Category Archives: Gear

Photo of the Week: Luis Pinzon

IMG_5679

“This photo is special to me because its a reminder of one of the best pool sessions I’ve ever had. I’ve been riding for 17 years as of now and this is one of the best pools I’ve ever ridden. I’m no @deanshralp when it comes to pool riding, but I’ve ridden my fair share of great pools. The fact that we were able to shred this pool all day, with 8 dudes and 2 pitbulls, in a completely inhabited apartment complex is unreal. I think it was the perfect storm of its location in a quiet city with a southern mentality. This combined with the salsa music we were blasting put us in good favor with the local maintenance man.

Everyone was killing it this session. We knew that this was the first and last session we would likely have in this pool, so everyone had something they wanted to get done. Zachery Rogers was on another level though. Somehow this behemoth of a man has the ability to blast completely vertical obstacles with ease and style. His airs were complete beast mode this particular day.

I resisted the temptation to just ride and my camera actually left the bag. My primary interest is nature and party/drunk photography, so most sessions I never take the camera out. I shot this photo using a Canon 60D with the Canon 17-55 f/2.8. This lens is JB welded to my camera body; I love it. Photo was shot at 17mm with shutter at 1/800 and aperture at f/7.1 and an iso of 500. I didn’t have the patience to take my flash out because I wanted to ride so bad.”

Check out more of Luis’ work here.

Add your images to the Flickr group for constructive criticism and a chance to be next week’s photo.

Photo of the Week: Paul Turns

IMG_8423 - Copy

“This shot came about due to the shitty UK weather. I had called Matti that morning and said I was free, but the weather was pretty damn bad so after some discussions as to where we could go, I made a call to Motion skatepark the owner Tom is a damn cool guy.

We arrived at Motion and I guess i’m lucky insofar as it’s a place I know really well so I knew what and where may look ok. I really enjoy shooting with Matti as due to him being a flatland rider it makes me think more about composition, we never really went with any sort of plan or trick in mind it was just chilled.

Matti was trying a few things and I was playing around with lighting when I found this angle, at first I was using just two flashes one to the right and slightly behind which you can make out and one to the left, I decided to use another to fill just to my right and low down. I was using my Canon 60D with the 10-22 @ 10mm which for me works if I get really close to the ground. I ended up setting the shutter at 1/250 f8 and the ISO at 500, the flashes were as above, the one right, slightly behind and high on the stand @ 1/2 power and 80mm, the flash left, @ 1/4 power and 50mm, the one to my right and below @1/4 and 50mm (I think) and fired with Elinchrom Skyports.”

Check out more of Paul’s work here.

Join the Flickr group and add your images to the pool for a chance to be next week’s photo.

Photo of the Week: Joshua Lucero

LI2A1353_SM2

This photo immediately struck me as soon as I saw it. The lighting is wonderful, with a beautiful rimlight to the far right and a perfectly exposed and warmed fill light from the left. The composition is good- but almost centered. No big deal. I love the subdued yellow of the rail, the muted red in the sign and the deep blue gradient in the sky. The timing is on. More than anything, I love the shallow depth-of-field here. It really gives the rider an extra pop out of the background.

“Since breaking my ankle a couple of months ago I was stoked to go by the skatepark in my small hometown of Portales, New Mexico to hang out and pedal around a bit with Jaron Turnbow and Michael Sanchez for the afternoon. Feeling good with walking around this past Sunday, I asked if they wanted to go check out this spot that had been left by the road construction crews working in town.

We showed up to the spot as the sun began to set and they went to work moving the sign into different areas of this small parking lot trying to get a feel for it. I set up one light at first and gelled it to compensate for the warm sunlight and we shot a table and a few other tricks to flat before they moved the kicker close to the yellow rail that enclosed the parking lot.

A few warm up runs over the rail and Jaron started throwing tuck no-handers over it and seemed like he was getting pretty comfortable with the set-up so I called out a barspin. I still had the strobe left of Jaron gelled with a ¼ CTO about 15 feet away zoomed to 35mm and the strobe to the right of him I left bare 15 feet away zoomed to 85mm (would have had both strobes gelled but I was a bit absent minded and only had one ¼ CTO on hand). After one dead sailor over it Jaron nailed it second try.

I really liked the back of the College Cleaners building for this shot because of the old maroon sign and accidentally lucked out and realized after the fact that this composition had the sign lined up with our kicker set-up.

My set-up for this shot was my 5D markIII with a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 as well as two 580ex strobes set at ¼ power triggered with pocket wizards. I rarely take my 50mm out and I decided I needed to start using it more recently. I shot it almost wide open at 1.8 to get a shallow depth of field and kept the background a little under exposed with an ISO of 50 and my shutter synced at 1/200th.”

Check out more of Joshua’s work here.

Join the Flickr group for a chance to be next week’s photo.

Image

Nokia Lumia Gallery by Hadrien Picard

7

Photo of the Week: Charlie Quigley

cqpotw

“So the day started off with me leaving 5050 Skatepark after getting a call from John (Bosco) Santorelli. He asked me to shoot this photo of him doing this wallride I had never heard about. So around 3 o clock I pull up to a couple of stores and park in the back where the spot is. A huge man made cliff overlooks the wallride. I joke around saying i should shoot it from up there. 5 minutes later I am up there setting up everything. It took him a couple of tries to get the perfect wallride but the end result was amazing. I also shot this in black and white but the natural colors of the sky and railing stand out way better

Shot with:
Canon T3i
18mm-55mm 3.5/5.6
ISO 400
1/800”

Check out more of Charlie’s work here.

Add your photos to the Flickr pool for a chance to be next week’s photo.

Photo of the Week: Mario Alciati

Stuntbike_Fire_jump

It doesn’t get much more bizarre than this week’s photo. When I first saw it I laughed out loud. What the fuck is going on??? Let’s break it down. A guy (Jack Hartje) is boosting a large launch ramp to flat over a semi-circle of fire and a guy on a motorcycle doing a burnout. There’s another guy on a motorcycle who is chugging a beer and also looks to be doing a burnout. There’s another motorcycle rider in the far background for reasons unknown. A guy is standing next to a tank of gas and filming with a cellphone. Seated next to him is a guy shooting a photo on an SLR who presumably had placed the flashes (looks to be 2 Sunpak 555‘s and a Vivitar 285) around the subject. We see the back of another man is crouching directly in front of the camera and looks to be also filming on a cellphone. The very best piece of this Xtreme puzzle is the GoPro on a jib arm creeping into frame from the right. Too fucking funny. I love that Mario realized that the whole scene was pretty wild and decided to take a few steps back to really show what’s going on, instead of just shooting the action.

“Jack Hartje is from Buffalo, NY. One morning he called my friend/roommate Korey and said something along the lines of

“Hey, a bunch of stunt riders are coming to an abandoned parking lot in Syracuse. I’m coming through with my ramp and I want to jump some shit. Oh yeah and bring gasoline if you have some.”

I threw my camera in my bag like I always do and without hesitation Korey and I set out (with gasoline) and met up with these guys. That day we proceeded to witness some of the craziest stunt riding we had ever seen.

While the riders were taking a break and having a beer, Jack got a couple of them in on the idea of sitting in front of the ramp and doing burnouts while getting jumped over.

They rode over and parked in front of the ramp while Korey poured some gasoline in front of them.

Jack peddled to the end of the parking lot and I ran over to a spot about 25 feet away hoping to get the photo I pictured in my head. I had to focus on the building in the background. I set the camera at 500 or 1000 shutter speed since I figured jack was going to be hauling ass as usual, and clicked the aperture a couple notches lower since I knew jack would be darker than the building I was focusing my camera’s light meter on.

Korey lit the gasoline, Jack peddled full speed at the ramp, engines redlined as the stunt riders did burnouts (and one chugged his beer), I snapped my shutter, and the rest is history.

Gear: Canon AE-1p on (400) and all manual, (I either use this or my Pentax K1000)
Film: Cheap Kodak B&W 400 film”

Check out more of Mario’s work here and more of Jack’s riding here.

Join the Flickr group and get some constructive criticism on your work.

Behind the Shot with Johann Chan

c5c7c0b730a1a3abf7439a94dd5588a2

English photographer Johann Chan put together a nice little behind the scenes story about shooting for this Profile ad with Craig Stevens. It’s funny and somewhat educational, check it out- “Don’t Instagram That Shit”.

Photo of the Week: Dylan Alvarado

Ray Coleman Invert

This week’s photo is a strange one, with on-camera flash usage and mysterious crystal-like orbs. I thought it was rain, but Dylan vehemently denies any precipitation… Could be dust? I don’t know. Whatever it is created an appealing effect. The colors of that skatepark are wonderful as well.

“Joyce Park’s skate park, also known as [JP], is my local skate park and I go there just about every day I can. Ray Coleman, a good friend of mine, is also a local there and seriously kills it every time he rides. He’s the guy that all the kids talk about and they always ask if I know him or if I’m as good as him which is usually followed by the typical little kid “Can you do a backflip” question.

The day I shot this picture was just like any other day at [JP]. Ray was shredding and boosting the park as usual and since I don’t take pictures nearly as much as I should, I decided to whip out the camera. The sun was starting to go down so it was getting darker and the only type of flash I have is the one built on top of the camera. I started to use it just messing around but started to get some decent shots. The only problem I was having was the arc shadow from the fisheye lens. So when I shot this picture of Ray boosting an invert on one of the quarters in the bowl, I made sure to aim the camera to where the arc shadow wouldn’t look as noticeable. The arc fit perfectly in the shot just at the bottom of the bowl with the quarters lit up from the flash, making this the result.

Nikon D5000
Rokinon 8mm f 3.5
1/160
ISO 500”

View more of Dylan’s work here.

Join the Flickr group and be next week’s photo!

Markit Zero: Christian Rigal and the Markit DVD

markit

Hot on the heels of the Deadline video comes another highly anticipated release- Markit Zero.

Firstly, how long did you guys film for?

Well everyone was supposed to be done after a year and 9 months (June 1st), but Dennis was hurt for more then half the video (separated shoulder, dislocated the other one 3 times, broken femur, broken wrist, broken colar bone, and a broken foot), Geoff came on late and also got hurt towards the end, and I broke my foot. So that deadline didn’t really work out, haha. Filming ended up going into August (I was even filming last week, haha) and now its fully done in September. The day I finished the video was actually the same day we ended our first SLC trip two years ago somehow. Crazy coincidence.

What format/cameras did you use?

It’s all 720x60p, and it was shot on 2 HPX170’s, a 60d, a couple of clips from the dennis ghetto cam (HMC40), a HPX250 and a couple iPhone/Go Pro clips. There’s is also a standard def clip in Chad’s intro that’ll make sense when you see it, haha.

m5

Who has full sections?

Everyone- Chad Kerley, Connor Lodes, Dennis Enarson, Mike Jonas, Geoff Slattery, Rob Wise, Ronnie Napolitan and myself.

Where did you guys travel to?

I think we did about 14 trips for this video, we hit both sides of CALIFORNIA as well as ARIZONA, UTAH, OREGON, NEW MEXICO, MASSACHUSETTS, PENNSYLVANIA, TEXAS, NEVADA, ILLINOIS, SPAIN, and Dennis an I managed to get some clips on random trips to JAPAN and RUSSIA.

m1

How will the video be released?

Both DVD and iTunes. We’ll be selling hard copies at the Texas Toast world premiere in Austin and at our San Diego premiere on the 26th of October at the Mission Valley YMCA park. All of the shops and distros that put in orders will also be premiering/selling the video that weekend too. Then on November 1st it goes live on iTunes for purchase/digital download.

What’s the duration of the video?

It’s 1 hour and 3 mins long

Did you do 100% of the editing/authorizing?

I did all of the editing and Mike Jonas did the DVD authoring.

Who did the design work and how much work went into titles and graphics?

Our cover/menu art was done by Nick Sawyers, he did all of Hucker’s S&M frame graphics too, thats how we found him. We came up with some ideas, gave him some notes and he pretty much came up with everything else himself. We went back and fourth a couple of times until everyone was stoked, I think it all turned out rad.

As for the titles, I knew I wanted to do something a little different, but nothing over the top. So I hit up Kelly Bolton and he started working on some 3D titles for us. I sent him all the clips with the title placements and then he worked his magic with lighting the titles and creating some movements. I think it gave the video a nice touch.

m2

How long did you spend editing?

Well I gave myself 2 months to finish it all, but between all the riding I was doing trying to finish my part and a couple of trips that came up it was done it about a month and a half.

Besides the injuries, any other setbacks?

Kinda, nothing too crazy though. One of my cameras slowly went out on us and a couple of clips look kinda crazy because of it. That happened on the same trip that someone dropped my tripod on too, so we took almost a month off from filming until I got a new camera and got the parts for my tripod.

Aside from that, I had to re edit a whole section because this band wanted and insane amount of money for a song. Finding a new song that we can clear/afford in 4 days was less then an easy task. So that whole ordeal pushed the end of the video back a week to the point where we had to rush the duplication for the hard copies.

m4

Will you be releasing a trailer?

Yeah, but we’re just going to do a quick 60 second trailer to give you a little glimpse of the video, we’ve actually got a full 2 song leftovers promo that’s dropping next week. So because of that I think the short trailer will be perfect. This will also double as the trailer that the general public will see on iTunes if they’re browsing around or want to see what it’s all about.

How/when/where will it premiere?

Our main world premiere is at the Texas Toast contest in Austin Texas on October 19th. It’s going to be all ages at Shakespeare’s bar and well be selling hard copies as well.

Then our other main premiere will be in San Diego October 26th at the Mission Valley YMCA. We’re doing a jam at the park, giving a bunch of free stuff out, selling products, premiering the video and then selling it as well.

Aside from that all of our distros and shops will be hosting premieres as well the same weekend, with copies available for sale at all of them.

markit thumb

The Albion Issue 16 Out Now

Albion16_cover_650px

Issue 16 of The Albion is out today, with cover artwork by Mat Waudby. You can read an interview with him about his work on The Albion website.

Contents of Issue 16 include:
Harry Mills-Wakley – Colts
Grimaldo Duran – Back On A Promise
Josh Bedford – A Family Trait
Harry Main – Stepping Out Of A Crowd
Waffle – Hard Target
Kevin Kalkoff – Je Ne Sais Quoi
Tyrone Williams – “You Gotta Love It”

The Albion is available for FREE in all good BMX shops in the UK. Click here to find your local stockist.

Subscribe: If live outside the UK or would like each issue delivered to your door subscriptions are available here.”