Weak End

With all the rain lately it's been touch & go on the weekends, but this Saturday was a scorcher so decided to get out & enjoy the day. Met Sam & the crew at the Stellenbosch Airfield & there was a veterans day & we were hoping to get close to the runway, but heard about it just too late & wasn't able to get too close, but got a few shots from the sidelines, but Sam & I weren't really feeling it, so got a few shots of the old cars they had there & just relaxed & enjoyed the sun.

We moved on to PRG & rolled the double set for a bit. I was keen to roll a bit & hit a few tricks with Sam filming Andrew & I. Got the cam out to get a shot of Andrew trying a FS shuvit. The ground is pretty harsh at the landing & Andrew took one to the hands & was luckily not too bad, but didn't want to fall on 'em again & wreck himself completely, so we left it for another day.

Koos joined us as we left PRG & went to meet the brothers Grimm (AD & Matt) at Markotter, but there was a function on, so went to hit the De Jagers gap. Andrew popped a few nice tweaked ollies, but the destruction was left to Matt who ended the spot with a nollie BS bigspin & landed super solid. Was quite interesting shooting in town when it's a bit more busy & had a few people stop & watch for a bit & again the cops were around,but not bothered by us too much luckily. The hobo's in Stellenbosch are moving up in their needs & wasn't asked for a R2 or R5, but 1 guy asked me for R100 & another for R20... damn... inflation is hectic...even for bergies. haha

After that we went to have a look at Eikerstad & see if we could get a session on the banks there, but the schools are on lock down & was no way we could get in, so opted to go chill in the mountain for sunset & went our separate ways after that.
__________________________________________________________________

Planes in action

Vintage Cars

Andrew - FS Shuvit attempt Andrew - Tweakage Koos & James were our tripods Matt - nollie BS bigspin LACED!

Whacky Wednesday

Got a ring from Sam on Wednesday saying they were rolling the park & shooting, I still had some work to do & went down to town a bit later, by then they were finished in the park & keen to roll some street, but the rain was on & off & Henri fell in the water & was soaking when I hooked up with them. We went to Mystics to wait out the rain & they had a fire going, so Henri could dry off nicely.

After a drink the sun came out & it was drying up nice & fast & we needed to do something before the beer gave the guys the lazy legs, so went to a lil driveway gap that Wian was keen to tre flip.
Was quite a tricky spot to shoot & had to flatten myself against a wall & use the 10.5mm & tried hard not to get myself in the shot. A hobo pitched up & was amped on the skating & was cheering Henri & Wian on & was some good entertainment. Henri got some nice BS shuvits & Wian was getting pretty frustrated with the tre, but landed it perfect eventually, but obviously after the tape in the vid cam ended & everyone was about to leave, so didn't get any footage of it.

As we were finishing up Mark G drove past & said that Bennet & him were gonna test out his trail in progress & I should come get some pics in a bit & so glad I took him up on that & went up a bit later & saw Bennet getting all his gear ready & went in search for Mark. Neither of us had been there before, but Mark kinda explained where it was, so wandered around & found him working on a berm & got straight to the action. The course is still under construction, but is looking sick! Not a steep track with huge jumps, just lil rollers & jumps & some really nice corners. Mark showed me the best one & I set up there with not much light left for them to ride in, but the sunset made a good BG for me & working with the flashes in low light is so much fun, so I was amped. They were just testing the track to see where it needed some adjustments, but were still hitting the corner pretty fast & was my 1st time using the 10.5mm on biking like this & was loving it. The light disappeared fast, so didn't shoot too long, but was a good warm up of things to come from that place... really keen to shoot there again. We chilled a bit & enjoyed the last lil bit of sunset colours before we headed down the track & Mark told me what he had planned for the rest & it sounds like it's gonna be good!

So after the rain looking a bit gloomy it turned out to be a good day with 2 nice shoots, so was amped it made a turn for the better.
________________________________________________________________

Henri - BS Shuvit

Wian - Tre Flip Attempts

Landed

Sam & his new friend

The Crew - Henri, Wian, Andrew & Sam

___________________________

Bennet

Mark

Bennet

Afternoon in Andringa

Got a message from Chris on Saturday & he was keen for a street session/shoot in his new Xsjado's & was his 1st street session in them. He was on the way back from a friends wedding, so organized to meet him in town a bit later.

Hooked up with him in Andringa Str. & went from there... just as we left the parking lot I spotted a lil bump to wallride that is relatively new & got a few shots there... as we began Robert & Konrad ( 2 skateboarding brothers) drove past & joined us on our lil mission. After Chris was done with the wallride we went to the De Jagers gap & got a few of Chris & Konrad popped it & did some nice melon's over it. Was getting a few strange looks with all the flashes & stuff set up & the cops were driving past just about every 5min, but luckily weren't too worried about what we were up to, so we were left to do our thing in peace.

Just around the corner from the gap are some rails with a bit of a drop on the side & just got a shot of Chris doing a back farf on one & he was keen to try another strange trick on a short down rail on a wall... after a bit of discussion as to what the best angle for the trick would be I opted for a bit of a longer shot with the 105mm & glad I did... with the fisheye any angle I tried didn't quite show the trick properly or made it look like it was a mistake or half miss. Chris only wanted to do it once, so I had to make sure all was good before he went for it & we both managed to get it in the 1st try, so were both happy.

Mark G & Mark H pitched up & said the flashing kinda gave us away as it was pretty dark by now & just chilled & chatted a while & decided to call it a day & went our seperate ways.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Chris - Bump Mute Wallride

Chris - Mute

Konrad - Melon (dark)

Konrad - Melon (pan)

Chris - Shifty Zero Spin

Chris - Back Farf

Chris - Stepdown Soul

Modeling in the Sticks

After the lil test model shoot with Richard & my mom I was pretty amped to go to a more interesting location to try some more. Serious portraits are not really my thing, but I feel I need to try a bit of everything before I say weather I like it or not & in this case I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was... granted it was pretty much just Richard & I fooling around & shooting, so couldn't be too bad.

I had my eye on a field near my house because it has some nice reeds that I thought would make a nice background, so Rich & I grabbed as many outfits as we could find, from our normal gear to some more formal ones just to have a bit of variety. We ended up only using about half of what we took with us, but was more than enough.

We went down in the late afternoon because I wanted to use the sun again & the warm light in the reeds is always good, so we went down & set up & started shooting away. For most of the shots I used the sun as my main light source to light up the face & used my 2 flashes. One as a fill for the shadows the sun created & the other as a strong rim light, but did try a few other set ups, but was really happy with my 1st setup, so used that mostly. My mom was curious to see what we were up to again & she came down to get a few shots of us & in her typical fashion kinda took over for a bit. I gave her & Rich my cam for a bit & got on the other side of the lens... was pretty weird coz whenever I get shots of myself its with the fisheye & I can take it myself, so felt a bit strange just standing there & leaving it up to them. I definitely belong behind the camera & not in front of it!!

Am pretty amped with the results & is completely different to what I normally do, so will try get hold of some people keen to model for me & try some more soon.
____________________________________________________________________

Lighting Setup

^Richard^

looking nice & dodgy

^Me^

Portrait Practice

A good friend of mine is down in Stell for the week, visiting from PTA & while I have him around I decided to try a slightly more serious portrait shoot & test my 105mm on people. Only have 2 flashes, so waited for the sun to get nice & low to use as a 3rd light source.

Got all set up with a few tests & was really amped on how sharp that lens is & just kept playing with the lighting & different poses & just let Richard do his thing & relax & only posed him a little for a few of them. The fisheye had to come out for a bit too, but got pretty hooked on the more classic style & quickly went back to the 105mm.

My mom came out to see what we were up to & had to get in on the action, so got a few shots of her too.

Was pretty amped on the results & hardly did any post on them & the 105mm will definitely be used for this a lot more in the future!!! Going to harass Richard a bit later again & see what we can manage.

___________________________________________________________________

Lighting Set Up