Deer Park Boom!

Went for a session with the rollers on Sat, has been ages since we've all rolled together & felt like a school reunion, but way better!
Started off at Bonwit ledge & was fun, but after being spoilt with smooth surfaces in the park, the cracks caused more trouble than I remember. We moved on to Deer Park before we melted in the sun & was a good choice with the boom & run up in the shade. I was struggling to decide weather I should skate or shoot coz the spot looked fun, but decided to shoot a bit. Was a tricky spot to shoot being in the shade with dappled light & a brightly lit BG, but between all my flashes & D70 I managed ok.
We're all getting way too old & were done after 2 spots, granted it was really hot, but was a fun sesh & good to see all the guys again. Hopefully make a few more missions with the guys soon.

Ultimate-X

On the 20th of Feb the Waterfront was abused by BMX, MX & skaters in masses. Quite a scorcher of a day & was finding any form of shade to shoot from, but still managed to get a little crispy.
I shot the BMX most of the day & tried a few MX shots in their demos & left the skating to the other 1000 photographers there.
The BMX demos were sick, with all the usual suspects killing it. Mo with his double whips & 3 whips, Colin with some flip turndowns, Buddy just styling the crap out of everything & Wayne was on top form dominating the session! Two huge front flips, both clean as hell, dialed 3 tables & a nice 7. Havn't seen one of those from him before & got it perfect.
The MX guys were jaw dropping as usual jumping right over the BMX track & last trick of the day saw Sick Nick backflip the gap.
Everyone moved to Assembly afterwords, but after a day shooting in the sun, being nice & smelly & still needing to drive home I opted out of that one.

All in all a great day & event by OSP.

If you're keen to see these guys in action get yourself to zone 7 this weekend (6 & 7th) for the Pro-X

Night Skies

I was up working on pics on Tuesday evening & heard a little rumble of thunder & went out to have a look. For the first time in quite a while there was lighting & proper forks, not just clouds lighting up. I've been keen to try to get a shot of lightning for a while & went to get my cams & tripods & started to shoot away with 30 sec exposures & as the one ended I just clicked another one & kept going for at least an hour. It wasn't too serious of a storm, so the lightning wasn't coming to often, but managed to catch one so nicely it feels like I composed the shot knowing exactly where the lightning was going to strike. Without any cropping I got a full frame of lightning over Stellenbosch. I could've stopped there, but was greedy & hoping for more & got a few little ones, but nothing half as good so I merged the other 2 into 1 shot. Am amped I managed quite so well & am keen for the next storm to give it another go.

Thursdaze with Chris

Chris & I went out for another session around Stell yesterday. We've both been keen to session & shoot some different stuff & not just rail after rail. The 1st spot was at Boland College & was something quite different, but cool. We then went to Coetzenberg to session a boom & with our luck for crowds lately there was rugby tryouts for the 1st yr students, so it was packed! Is kinda good in a way coz then we blend in a bit better & get to session longer. This time was a bit better than the last as far as comments go & most people were quite interested in what we were up to & getting amped when they saw Chris roll (most people in SA have never seen real rollerblading live). Makes me love what we do that bit more! It was quite a tricky spot to hit being so high, so Chris rolled on a skinny bit of pavement with one foot & then hopped onto his trick. So hard to focus on the pavement & then immediately on the boom, but Chris is a champ & got a few nice tricks on it.

Again the shots are being saved for The Conference interview, but have 2 that we're not using.

Medieval Mini

Went for a shoot with Malcolm at Kevin's mini last Sunday. Hooked up with Mo & were off to Kevin's place. I'd seen shots of his mini, so had an idea of what to expect. My expectations were not 100% tho, thought it was a 5ft ramp only to find something a little larger & was more like 7ft. A nice big ramp with a castle as a backdrop with the sun setting... what more could I ask for? Started off shooting long & was struggling a little with the strong light through the trees & loosing the riders in there. I needed more pop & managed to find some angles with darker more solid BG's & as the light got softer I could overpower it through the trees a bit more & got a few straight on shots. Anticipating a little bit of nice sunset colours with the castle I left the fisheye for last. Nothing too amazing as far as sunsets go unfortunately, but the low light is always good to get nice deep blue/magenta skies.

As usual Mo was putting down trick after trick & Kevin was nailing some big 3's to fakie & learning tables & getting stoked off the pics seeing how much better he was getting them.

A nice chilled Sunday afternoon session & a few shots in the bag. Always a good way to end a weekend!

Chris on Conference

My friend Chris has recently been put on the Xsjado team as an ambassador for The Conference & was asked to get some shots together for an interview.
We went for a shoot with yesterday afternoon & started off with some portraits near the park he's put together & then went off to hit some street. Chris is a champ & we got 3 spots down in a 3 hours despite the traffic & madness of the student carnival. He's not only a damn good skater, he makes sure he leaves spots just as he found them & with the help of the BEST security guard ever, (we asked & he let us session the 2nd spot & got some soap & a sponge & helped Chris clean the wall when we were done) made my day to know there are such cool people! Those are staying under wraps for now tho, but here are a few of the portrait shot's we're not using, so thought I'd give a sneak peak.

Lighting Setup

Keep your eyes on The Conference Blog & Be-mag to see what we've been up to.

Downhill Hotness

Last Sunday was the year opener for Western Cape Downhill in Paarl & was hotness on all fronts.
When it's warm in CT you're guaranteed a few extra degrees in Paarl, which took the thermometer to just over 40°C. I decided to scrap my usual plan of catching a shuttle up & walking down the track because the top section is completely open with not a spot of shade anywhere. The lower half of the track is more bushy & into a pine forest, so stuck to that.

I have shot the Paarl track quite often, so know it quite well & have shot so much of it I needed to look for different spots or at least try different angles to what I've done before (I can't shoot the same shots twice unless there is something I really want to improve on). I walked up to a small rock hop through trees that leads into an off chamber granite slope. I had shot this spot with my fisheye before, but thought there was still some potential in this spot that I hadn't managed to capture, so opted for a longer shot & after a bit of "gardening" I had a nice rock to stand on (in the shade). It was still practice, so guys weren't going all out, but still really amped on what I got there! While I was setting up I heard someone sliding, turned around just to catch Devin Chadbourn catch a thin tree with his visor. Thanks God he was wearing a leatt brace, coz from the way it looked it could've been quite serious. Went to make sure he was ok & was fine, but a bit shaken.

After the 1st spot I wanted to set up a little way down the track, but patchy sunlight was not working with me, so went down to the road gap. I normally steer clear of it, because it's normally the hotspot for anyone else shooting. Luckily this time there were only a few spectators, so set up & chilled there for the 1st run.

After that I headed to the last berm that basically ends on the finish line. As I was walking up I saw Gary hit it & get pretty flat & had never shot it before, so was keen for it. Started off long & Stefan went over the berm & nearly sent one of my flashes to hospital for the 2nd time, but luckily it was safe! I wasn't really feeling the long shots, didn't quite capture the energy I was seeing, so opted for my good old fisheye & played around a bit. Was waiting for someone to really tear it up & Jonty Neethling did just that. Nearly ate it, but managed to ride it out & gave me a nice dust shower. That was just what I was after tho & was amped with what I got.

Check Crank for more info & results.


Thanks to Stefan Garlicky for organising the race! Good to see someone so young really doing something good for the sport.