Windy Osborn on Blyther at The Enchanted Ramp
Interview by Andrew Burton
photo by Windy Osborn
Andrew Burton:
What's going on in this photo? Is it a session before a contest or something? (tons of people and there's a banner behind the riders, but Brian Blyther and Todd Anderson are just wearing regular clothes, not the uniforms of the time)
Windy Osborn:
This is warm up at a King of Vert contest, Ron Wilkerson’s house, backyard and his creation, the contest that is, if I remember correctly.
Andrew Burton:
(Mat) Hoffman and Todd Anderson are in the foreground. Do you remember who the other kids on the deck are?
Windy Osborn:
I think the guy on the pink bike’s first name is Steve and used to live out in Camarillo and ride with Dino Deluca, and I think that might be Scotty Freeman, the blonde behind Steve. In the crowd on the ground is Mark “Lew” Lewman, and Eddie Fiola to his left and Fred Blood to Eddie’s left right behind the ramp.
![]()
Andrew Burton:
The composition is insane: the ramp, the tree, Blyther's eyes, everyone on the deck looking up at him, even that vapor trail in the sky draws your eye to the subject: perfectly triangulated. How much did you think about stuff like that? Or was it like stick out the fisheye and hope for the best?
Windy Osborn:
With film, we always “hoped for the best," when I think back today, I realize how calculated shooting was, always double and tripping checking to make sure there WAS film in the camera, and that you had the RIGHT film in the RIGHT camera, always checking to insure the film indeed did catch on the spindles and is feeding through. Nothing sucked more than knowing of having shot great stuff, and then opening the camera to find the film never caught. That’s one of a photographer’s worst nightmares back then. As far as shooting with different lenses, of course with a fisheye, I had to shoot with the camera away from my face, for it’s extremely dangerous and hard to keep a true sense of positioning to the riders and positioning on top of a ramp, for you can lose sense of where you are very quickly with the camera against your face. I did have a good idea of where I wanted my riders to be within a frame, and that’s with room to move. I always shot to try and communicate the rider's performance, talents and emotions in extremes, so you could feel it like you were there experiencing the excitement yourself. I also had developed a huge level of trust with certain riders, always the Pros, for shooting with a fisheye or 18 mm lens requires being uncomfortably close. Luckily, I only got hit one time in my career, and that was on a BMX track, and only because the rider, not a Pro, overshot the berm which was at the bottom of a long downhill start. His “Gs” got out of his control, and I was in the line of force.
Andrew Burton:
What was in your camera bag back then? also, what types of film did you prefer?
Windy Osborn:
Equipment, the usual suspects, 2 (Nikon) F2s, one for color and one for B&W, a macro for product shots and weird up close stuff, 100mm for portraits, 80-200mm for long distance, and an 18mm and fisheye for ramps and creativity. And a handheld flash, I think it might have been a Vivitar. Tri-X for B&W always and Kodachrome 64 always, when possible, unless indoors under tungsten lights, then I’d have to go with an ektachrome which was always so cold and blue, not warm and yummy like Kodachrome. Ektachrome also came in higher speeds which helped in low-light situations. I know Spike was a big Fuji Film fan. Me, I was Kodachrome all the way, but really fancied B&W, having studied the zone system by Ansel Adams.
Andrew Burton:
I know you had a pretty big influence on Spike's photography, that's pretty obvious when you look his stuff. Who or what influenced you?
Windy Osborn:
I don’t know about me influencing Spike, he pretty much had his own mindset of communicating a raw vision. I grew up with Life Magazine, National Geographic, I also had a deep love for Georgia O’Keeffe. She said that if she painted her flowers their true size, then know one would look to see the beauty that she saw, so she painted her flowers oversized and very sensually, so sexual that some were offended by her works within the art world. Annie Lebovitz was also a great portrait photographer I admired, she and Francesco Scavullo inspired my portrait shot of the bigger personalities in the industry back then.
Andrew Burton:
How'd you decide who to shoot with? Just whoever was ripping? Whoever had sponsors? Or was it like "you're chill, let's get some photos?” All of the above? Obviously there was contest stuff and races, but it also seemed kinda organic like whoever was around. Maybe I'm totally wrong but that's how my little kid brain perceived it.
Windy Osborn:
All my photo assignments were just that: assignments, and technically, I was a photojournalist, so if it wasn’t a particular rider we were featuring or a test that I was shooting, when going to the competitions and races, it was my job to tell the whole story. Of course I always had my fave riders, obviously those who were the most photogenic, which logically, were the top performers or the Pros. Especially those who cooperated with me more, those were the smart riders and made it easy to get great shots, which lent to more coverage over time, if you know what I mean.
Andrew Burton:
Were there any riders black-balled from Wizard pubs? There's gotta be at least one that got banned from the mag over the years.
Windy Osborn:
Nah, can’t say that anyone was ever “banned” from the office. Most who visited were always in awe, or at least very respectful.
Andrew Burton:
Last question, what's a day in the life of Windy Osborn look like in 2018?
Windy Osborn:
Hate to disappoint, but you probably wouldn’t want to know. Sorry guys. Nice try.
What's going on in this photo? Is it a session before a contest or something? (tons of people and there's a banner behind the riders, but Brian Blyther and Todd Anderson are just wearing regular clothes, not the uniforms of the time)
Windy Osborn:
This is warm up at a King of Vert contest, Ron Wilkerson’s house, backyard and his creation, the contest that is, if I remember correctly.
Andrew Burton:
(Mat) Hoffman and Todd Anderson are in the foreground. Do you remember who the other kids on the deck are?
Windy Osborn:
I think the guy on the pink bike’s first name is Steve and used to live out in Camarillo and ride with Dino Deluca, and I think that might be Scotty Freeman, the blonde behind Steve. In the crowd on the ground is Mark “Lew” Lewman, and Eddie Fiola to his left and Fred Blood to Eddie’s left right behind the ramp.
photo courtesy of Bill Keaggy
Andrew Burton:
The composition is insane: the ramp, the tree, Blyther's eyes, everyone on the deck looking up at him, even that vapor trail in the sky draws your eye to the subject: perfectly triangulated. How much did you think about stuff like that? Or was it like stick out the fisheye and hope for the best?
Windy Osborn:
With film, we always “hoped for the best," when I think back today, I realize how calculated shooting was, always double and tripping checking to make sure there WAS film in the camera, and that you had the RIGHT film in the RIGHT camera, always checking to insure the film indeed did catch on the spindles and is feeding through. Nothing sucked more than knowing of having shot great stuff, and then opening the camera to find the film never caught. That’s one of a photographer’s worst nightmares back then. As far as shooting with different lenses, of course with a fisheye, I had to shoot with the camera away from my face, for it’s extremely dangerous and hard to keep a true sense of positioning to the riders and positioning on top of a ramp, for you can lose sense of where you are very quickly with the camera against your face. I did have a good idea of where I wanted my riders to be within a frame, and that’s with room to move. I always shot to try and communicate the rider's performance, talents and emotions in extremes, so you could feel it like you were there experiencing the excitement yourself. I also had developed a huge level of trust with certain riders, always the Pros, for shooting with a fisheye or 18 mm lens requires being uncomfortably close. Luckily, I only got hit one time in my career, and that was on a BMX track, and only because the rider, not a Pro, overshot the berm which was at the bottom of a long downhill start. His “Gs” got out of his control, and I was in the line of force.
Andrew Burton:
What was in your camera bag back then? also, what types of film did you prefer?
Windy Osborn:
Equipment, the usual suspects, 2 (Nikon) F2s, one for color and one for B&W, a macro for product shots and weird up close stuff, 100mm for portraits, 80-200mm for long distance, and an 18mm and fisheye for ramps and creativity. And a handheld flash, I think it might have been a Vivitar. Tri-X for B&W always and Kodachrome 64 always, when possible, unless indoors under tungsten lights, then I’d have to go with an ektachrome which was always so cold and blue, not warm and yummy like Kodachrome. Ektachrome also came in higher speeds which helped in low-light situations. I know Spike was a big Fuji Film fan. Me, I was Kodachrome all the way, but really fancied B&W, having studied the zone system by Ansel Adams.
Technically, I was a photojournalist, so if it wasn’t a particular rider we were featuring or a test that I was shooting, when going to the competitions and races, it was my job to tell the whole story.
- Windy Osborn
I know you had a pretty big influence on Spike's photography, that's pretty obvious when you look his stuff. Who or what influenced you?
Windy Osborn:
I don’t know about me influencing Spike, he pretty much had his own mindset of communicating a raw vision. I grew up with Life Magazine, National Geographic, I also had a deep love for Georgia O’Keeffe. She said that if she painted her flowers their true size, then know one would look to see the beauty that she saw, so she painted her flowers oversized and very sensually, so sexual that some were offended by her works within the art world. Annie Lebovitz was also a great portrait photographer I admired, she and Francesco Scavullo inspired my portrait shot of the bigger personalities in the industry back then.
Andrew Burton:
How'd you decide who to shoot with? Just whoever was ripping? Whoever had sponsors? Or was it like "you're chill, let's get some photos?” All of the above? Obviously there was contest stuff and races, but it also seemed kinda organic like whoever was around. Maybe I'm totally wrong but that's how my little kid brain perceived it.
Windy Osborn:
All my photo assignments were just that: assignments, and technically, I was a photojournalist, so if it wasn’t a particular rider we were featuring or a test that I was shooting, when going to the competitions and races, it was my job to tell the whole story. Of course I always had my fave riders, obviously those who were the most photogenic, which logically, were the top performers or the Pros. Especially those who cooperated with me more, those were the smart riders and made it easy to get great shots, which lent to more coverage over time, if you know what I mean.
Andrew Burton:
Were there any riders black-balled from Wizard pubs? There's gotta be at least one that got banned from the mag over the years.
Windy Osborn:
Nah, can’t say that anyone was ever “banned” from the office. Most who visited were always in awe, or at least very respectful.
Andrew Burton:
Last question, what's a day in the life of Windy Osborn look like in 2018?
Windy Osborn:
Hate to disappoint, but you probably wouldn’t want to know. Sorry guys. Nice try.