Williston Publishimg - Index

Williston Publishimg - Teen Vermont - Index

This is the ninja like Kyle Burroughs breaking off a nollie fl ip on the
“fl ying diaper” at UVM. (Shem Roose)
Roose’s next career jolt came after
he heard through Burton offi ce
chatter that Jon Fisher, TransWorld’s
photo editor at the time, was looking
for an assistant.
On a trip to the East Coast to take
pictures at the 1995 U.S. Open at
Stratton Mountain in Vermont, Foster
and Roose sat down to talk.
“He interviewed me during my lunch
break. We were at Halverson’s on
Church Street in Burlington,” Roose
said. “We talked for hours about
if I was up for having to look at
thousands of snowboarding slides a
day and pick only the best ones.”
After convincing Foster he could do
the job, Roose, who was just 21,
left Burton and moved to southern
California to work for TransWorld.
“I packed up my old, blue, two-door
Volkswagen Fox and started driving,”
Roose said.
Five days later, at lunchtime, he
arrived at the TransWorld offi ce,
walked in a back door and up to
Foster’s offi ce.
“The fi rst thing he said was that I
was late,” Roose said. “I was tripping
out that he was busting on me and
started to panic.”
Despite realizing Foster wasn’t
serious, Roose started questioning if
he made the right move.
“The fi rst few months were tough, I
didn’t know anyone and wanted to
move back to Vermont,” Roose said.
“I ended up acclimating and stuck it
out.”
PICTURE PERFECT DAYS
“My job brought me to Spain, France,
and Finland; before that I had only
been to Canada,” Roose said. “I
was shooting pro snowboarders and
getting to see the Alps all at the same
time.”
Roose also shot riders in the United
States in the mountains of the West
Coast.
A typical day started at 5 a.m. Roose
drove his truck, loaded with camera
equipment, to whatever mountain
happened to catch the attention of the
riders he was photographing.
“I would unload my gear from the truck
onto a snowmobile and head into the
back country,” Roose said.
At that time, snowboarders were
starting to fi nd their own places to ride.
The guy behind the camera
Greg Oden will be playing for the
Portland Trailblazers once he has
completely healed from micro
fracture surgery on his right knee.
(Shem Roose/NBAE/Getty Images)
“Once they found a spot, we spent
an hour or two building jumps and
then I took pictures until the sun went
down.”
MOVING UP AND OUT
Within a year, Roose’s life changed
again.
“When I was promoted to photo
editor of TransWorld, it was a dream
scenario, just crazy,” Roose said.
The new gig came after Foster took
over as the magazine’s editor.
“The promotion was really diffi cult
at fi rst because other people in the
industry thought of me as a kid from
Vermont who hadn’t been shooting
for long, and saw the promotion as a
big leap,” Roose said. “Some people
even thought I was being paid on the
side to take pictures of Burton riders.”
Roose’s reaction was to just keep
working.
“I took pictures at every chance I could. I mostly shot my friends snowboarding and my
pictures just kept getting better, so I started submitting my work to magazines.” - Shem Roose
“I would never do that, but at that
time they didn’t know me as a
person,” Roose said. “It was a good
opportunity to prove myself through
my work.”
CONTINUED ON PG 40
Teen Vermont, Spring/Summer 2008 — 39