Williston Publishimg - Index

Williston Publishimg - Teen Vermont - Index

The guy
behind
the camera:
Sports
photographer
Shem Roose’s
Return to Vermont
By Rachel Gill
Shem Roose strolled
into a local bakery in
Richmond, Vt.,
unnoticed, except for his
bright white sunglasses, to
meet with a TeenVermont
reporter.
Heading for a table in the back,
Roose took off his shades and
after brief intros, dove right in to
the tale of his fi rst job working at
Burton Snowboards in Burlington
and his dream gig as photo editor of
TransWorld Snowboarding, arguably
the world’s leading snowboarding
magazine.
Now a successful freelance wedding
photographer out of Richmond,
Roose’s passion for photography has
left him wanting even more.
GETTING THE GIG
Roose began submitting photos to
snowboarding magazines in 1992,
about the same time he started
working in rider service at Burton. His
friend, Mike LaVecchia, helped get
him the job.
38 — Teen Vermont, Spring/Summer 2008
Kyle Burroughs ollies over the gargoyle-like sculpture near Price
Chopper on Shelburne Road. (Shem Roose)
Roose had attended one semester
of community college, which he said
was enough.
“It just wasn’t inspiring,” Roose said.
Roose’s inspiration came in his high
school photography class.
“I had an amazing photography
teacher back in high school,
Mr. Podell. He was always very
encouraging and I respected and
admired him very much,” Roose
said. “He taught me about Eugene
Smith (a legendary American
photojournalist), one of my biggest
infl uences.”
Roose, who now works mainly with
digital cameras, started taking pictures
with a Pentax K1000.
“It’s a basic SLR (single lens refl ex)
student camera that my parents bought
me and I still have it,” Roose said.
Roose polished his photography
skills by documenting the Vermont
snowboarding scene during the three
years he worked at Burton.
“I took pictures at every chance I
could,” Roose said. “I mostly shot
my friends snowboarding and my
pictures just kept getting better,
so I started submitting my work to
magazines.”
The picture that put his career
into focus was of his friend Randy
Gaetano doing a front side air off a
cliff in Stowe. The photo took up a
quarter of a page in TransWorld’s
1994 Photo Annual, an issue devoted
to the year’s best snowboarding
pictures.
“It was insane,” Roose said. “It felt
great to see my work and to get
recognized.”