Push It A Stop

“The only downside to the sport of BMX is that it is inherently illegal. Even if you ride in skateparks, most don’t allow bikes, so you are technically breaking the law by riding there. But it is especially hard for us street riders. This day, Nolan [Santana], Joe and I were pedaling around the sketchier parts of South San Francisco in search for new spots. While cruising down the street, I saw Nolan hit this little wallride and thought it would make a good photo, as the wall framed him quite well with his black t-shirt and jeans. However as I was setting up my camera, the tenant came out and started to yell at us to leave after he heard the ruckus. Nolan and I really wanted this photo so we asked if we could just get one more go, and he said in his most terrifying voice “No, now I’m going inside to get my gun, and when I come out, ya’ll better be gone.” We gave it one more go and got this shot, and proceeded to get as far away from this spot as possible. This photo was shot on a 35mm Nikon FTN with no external flashes. I had the camera set at f5.6 with a shuterspeed of 1/250th. In the darkroom I had the enlarger set on a higher filter of 4.5 to really get that contrast and make Nolan pop off that wall. I also did some burning on the tops of the buildings to seperate them from the blown out foggy sky.”

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