Yosemite, 2011

Well on our family vacation I managed to shoot a little bit. Challenged myself to only use my 50mm since I was limited in how much time I had to shoot. I had lot of trouble with lens flare, but managed a few shots without it. One shot in this group has it, but overall I like the image. The falls were incredible with the largest runoff in 35yrs. Of course most important was hanging with my family, these shots are just a vacation bonus.

Warner Hot Springs

We had our last blast at Warner Hot Springs in June. The Pala Indians bought it, and we probably won’t be able to afford to go back for a long while. I finally got around to processing the images from that last trip…

ASE, 5-18-10

ASE this week wasn’t too crowded this week, but I got a few shots. For the most part I worked on shooting with extreme backlighting. Figured out where to put my light next time. A few I managed to get the light behind the skater, but looking afterwards I can’t decide if I care where it is. Comments?

A.S.E. 5-4-10

So another Tuesday Bruise Day went down at ASE. Lot’s of good skating and a few shot by me. I forgot to wear shoes so I was forced to stay behind the end of the small 1/4 pipe. I don’t mind shooting from a pool deck or ramp deck (a big one) in sandals, because there’s room to run away and not many boards end up on top. But, out in the flats is really sketchy. I was nervous all night. Plus, standing at the end of the coping means lots of boards heading at my face and camera. Luckily I didn’t get hit this time. Well, here’s my favorites. The rest will be up one ASE’s website or Facebook page soon.

A.S.E. 4-27-10

Well, it was another Tuesday Bruise Day at ASE, and it lived up to it’s name….

down for the count

And the close up...

And here’s the rest of my favorites. The others will be up on the ASE site, and/or on their Facebook page.

best bail of the night

Brandt pulled 3 or 4 of these.

A sick nose blunt

Dusty just squeaked this one by.

Don’t forget to come next week. Things start up around 7pm or 8pm every Tuesday.

A.S.E. 4-13-10

ASE changed it up again. The wall is gone and now we have a half-pipe. Bunch of new heads were there this week. Here’s my favorites. The other half should be on ASE’s new site later today.

A.S.E. 3-30-10

Lot of new faces last night. Lots of fun. Lots of slams. Tuesday Bruise Day at A.S.E. lived up to it’s name. Check out the rest on the A.S.E. Facebook page.

A.S.E skate session, Tues. 3-23-10

Well last night went off. Some guys showed up (never did get their names) and put on a clinic in shred. Hopefully a few of my shots get that point across. I’m still trying to work out my lighting… But, more than that I need to figure out where to stand. I’m used to, and therefore like, standing on the deck at coping level. But, there’s no room for that, or least not during a regular free for all session. I also got hit by quite a few boards last night. Nothing big, just lots of annoying little pains today. Lost a bit of DNA for one shot though, you’ll be able to tell which one. Most of all though I’m thinking I need to get my gear insured. This spot is just begging for another broken camera.

A.S.E skate session, 3-16-10

Here’s the shots from last Tuesday at A.S.E. Highlights included Colby’s one footer thing on the wall ride and Nick’s son Hunter riding first holding his dad, and then on his own. Way to go bud.

A.S.E skate session, 3-8-10

Joined up with the guys at ASE for a little skate session tuesday night. After rebuilding the wall ride…

Slasher, Joe and Dusty tore it up for a bit. It’s probably been a year since I shot skaters, but I got a few I like. Next week we’ll be doing it again and I’ll work on getting more separation between the subject and background. It’s tough since the ramp is up against two big white walls. This night I used a 2 light setup. One Lumedyne on a boom with a diffuser. It was hung over the ramp from the loft above and set at 100w/s. The second light was to my right (about 3′) on a light stand, it too was a Lumedyne. I paired it with a 46″ Softlighter and set the power to 200w/s.

This is Slasher. He’s the main man as he built the ramps. He got a sweet tail block on the extension, but not being forewarned I couldn’t get close enough in time.

This is Dusty, he too was killing it.

Then there was Joseph. He was dropping tricks left and right and I got a bunch of him. Here’s three of them.

After the session was over, it was decided that the extension wasn’t big or hard enough. Nate (one of the owners of ASE) said there was a parking block out back. The tape measure proclaimed destiny. 37.5″ parking block, 37.5″ wide extension…

Can’t wait for the next session. Since we should have more time, I’ll be able to not only tweak my lighting, but I’ll get some wall ride shots from the other end too.