Jonathon Swift wrote that "vision is seeing the invisible." It is far too simplistic and a little misleading to apply what Swift said to ski race photography.  But it is true in one very limited sense, when the camera makes visible what is invisible to the eye.

Race spectators see what they see. Of course. But they may not see everything that is happening, given a racer's speed (at 30 miles per hour, a slalom racer travels 44 feet each second) and the distance between spectator and racer. Plus, the racer's large movements tend to distract attention from small but important details. So seeing - and comprehending - the details of what is happening moment-by-moment is a challenge for a spectator. Or a gate judge responsible for deciding whether a racer has properly skied past each gate assigned to the judge. And even if one's eyes could see everything as it happens, recalling the details of each run for each racer would be impossible for any but the most sophisticated coaches.

A camera is not so limited. Subject to its technical limitations and the photographer's skill, the camera's vision encompasses everything its lens transmits to film or sensor, recording what it sees for later review.

As a result, a race photographer will eventually - although almost certainly not as each racer passes - see more than what the other spectators saw. The camera prepares slices of time, not unlike microscope slides, for later study. Interesting things are sometimes then revealed: details not seen or recalled, even by the racer.  Dwelling on the technical features of modern cameras is unnecessary. But high shutter speeds (routinely 1/3200 and 1/4000 of a second for race photography), high frame rates (at 14 or more frames per second), and digital recording all mean that the camera sees far more clearly than the eye and records far more accurately than the brain. 

Here are a few examples.

The conclusion here was predictable (and well-documented on subsequent frames and the result sheet), but this frame shows the actual "accidental" release.  The camera saw a detail the eye didn't fully comprehend.

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The camera saw the details in these mishaps much more clearly than the eye.

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But sometimes it all works out: athleticism in one gate led to recovery in time to make all the rest of the gates.

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Desperate conditions require desperate measures: goggles are essential for slalom, especially in a dense snow storm. Unless they fog up.

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And sometimes you just have to do whatever it take to make the gate.

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Including snaking on nearly flat skis through a three-gate flush as directly as possible. 

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