John Haynes is unstoppable. Or at least the seemingly-never-ending stream of photos coming from Minneapolis thanks to his efforts is unstoppable. Either way, we’ve always got plenty of John’s work swirling around, so here’s a new PHOTO JOURNAL showcasing the wonder of natural light… and a really nice AO Soul. — ONE

There is a misconception among skaters that we skate photographers hate natural light. To clear this up I’ll explain—we don’t hate natural light, we just hate not being able to control light. Often times the natural light at a spot would be great for us if we got to pick the exact time to go to a spot, however, we all know that this is not how skate shoots work. Since most skate sessions happen in the middle of the day, you see us cursing the contrast of the sun beating down from straight over head. On the flip side, you see us getting excited on overcast days when we can use our lights to their full potential.

This photo of Josh Ulrichson is an example of how sweet natural light can be. We got to this spot during early evening in the fall, when the light is lower in the sky. The sun just dipping behind the trees offered the cool splashes of light on the rail and the whole scene. I did use one strobe, from high back right, to help Josh’s black shirt stand out from the natural shadows occurring on the trees behind him. To be honest, I should have turned that strobe down quite a bit, but it’s not bad.

This photo is a great example of perfect circumstances coming together to make the whole shot just look a lot more natural. Throw in Josh’s extremely cool AO Soul 360 Revert, and my job was as easy as pulling the trigger. — John Haynes