Photo by Corey Martinez
Brian Kachinsky wrote about a deadly 60/40 grind that almost went missing after a memory card failure. Read about it on the DIG website.
“Memory cards and hard drives don’t crash as much as we BMXers do but when it happens you’ll often have other BMXers there to lend a hand.“
A textbook example of great framing, this week’s photo is as clean as they come. All of the rider (minus a shoelace) is placed neatly in the sky just above the horizon. The coastline contours the form of the rider and his bike quite nicely too. A classic trick at a beautiful spot makes for a timeless BMX photograph. The only thing that makes me mad about this photo is that I can’t be there right now riding the spot.
“This was my first time at this secret spot near Santa Cruz, CA. The homie Nick Krauer told me this ditch would be a great spot to shoot photos but that was an understatement. I was pretty bummed on not having any of my flash set up with me, but I made the best of what I had and managed to get some natural lighting shots. The lighting from the sun was perfect; golden hour before sunset. It helped to illuminate Nick as well as the background of Highway 1, the beach, and the hills. This ditch, although more ridable than most DIY spots, is nowhere near perfect, and this quarter has some serious kinks in it’s tranny. But Nick is no stranger to weird trannies, and fired out multiple tricks at proper height. This spot rules and I left a happy camper. Hit up Nick on instagram @nickkrauer and myself @bmxlovephotography. Thanks for reading homies!
Canon 60D
18-55mm kit lens
1/1500 @ f/5.6 ISO 100”
Check out more of Alex’s work here and Nick’s riding here.
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Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo of the Week, Tech
Tagged Alex Herzog, Canon, Nick Krauer, Santa Cruz
Check out a writeup for the making of this photo of Shane Weston, used for an Éclat ad, from the opening clip in his recent Fly Signature Isla Line video.
Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Andrew White, Éclat, Fly Bikes, Shane Weston
“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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Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo of the Week, Tech
Tagged Belgium, Brussels, Canon, Joey Torres, Neewer, Pocket Wizards, Spenser Lee
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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Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo of the Week, Tech
Tagged Neal Richardson, Nikon, Pocket Wizards, Quantum, Travis Mortz
“I took my Sony FS700 to Niagara Falls for an afternoon in November 2013.
Gear:
FS-700
Metabones Speed booster for Canon lenses
Canon 70-200 L f2.8
Canon 16-35 L f.28
5DMK3
Music:
INXS
“Don’t Change” from Original Sin”
Originally, Rados had uploaded a photo of the same trick in the same location with the same lighting, but without the rider framed in the lit rectangle. I thought it strange and commented on the photo, asking why he hadn’t done so. He replied that he actually had, and uploaded that image. That image is what you see before you now, the Photo of the Week.
“It was a hot summer day in Belgrade and around 37 degrees celsius. Bike Festival was held in city center. I got call from my friends to go there, so I packed my gear, took my bike and rushed to the festival. Half of the streets were closed because of a bike race and thats why route to the center wasnt complicated. Once I got there, there was a flatland demo session after which we went to ride, we found couple of places which would be impossible to ride if there wasnt bike festival. One of those places was this old building without windows and without roof, it was perfect place for shooting. The light was getting through opening of a window and thats what gave me idea for this photo. I asked one of my friend Miroslav Springelj aka Mire to throw some flat line on the spot where the light was, plan was to capture his shadow there. Setup was simple, only one Nikon SB24 flash (on the right side, behind the wall) triggered with wireless trigger. At the end of the day I finished with couple of great shots and one of them was this one.
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Sigma 28-105mm f2.8
Iso: 100
Aperture: F7.1
Shutter: 1/200”
See more of Rados’ work here.
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Posted in Art, BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Miroslav Springelj, Nikon, Photo of the Week, Rados Ruzic, Sigma
This photograph is visually striking because of the color contrast. The rider’s red shirt against the gelled blue environment demands your eye’s attention. The angle is simple but I like it- I feel like I’m standing there on the side of the ramp watching him ride it. The composition is great and I love that the coping meets the corner of the frame perfectly. From a riding standpoint, this is a first-rate tabletop at heights out of a vert ramp that most riders will only dream about.
“I woke up to the first snowstorm of the season in Baltimore with the day off work. Charm City Skatepark is our local indoor park here and they had just finished building one of the smoothest vert ramps on the east coast. First thing I did that day was gave my good friend John Burnie a call so we can shred that thing. He brought up the idea of grabbing a photo.
Once I got there I had noticed that the ramp was a much lighter color than anything else there. I am a huge fan of using color gels and had the idea to throw a #8 on an Einstein and hide it behind the matching pillar at the bottom of the ramp. I placed the other at the top of the ramp and got to work. John is a rider that get higher off the ground than anybody you’ll see without a sponsorship so he was the man for the job, ended up pulling a couple of steezy tabletops that this photo doesn’t do full justice to. End result was this photo, which is one of my favorites. I originally wanted to have the entire ramp in the photo but I had limited space. What I ended up with was much more satisfying than the goal set.
Camera: Canon 5dmk2
Lens: 17-40 @17mm
Iso: 800
Aperture: f/8
Shutter: 1/400 sec
Triggered with pocket wizard flextt5 with mc2’s for einsteins, both lights at full power (for hypersync)”
Check out more of David’s work here.
See more of John’s riding here.
Join the Flickr group and post your photos for a chance to be featured here next week.
Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Canon, David West, John Burnie, Paul C. Buff, Photo of the Week, Pocket Wizards
Photos and interview by Chris Mortenson
Miles Rogoish is not a stranger to the BMX world. Most people know that he is as talented in front of the camera as he is behind it. His videos capture the raw energy of BMX and allow the viewer to see into a session through an unedited window. After watching the Stranger Mixtape a few times I decided to hit up Miles and find out what goes into his filming and editing process.
You’ve been in the filming game for a long time, how long was it before you really felt like you hit your stride with your film work?
I’ve been filming for almost as long as I have been riding, I really caught the first stride during the beginning of the TWM (Tuesdays With Miles) series. Once I was laying footage to music and color correcting once a week besides the other projects I was working on it started to be a steady routine. Now I have the same stride but it just gets better everyday, except for my OCD making me nuts since I have a checklist of about 10 things I have to make sure are just right after actually editing the piece. Shits hectic these days between my Mac screen and the inside of my brain.
What’s your current filming gear set up?
I have 2 current set ups
1- Sony VX 2100, Century Optics Mark II Death Lens
2- Panasonic HMC150, Century Optics .03 Extreme Fish
And I am currently looking at grabbing a Cannon 7D DSLR set up for filming mediums outside of BMX.
What’s your editing process like?
FAWK, Get it done I guess? I have more projects unfinished on my computer now than I have ever had. Guess it really depends on the project. If it’s a long term project it’s not ready till it is. If its a quick content piece then I import, lay down the preferred timeline by trick difficulty, watch it with the sound off to random music, pick a track, chop it up, ramp slo, color correct, audio adjustment, titles, and export! I love the feeling of a piece being complete and dialed from start to finish, even the fades come in and end on beats, nothing just gets set down and is “fine” it has to be perfectly on point for me to be able to move to the next.
What’s your best advice for filming lines?
Get on a skateboard with big soft quiet wheels and if you hit a crack grab that mother fucker like its your own child. A lens blemish can put filming on old for as long as it takes century to replace the front element. Also get UP IN THERE! Don’t be scared to get up and close with the crunchiness, the closer you are without chopping heads and wheels is the prime distance to be from the rider the whole time you are filming a “line”.
What filmers in the game do you look up to?
BMX Filmers – Tony Ennis, Tony Malouf, Will Stroud, Ryan Navazio, and Ty Morrow actually kills the film game, plus a small handful of the homies know what it is to get crunchy.
Filming for the Stranger Mix, was it nice to get back on that VX kick?
I never jumped off baby! What you think this is Chris! I had been using the VX for The Trip and the Deadline video, which is currently playing on my flat screen right past this laptop #CRUNCHberries. If anything the VX has been chillin harder then ever but is still filming some upcoming Trip vids you guys should start to see soon. #VXForLife #NeverForget
The editing for the new Stranger Mix was done really well. Could you just share a little about what went into it and how you approached the project?
Always loved the raw and real life style edits with teams and squads around the world, that style editing is my preferred go to style, but you have to have the right project and people to make it happen. No offense I don’t think you could make a ramp rider mix with the same vibe… That being said, this project literally fell out of my mind and hands as easy and dope as it could. Rich Hirsch handled most of the tracks and once the soundtrack was picked the formula is pretty straight forward considering Rich and I know whats worth seeing and how fast you should see it. A little B-roll between rider sections and there ya have it…
Any advice for the up and coming filmers out there?
Just go shoot and be inspired by everything you see. Instead of bitching about VX vs. HD or tripod vs. skateboard or anything you think you can complain about just focus that energy on creating something new for someone else to rant about. You’ll stay happy and your video work will keep improving. Never compete against anyone but yourself.
Huge thanks to Stranger for the opportunity to have so much creative input into the video aspect of the brand, Its amazing working with people who are on the same page with ideas and actions and to top it off Rich Hirsch and Aaron Brenner (teammate / team manager) are two of my most solid friends. Osiris shoes for supporting me while I ride and not being bummed I wear out my right shoe extremely faster then the left due to filming the homies on a skateboard. The Trip for giving me my time here on earth surrounded by beautiful and amazing souls that share the same passion. Anyone I have ever pointed a camera at me or was scared to hold my camera back at me, I love you all. Cheers ++
Not much to say about this photo- just that it will be the best Photo of the Week ever posted.
“This was shot on an unseasonably warm, rainy December day in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I was out shooting with Josh Stair, Evan Smedley, and Cody ‘Mclovin’ Neiswender when we rolled up to this rail. Josh fired out this switch tooth-hanger in one go.
Three lights were used in the making of this photo. The main light was an Einstein at camera right, about 8 feet up and aimed at the left side of Josh’s face, in order to cast a slight shadow on the side of his face most visible to the camera. This light was also feathered very far to the left in order to keep the light away from the building in the background. The rim light was an AB800 and came from camera left about 40 feet back. The large distance from the light to the subject causes the light to fall over a larger area, and gives me some detail in the trees on the right side of the frame. The final light was a Vivitar 285 on the ground, hidden behind the holiday greens on the bottom of the rail. This was just used as a general backlight and assisted in further separating him from the background.
Camera info:
Canon 5D MK II
70-200 f/4
1/200 at f/4.5, ISO 100”
Check out more of Josh’s work here.
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Posted in Art, BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Josh McElwee, Josh Stair, Photo of the Week
Push It A Stop 