Jeff Z just updated his website with a Tumblr style layout that allows for hundreds of photos to be displayed on one page… Take a couple minutes to scroll through and realize just how much Jeff actually shoots. So many distinguished moments and personalities… It’s amazing, really. The hardest working man in BMX? Possibly. The most celebrated photographer in BMX these days? Yes.
I chose this photo because of the lighting, composition and colors. The hidden flash behind the wall adds a nice contrast to the scene, the frame is filled but not cluttered and the colors are pleasing and not too loud. Although it’s a digi crop, there are far worse things going on in the digital photography world.
“It was a very cold day but we still decided to venture out to the streets. I’ve been told that one shouldn’t go in this neighborhood unless with a large crew. But the temptation was great as I just got my pocket wizards and the spots had a lot of character. It was windy,wet, it was getting dark and flashes were flying to the floor. This was the last spot for the day and Sve was a little reluctant to ride it as the bank is way steeper then it seems. I shot a few direct ones as I felt a simple composition will work but at the moment I decided to try out to include the other wall I realized that it makes for a very dramatic composition with an interesting intersecting shapes. Big thanks to Stephen for being my intelligent tripod as the light that be was holding was the one that made the picture. Canon430 and metz48 each side, diffused. With them being the main light it must have been some fast speed and slow aperture. EF35,2 on 5d MK2. 1/200th @ f/2.5, ISO 400”
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I like this photo especially because of the perspective- people don’t usually see things from a vantage point above the subject. It really takes the action out of context and abstracts it. The lighting is great and it’s a nice looking whip.
“Is particularly crazy because a friend was taking this photo with a telephoto lens from the front, when performing his work ended, I put a Pocket Wizard on my camera and take this angle with its setting of flashes. Really just wanted to try that angle because it looks at the difficulty of the trick, I did not bring my equipment with me, just the camera. Matias Aristimuño is a very good friend and stylish rider, is always ready to try one more when the photo was not perfect. Argentina has many spots to ride and take good photos, but always has the same problem, you’re always thinking about the possibility of being robbed more than the picture you will get! It’s a picture acceptable for conditions in which it was taken.
Canon fisheye 15mm, Canon 1Dmk2n, 2 Vivitar 285 HV of my friend and Pocket Wizard-“
More of Laureano’s work can be seen here.
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Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Canon, Laureano Vallejos, Photo of the Week, Pocket Wizards, Vivitar
For this week’s photo, I decided to take it back to the basics- no fancy lenses, no external lighting, just a great composition and a timeless trick. The colors and the symmetry is what really does it for me.
“This is a photo I shot of my brother Dan at Imigrantes park. He was practicing this tabletop so he asked to me to take a picture. Well I took this picture about 5:18pm. It has been a lovely day with good light and beautiful sky! I tried to show everything ramps momentum sky the tabletop. I wanted to show the tabletop on top of the grid. The picture was shot with a Canon 60D with a 50mm. Shutter speed was 1/250th and the aperture was F14 with no flashes.”
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This photograph by Derek Riggs hits a few chords for me- at first I was reminded of the square format B&W work of Robert Adams, and with flash, the work of Larry Fink. This photo has a timeless feel to it, at least in my eyes, for those reasons. All varying tones of black and white are present, the composition is clean and the onlooking kids add an element of location and emotion. It’s a pretty stylish invert as well.
“This is a photo I shot of my good friend Joey Calderone, was taken about a good 2 years ago at Chandler bike park out here in AZ. This photo all came together easy, I had just got a Hasselblad 500c and was eager to but it to use and Joey has always been one of my go to guys about shooting anything, mainly cause he’s a dialed as hell rider. Ok so, it all started as just a regular night at the park, then I asked Joey about shooting a lil something, and on this particular hip, from the 8 foot transition to the 6 foot roller hip, he was doing awesome tables. And since I was still getting use to the shutter on the Hasselblad, and it was easy cause he was holding the tables for a split second. Now we got flashes set in place (3) and all the exposures correct, we could fire it out. The kids in the photo we’re just a couple of “Chandler rats” as the kids at the park would say. Normally I’m pretty picky about people being in the back ground, and with this shot I pretty sure I was, I think this looks cool. They look like there thinking like “wow” haha just the expressions on their faces I think make the picture I nice on to look at other than Joey doing another great table. Shot with a Hasselblad 500c, I wanna say Ilford b&w 120 film. Qflash, Nikon sb-28, and a Sunpak 544. All triggered with Pocket Wizard plus II’s. 1/500th @ around 5.6 aperture.”
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Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Derek Riggs, Joey Calderone, Photo of the Week
I was first struck by the overwhelming blue in this photo, followed by the colored streaks in the middle of the frame, and then the fact that it’s Cam Wood in a roller rink. It’s definitely a fun photograph which translates nicely.
“This image was shot in Salt Lake City, Utah during the filming of S&M’s video, “Salt Lake Shake.”
Early on in the trip, the team was dealt with some crap weather for a couple days so Cam Wood made a call to his Uncle, owner of “fun-plex,” as I will describe it. A short drive up the road and I was unloading my bike and camera-bag out of the van. Complete with waterslides, a roller rink, an American Gladiator tennis ball cannon, and about 10 moon bounces; this place was an amazing photo location.
We rode around for a bit and I noticed a couple of the guys setting up the launch ramp/trashcan in the middle of the rink. My immediate thought was that I wanted to get the blue glow off the rink surface to come through in the shot, and considering the size of the setup, that I would shoot it Fisheye.
I setup 2 strobes: 1 out of frame left, slightly behind me and another out of frame right, just slightly out of the way of Cam’s approach. To get the saturation of the blue glow coming from the black lights I slowed the shutter and panned the camera with the action to freeze the rider. In addition, I adjusted one strobe to point up slightly, and set the other to Zoom. This was to keep from washing out the floor.
Camera: Nikon D300s, 10.5mm
Settings: 1/15 @ f/5, ISO 320
Strobes: 1 SB800 left @ 1/8 power- 8 ft away from subject
1 Sunpak 555 right @ 1/4 power- 14 ft from subject”
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In my opinion, this is the best episode of in focus thus far. Click play for a few Adobe Lightroom post-production techniques from Skateboard photographer Jonathan Mehring.
Posted in BMX, Photo, Skateboarding, Tech
Tagged Adobe Lightroom, Editing, In focus, Johnathan Mehring, Photography
Maxime Bonfil by Simon Cassol
The colors in this photo slapped me in the face at first sight. Almost every hue is represented in the image. It is a very dynamic composition and the action is well-described. It’s a fun photo that touches a special place in my heart for skatepark gaps into grass.
“As many photos, this one wasn’t planned at all. It was just a quiet afternoon, riding and relaxing from last night. During the session, Max had this idea of whipping over a bench next to a bank, I wasn’t into taking photos this day, but he motivated me to try some and he was right ! So that’s about it, you never know when you’re going to shoot something cool !
This spot is a small skatepark, real good to ride, mostly street tech, and it’s near Toulouse in the south west of France. (And I’m assuming this was the last photo I shot in 2012, just for the non-sence fact ahah)
Concerning the specs, this was shot using a Canon 40D with a Tokina 10-17 fisheye.
Settings were 1/250s, F4 and ISO 100.
As for the lights, I used a quantum Q flash on the right (maybe at ¼?) and two vivitar 285HV on the left (both at ½ I guess).”
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Push It A Stop 