Burns' Turns . . .
By
John Terence Turner
Stock Asylum Columnist
Jan. 3, 2006
©
2006 John Terence Turner
This picture started with an individual, whose unique and daring style
of skiing inspired a movie and helped initiate the sport of freestyle
mogul skiing.
Bob Burns developed a style of skiing moguls that motivated countless imitators and unforgettable memories for those lucky enough to witness his skill on Sun Valley’s infamously steep Exhibition Run.
Burns is a former springboard diver turned ski racer turned mogul skier. He was made famous in a sequence of heart-stopping turns in the moguls in a Dick Barrymore movie made for K2 Sports.
 This best-selling ski image of Bob Burns captures the unique style of a skiing innovator. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
In that memorable bit of film, Burns dropped from mogul to mogul (rarely touching snow between them), making one miraculous recovery after another, showing the leg-strength, balance and body-control he developed on the diving board.
Diving may have been the ideal training ground for the type of skiing Burns developed.
When you make a mistake diving, you land in the pool, it might smart, but you’re not likely to get hurt.
Bob Burns brought that fearless mind-set to mogul skiing. He also brought the physical skills needed to execute the jaw-dropping descents of Sun Valley’s three steepest runs, Exhibition, Lower Holiday and Limelight.
I had skied with Burns in Sun Valley and had seen up close the runs that caused chairlift passengers to erupt in cheers. I wanted to make a image that captured it.
Skiing gets photographed a lot, which means it is extremely hard to create something new and different. There are so many good pictures out there. Coming up with an image that isn’t painfully contrived (and looks it) is intimidatingly huge.
Designers love this shot. It is not untracked powder. It is edge-to-edge texture with plenty of space for copy, which is an important consideration for stock photos. Designers and art directors often reject great images that lack room for their client's message.
The texture of this picture is enhanced by the fact that the sun is at just the right angle, hitting the top of each mogul and projecting the shadow into the hollow below it. Additionally, there are the many edge-tracks caused by the multitude of skiers whose turns created those moguls.
To make this picture, I found a location on one side of a canyon with a view of a treacherously steep run named Lower Holiday on Sun Valley’s Baldy Mountain.
Very few ski runs can be viewed from such a vantage point. It is the equivalent of a helicopter view — only more stable. I skied down that side of the canyon until I was looking down at the steepest part of Lower Holiday and was in a position where the film plane of the camera was parallel to the slope, emphasizing its steepness.
I shot with a 300mm lens. My assistant positioned himself on the run's cat-track entrance to keep other skiers out of the frame while I shot Burns’ speedy trip through the moguls. I had noted the time of day that the sun lit the tops of the moguls and made sure we were there when the light was exactly right.
Finally, there is Bob Burns, arms held high, upper body pointed downhill, attacking those bumps on an impossibly steep run while gravity sucks him downward with only his quadriceps and his ski edges to prevent disaster. The resulting image became a cover of SKIING Magazine, a poster for Sun Valley and was a stock photography best-seller.
 "The Wheelie," captured here, is Burns' signature move. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
In the close-up image, Burns gleefully demonstrates “The Wheelie,” his signature mogul turn.
This is the invention of a skier for whom a mere change of direction wasn’t interesting enough.
Burns is so comfortable and inventive on skis he decided to sit back on the skis tails as his skis accelerated up the back side of a mogul, let them go airborne and at the apogee of this unorthodox, seemingly suicidal move, turn with only the tails of his skis in contact with the snow, then catch up with the flying skis while they were still airborne, land, start up the back of another mogul and do it all again.
Let’s break this down. Burns was a diver, accustomed to utilizing the springboard to hurl him into the air where he would perform the dive. This ski turn is much the same.
Burns uses the hollow space at the back of the mogul to flex the ski much like a diving board. Using his momentum, and the recoil of the skis as they straighten, much like a pole-vaulter uses the unflexing of the pole, Burns propels himself into the air. He then catches up with the skis, makes his turn and prepares for another. This shot was the first cover of POWDER Magazine.
Not surprisingly, Burns designed a ski for his type of skiing. It was shorter than was common in those days and relatively soft in flex. He called it simply “The Ski.” It is made in a small factory in Ketchum, ID, where Burns also has a boutique ski-clothing store.
As we look at these two pictures, it is important to realize not only that few can execute what Burns does in them, but that he invented the style portrayed in the pictures. So, it is appropriate to describe in greater detail exactly what we see from the skier in the pictures.
In a POWDER Magazine article written by this author, Burns was described in his milieu: “Burns does nothing more intensely than ski. The truest and best image of Burns is one of him poised at the top of Limelight Run one February day last winter with a half dozen of Sun Valley’s best skiers. Limelight is a steep, heavily moguled run that dives toward the Wood River beneath the upper sections of the Warm Springs chairlift.
"Burns pushes off first, the others a split second later, everyone skating straight down, accelerating like dragsters. They control their speed with quick, slashing turns that never take them far out of the fall line. With each explosive slash, their razor-like edges detonate little puffs of ice crystals that hang sunlit and motionless in the air long after the skiers have passed.
"Gradually, Burns extends his lead as the others reach their speed limits and hit their edges a little harder and hold their turns a little longer. Burns, his face a startling mask of manic glee, holds his straighter course, sucking up one massive bump with his knees, snaking between two more and leaping another. His audience on the chairlift has begun to cheer, ‘Look, it’s Burns, attaboy, Burnsie!’
"Finally, he reaches the cat-track which bisects Limelight, stops abruptly amid a huge translucent cloud of snow and turns to watch his companions, the nearest of which is now 25 yards above him. He is breathing heavily and the snow on his face has begun to melt and run in rivulets in the creases of his deeply lined face. He props himself up on his 58-inch poles and grins up the hill into the sun.”
(John Terence Turner has been shooting stock photography for 20 years. His work can be seen at Getty Images, Alamy and, of course, The Stock Asylum, where his column appears twice a month. He lives and works in Seattle, WA.)
Turner's web site can be found at: http://www.johnterenceturner.com.
For more of his images: click here.
For all of Turner's columns: click here.
