This one was of the easier photos to pick for photo of the week because it includes two of photography’s mainstays: sunsets and skylines. The dramatic side-lighting on the rider helps to make him pop out of the background, and he’s framed nicely by that tree. My only gripe is that we can’t see all of the quarter that he is riding but to be fair, we all know it’s there. If there were ever a series of BMX postcards printed, this would be the first one made.
“Went to Alameda Skatepark last time I was home and got my friend Jean Paul to roll with me (which is a challenge in its own). As the sun was setting I wanted to get a shot with San Francisco in the background. I made him foot jam the sketchiest quarter there, and if you have ever ridden alameda you know they are all extremely sketchy. Luckily he wasn’t too worried. I shot this on my 5D mkII at 1/200 of a second to cut down my ambient and get a nice exposure for the city in the background. I had two lights sort of acting as edge lights to give him some separation from the dark tree and grass behind him. They were triggered by Pocket Wizard plus III. There was a Paul C Buff Einstein 95˚ camera left powered at about half, and a Yongnuo 560II camera right 120˚ at full power.”
Check out more of Zach’s work here.
Add your images to the Flickr group and be next week’s photo.
Push It A Stop 