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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Mark McMorris. Photo: Danny Burrows.

Onboard Ed in Chief Danny Burrows gives us the story behind one of his favourite shots from the recent World Snowboarding Championships: Mark McMorris getting booted into solar orbit above Oslo’s Vinterpark. Read on.

On the afternoon of Friday, 17th February, the WSC men’s slopestyle semi final was drawing to a close under clear skies, with a beautiful winter sunset blooming in the west. Photographers had been working their way down the challenging course as the two heats of riders threw down trying to make it through to the last 10 for the finals.

A cluster of these shooters had congregated at the second hit to capture the light of the setting sun, among them myself, the legendary Espen Lystad and Pleasure’s sharpshooter Fischi.

I was trying hard to frame the rider as they traversed across the sun, having metered my exposure on the sky so that they would be silhouetted. Depressing the shutter release as Mark McMorris fired through my viewfinder I knew I’d bagged the shot, and once I’d checked the screen I knew that this would be my favourite photo of the entire event.

For those interested the camera settings were 1/1250 at F11, film speed 200, shot on a Nikon D3, at a focal length of 170 on a Nikon 80-200mm lens.

- Danny