For the last five or so years I have gone to skate sessions with a camera, and it has taken me on a ride I never thought possible. From snapping photos for “Any Given Day” and other small online publications on a borrowed Canon AE-1 in west-central Minnesota, to shooting and assisting large commercial jobs for national ad-agencies, it all started with skating. Many of those captured moments have been seen by thousands of eyes in the pages of Be-Mag, ONE, and other websites and print ads, but the photos still pile up. Now, thanks to the efforts of ONE, my photos will have another outlet in the form of a photo journal. And though it will still never scrape the surface of the stockpile of photos that has amassed over the years, it will hopefully entertain you for part of your day. Please enjoy the efforts of many years, many rolls of film, many digital files, and many talented skaters. See the rest of this image inside! – John Haynes
Chaz Miller and some of our friends from New Ulm, which is in southern Minnesota, were up for a competition. Competitions usually equal “suck” for photographers. True, it brings talent to town, but shooting at the competition is a joke at best─everyone gets hurt, and if you do manage to comission some healthy skaters to come shoot afterwards, there is usually a train of about twenty cars that you cannot shake. All these “suck” factors were in play along with bad weather which drove us indoors for this particular session. We went to a ledge/line spot and found this cool old thing. As the masses entertained themselves on the ledge, Chaz and I started shooting this thing. I knew we had to do something to make it pop so i asked if he could Fishbrain one of the inside tray sliders. He said, “Yeah,” so I set up my gear. The key light is kicking his face and elongating the shadow of the slider so you can see what he is grinding on, there is another light for fill, and a third just barely putting a little love in the inside of this object.
So this is what we do in Minnesota, and there’s plenty more where that came from. See you all again next week for another installment of my Photo Journal.
awsome pic John.
awsome pic John. and chaz is the man
you should come to iowa and shoot youd be surprised what youd come up with
gangster
yeah john, glad to see your doing well. see you when i can see.
yeah john, glad to see your doing well. see you when my eyes open, peace.
Shawn Mallory, where at in iowa are you?
wow, wonder where they got the idea to do a “PHOTO JOURNAL” and talk about phtography.
yeah, you would think they would come up with some other name instead of copying radius media. I got my copy of radius media yesterday and they must have known about the section because Wes Driver wrote the intro for it!! Why????
Well actually we haven’t seen radius media… and the use of the words “photo journal” is by no means original or unique. I guess we should steer clear of using the word “media” as well.
Youre so right “blow me” and “who cares”. Photographers shouldn’t be given a forum to showcase their work! I would much rather have one “photo journal” in the rollerblading industry. Especially since this is updated weekly online, and the other one is in a startup magazine that isnt widely distributed yet. Isn’t Radius Media is just copying Rejects? Just be grateful you get to see awesome photos.
There is so much excellent un-used photography, why not showcase it on the web which more people seem to explore more then a magazine…
I have to say, I throughly enjoy this photo. I also enjoy some of the technical tidbit of lighting. What I would love to see more often is not just the story behind the photo (which I am glad I see here, unlike many photos where you just know the tricker and skater) but how the photo was created – equipment, settings, lighting. Maybe it is me, but as amatuer photographer, I’m interested in what everyone else is doing. And with no experience in shooting rollerblader photos let alone with lighting setups, I think it would help the up and comers get some ground and understand the asthetic and the technical side of photography. This is especially useful since more and more people are becoming involved in media – graphics, video, fine arts, photography, etc. Just a thought really.
cool spot, nice shot. the light in the sink makes it. too bad bladers always gotta be wearing all black.
i think this is a really good idea. i hate how when you see a trick in a video and a couple flashes go off, you usually never get to see that picture. maybe now we’ll see some more good photos.