How Samo Vidic captured the raw energy of whitewater kayaking on a DSLR

The lack of snow wasn't the only thing that made this shoot tricky. Although Slovenian kayaker Peter was incredibly committed, even suggesting that he remove his gloves when the air temperature was 0°C because the pictures would look better without them, Samo was nervous of overworking him. "In a few days, he was due to travel to a training camp in Australia so we really didn't want him to get sick," he says. "As soon as the cold got too much, we'd stop immediately. He'd go to a little hut nearby where I had set up some heaters, [warm up] for half an hour, then come back."

It's unlikely that Peter would have gone through this discomfort – not to mention risked getting ill and messing up his training schedule – for just any photographer, but he and Samo have known and trusted each other for 10 years. "Peter trusts me when I say that it will be worth it," Samo says.

Peter was kayaking back and forth in a 10-15 metre area of whitewater along the course so Samo used a simple three-light setup consisting of a backlight, a main light on Peter, and another pointed at the water. But while the wireless transmitter triggered the camera reliably, the lights proved problematic at first.

The high frame rate of the Canon EOS-1D X was a real help when the transmitter was struggling because it increased the odds of getting some good shots in between a few duds, says Samo. The exposure for his final shots was 1/250 sec at ISO400, f/7.1. Unlike in his previous mountain biking shoot, Samo wasn't using a digital tablet to view the images remotely, but was checking them on the camera's LCD screen instead.

"Once we had two good pictures I felt more relaxed and we could play around," he says. He kept the framing tight to focus on Peter rather than the surroundings, which weren't particularly scenic. "Every sport has specific moves and you talk to the athlete about what is a good [body] position and what is a bad one. If he's holding the paddle out of the water, it looks boring. I wanted to capture him with his arm above his head, but not covering his face."

Despite the obstacles, Samo left with 20 cracking pictures. But he still can't quite forgive the snow for failing to make an appearance. "The shots still had the water spray, which is really nice, but snow would have made me really happy," he says.

Samo's advice for shooting kayaking is to think about your end goal: "Consider what exactly you want to achieve, and probably do this during the summer when it's much easier for the photographer and, more importantly, for the athlete." he says. "Also you don't want to ruin your equipment so, when water is involved, you have to be really careful. Test the camera in water with the housing a couple of times to make sure it's nice and tight. The housing is fiddly, but when you print these images out really large they're unbelievable."