This documentary about street photography looks like it has the potential of being amazing. A Cheryl Dunn production.
Category Archives: Art
Chad Phaire’s Instagram
Chad Phaire has caught the eye of the BMX scene with his pegless suaveness contrasted against the gritty four-pegged norm in NYC. He’s been steadily gaining more notoriety through his edits for Cult and for being an all-around motivated and appreciative individual. One thing about Chad that most people might not know, and I did not know until recently, is that he’s got quite the photographic eye. A lot of people have it- the instinctual attraction to the elements of art- but don’t have access to the proper mediums (or the gumption) to translate those inclinations into artwork. Thanks to the rapidly evolving world of technology, anyone who owns a cell phone can now shoot photographs of a decent quality (most cell phones these days have more megapixels than my first digital camera, purchased a decade ago) and have at their fingertips multiple outlets to display and share said photographs (I use the term “photographs” loosely). Out of all image-sharing apps available today, Instagram is undeniably the most popular (with 130 million users and 45 million uploads daily).
Chad’s work first caught my eye a few months ago when he asked how I cropped my Insta images. I told him the app I used and wondered to myself what business he has cropping images- it’s not something the average Instagram user does. I was very surprised to see him uploading some spectacular photos from around the city- stuff that would look amazing printed huge and hung on a wall. Unfortunately, the five or eight megapixel cameras included in most cell phones shouldn’t be printed larger than 8×10″ (shouldn’t, not can’t). Since following Chad over a year ago, I’ve watched his photographic eye and iPhone 5 yield him some remarkable photos and glowing feedback from his followers. About a month ago I was pleased to see Chad with a 35mm SLR camera slung around his shoulder. We got to talking about photography and Instagram, and this is what he had to say.
“I got into photography 6 months ago. Right around the time the Iphone5 came out. I just upgraded from the IP4 and couldn’t ignore the camera power the IP5 had. I started to take notice in a friend of mine who I follow on Instagram Ralphy Ramos. His vision and sense of detail and use of color is amazing. The reason I was drawn to Ralphy Ramos’ work is because his photos looks like its shot with a $5,000 camera but surprisingly everything he shoots is with a iPhone. I always new the camera on a iPhone was decent but had now idea it could take as good as a photo as a DSLR. Me and Ralphy got closer over the past few months and he taught me how to use different apps to clean up the photos I post to Instagram. I never had any prior knowledge of photography but I always knew what I like when it comes to photos. Honestly the only photographers I know of is my all time favorite 13thwitness, of course Ralphy Ramos, Karston Tannis aka Skinny and you Scott Marceau. It wasn’t until I started to go to Edwin Delarosa‘s print shows that really open up my eyes to photographs. I know Ed uses many cameras not just a iPhone but his vision got me into shooting more then just depth of field and buildings. I have to say Edwin opened my eyes and inspired me to shoot differently then what people are use to seeing coming from New York.”
I’d like to take a minute to share with you some of my favorite selections from @chadphaire.
Photo of the Week: Nathan Beddows
This week’s photo captures a moment akin to the Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944. Maybe not as serious, but for some reason when looking at this photograph, D-Day comes to mind. Almost as important in this shot as the rider are the passersby walking under the obstacle, giving a sense of scale and place. I am a fan of the shapes in this composition, from the small rectangular posts in the water to the circle cutout in that wall. Although this is a digital crop/de-saturate, Nathan did it properly, including everything that needs to be included and creating a beautiful scale of tones from highlights to shadows.
“This photo of Jason Phelan doing an overtooth in Aberdeen was shot during the 2010 Mongoose Ride To Glory trip. Jason had come along to film the trip.
The XMP on the photo says it was shot with a Nikon D3, a 50mm f1.4, at 1/1000 f5.6 iso 800. I can’t remember much from that exact day but it was pretty grim weather-wise and that people were walking past not noticing us ride the roof. We waited till people were in the frame each time before doing the shot. I think the photo that got used in the Ride To Glory issue had a jogger running past with Jason doing an overice stall. Nothing else interesting happened there apart from the trick and the photo.
I haven’t seen Jason much since he was extradited from England but we had travelled a lot together and shot a lot of photos. This is probably just one from several hundred. Kinda interesting that this was shot on a Ride To Glory trip, as both me and Jason were joint longest running participants (every year since its inception) until this year (its sixth) when neither of us went on it. I think the last photo I shot with Jason was him doing a backflip with a guy in a wheelchair called “Wheelz” at Corby Skatepark last year.”
Check out more of Nathan’s work here.
Add your images to the Flickr group and be chosen for next week’s photo.
Photo of the Week: Zach Fernandez
This one was of the easier photos to pick for photo of the week because it includes two of photography’s mainstays: sunsets and skylines. The dramatic side-lighting on the rider helps to make him pop out of the background, and he’s framed nicely by that tree. My only gripe is that we can’t see all of the quarter that he is riding but to be fair, we all know it’s there. If there were ever a series of BMX postcards printed, this would be the first one made.
“Went to Alameda Skatepark last time I was home and got my friend Jean Paul to roll with me (which is a challenge in its own). As the sun was setting I wanted to get a shot with San Francisco in the background. I made him foot jam the sketchiest quarter there, and if you have ever ridden alameda you know they are all extremely sketchy. Luckily he wasn’t too worried. I shot this on my 5D mkII at 1/200 of a second to cut down my ambient and get a nice exposure for the city in the background. I had two lights sort of acting as edge lights to give him some separation from the dark tree and grass behind him. They were triggered by Pocket Wizard plus III. There was a Paul C Buff Einstein 95˚ camera left powered at about half, and a Yongnuo 560II camera right 120˚ at full power.”
Check out more of Zach’s work here.
Add your images to the Flickr group and be next week’s photo.
Posted in Art, BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Canon, Jean Paul, PocketWizard, Zach Fernandez
Sosh Urban Motion Photo Gallery by Hadrien Picard
Hadrien Picard has a photo gallery of shots from behind the scenes of the recent Sosh Urban Motion contest. Check it out.
Photo of the Week: Zach Gastin
Obviously it’s not the craziest trick, but sometimes you don’t even need that to make a great photograph. One of my first photos published was a smith grind on a flat ledge. I am a huge fan of the composition of this photo- the ledge and building are perfectly horizontal and the flagpoles are perfectly vertical. The rider is framed in front of that bush giving him a nice backdrop and helping him stick out of the frame. The lighting is simple but effective. The rider’s green shirt makes him pop out amazingly, contrasted against the red brick and his red bars and forks. Also the spokes in his back wheel follow the same pattern. The sky is close to being blown out but not, and it’s yellow evening hue is very pleasing.
“Went out to ride for an hour with Bear and Daddie Tone at the High School. Bear was doing some feebles on the ledge so I thought we could shoot something for the fun of it. I did not (and still don’t) have a light stand so I had Tone hold the flash for me. I was going to use the fisheye but I thought the 40mm would make a nice composition or something artistic like that and I didn’t want to switch lenses. After getting the light in a good spot Bear did a smith and it looked good. We most likely went to get ice cream after, because that is what we do every time.
Shot with a Canon t3i and 40mm 2.8 pancake. Light was from a Neewer TT560 triggered with a Cow Boy Studio trigger.”
Check out more of Zach’s work here.
Add your images to the Flickr group for a chance to be next week’s photo.
BSD “In the Streets of Athens”
A week long trip in Athens, Greece with Dave Sowerby yielded BSD this spectacular video. Newcomer Sam Jones holds his own amongst the veteran killers while the veterans add badges to their vests. Remember the “Living for the City” series? What am I talking about, of course you do.
Photo of the Week: Josh McElwee
“I shot this photo of Evan Smedley at Grindlab Skatepark in Camp Hill, PA on a late night in January of this year. Evan is the BMX manager at the park and has the entire place way too dialed. On this night, I noticed that he was getting a lot done on this pocket bowl corner setup. My first instinct was to shoot fisheye from the deck, but I decided against that in order to show the steepness of the transition and the thickness of the pool coping. We shot a handful of other tricks, but as soon as Evan did a toboggan I knew that it was going to look better than anything else we had previously shot.
I shot this with a Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200 f/4, Pocket Wizard Plus IIs, a Paul Buff Einstein strobe, and an Alien Bee 800. The lights came from the left and right, and were pointed at each other. The Einstein is at camera right, just out of frame, and feathered to the left a bit in order to keep Evan evenly lit. The Alien Bee is coming from camera left about 25 feet from the bowl corner, and is powered about a stop down from the main light.”
Check out more of Josh’s work here.
Add your images to the Flickr group for a chance to be next week’s photo.
Posted in Art, BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Alien Bees, Canon, Evan Smedley, Josh McElwee, Paul C. Buff
“Manual” Trails Photo Book
“For over a year we have been compiling a collection of photographs that sums up a trails riders’ common philosophy. “Manual” is a photography book telling stories about good guys who grew up together (or not) around a passion : digging jumps, going fast and flying high with their bikes. Even if sometimes they don’t know each other, all the contributors have put all their efforts to catch rare moments and share incredible photographs of their good times in the woods. After compiling these materials, we have mixed the photos our way and have tried to extract the essence of what trails means to us all. Surprises garanteed, even for the contributors!
As decided originally, this is a non-profit project. And as you may know, printing a nice book costs a lot of money. However, we decided to do it without sponsors and without any advertising, to maintain our independence. All of this to create a book exactly how we wanted it: 100% home-made, thanks to the talents of the international trails community.
We are about to launch a pre-sale of the book on www.banosdistro.com and we have put deadlines for the orders to launch the printing at the end of june (so we’ll print as much as ordered): PRE-SALE FROM JUNE 10th TO JUNE 30th.”
Photo of the Week: Attila Szabó
First off, this is quite possibly the best lighting we’ve seen from any Photo of the Week, ever. The composition is impeccable- tell me you can’t see “RideBMX” or “DIG” at the top there. The colors are pleasing and the red bike sticks out nicely. The rider is framed inside of that fence back there and all of the vertical lines are pretty much straight. There is nothing questionable about this photograph- it is so good.
“Me and Attila “X” Godi lives in the different place of my home country (Hungary). One day we decided to go to Budapest to take some pictures. Here are the best spots in the country so far. A few weeks before he looked out that rail. So we went to there to check it. Actually it was a very easy spot. No pedestrians, no security guards, no traffic on the road. I set up the lights, found easily a good place to the photo. He tried it a few times and then he hit it perfect. I really like where this all goes smoothly, there is no any disruption. I used three flashes. One-one booth side, it were two Metz 60 CT-4. The third Metz 45 CT-4 was up on the stairs behind him. I was shooting with a Canon 5D MK II + Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens. Settings were as follow : 146mm f/5.0 ISO 160 1/200 ”
More of Attila’s work can be seen here and here.
Add your images to the Flickr group for a chance to be next week’s photo.
Push It A Stop 