The Portfolio of Kelson Burns

Kelson Burns is a creative media professional who specializes in action sports, portraiture, nature photography, and graphic design. With a background as a sponsored skier and leadership experience at premier, world-class resorts like Lake Louise and Vail, his work is shaped by real-world experience in environments where precision, adaptability, and performance are essential.

Additionally, he has continued to refine his leadership and operations experience across both resort and hospitality settings. At the Vail Ski Resort, Kelson played a key role in supporting and guiding a team of 18 mountain operators in a fast-paced, high-responsibility environment throughout the Back Bowls. Similarly, at the Lake Louise Ski Resort, in Alberta, Canada, he oversaw kitchen operations at the major base area, managing workflows and supporting a team of 8 to ensure efficiency during peak service periods. Recently, he expanded upon his leadership experience in the hospitality industry through a two-year tenure at the premier Graduate Hotel in Bloomington, Indiana, where he supervised a team while consistently delivering strong results in guest satisfaction and optimized employee efficiency through check-in processes and valet vehicle retrieval.

He also holds a degree in Creative Media from Indiana University with a minor in Marketing. He utilizes his expertise in photography, art, and graphic design to create content that is both visually striking and strategically effective. Whether through a lens or a layout, his work focuses on bridging the gap between artistic creativity and real-world marketing application.

Importantly, his professional history is defined by a commitment to leadership, continuous improvement, and high-performance results across multiple industries. At a leading hotel in central Indiana, he generated 80% of all TripAdvisor mentions and outperformed team members in guest feedback by over 65%. In retail, he led monthly sales at Tilly’s for consecutive months, achieving top-tier results in significantly less time than his peers. Lastly, his performance at the Vail Ski Resort in 2020 led to an offer for a management position, reflecting his leadership potential, the skillset he brought to the team, his ability to quickly learn and adapt, and the impact he had within the organization.

Throughout his portfolio, you will discover three pages: the about Kelson section, the professional and educational page (where Kelson describes his past educational and professional history), previous graphic design work, and the photos page, where some of his best work is shown in extreme and vivid clarity.  

Experience the Best of Kelson Burns

Experience more spectacular images captured by Kelson Burns on the Photos page