Tag Archives: Photo of the Week

Photo of the Week: Nick Hayday

Posted on December 16, 2013 by | Leave a comment

jim-cool

This photo… What is there to say that can’t be said by simply looking at it? It’s cool, it’s great, it’s clean, it’s pleasing. It’s fun, it’s simple, it’s trails, it’s BMX.

“A not so typical Sunday at some trails in the darkest depths of Surrey, UK. I met Jimmy Rushmore (United, Bicycle Union, Volt BMX) and a couple of others at the trails, to find the locals had gone on a day trip somewhere else. After a bit of patching and some watering, Jimmy started jumping the “Cool Runnings” line, which runs counter to all the other lines. The jump he’s hitting is a big step down, and from this angle is hidden behind some trees and just makes me laugh every time I see someone hit it and appear in the clearing, so I thought I’d try to capture it, with the hope that the foreground lines would give the shot some context.

I usually shoot a 2 or 3 flash setup, but purposely only took one flash aiming to practice controlling the fall off of light on to the trees, fairly successfully on this shot. Photo was shot in early August around 7.00pm on a Nikon D7000 using a 35mm f1.8 lens at f2.2 1/160 , flash (a Nikon SB-26 at 1/4 +0.7) was placed below and to left of the rider.

Massive thanks to the locals for letting us ride and shoot at some amazing trails.”

Check out more of Nick’s work here.

See more of Jimmy’s riding here.

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Photo of the Week: Kyle Emery-Peck

Posted on December 2, 2013 by | 1 comment

henny bad boyz

If I had to choose one word to describe this photograph, it would have to be “clean”. Plain and simple, this photo is so very clean. The lighting is balanced and even, the composition is proper- the natural shape of the dirt points your eye directly to the rider. The action is framed nicely in front of some dark trees, helping the subject to pop from the background. The colors are pleasing and the timing is perfect. I really like how his tires are covered in dirt and contrast against the dark green trees.

“I was riding Freedom 40 with all the dudes one day taking a bunch of runs, and I realized I should probably pull the camera out before it gets too dark. I set up on this particular dub because I haven’t shot it yet, and Henny was snapping some mean bad boys, (opp tabes). I used 4 flashes and shot it with my trusty Hasselblad 500cm. I think this is Ektar 100 film.

With the lighting I used 4 strobes. 1 up high lighting Hennessey from the left at 1/2 power. Another flash rigged halfway up that same lightstand lighting the landing at a 1/4 power with a diffuser. The 3rd flash was camera right at 1/2 power lighting the lip/ back of the landing. And the 4th flash way camera right lighting the lip at 1/2 power. I think I shot it at 1/500 f/6.3″

Check out more of Eric’s riding here.

More of Kyle’s work can be viewed here.

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Photo of the Week: Luis Pinzon

Posted on November 18, 2013 by | Leave a comment

IMG_5679

“This photo is special to me because its a reminder of one of the best pool sessions I’ve ever had. I’ve been riding for 17 years as of now and this is one of the best pools I’ve ever ridden. I’m no @deanshralp when it comes to pool riding, but I’ve ridden my fair share of great pools. The fact that we were able to shred this pool all day, with 8 dudes and 2 pitbulls, in a completely inhabited apartment complex is unreal. I think it was the perfect storm of its location in a quiet city with a southern mentality. This combined with the salsa music we were blasting put us in good favor with the local maintenance man.

Everyone was killing it this session. We knew that this was the first and last session we would likely have in this pool, so everyone had something they wanted to get done. Zachery Rogers was on another level though. Somehow this behemoth of a man has the ability to blast completely vertical obstacles with ease and style. His airs were complete beast mode this particular day.

I resisted the temptation to just ride and my camera actually left the bag. My primary interest is nature and party/drunk photography, so most sessions I never take the camera out. I shot this photo using a Canon 60D with the Canon 17-55 f/2.8. This lens is JB welded to my camera body; I love it. Photo was shot at 17mm with shutter at 1/800 and aperture at f/7.1 and an iso of 500. I didn’t have the patience to take my flash out because I wanted to ride so bad.”

Check out more of Luis’ work here.

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Photo of the Week: Joshua Lucero

Posted on October 28, 2013 by | Leave a comment

LI2A1353_SM2

This photo immediately struck me as soon as I saw it. The lighting is wonderful, with a beautiful rimlight to the far right and a perfectly exposed and warmed fill light from the left. The composition is good- but almost centered. No big deal. I love the subdued yellow of the rail, the muted red in the sign and the deep blue gradient in the sky. The timing is on. More than anything, I love the shallow depth-of-field here. It really gives the rider an extra pop out of the background.

“Since breaking my ankle a couple of months ago I was stoked to go by the skatepark in my small hometown of Portales, New Mexico to hang out and pedal around a bit with Jaron Turnbow and Michael Sanchez for the afternoon. Feeling good with walking around this past Sunday, I asked if they wanted to go check out this spot that had been left by the road construction crews working in town.

We showed up to the spot as the sun began to set and they went to work moving the sign into different areas of this small parking lot trying to get a feel for it. I set up one light at first and gelled it to compensate for the warm sunlight and we shot a table and a few other tricks to flat before they moved the kicker close to the yellow rail that enclosed the parking lot.

A few warm up runs over the rail and Jaron started throwing tuck no-handers over it and seemed like he was getting pretty comfortable with the set-up so I called out a barspin. I still had the strobe left of Jaron gelled with a ¼ CTO about 15 feet away zoomed to 35mm and the strobe to the right of him I left bare 15 feet away zoomed to 85mm (would have had both strobes gelled but I was a bit absent minded and only had one ¼ CTO on hand). After one dead sailor over it Jaron nailed it second try.

I really liked the back of the College Cleaners building for this shot because of the old maroon sign and accidentally lucked out and realized after the fact that this composition had the sign lined up with our kicker set-up.

My set-up for this shot was my 5D markIII with a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 as well as two 580ex strobes set at ¼ power triggered with pocket wizards. I rarely take my 50mm out and I decided I needed to start using it more recently. I shot it almost wide open at 1.8 to get a shallow depth of field and kept the background a little under exposed with an ISO of 50 and my shutter synced at 1/200th.”

Check out more of Joshua’s work here.

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Photo of the Week: Brodie Sturm

Posted on March 11, 2013 by | 1 comment

What first caught my eye was the extensive dip of this 360… Pretty crazy style right there. The merit of this photograph comes from the lighting, with that rim light popping him right out of the background (with help from the orange bike). The composition is formally structured and the attention is led directly to the action. Mostly though, it’s just a crazy 360.

“This photo came from my first shoot with Joe Battaglia a few weeks ago. I had just picked up new Promaster flashes and was looking to test them out. I had met Joe a few weeks ago and talked about shooting soon, so I gave him a call and we made our way from the chicago suburbs up to 4Seasons in Milwaukee. After a few hours of shredding we started shooting. We took a couple shots on the frontside of the step up then moved to the backside for the corked three. I choose the angle I did because of strong leading lines coming from the left side that pull your eye into the photo. My first flash is a Promaster FL1 placed to camera right at about 45°, at 1/4 power. This flash provides the main light for the shot. my second flash is a Promaster DSS 6000 studio slave at the face of the jump at camera right, about 145°, and set it to 1/2 power. This flash will provide the rim light that will separate Joe from the background. Both flashes are paired with Promaster receivers with a transmitter on camera. This was shot with a Canon 5D mkII body and Canon 17-35mm f/2.8L lens, exposure f/5.6 @ 1/160sec ISO 400.”

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Photo of the Week: Laureano Vallejos

Posted on February 18, 2013 by | 1 comment

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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Photo of the Week: Derek Riggs

Posted on February 5, 2013 by | Leave a comment

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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