Category Archives: Photo of the Week

Photo of the Week: Jeff Witthans

Posted on March 3, 2014 by | Leave a comment

jeff withans potw

I’ve said it before- the tuck no-hander is one of my least favorite tricks. However, this photograph transcends my distaste for the tuck and I’m pleased to present this week’s photo. There’s a perfect balance of dirt and trees, with the rider nestled comfortably in the dark area of pine. The red shirt plays off the green background quite amazingly and the small speckles of dark blue evening sky combined with his orange grips round off a pleasing color palette. The lighting is great, the timing is on point and using the dirt in the foreground in the bottom-left corner keeps your eye contained within the image.

“This photo is of my buddy Augie Adee doing a tuck no hander in Bakersfield, CA. I haven’t really shot much at his house this year so, when I got a text saying Mike Saavedra and a group of guys from France who he calls the French Connection were coming to town I grabbed my gear and drove over to Augie’s house. He has an amazing back yard set up going from crazy dirt jumps to a mini ramp. I had to wait until the sun began to go down so they could ride the trails, soon the sun went down enough to shoot. I decided to set up my flashes on the second jump that’s a right hand hip after I got everything set up, I began to shoot a few shots as they warmed up. and like always my cowboy studios trigger began to not want to work on my main flash after I put some fresh batteries in it fired. After I got my flashes figured out Augie threw this amazing looking tuck which he had to do twice. I would like to thank Augie for having to do this twice.

Canon T3i
Canon 55-250 lens
Canon 270ex flash (left hand side of the jump)
Vivitar 550 fd flash (right hand side)
Cowboy studios flash triggers

(1/80) shutter
Aperture f/4.0
ISO 200”

See more of Jeff’s work here.

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Photo of the Week: Adam Cook

Posted on February 24, 2014 by | Leave a comment

adam cook potw

The rigid composition of this shot (and it’s monochromatic palette) reminded me of Thomas Struth’s older cityscape photos that I was really into when I was first learning about the structure of photography. The verticals are straight and the horizontals are (pretty much) flat. The subtle grind box in the foreground is a nice touch. Quite unusually, I think the shadows created by the flash add to the photo. The lighting is simple yet effective, the trick is good and nicely timed. The shadows aren’t very deep but I like flatness it creates. Last but not least, this is one of the skateparks from my childhood so it plucks a certain chord on my heartstrings.

“We won’t disclose the riders name, he’s an Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran, so we’re going to give him a new name. John seems fit.

This was another one of those photos that kind of just happened, we headed out to chenga for the 10$ Sunday session. I hadn’t rode with “John” in about 6 months, he himself didn’t ride for that long either. He’s an older guy, I don’t know his exact age but he isn’t 16 and he could possibly be a father to some of these triple whippin’ dew tour champions. Usually when we roll up to a park, its those same kids who are the first ones to say something about his old school 35 lb bike and 7 inch bars, but its tricks like these that usually shut those kids right up. John will be off a bike for months to years at a time, show up at a park and shut it down in 15 minutes before his first smoke break. This is a good example because his first 3 runs at this quarter (that he never rode before), he ice picked the sub rail, abubaca and then foot planted it.

I didn’t even bring my full camera bag, just my camera with the 40mm already on and a flash, no stands, no other lenses nothing. I asked John to foot plant it one more time for the camera. The session in this side of the park was quickly dying, so I literally turned my flash on to half power, laid it on the box jump to the right, focused some where in between the coping and the hitching post and told him to go for it. Within what seemed like 30 seconds we had set up and taken the photo, apparently we nailed it.

Settings:
550D 40mm 2.8
1/200
F 5.6
ISO 400
Yongnuo 560 II ( 1/2 power on the right)”

Check out more of Adam’s work here.

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Photo of the Week: Spenser Lee

Posted on February 17, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Joey-hopover-dp

“Shapes! Colors! Lines! Patterns!” – My brain when I first saw this photo. Combine that with an amazingly framed, expertly composed trick (with great lighting too) and you have the photo of the week. I think that the orange of his hat placed against the blue sky (and the reflection of the blue sky in all those windows) really does wonders for this photograph. If I were to make a list of my favorite photos of the week since we started doing this segment, this photo would be very close to the top of that list.

“This photo is of Jose Manuel Torres doing a hop over double peg to back over in Brussels, Belgium. We shot this on our recent Europe trip that me, him and another friend took late last year. Joey did this first thing in the morning on our second day or so. I tried to keep my gear pretty simple for the trip because I was the only one with a camera and had to cover filming and shooting duties. So I shot this using my Canon 7D, two Neewer speedlites and Pocket Wizards. The alley was pretty dark so bumping up my ISO and only using two flashes worked out totally fine. After he landed it and we got the photo I had to switch my setup to film a fisheye angle with the same camera. So thank you Joey for being willing to do this twice!

ISO 640 f/11 1/250th”

Check out more of Spenser’s work here. See more of Joey’s riding here.

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Photo of the Week: Rudy Rodriquez

Posted on February 10, 2014 by | Leave a comment

joe bolden

The first thing I noticed about this photo was the way the vertical lines are perfectly vertical. This is something I always try to achieve in my photographs. It is never actually necessary to do so, but in some fields of photography (especially architectural) you always want the verticals (of a building) to be straight up and down. It just looks so, so clean. Besides that, I liked the way the overpass cuts off the upper-right corner, containing the entire frame and not letting a white sky spill onto the background. The lighting is simple yet effective. The two red signs in the background are a nice touch of accent.

“I shot this photo of Joe Bolden doing edger foot jams on a windy cold Saturday. We met up with Houston street rider Brian Peters who then took us to this amazing spot under a freeway in Houston, TX. Btw, if any out of town riders are rolling through Houston & looking for street spots to ride, Brian Peters is your man. Back to the photo, we originally were here to get video street clips which we did but soon after busted out the photo camera to get some photos as well. Joe Bolden handles his street weapons with skill and fury and possess the ability to hurl edger foot jammers into objects, impale them on sharp objects or throw them off ledges. Other than it being unbelievably windy this day and the strong wind knocking over one of my flashes and breaking it, we had no hassles by any one. Anytime you have a Saturday of bicycles, coffee and friends, its sure to be a great day.

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3
Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO Speed: 200
Flash: Sunpak & Vivitar 28FD (courtesy of Zipps. I still have it dude!)”

Check out more of Rudy’s work here.

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Photo of the Week: Travis Mortz

Posted on February 3, 2014 by | Leave a comment

PAU_0271

I was immediately drawn to the colors of this photo- the way the red frame plays off the blue sky. I also really like the green in those plants. The rider is nicely framed between the two trees and the brick triangles in the wedge point to the action. The timing is pretty great for a downside whip. The sun to the rider’s back creates a beautiful highlight and the balance with the flash on the front of the rider is nearly perfect.

“This photo of Neal Richardson was shot in Loomis, CA at a small skate plaza. I originally planned on shooting a bar on this wedge and it just didnt work the way I wanted it to. Neal then suggested a downside whip and I was all for it. After moving to the opposite side of the skatepark I realized that the sun was extremely harsh on the bank and Neal’s entire face and body was shadowed from the sun at his back. so I grabbed a Qflash and set it to full power and had my friend hold it right underneath Neal just out of frame to fill the shadow on his face and chest without lighting the already bright wedge. This photo was shot using a Nikon D3 paired with a Nikon 105mm F2 DC lens. My settings were 1/250th @ F9 with a Quantum wirelessly triggered by a Pocket Wizard.”

Check out more of Travis’ work here.

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Photo of the Week: Matt Vargason

Posted on January 27, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Derek Nelson - Resized

I’m pretty sure this was Matt‘s first upload to the Push It A Stop Flickr pool, and I’ll be damned if it isn’t the greatest first impression ever. I was taken aback to learn that this was shot with only existing light- I guess it’s the mixture of color temperatures that threw me off. The whole ambiance is surreal- a dark, snowy night on the outside, and a quarterpipe (in a library) on the inside. The framing in the doorway is perfect. I’d love to have this hanging on my wall. In fact, I’ll be asking Matt for a print as soon as I’m done writing this.

“It’s always cold in New York at this time of year. The night I shot this photo was no exception, either. The sun had just gone down, and a snowstorm was rolling in. I was actually getting ready to head home when Derek [Nelson] started doing wall rides on the inside of a bookshelf in his skatepark, HCS. I had been toying with this composition for a couple of days at this point, but it never felt complete. The light snow falling outside was exactly what it was missing. Naturally, I walked outside and propped the door open. It took around fifteen minutes for me to get this shot. Spending that period of time kneeling in the snow caused my knee to freeze to the ground and my hands to go numb, causing the tail end of shooting to become somewhat difficult. I only used the available light at the park to shoot this photo, creating a stark contrast between the different temperatures of light indoors and the light outdoors. This was my first photo of 2014, and I think it was a great start to a new year.

Gear & Settings:

Body: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM

Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 6400

Location:
Vestal, NY”

Check out more of Matt’s work here. See Derek’s unique riding here.

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