Mason Mashon has followed the Red Bull Illume photography contest for at least 15 years. Now, he can cross something off his bucket list and call himself a finalist in that very event.
The Whistlerite’s submission—a stunning image of Torgeir Bergrem throwing up snow next to a solitary evergreen tree—made it to the final round of 2023’s Red Bull Illume alongside 49 other worthy offerings from photographers around the world. It wasn’t easy for Mashon to get his shot. He, Bergrem and their team had been camped out in sub-alpine terrain between Whistler and Squamish for about two weeks, anticipating the arrival of a hefty spring storm.
As the snowfall began to ramp up, Mashon deployed his drone, which he’d used only once before. He searched for terrain with depth, where the aircraft’s onboard light could pick up differing textures. Howling winds and near-whiteout conditions threatened to knock his machine from the sky, but it battled through valiantly.
That gave Mashon and Bergrem a short window: roughly 15 minutes before the drone’s light ran out of power. That’s all the time they ended up needing.
Mashon spotted the lone, snow-covered tree and immediately took note of it. Bergrem, leaning on his wealth of backcountry experience, navigated there in complete darkness.
Mashon’s Sony Alpha 1 captured snowboarder and tree nearly perfectly, but he hesitated to submit it for contest consideration. He’d already backed out of the Illume once before, two years ago, believing he lacked content of sufficient quality. He waited until the last moment to throw his hat in the ring this time, and it’s safe to say he doesn’t regret it.
The victor’s crown ultimately went to Australia’s Krystle Wright: the first woman ever to clinch an overall Illume title. Nonetheless, Mashon is proud of his work.
“Even just to get into the semifinals was an honour, but to be recognized in the finals is a whole other level of excitement,” he said.
‘Photography opened my eyes’
Although he was born in Vernon, B.C., Mashon moved to the West Coast after high school and began spending summers mountain biking in Whistler. Before long, he put down roots in the Sea to Sky and fell in love with the process of creating images with other people. Mashon decided in his early twenties to begin pursuing photography full-time, and he caught a break at the 2010 World Ski and Snowboard Festival Pro Photographer Showdown.
Mashon earned a wild card entry in the contest with a three-minute showcase of his best work. That gave him the opportunity to assemble a nine-minute slideshow, but he lacked enough material to fill it at the time. Quitting his job at Hy’s Steakhouse, Mashon jumped in his truck and hit the road to look for newer, more exciting photo ops.
He knew he probably wouldn’t beat out more experienced shooters in the WSSF event, but that didn’t matter. His turning point had come.
“Photography really opened my eyes to the world,” said Mashon. “To live in all those environments and be shooting is probably the best thing that has happened to me, and I’ve learned a lot from all those different travels.
“When I look at action sports photography, you’re combining the technical aspects of creating an image with someone’s peak performance athletically. A lot of sports have these fleeting moments, and I feel like that’s when some of my best work has been captured. All sorts of things are lining up—the weather, the environment, conditions—and then also the athlete and photographer. All these things are what make a beautiful action sports image.”
The right photo can’t come together without the right subject, and Mashon was pleased by his first collaboration with Bergrem. The Norwegian boasts a solid snowboarding resume, including two Olympic Games and an X Games bronze medal in addition to everything he’s done on the mountain.
“He’s an incredibly motivated athlete, and his work ethic over that whole shoot was really awesome,” Mashon said of Bergrem. “To watch the things he did on his snowboard over the course of those two weeks was pretty rad. The other guys on the crew there were super rad also: snowboarders with good style and motivation.
“I think that’s the recipe for success: having creative vision both athletically and photographically, and understanding both sides of that. As the guy who knew the areas and knew what they wanted to ride, I kind of steered them towards some cool stuff to shoot.”
