John Haynes / February 18th, 2008 / Photo Journal
PHOTO JOURNAL: John Haynes #7

Jeff Dalnas is a work horse. We shot this at about 10 pm after skating and shooting all day. I had not eaten in a long time, but we both agreed that we couldn’t pass up this rail at a university in Boston…

This spot had been shot before by Brayden Knell (Ian Moore) and published in Daily Bread, but I didn’t even recognize the spot from that shot. I wanted to show the curve of the rail, but the space is extremely narrow so lighting and angles were limited. I started by looking at it with my long lens straight on, which showed the curve pretty nicely, but the drop was invisible and the shot looked really boring. I realized if I shot fisheye and back lit the rail so that as the rail curved it would block light off of itself, producing that gradated highlight on the rail. Since the space is so physically narrow, the other light came from camera left, so Jeff is grinding straight into it. I generally try to light so people are doing tricks into the light, which usually produces a nice portrait light on their face. The way the light falls off on the building also frames the shot and makes the rail look huge by making the four story building in the background look tiny. Shooting fisheye like this can be scary— someone is plumeting down the rail straight at you, in the dark. Since the lens is so wide, you have to wait ’till they are as close to you as possible, or they will look tiny. It’s spooky as hell, and Jeff was coming off “early.” Not really early if you were watching the trick, but you have to really sit on something to make the photo look like you’re following through with the rail. Luckily, Jeff is totally pro to shoot with, and he did this crazy rail a few times ’till we got something we really liked.—John Haynes

Discussion / PHOTO JOURNAL: John Haynes #7

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  • BorisG - February 19th, 2008

    You should make more little photo-stories – soooo fun to read and it brings experience to noobs =)

    Good job on that picture!

  • alan - February 19th, 2008

    that looks like a good angle for filming, but he seems too far from center for a photo

  • dFabiano - February 20th, 2008

    Con.Artist Tour – This should have been in the article 🙁

  • AG (rollerchick) - February 27th, 2008

    totally agree with BorisG! you should definitely keep doin these photo journals! i love reading them and really getting an idea of how it works out. DOPE!

  • cian hackett (irishblader) - February 29th, 2008

    love the photo journals

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