Tag Archives: Canon

Photo of the Week: Charlie Quigley

Posted on October 22, 2013 by | Leave a comment

cqpotw

“So the day started off with me leaving 5050 Skatepark after getting a call from John (Bosco) Santorelli. He asked me to shoot this photo of him doing this wallride I had never heard about. So around 3 o clock I pull up to a couple of stores and park in the back where the spot is. A huge man made cliff overlooks the wallride. I joke around saying i should shoot it from up there. 5 minutes later I am up there setting up everything. It took him a couple of tries to get the perfect wallride but the end result was amazing. I also shot this in black and white but the natural colors of the sky and railing stand out way better

Shot with:
Canon T3i
18mm-55mm 3.5/5.6
ISO 400
1/800”

Check out more of Charlie’s work here.

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Photo of the Week: Mario Alciati

Posted on October 14, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Stuntbike_Fire_jump

It doesn’t get much more bizarre than this week’s photo. When I first saw it I laughed out loud. What the fuck is going on??? Let’s break it down. A guy (Jack Hartje) is boosting a large launch ramp to flat over a semi-circle of fire and a guy on a motorcycle doing a burnout. There’s another guy on a motorcycle who is chugging a beer and also looks to be doing a burnout. There’s another motorcycle rider in the far background for reasons unknown. A guy is standing next to a tank of gas and filming with a cellphone. Seated next to him is a guy shooting a photo on an SLR who presumably had placed the flashes (looks to be 2 Sunpak 555‘s and a Vivitar 285) around the subject. We see the back of another man is crouching directly in front of the camera and looks to be also filming on a cellphone. The very best piece of this Xtreme puzzle is the GoPro on a jib arm creeping into frame from the right. Too fucking funny. I love that Mario realized that the whole scene was pretty wild and decided to take a few steps back to really show what’s going on, instead of just shooting the action.

“Jack Hartje is from Buffalo, NY. One morning he called my friend/roommate Korey and said something along the lines of

“Hey, a bunch of stunt riders are coming to an abandoned parking lot in Syracuse. I’m coming through with my ramp and I want to jump some shit. Oh yeah and bring gasoline if you have some.”

I threw my camera in my bag like I always do and without hesitation Korey and I set out (with gasoline) and met up with these guys. That day we proceeded to witness some of the craziest stunt riding we had ever seen.

While the riders were taking a break and having a beer, Jack got a couple of them in on the idea of sitting in front of the ramp and doing burnouts while getting jumped over.

They rode over and parked in front of the ramp while Korey poured some gasoline in front of them.

Jack peddled to the end of the parking lot and I ran over to a spot about 25 feet away hoping to get the photo I pictured in my head. I had to focus on the building in the background. I set the camera at 500 or 1000 shutter speed since I figured jack was going to be hauling ass as usual, and clicked the aperture a couple notches lower since I knew jack would be darker than the building I was focusing my camera’s light meter on.

Korey lit the gasoline, Jack peddled full speed at the ramp, engines redlined as the stunt riders did burnouts (and one chugged his beer), I snapped my shutter, and the rest is history.

Gear: Canon AE-1p on (400) and all manual, (I either use this or my Pentax K1000)
Film: Cheap Kodak B&W 400 film”

Check out more of Mario’s work here and more of Jack’s riding here.

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Photo of the Week: Josh McElwee

Posted on September 23, 2013 by | Leave a comment

DAN_FOLEY_PIAS

I chose this photograph to mark the beginning of fall, because I think this is about as summer as it gets. The tones are so warm that I can nearly feel it. The composition is incredible and the lighting is more-or-less perfect. It’s an ultra clicked invert and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this on the cover or in the spread of the next Woodward brochure.

“This photo of Dan was shot in July at Woodward East. We originally decided to shoot a footjam on the 18ft. mini-mega ramp quarter, but a giant cloud came over the ramp and pretty much ruined the photo. The resulting sunset through the clouds, however, prompted me to ask Dan if he would be down to shoot something a few hundred feet away in The Cage.

We showed up right as the sun was disappearing over the horizon. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the pastel-like quality of the clouds facing southwest, behind the vert wall. I asked Dan if there was anything he would like to shoot on it. He simply responded ‘Table’, which was all I needed to hear. Since the sun had gone down by this point, I set out to mimic the last few moments of daylight via the use of three flashes.

All of the flashes used were gelled, no white light was used. The main light is an Einstein coming from camera left about 10-15 feet away from Dan, gelled with a ‘soft amber key’ to mimic the warm glow of a lamp high above. A one-stop sheet of diffusion material was also used to soften the edge of the light. The rim light was an AB800 about 50 feet back-camera right and aimed directly at the vert wall, feathered a considerable amount to the left in order to keep the light on the vert wall and not as much on the bank on the right side of the frame. This light was used to mimic the natural rim light effect that the sun would have normally. A 1/2 CTO was used to give this a slightly warm, more realistic feel. The third and final light was a Vivitar 285 hidden behind the vert wall, pointed at Dan, also with a 1/2 CTO, just for a little bit of underlight/separation.

I shot this wide open at f/4 in order to further enhance the soft quality of the clouds in the distance. Dan did the table twice, and this was the result.

Gear info:

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 70-200 f/4
Einstein 640
Alien Bee 800
Vivitar 285
Vagabond Mini battery packs
Pocket Wizard Transcievers
Various gel sheets”

More of Josh’s work can be seen here, and more of Dan’s riding can be seen here.

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Photo of the Week: Adam Cook

Posted on September 16, 2013 by | 2 comments

adam cook

My favorite part of this photograph is the composition- it’s almost symmetrical (it would be completely if the homies weren’t chilling (but that’s what homies are for- chilling)). I love the tones and textures in the pipe itself. I like sneaky homie holding the flash and quiet homie way in the back. I’m thinking this photo would look great printed big.

“The guys and I were planning on riding this full pipe in our town all summer but never got the chance to (its one of Lake Eries main waterways, its pretty dangerous to be in there apparently). Anyways, towards the end of the summer my buddy Bryan was getting real serious about riding this thing. He and Herby knew what to do because they were the only ones who rode the thing before. I got a text when I was finishing up a music video for a hip hop artist to get down there and ride it that afternoon. Well I couldnt ride it because my shoulder was still seperated and I knew I only had an hour until I had to help my cousin with something so I grabbed the camera bag and flew down there. When I got there they had already set up the ply wood and woodpallets and were riding it so I got right into shooting.

I couldn’t bring a flash stand because the water was 3 inches high and flowing fast so they had to hold it for me. I snapped a few pictures of Tommy. All of those were vertical and I was leaning on a wall hiding everyone else from the shot (also keeping me out of water). I slipped up and totally soaked my shoes so I said screw it and just stood in the deepest part of the water to get one more picture of Tommy. Andy was up and asked me to get another picture of him going as high as he can. Soaked and short on time I was totally reluctant to do it but I did one last one anyways.

I got home later that day and just applied a preset I made that I usually use on my photos and work from there. Turns out this one was pretty underexposed and looked a tad out of focus so I pretty much trashed it from the start. I came back to the computer later and just tried to see how much I could fix it by bumping the exposure up a ton and boosting the whites, all it did was make it worse. Black and white was my last option because I really liked the colors of that place.
I played with every possible adjustment lightroom could offer in attempt to save this photograph and this is what I came up with.

Weird sometimes that the photos you may think are your weakest end up being the best in that set.

Details:
Canon 550D
1/200
f8
ISO: 200
@ 40mm w/ 40mm 2.8

1 Yongnuo 560 @ full power to the left of the rider near the ground.”

See more of Adam’s work here.

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Photo of the Week: Fabien Gane by Kevin Proust

Posted on September 9, 2013 by | Leave a comment

IMG_4721

This week’s photo is filled with symmetry and shapes, colors and textures. The trick is simple, but for a photograph like this, the trick doesn’t need to be crazy. The timing of the barspin is perfect- the front wheel is at 6 o’clock. The composition is precise and the framing of the action is neatly placed in front of a broad section of white wall.

“That was just a cold session between two rainy days in October 2012.
We wanted to shoot some “slopes” and this place situated at “Palais Sur Vienne” (a small town next to Limoges in France) is perfect for that.
It’s a spot where you can just about do anything: manuals, walls etc… and the marble is very clean to ride on.
To take this photo, I setup my gear across the street allowing me to take advantage of a distant view of the place. One difficulty was to avoid the flow of cars that would go in front of the lens. The lack of light obliged me to go up to 1600 ISO and open at f4 on my 70-200 Canon, to obtain a fast speed for this trick and therefore eliminate the motion blur, not having tripod and strobist with me.
With this frame, I wanted to show the symmetry of the place with the 4 cones in the foreground and the separation of the background in two part because of the pillar in the center and draw forward the color associated with the subject.
The only thing left to do was for Fab to do a beautiful Bar Spin on the right side of the setting and for me to take the shot at the apropriate time.

Canon 50D
ISO 1600
F4
1/640″

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Photo of the Week: Casey Smith

Posted on August 5, 2013 by | Leave a comment

IMG_5701

“I shot this photo of Aaron Robinson at Northside Skatepark in Norfolk, VA on April 19th of this year. Although it was a few months ago, I specifically remember shooting this because it was during a bowl jam that I put on.

There were two things that really made this photo difficult to achieve; the first being the framing. Previous to shooting, I noticed the gap in the tree line could cradle a rider jumping that hip perfectly, but it took me multiple tries to get the timing and angle just right; luckily Aaron’s tables are so on point, he was able to do them over and over.

The second issue I ran into while shooting this was the weather. Although unnoticeable in the photo, the winds were horribly gusty (35mph to be exact) and this specific skatepark is landscaped with mulch and wood chips, so debris was flying everywhere. This combination creates an extremely difficult situation for the rider, especially when jumping a seven foot tall hip, but Aaron handled it very well.

I was very pleased with the final product, not only because I captured one of Aaron’s perfect tabletops (I have repeatedly claimed that he has the best tables in Virginia), but the fact that I captured a memory from that day which will now stick with me forever.

Technical data:

Canon 60D
Canon 18-135mm
1/1250
f/4.5
ISO 500
Zoomed to 39mm”

Check out more of Casey’s work here.

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Photo of the Week: Mario Gorman

Posted on July 29, 2013 by | Leave a comment

IMG_3124-2

For the most part, I don’t like to post vertically-oriented photos, simply because they don’t display well on computer monitors, but this was too good to pass up. The composition of this image is impeccable- every vertical line is perfectly vertical. Although I’m not a fan of rules, the rule of thirds is strictly abided by. The timing is perfect. The light is nice- an optimal time of day for natural light photographs. It’s a pretty crazy tailwhip to boot and I could easily see this covering a magazine.

“For this photo I shot of Flo was somewhere in LA. Right away he climbed to the top and hammered it out. From where I was standing, which was completely at the bottom, I couldn’t get the angle I wanted, so I had someone give me a boost onto a platform about 10 feet high. It was around 5 or 6 o’clock with the sun out, blue skys and no clouds blocking it. I set my white balance to daylight and set the ISO to 200. For the shutter speed I shot at a 1000th of a second and the f/stop to 4.5. The camera I’m using is a Canon Rebel T3i and I’m using the stock lens it came with which is a 18-55 mm. I bought my camera four months ago and just been shooting as much as I can when I’m not working.”

Check out more of Mario’s work here.

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Photo of the Week: Zach Fernandez

Posted on July 15, 2013 by | Leave a comment

pushitastop

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.”

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Photo of the Week: Zach Gastin

Posted on July 8, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Bear Smith Highschool PIAS

Obviously it’s not the craziest trick, but sometimes you don’t even need that to make a great photograph. One of my first photos published was a smith grind on a flat ledge. I am a huge fan of the composition of this photo- the ledge and building are perfectly horizontal and the flagpoles are perfectly vertical. The rider is framed in front of that bush giving him a nice backdrop and helping him stick out of the frame. The lighting is simple but effective. The rider’s green shirt makes him pop out amazingly, contrasted against the red brick and his red bars and forks. Also the spokes in his back wheel follow the same pattern. The sky is close to being blown out but not, and it’s yellow evening hue is very pleasing.

“Went out to ride for an hour with Bear and Daddie Tone at the High School. Bear was doing some feebles on the ledge so I thought we could shoot something for the fun of it. I did not (and still don’t) have a light stand so I had Tone hold the flash for me. I was going to use the fisheye but I thought the 40mm would make a nice composition or something artistic like that and I didn’t want to switch lenses. After getting the light in a good spot Bear did a smith and it looked good. We most likely went to get ice cream after, because that is what we do every time.
Shot with a Canon t3i and 40mm 2.8 pancake. Light was from a Neewer TT560 triggered with a Cow Boy Studio trigger.”

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Photo of the Week: Josh McElwee

Posted on June 24, 2013 by | Leave a comment

EVAN_SMEDLEY_JOSH_MCELWEE_

“I shot this photo of Evan Smedley at Grindlab Skatepark in Camp Hill, PA on a late night in January of this year. Evan is the BMX manager at the park and has the entire place way too dialed. On this night, I noticed that he was getting a lot done on this pocket bowl corner setup. My first instinct was to shoot fisheye from the deck, but I decided against that in order to show the steepness of the transition and the thickness of the pool coping. We shot a handful of other tricks, but as soon as Evan did a toboggan I knew that it was going to look better than anything else we had previously shot.

I shot this with a Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200 f/4, Pocket Wizard Plus IIs, a Paul Buff Einstein strobe, and an Alien Bee 800. The lights came from the left and right, and were pointed at each other. The Einstein is at camera right, just out of frame, and feathered to the left a bit in order to keep Evan evenly lit. The Alien Bee is coming from camera left about 25 feet from the bowl corner, and is powered about a stop down from the main light.”

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