Danny Burrows is back with another one of his favourite shots – this time it’s of Norwegian ripper Ståle Sandbech at the recent Burton European Open slopestyle in Laax. Check out how he bagged this, and you can also download it as a free wallpaper to make your machin all purrty.
This year’s BEO was graced by Saharan sun and temperatures to match, which although a ball-ache for competitors and shapers, was bliss for those watching and shooting the action.
Wednesday’s slopestyle semis were a long, drawn out affair with 30 odd male riders slogging it out well into the late afternoon, into what the commentators coined the ‘golden hour’. With the new location of the slopestyle course this made for deep shadows and a contrasting sharp, winter light; in short – a photographer’s wet dream.
I moved down to the left side of the first big kicker on the course, as the shadow added a nice graphic element, stuck on a 35mm lens and crouched low to block the banners. The resulting image of the Norwegian style master Ståle Sandbech is by far my favourite shot that I took of the entire contest; Ståle’s poise is without fault; the cloud-streaked sky perfect; with the shard of shadow from the wedge the picture’s crowning glory.
Big thanks to Burton for a great event and to all the riders present who, fighting sticky snow, threw down an awesome medley of bangers.
Shot on a Nikon D3, using a 2.0/35mm lens, at 1/1000 of a second on f11 at an ISO of 200.
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