Eisa Bakos shot a bunch of photos during this year’s edition of Simple Session and he put together a sick photogallery for Ride UK that you can check here. Love the above shot of AK doing a up switch crook to whip!
Category Archives: BMX
Framework: Steven Hamilton and a Columbus Dumpster
From RideBMX Issue #204
May 23, 2014, Columbus, Ohio
Canon 1DsIII
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 70mm
Canon 580EXII flash (zoom @ 35mm (?), 1/2 power)
Paul C. Buff Einstein 640w flash w/ 11″ reflector (probably @ 1/2 power (~1/2000 duration))
Pocket Wizards
1/250 @ f/11, ISO 100
A typical day of shooting with Steven involves picking him up with his bike, skateboard, thermos of coffee and backpack full of tools, hoodie and a TRV900. On this particular day, Shay Lashley and/or John Hughes were tagging along. Steven’s friend Rob met us at the spot- a small ditch in the corner of a vacant apartment complex parking lot. The goal was to film a few clips involving a shopping cart there but upon arrival, an upturned dumpster became the subject of focus. Well-versed in wallrides, Steven sessioned the shit out of the thing before I suggested we shoot a photo. I set up to shoot an x-up wallride with a standard 50mm lens. I put the Einstein to the right, just out of frame, and a Lumedyne 200w Action Pack to the left, sandwiching Steven in between.
I was trying to work with the empty parking lot and lightposts but my composition ended up being pretty tired and boring. On top of that, it was so bright that I had to get my flashes closer to overpower the ambient light and reduce the motion blur. As per usual, Steven suggested I use a fisheye and for once I agreed with him.
The shot definitely became less boring but the motion blur continued to be a problem even after closing down to f/11 from f/9. At this point, Steven was happy with the photo but I was not. In addition to my discontent, my Lumedyne battery died. I replaced it with a much less powerful 580EXII set on 1/2 power (~1/1600 duration). I asked if he could do a different trick and wait until the sun hid behind the clouds so that motion blur would be reduced. I also changed my angle so that he’d be moving toward the camera and not across the frame, effectively diminishing any possible motion blur issues. This is when we got the shot.
The Einstein is just out of frame to the right (you can kinda see the splash of light on the ground from it) about 6′ up and the 580EXII is just out of frame on the left, also 6′ high, simply to freeze his wheels a bit. At 100% you can see that there was still some unavoidable motion blur on his wheels, which were spinning super fast-
So the table is looking dialed, à la Joe Rich, but this angle doesn’t convey the distance he was traveling out of the wallride. This one does-
I used some heavy panning to sharpen his lateral movement but I must’ve had the 580 at full power because his front wheel is lit up but a blurry mess-
Peep the bling tho.
Shot it once natural light for shits and giggles.
Posted in BMX, Framework, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Canon, Columbus, Joe Rich, Paul C. Buff, Pocket Wizards, Steven Hamilton
“Glidecam BMX Tips” with Dalton Campbell
I’ve never used a Glidecam but I feel confident that I could now, thanks to this tutorial.
RideBMX “One Moment in BMX” Video
Late last year Ride went to their contributors with the idea of shooting photos at a specific time to showcase just how much BMX is going on around the world at any given time. November 23rd at 1pm PST was go time and teams of riders, photographers and filmers from California to Spain all converged on that One Moment to collectively create something special. The article came out awesome and this video does well to show the anticipation, the build up and the payoff of one extraordinary moment in BMX.
Tagged Aaron Brenner, aaron ross, Anton Zamora, Billy Perry, Brandon Means, Chad Kerley, Charlie Crumlish, Chris Mortenson, Christian Rigal, Darryl Tocco, Dennis Enarson, Devon Hutchins, Dirt Ron, Doeby, Eric Bahlman, Gary Young, Josh McElwee, Justin Kosman, Kareem Williams, Marc Meeuwissen, Mike Meister, Nick Jones, Ridebmx, Ruben Alcantara, Sam Buros, sandy carson, Scott Marceau, Spencer Lee, Stevie Churchill, Ted Van Orman, Tony Neyer, Tristan Afre, Vincent Perraud
Tony Malouf Clear Water Beverage Promo
Expertly edited by dar man himself.
TCU TV – The Photographer’s Discussion
A while back, I had the chance to get a few established photographers in the industry together to talk shop. I had a loose list of topics we could hit and Jeremy had a list of his own. We didn’t get to hit nearly as many subjects as we would have liked to, but that’s usually how these things go. I think we did pretty well with the time allotted and we’re hoping that any aspiring lensmen will be enlightened by our discussion.
If there are any specific topics that you’d want us to hit for the next discussion, please leave them in a comment below.
1:09 – Jeremy Pavia introduction
2:47 – Chris Mortenson introduction
4:28 – Josh McElwee introduction
6:25 – Jeremy’s “Through The Lens” column from The Union
9:21 – “Film vs. Digital” (actually we discuss Dean Collins and teaching for a while)
11:22 – We actually start discussing the film versus digital thing
13:26 – Shoutout to the darkroom
18:53 – What’s your favorite f/stop?
21:31 – “I just wanna capture the moment and sometimes the moment is shitty”
23:00 – No more hanging posters
24:11 – “Print vs. Online”
25:08 – Gregory Crewdson
28:48 – Readership
30:16 – Vinyl vs. MP3
30:55 – The Albion
31:55 – Props on VHS
36:04 – Josh’s story
37:45 – DIG/Focal Point
40:57 – A watered-down industry
43:35 – The process of shooting/choosing what gear to carry
46:13 – Getting the shot
49:22 – Fuck barspins.
50:35 – A collaboration between photographer and subject
55:19 – Riders getting hurt while shooting
57:01 – Shoutout to Kiraly
58:34 – RideBMX‘s 1 o’clock photo project
1:04:19 – Let’s talk about gear
1:08:57 – Advances in photo technology
1:12:25 – How to get your photos noticed
1:13:44 – Looking outside of BMX
1:15:43 – Experience
1:17:14 – Final thoughts and comments
Posted in BMX, Gear, Interview, Podcast, Tech
Tagged BMX, Chris Mortenson, Jeremy Pavia, Josh McElwee, Magazines, Photography, Scott Marceau, The Come Up
“Back to Vietnam” by Hadrien Picard
A couple weeks ago, Hadrien Picard dropped his latest Nokia Pureviews project chronocling a trip [back] to Vietnam with Hoang Tran and Joris Coulomb. In addition to video, Hadrien also shot a ton of stills and put a bunch of the best ones together for us. This gallery, shot entirely on Nokia Lumia phones, came out awesome and does well to show what an amazing cultural experience this was. All of these photos are available wallpaper sized as well.
Honestly who is better at rail ride than Joris these days ? See this little bus out as a warm up for his so hard 36 out to be seen in the video.
Joris and Hoang combined are probably the best duo of Hair cut on the market, here they come at the back of the jeep on the way to the dunes of Mui Né.
This is for this kind of moment that we organise such trip to far away destinations, and this is for this kind of clips that we thank bmx everyday to make us enjoy that : the only concrete ramp in vietnam, a diy medium lost in a garden of Mui Né beach resort.
As the wet season was not completely over yet, we enjoyed a couple of heavy rain shower, litterally shower, warm and quick that transformed all the scooter people in colorful moving plastic thing.
The jam took place at an outdoor bar called « Saigon Outkast », with a tight and sketchy mini that opened the skin of Joris and offered him a ride to the hospital…which was separated between locals and foreigners.. Weird…but maybe for the best when we remember jors wound infection in Estonia some year ago.
I personnaly can’t imagine going to such destinations and not sharing any session or time with the rare local bmxer, so instead of just riding exotic spots and move away without a sign, we organised a jam on street spots we made built for this occasion (a curb and a rail that would stay there)…And yeah, that was f… worth it. Saigon Rules
Find the skyway wheel in this photo and win a free Lumia…or not
The moderne Distric 7 of Saigon is a weird place, all clean, empty and quiet, like a abandonned California before an catastroph (ok i watch too many zombie movies) wich is completely fine with Hoang Tran clicking an invert
…in front of the security guy
…under the palm trees
Where the favorite sport seems to be the DA CAU (some sort of badminton where you juggle a flying thing with your feet), a bmx attached to a scooter is probably a bit curious.
Another unplanned demo for Hoang tran grinding with his crank this very unique set up
Safety first ! or the irony of the vietnamese helmets that show perfectly the very laid back atmosphere of this country where riding a scooter can be so much fun.
There are so many scooter in Saigon that during the rush hour you could be stuck in a scooter trafic jam !
Riding bicycle during rush hour can be a little bit suffocating in such a big city…but from what we heard this mask are mostly used for girls to look more awesome…this is actually working pretty well with bmxer too.
When you see hanging on the same wall Che Guevara and Vladimir Poutine, you can’t be surprise of seeing the father owning our RBnB flat coming back drunk every night hahaha. And joris to continue brushing his teeth.
Joris riding down the gipsy wall…
Hoang riding up the gipsy wall
And the gipsy wall say « CAM ON »…meaning thank you in vietnamese
And one ! One more convinced by the coolitude of a bmx bike.
First Spot of the trip, a large barge where Hoang footplants in front of an massiv crowd stopped in the middle of the road, perfect protection from the traffic.
Born in Saigon, raised in Usa, Hoang has brought back his smile and happy mind set to a country that is actually having the same friendly spirit.
The best noodle restaurant, right in front of the place we were staying !
The Streets are talking english in Saigon, thanks to this man : Isaac Clarcke, much more nicer than he looks on this photograph.
Vietnam from above, feat the infamous mekong river
After breaking another flat curb, Joris takes a breather in this very humid and hot climate.
How cool this dude is, Joris, one of the most charismatic guy on the bmx scene…has even his own badge thanks to marie jade.
At the end of the trip, we flipped a coin to decide if we would stay in Mui Né to visit the fantastic dunes or come back to Saigon to ride and film a perfect ledge ride set up…the coin said Saigon, we smiled…and stayed in Mui né. La vie est belle.
Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo, Words
Tagged Hadrien Picard, Hoang Tran, Joris Coulomb, Nokia, Vietnam
Story: Erik Elstran & Rob DiQuattro in LA
To go along with the video, here are some of the more photographed moments from Rob and Erik‘s stay in Los Angeles, complete with words that may or may not form complete sentences.
I picked up Erik a few hours before Rob got in and we talked and got to know each other for a bit. I could tell there was a very thin layer of inhibition that was hiding the character I’ve seen and read about. I shot around while Erik read passages from his travel-sized Tao Te Ching booklet.
Rob got in the car and the conversation sparked. Emotions flared like it was Chinese New Year as they recounted their last encounter in Shanghai. We went to the grocery store and bought materials for tacos except for tortillas and cheese because I had those at home. We ate donuts while walking around the store and didn’t pay for them. Rob and I talked about the Charlie Hebdo attacks while Erik checked out. Rob hates cops, to put it lightly. We assembled bikes, crewed up and went riding.
The next day we went to the valley to visit the building from The Office, Rob’s favorite show. The whole way there Rob was debating which quote he’d use for his Instagram post. He landed on “It’s like a whole new food for me” which is something the character Kevin said when eating a piece of broccoli backwards.
I took them to a rail playground of sorts and we all rode the adjacent skatepark for an hour or so. I accidentally deleted a clip of Erik doing a footjam 720 off my phone and I felt really bad but he assured me that he’d be able to do it again and that it was nothing to worry about. I still felt bad and pretty embarrassed that I made such a rookie move on a trick that Rob said had never really been done, however hard to believe because of Harry Mania and all that.
The next day our first stop was the white banks where I realized that every major city has an iconic bank spot and this was LA’s. We rode for hours until we experienced racism from an alcoholic athletic director and then rode a couple more hours. Rob and Erik collectively pioneered fourteen new tricks.
One day we filmed a game of B.I.K.E. and ate candy at the same damn time. In traffic we played a freestyle word association game similar to Wikixploring. Erik picked out a Broken Social Scene CD from my book and we turned Rob on to them. He claims to be indifferent to all music but I feel like he might really like them now. He requested them again at least once during his vacation.
We met up with Tom Villarreal and Addi Sasso and some of their friends and pedaled around Venice but not before Erik almost got bodyslammed by a wave and we sessioned a curb for an hour. Rob invented three tricks and Erik did a hang 7. Then we sessioned a different curb for another hour.
One day which I believe to be the chronologically correct next day, we were crewed up in the van with Julian and Denim from Common and some of the OSS usuals. We started driving east towards some campus but it started to rain and traffic was traffic so we got off the next exit and looked up some schools. We found a four rails going down four stairs and figured we’d ride what we could while we could while the rain wasn’t ruining. Rob was wearing a shirt that he or Adam described as a “dad’s golfing shirt” at which point Rob recalled being told that exact description from his girlfriend after buying it from Kohl’s.
We found a shopping plaza with food places and while mostly everyone went straight to Chipotle, Erik and I scoped out a dollar store and he bought oatmeal cookies, a gallon of ice cream and something else. He was looking for peanut butter but for some reason they didn’t have any. We walked over to Chipotle and Rob was making a paper plane out of the foil from a burrito. So it was a foil plane, not a paper plane but it didn’t even fly so it wasn’t a plane at all. We found a spot on the side of the road at a bank and it was still raining a little bit. Rob and Erik practiced their doubles routine on a curb.
It continued to rain so we went to an indoor skatepark in the valley. Erik killed it. He could ride anything in the place like it’s a patch of asphalt. Rob did pretty well too but Erik, woo! You shoulda seen him. He was thriving. It was right around this time that I realized I was in the presence of a prodigy. Some other day after that we went to Inglewood and rode a parking lot. Not for the whole day but that’s what I remember mostly through these photos. The parking blocks and signs were fully utilized and then we drove around and rode some really small rails.
Two nights we went to Applebee’s for dinner. Both dinners were superb. Applebee’s is the shit and if you think differently then I totally respect that. Everyone has a different palate and tastes in food. We all got dessert both nights and we slept satiated until we awoke the next morning for breakfast tacos. We took a beach day on a day that I suspect to be a Thursday but could just as well have been a Wednesday or even a Tuesday. I could easily figure it out by looking at the EXIF data of this image from the beach but there’s a point I’m trying to make. Get it?
“Water which flows up never runs out”
“This is my first nude photo shoot”
Erik picked out El Matador to go to because of the arches they have there, at which time I pointed out to Erik that he loves circles and circular formations and curved wallrides and he didn’t even realize it. A lot of his Instagram photos are include circular objects and things. We got interrogated by a ranger who accused Erik of smoking weed but he doesn’t smoke and Rob wasn’t either. Erik climbed a rock and read the Tao and Rob sat down against a rock and read a book about the economics of war.
I didn’t read a book but there’s a chance that I was just as enlightened by the sheer experience of being there. I definitely didn’t learn as much as they did from an educational standpoint but I learned a lot about my new camera. I was scared for Erik watching him climb that rock. And then again when he climbed down it. We all made it out alive, or did we?
The following Monday or Saturday Rob said that he didn’t want to ride handrails one day and everyone thought he was kidding, because he kids a lot and he loves handrails. We took him to the Baghdad kinker and he threw a fit. I explained to him that it’s hard to read him sometimes, with his highly sarcastic humor and all that, and because everyone assumed he wants to ride handrails all day every day. He pouted for less than ten minutes, more like five, then asked if the rail to rail (ender clip) was in the area. It was. We went there and he fought a battle with himself for an unusual amount of time but prevailed victorious and had a splendid rest of the day.
Erik’s outfits for the duration of his stay ranged from grungy to scrubby- some scrubs he got in China- and he doesn’t use deodorant. Some may say he smells and they’re right, but the problem comes when people take offense to the scent. I myself didn’t mind it as it’s really part of Erik and who he is. We all smell.
Rob wore anti-motion sickness bracelets the whole time he was here. I thought he’d take them off after the plane ride but apparently his ailment disturbs him also in the car. He couldn’t pick out a CD from the book without subconsciously vomiting.
On the 19th we rode the TIP ramps and everyone had a great time there.
Then we ventured to the place where this crazy rail setup exists and Rob blessed it using only numbers. And his body and bike.
We watched Shmalec try a trick for a while and played around like kids.
We got back downtown and did the TCU TV interview. It went well but you be the judge. We woke up and did morning things which turned into afternoon things.
It was their last day and business was taken care of. We celebrated in the Vons parking lot with various sugars. If there was a central theme to this experience it was wordplay. If there were two central themes, they were wordplay and sugars.
On their last day here, both Rob and Erik put all of their stuff into bags and crowded into metal birds that carried them to their respective homes. They were then so far away that I couldn’t see them anymore and when I talked to them neither of them responded. I yelled super loud but I don’t think they could hear me anymore. I guess it’ll have to wait until I see them again.
Push It A Stop 