“Cranberry Fields” by Ryan Taylor

In October of 2012 I had the opportunity once again to join the Red Bull Winch Sessions crew to shoot video and stills for the final episode of their season on YouTube. Based on an episode that I had worked on two years prior, the entire crew felt that something was missing and that we needed to get back to a cranberry field. I had tried to get this photo on that shoot but the lack of resources and time only provided mediocre results.

This time around, the video crew and I decided that we needed to rent a lift in order to get ourselves out and over the field of berries. In this particular shot of Ben Horan, we had been working with him to get the perfect carve, talking him through his line. As soon as he found it he snapped an ollie in the middle and from that moment I knew we had gotten the shot, and Ben was able to add his own bit of style into it as well.

We spent an entire week at the fields and this was the only night that we had sun and it didn’t snow, which at that time in Northern Wisconsin can be a rare thing. What I really like about this shot is that it is an example of everything falling into place when it needed to. The perfect mix of teamwork amongst creatives, producers, riders and mother nature. – Ryan Taylor

This image was the finalist for the ‘Illumination’ category in Red Bull’s annual Illume contest. Taken in Wisconsin, cranberry fields are flooded to harvest the cranberries and, in this case, to provide a bog in which athlete Ben Horan was pulled via winch through the fields. During the course of the third yearly installment of the global contest, contestants from 124 different countries submitted 30,000 images – the largest to date. The best 50 photos were then blown up and unveiled in “illuminated” giant cubes at a free night exhibition in Hong Kong this last August, where they have remained on free display to the public until now. The exhibition will debut in North America with a nighttime-only show in Phoenix, Arizona on Nov 14th through Nov 24th. Each photo will be presented in a 10×10 light box, creating an immersive photo and light experience. The exhibition will then make its way to Atlanta in March of 2014 before leaving the continent once more. Those who cannot attend in person can find the winning pics at Red Bull Illume.

To see more of Taylor’s work, visit his website at www.RyanTaylorVisual.com. Follow him on Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram. You can see his motion work on his Vimeo page.