Jon had been eyeing this spot for a couple months, so one day we decided to hop in the car and actually check it out. Upon first glance the spot looked amazing. Then I started to actually examine the obstacle and it’s surroundings, which made me skeptical we would actually walk away with the prime photo. First of all, the bank to this rail is only about one foot wide, which makes for some easy spills by slipping off the sides (personal experience). In addition, the rail is super-wide, making soul tricks difficult to lock on. And lastly, this spot is in downtown San Jose on a busy street, so traffic was also another factor in the equation.

As Jon started to skate I began looking around to figure out my angle and lighting situation. I was pleasantly surprised to see there was a strong backlight coming through the buildings, so I decided to use that as a sort of rim light, to help separate him from the dark background. I metered for the backlight and set up my strobes accordingly. Before I knew it, Jon had already laced back royal, back nugen, topsoul, back unity, and was getting ready for the TTS that we originally planned to shoot. Just as he was feeling the juice, police rolled up and told us to pack it up—talk about a buzz kill. Who knows, maybe one day we will go back and shoot this spot again, but for now you’re stuck with the out-take of what could have been an even more amazing photo. — Brandon Smith