountain bike races on the planet. We've interviewed the South African photographer about staying fit and how this helped him in his photography career.

Does the extensive training for Cape-Epic help you to stay fit as a photographer when chasing world class athletes out in the field?

While I doubt I will ever have the fitness of the athletes I shoot, I think having enough fitness to somewhat keep up with them has helped me tremendously.

Riding and training for Cape-Epic has certainly allowed me to gain a level of fitness that helps with the kind of photography I do. Whatever sport you take part in will also give you a better understanding of what you are shooting. Being fit is just the first part of getting good images in remote outdoor locations. Shooting when you unfit, tired and under pressure is not fun and before I started cycling and training I suffered a lot on shoots.

Does the experience as an athlete competing for Cape-Epic help you to shoot better images during such events? Does that help you to get deeper into the sport as well?

Yes definitely, as a rider in the Cape-Epic you get to see the other side of the event. When you go back to shoot it, you have a good understanding of what is needed and how the system works.

How do you manage to train hard and manage your photography business at the same time?

The first two times I struggled to fit in all the training and shooting for clients, add a newborn to the mix and you can imagine how crazy life was. But I have always believed that if you really want to achieve something you give it all and make it happen, whether it is my photography or my cycling. You pretty much eat, sleep and breath. Cape-Epic training lasts for almost 6 months of the year.

I think now, after a good few solid years, the training does become a bit easier and you also get a better system in place. It has been a big learning curve for me as a rider and a photographer. But also having great support from my family is a big help.

Any other tips to stay fit as a photographer?

Take the stairs, not the lifts… ha ha ha.
No, I suggest to just always keep moving and try to get involved in what you love to shoot, the athletes will also respect that you do what they do. Understanding the sport is also key to getting a good shot, and if you are fit you can get to those locations a lot easier if no other transport is available.

Are you fit to join the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2019? Submit Now!

Sterling Lorence has collected Image Quest finalist honors on multiple occasions. Born, raised and living with his wife and two children in Vancouver, BC - Sterling has been shooting mountain biking and cycling sports for more than 20 years and loves to ride bikes himself.

In Red Bull Illume history, has there been another photographer that captures action in a way that Sterling can? You immediately feel the energy between rider, athlete and photographer with just one glance. So, what’s the trick? We asked Sterling himself…

For a category like Energy you need to be a quick-shooter, how do you ensure you never miss the shot?

Know the sport, understand and relate to what the riders are doing and try to envision what is going to happen. This will help you to visualize what you want to happen in your image before it the shutter button is pressed.  React quickly to what you see in the moments and adjust what you are doing till you and your subjects are stoked.

What tricks do you have to truly capture the energy of the moment?

I simply rely on watching and observing the action closely and decide on where that moment is most likely to happen. This would involve moving around lots too and deciding how focal lengths might affect expressing the action even more.  The positions of the athlete and the bike or object can often make this process easier too.

How do you select the final images that you enter?

I will pool my favorite shots from the past 2-3 years and see what I feel are the most compelling for this particular contest.  It does take something quite special to move into the finalist positions.

So, you’ve been taking pictures all over the world. Where to next?

This season I have been lucky in that lots of my clients want the backdrop of British Columbia, so I have managed to work here a lot. For the filming of Anthill’s ‘Return to Earth’ we worked on an amazing ranch on Oahu and a really cool landscape in Utah and both those shoots have created content I will be entering into the Image Quest 2019.

Would you say your photography style has evolved since the last edition of Red Bull Illume? If so, how?

The pursuit of capturing the most dynamic action in rad compositions in firing light has always been there… but yes, we all try to evolve our game to try express in ways that are seen less often.  This can be through the progressions that the riders make, or through locations and also camera technology advances. Strobe use has been part of my heritage with my work and seems to grab attention with Red Bull Illume, so this time around I have tried some new techniques with drones and strobes to try creating some new looks.

Will you be submitting to the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2019?

Yes, stoked to be entering images again this year and ever grateful to Red Bull Illume for hosting such a cool action sports photo contest…I am always so impressed and inspired by the work that comes through this contest.

Feeling invigorated by these images? Don’t sit still! Submit your images to the Energy Category.

If spending 15 hours slithering through the desert on a three-kilometer long train transporting approximately 84 tons of iron ore across a country sounds like a dream to you, then you’re probably one of two things. Either, you’re ready to be the winner of the Lifestyle Category of the Red Bull Illume Image Quest, or you’re Jody MacDonald.

Thankfully for us, Jody is both! Her iconic and unforgettable image of a surfer on board the Mauritania Railway was the realization of her dream as a youngster of being on adventures like the ones she read in magazines. The image has gone on to define the Lifestyle Category, so we caught up with Jody to find out a bit more about her lifestyle, and how this is reflected in her photography.

Please give a small intro about yourself…

I was born in Ottawa, Canada but grew up in Saudi Arabia. I was fortunate enough to travel a lot when I was young and it really inspired me to travel and explore. I’ve been doing adventure sports for as long as I can remember.

I began my photography career when I started sailing around the world. I ended up living at sea for 10 years and sailing around the world twice visiting over 90 countries in search of having adventures in the most remote corners of the planet.

I’m passionate about stepping off the beaten path in pursuit of documenting issues that blend insightful storytelling, big adventure exploration and social change inspiration. I currently live in a ski town in the US called Sun Valley, Idaho.

In your words, what type of photographer are you?

I call myself and adventure and documentary photographer.

What’s more important in photography, action or emotion?

Tough question but I would say emotion. In my opinion the images that are most powerful evoke some kind of emotion.

How long does it take to capture the perfect ‘Lifestyle’ image of action sports?

I don’t think there is a definitive time frame but I don think it generally requires quite a bit of time. Spending a lot of time with your subjects and the sports they do is key to understanding the lifestyle behind the sport. I think the more time you spend with your subjects, the more likely you are to produce much stronger images.

Do you always have a camera with you?

Not always but when I’m on assignment, definitely!

Do your images display your own lifestyle, as well as the people in them?

Yes, without a doubt. I like to photograph sports that I do myself and am apart of that community so yes, my images definitely represent my own lifestyle.

Will you be submitting to Red Bull Illume 2019?

If I think I have any that are worthy, I will ;)

If Jody’s words resonate with you, or if you want to test your adventure and action sports images against the best, you can submit to this or any of the other 10 categories here!

Follow Jody on Instagram!

How do you know you got a good shot? Recognition – literally. Four previous editions of the Red Bull Illume Image Quest have produced three different winners, and they have been on quite the journey ever since.

Fred Mortagne bucked the trend of vivid colored, fisheye action shots to become heralded as one of the premier skateboard photographers around. Chris Burkard is a household name using natural light to capture humanizing moments, achieving a phenomenal reach. Lorenz Holder is recognized by many as the bench-setter in blurring the lines between adventure and action sports, and fine art photography.

How would you feel if you spent thousands of dollars, traveled thousands of miles, and came home with… nothing? Christian Pondella and Will Gadd have been wandering over the world for 20 years, and have ticked off a few adventures – but this trip to climb ice in the Greenland Ice Cap was one of the “coolest adventures I’ve ever been on!” – his words, not ours, and he follow up with a quick “no pun intended!”

In the remote, icy wilderness on the Greenland ice cap, a gaping hole marked the spot where climber Gadd and his support crew and film team would descend into the unknown. What they discovered was a sparklingly beautiful, but terrifying 90m-deep cavern, with a roof made of hundreds of tonnes of cracking, creaking and groaning ice.

It took skill, experience and knowledge simply to come back alive. Let alone to get THE shot. And what about their equipment? Well, Pondella told us that what’s pretty funny is that one of the smallest and most lightweight pieces of gear on his adventure is the most important – his camera’s memory cards. Even though they’re tiny, you could say the whole adventure depends on them – if they don’t work, the boys come home with nothing but a memory. Great for them… but not so great for the story they want to tell. 

All of this is why he’s packing SanDisk Extreme memory cards – they’re designed to withstand extreme environments. They’re shockproof, temperature-proof and even waterproof – all things which are real risk when you’re rappelling into a frozen cave somewhere near the Polar Ice Cap.

A moulin is basically a giant hole in a glacier, created when surface water finds its way into a crack in the ice and melts through. And in this dream project, the plan was to climb into one and go deep inside the Greenland ice cap to a place nobody has ever been before.

“My first thought was this thing looks f**king scary,” recalls Pondella. It took all of their skill, expertise and experience to know not only when to go in, but also when to pull back. After a first unsuccessful drop, conditions were in their favor second time around.

Just getting out there was an adventure. It was a half-hour heli flight from Ilulissat with amazing views and then we were dropped off in the middle of this ice desert. Just flat ice, as far as you can see. Totally surreal.” See the full interview here.(link)

Whether he’s in the freezing cold depths of a moving river of ice, or in thin high alpine air, one thing is for sure: his photographic environment and what’s happening in it is always changing. With all that in flux, it’s good to have something one can count on – even if it’s just the size of a quarter. 

Want to show us your own stuff from crazy adventures and dramatic environments? Submit to the Best of Instagram by SanDisk category by tagging your posts with @redbullillume and #rbi19submission – but hurry, there’s just over a week left – the last entry needs to be in by June 14 at midday (CEST) – so get ‘gramming!

So here you have it, monthly winner number 4 out of 5 in the Best of Instagram by SanDisk category looks like this:

Any good photographer can tell you – clicking the button is just one part of the process – there is so much work before and after that is necessary to make an image great! Skylum is all about making photo editing easy – their flagship product, Luminar 3, is a robust photo cataloging and editing tool that lets pro photographers spend less time waiting for images to get ingested, and get right to the work that matters the most to them – making gorgeous stuff. 

So – why do we love Luminar 3? Well, it’s just perfect for adventure and action sports imagery. With just a few simple clicks, Luminar 3 can make your athlete pop and your background tones blend to create that perfect result that every photographer craves.

To be even more specific, here’s three of the many features that we love: ultra-fast import, customizable workspaces, and… layers. Getting your photos off the card and into a catalog is super simple, and most importantly super-fast – so if you’ve got a quick-turn-around delivery, you can start sorting out the good from the bad, right away. Customizable workspaces mean you can set up your computer desktop to your liking, letting you see the information and use the tools relevant to you. Finally – and what is perhaps the most important – layers. Alternative photo editors mean you have to take your image out of the program and into another one to use layers. In Luminar 3, you can do it right in your catalog, making it a much more powerful and capable tool. It’s all powered by artificial intelligence, and the premise behind it is simple: automate what can be automated, and leave creative control in the hands of the artist. 

Maybe you have already shot your images for submission, but still need to edit them to make them perfect before uploading. Luckily, you can try Luminar 3 for free and get a $10 discount with the promo code RED-BULL-ILLUME when you purchase it. Open a window to your creativity, by downloading it here!

The best news for Red Bull Illume entrants? Prize packages will certainly include Skylum software – making winning all the more fun, and your future photo editing workflow even better!

To learn more about Skylum and Luminar 3, check out their website – and don’t forget, submissions for Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2019 are now open – until July 31, 2019!

Red Bull Illume judges are hand-picked as people who, somehow or someway, made their mark on the photography industry, some as photographers, but more often as photo editors, curators, founders of photography brands or media outlets – these are the people with taste and unrivalled know-how, which they wanted to share with you!

Be original 

Laura Luykenaar, from Salt Magazine, makes it even more clear: “Just don’t take the shot that has already been shot a thousand times before.” Daniel Havlik – founder of Shutterbug – strongly agrees. "Dare to try something different – but don't forget the human element.” Which lead us to another good point… it’s often very much about the person. 

Show a human experience 

It’s not a hard-and-fast rule that images for Red Bull Illume require a person or athlete in them, but the contest is about adventure and action sports. People are the ones that have adventures and do action sports, so it’s a good idea to think about what the humans in your images are doing – and what they’re showing us. Says Hideko Kataoka, Photo Editor for NewsWeek Japan: "I am fascinated about the ability to capture intense moments of the human experience, and beauty of human body and activity.” Another esteemed photographer – Denis Balibous from Reuters – puts it more simply: “A picture has to cause a strong emotion.” 

Don’t be afraid to smash the shutter button 

Laura Luykenaar: "You can take 100 pictures of a scene and have 95 technically good photos, some crappy ones, but just 1 might turn out to be perfect. I think that luck and timing add a great deal to make a great photo.” Your takeaway? Take risks, and get lots of shots! 

Nail your timing 

"The two most important things for me with adventure and actions sports images are timing and composition,” says Daniel Halvik. When there’s high-speed, high-altitude, high-consequence action happening right in front of your lens, there’s no question – you’ve got to nail the timing. So, plan, plan, plan. Evgeny Tchebotarev, 500px founder and VP of Growth Asia, Skylum Software, sees it as almost a science: “The amount of work, precision, and accurate timing that goes into that resembled more a scientific lab experiment rather than an action sport photo shoot.”

… finally, just make it great. 

"I can’t just name one thing,” says Luykenaar. "The composition, the light, the focus should be the best for the subject that you are photographing. A great photo needs to be ‘just right’”.

See more from the judges in the image gallery below, and more judges are set to be announced very soon on our dedicated judges page. 

OK, photographers – armed with this knowledge, we implore you: go out and get your best stuff. And waste no time in getting it submitted – the July 31 deadline is going to be here before you know it! 

Red Bull Illume is more than happy to have Sony on board for the second time in a row as a key partner to the world’s best adventure and action sport imagery contest. The reason they’re back again? Because it’s a perfect partnership – just like us, Sony is all about excellent photography – and innovation.

Sony’s ground-breaking innovation has kept their cameras in the hands of past Red Bull Illume winners like Chris Burkard. Their dedication to bringing mirrorless cameras up to and beyond the capabilities of DSLRs has earned them an incredibly influential position in the content-creation world – one that they’re furthering every day. They know what photographers need to innovate creatively: Inspiration, athletes who can push limits of possibility, a little bit of early morning or late evening light helps – but one thing that can’t be left behind is technically capable tools.

That’s why they are making cameras ideally suited to Red Bull Illume photographers; perfect for capturing the kind of high-speed, faster-than-the-eye-can-see action in board sports, bike sports, aerial or any other adventure and action sports. That’s nowhere more apparent than in the Sony Alpha α9, their full frame mirrorless body that can pop off a stunning 20 frames per second with no buffering, using one of the best autofocus tracking systems in the world that simply doesn’t blink. Sounds like the ideal shooting companion for you? Well, by entering the Image Quest 2019 you might have more chance of owning one than you think!

Of course, there’s another reason Sony makes such a great partner for Red Bull Illume. They’ve long been video experts, and we’ve now introduced the Moving Image category – clips from 5 – 30 seconds are permitted. Since Red Bull Illume is all about quality and innovation, this isn’t just about mounting an action camera– high-quality tools like a proper camera body and lens, and the skills to know how to use could potentially help content creators score points here. 

But, ultimately, it’s that core value – innovation – also makes them an excellent sponsor the Innovation by Sony Category, where judges will look not only for stunning images, but those that approach photography in a new way. Just what that innovation is? Entirely up to the photographer – it can be technical, artistic, thematic – as long as it shows demonstrates intention to innovate. We really can’t wait to see what you submit!

All the phenomenal shots in this story were shot on Sony cameras! Check them out below.

Vince Perraud is predominantly a BMX photographer, who shot to fame in the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2013 as a double finalist in the Playground category. His images are a juxtaposition of insane tricks and epic locations perfected through years on the road.

The Playground category is one of eleven categories now open to submission in the Image Quest 2019. It is a dedicated category for epic images showcasing not only the athlete, but the landscapes, locations, platforms, and environments in which they play.

The judges are in a position to elevate each category winner to new heights; with a place at Winner Award Ceremony, and incredible photography equipment included in the prize list (link). It’s vital that your image meets the description of the category perfectly, as each judge will have this in mind when voting!

We caught up with Vince this week and we’re sure that his words below will inspire you to visit, and re-visit many different spots in search of that spectacular Playground shot that could see you crowned as a winner!

Tell us a bit about yourself…

Hey! okay I’ve been taking pictures for about 15 years! I was always passionate about BMX but realized early on that I was better behind a camera. I come from Burgundy which is great for wine but nothing much... I studied art for 5 years but needed freedom so I started going on trips with my friends to document the BMX way of life. I was on the road for almost 8 years working for various magazines, that was the good life! Now I live in Biarritz which is an amazing for location for weather, landscape, people... love it!

How does it feel to work in places where people play?

Haha good question! I have never considered myself to be working while I was shooting BMX, just having fun with my friends!

What motivates you to get out there and find new playgrounds?

I think it’s the essence of adventure and action sports to constantly look at new spots! You always want new stuff to ride. I always liked to explore new areas, cities, even countries... and it’s a great way to build the relationship between the riders and the photographers.

What’s the best piece of advice you could give photographers that are looking for a unique location for a shoot?

I would say don’t scared to be explore a lot! And sometimes to re-check places that you already scouted, places are constantly changing - and so are your eyes..!

Will we see entries to the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2019 from you?

I hope so!!

Have you got great Playground images that need to be shared with the world? You can submit now to this category!