Skateboarding in the new year

On January 2nd I had the opportunity to go out and shoot with skateboarders John Evans, Pete Simpson, Chris Roque, Clint Beswick, and Justin Ackers. We met up in Durham, NC to warm up at the skatepark and discuss what spots to go to during the day. That saturday was the first clear sunny day in the past few weeks so we knew we would be getting some good shots. We went to NC central campus to look at a handrail but were immediately asked to leave, which is a normal thing to happen at schools. From there we went to a ledge spot where Justin Ackers did a boardslide pop boardslide and a gap to boardslide. After that we came to a large handrail for Chris Roque to backside 5050 with little effort. After celebrating a successful spot we headed to another handrail that had a small curb at the bottom of it. Clint Beswick quickly landed a backside crooked grind. Chris Roque attempted a backside lipslide but after a few tries fell back and hit his head on the ground, he stayed cautious to get up and walked away fine. Pete Simpson followed up Chris with a frontside feeble. After everyone getting some good shots on that rail we headed to NC state campus to session some benches and a stairset in the brickyard. It was a very productive day and I had a great time getting out with some new people to shoot, looking forward to getting back out there with these talented guys.

Justin Ackers | gap to boardslide

_P5A9747_color.jpg

Cris Roque | backside 5050

Clint Beswick | backside Crooked grind

Chris Roque | bailed back lip

Pete Simpson | Frontside Feeble 

I almost always use a flash when I am shooting so I can have control over the lighting situation and to help draw attention to the skater. This is the setup I used for the handrail spot. I had a beauty dish on a boom so i could quickly make adjustments for each skaters trick. I put the flash off to the side to act as a fill light since the sun was coming in to light the front of the spot.