Here are a few of Ryan Sher, from the same Kink “Destroyer Tour” trip in 2000 as the Dave Young photos I posted the other day. Ryan was referred to as “Kickflip” on most of this trip, since at the time he was really into crankflip tricks. Somewhere along the trip he picked up the Misfits dolls, which we used as a prop in a similar photo which ran in the Ride Magazine story. I think the one we used was an icepick on a sub-box (I don’t have the issue in front of me to confirm that).

These days Ryan is the man behind Subrosa and, like me, lives in Portland. You can check out a more recent shot of Ryan after the jump.

This photo, pretty much sums up the last eight years, except for the shoe throwing. I shot it in ‘04 when I lived in Central, Pennsylvania, along Route 45 near Woodward Camp in the heart of Amish country. You could really take this statement in two ways: Only someone who would “Drink Busch would vote for Bush.” Unfortunately, though, this one was likely meant as “I love Shitty Beer and I want to See Global Opinion of the US Hit an All-Time Low.” With the end of the monarchy, we’ll see what happens next. If nothing else, the Change has greatly increased the value of my collection of Shepard Fairey’s work!!!

Most importantly, the new year marks a smoking ban in Portland. This will also mean laundrymats will see a decrease in business.

That’s right. Dave Fucking Young, shot in 2000. I don’t know how else to describe him. I met Dave in 1999 when I moved to California. Around that time he was filming for Dave Parrick’s video “Nowhere Fast,” where he produced a part which could be considered one of the best BMX street video parts of all time. It was ahead of its time.

I went on a few trips with Dave in the next couple years, including the Kink “Destroyer Tour” which I shot for a feature while I was working at Ride BMX Magazine. Dave was actually on the cover that issue, which was also my first Ride cover photo. These two shots are outakes from that trip (I think they were actually in a Kink catalog later that year) which took place in the summer of 2000.

I found a few other photos from that trip including a couple more of Dave, Jim Cielincki, and Ryan Sher which I’ll post sometime in the future. But for now, it’s Dave Young!

A couple portraits from 2006: Fabiola da Silva and Jeremy Stenberg (shortly after breaking both legs).

Eight inches of snow. I’m told this doesn’t happen very often here in Portland. Being from the East Coast, to me eight inches is a mild snowstorm, but in a city without much of a snow removal plan, it makes for a mess. While driving around the city checking things out, we stopped by Burnside Skatepark, one of the few homeless shelters to have ever appeared in a video game, and shot a few photos of the park covered in snow. It’s under the bridge, but all the blowing snow has covered most of the park. Unfortunately for some unlucky soul, their blanket is now frozen inside a puddle in the bowl. Hopefully they aren’t still in it. More photos after the jump.

Studio holiday email card above. It is snowing in Portland. We’ve had several inches today already, and it’s been constant flurries for the last few days. Global warming appears to have missed a spot. Click on the image to see it a bit bigger.

I’ve been playing with the Nikon D90 a bit lately, which is the latest DSLR from Nikon, and it shoots HD video. While the D90 is marketed more as a “consumer” body, the HD video functionality has a lot of Pros toying with it, exploring the future of cameras. Canon has also released its 5D MarkII recently, which also has video built in (there’s is even a little larger file size at the moment, boasting 1080p as opposed to 720p of the Nikon). Beyond changing photography as we know it, these cameras open up doors for film-makers and videographers as well. Achieving depth of field with standard video cameras is tricky, and getting there requires expensive 35mm lens adapters. This entire camera kit is about half the cost of a basic 35mm adapter for a DV or HD video camera. AND you can use a full range of Nikon (or Canon if you are shooting the 5D) lenses, from fisheye to super-telephoto.

While both cameras are a bit finicky, and require a bit of “fooling” into proper settings and optimized footage, some great results can be had. In other words, you can manually control your exposure, but it takes a few tricks in the way of locking the exposure, and then adjusting the aperture manually on the lens. You’re also limited to manual focus in video mode, so planning out shots is essential, and a tripod is very, very useful.

Despite a few quirks which will no doubt evolve, this camera is fun to play with, and from a photo standpoint has all the features the average user would need. From a pro standpoint, it’s smaller making it a bit harder to hold with large lenses (then again if you have small hands, this could be a benefit), it lacks a pc port, and the flash sync is lower than I prefer at 1/200th of a second. The small size does make it more carry-around friendly (my main camera is the more weighty, girthy D3 series which for carrying around the town, it’s not ideal). The image files produced by this camera rival the higher end bodies for sure.

This weekend I brought it out to try out a tough shooting situation: a snowstorm. White ground, white sky, and white snow blowing around everywhere. Quite drab really, and not ideal conditions by any means. But we’ve seen a ton of footage floating around from these suckers in great, blue sky conditions. I took it the other direction, into a total shitstorm, with much of the filming happening late in the day as the light got poor. I also took a couple photos too (one of which is above), and tried to emulate how the “average” person might shoot an action shot. I didn’t lug out a lighting kit with multiple strobes, it’s just a straight on camera flash shot, though I did use an added Nikon SB-800 in the hot shoe as opposed to the built in flash, which allowed me to use a higher shutter speed than the standard 1/200th. The high speed sync mode of the SB-800 isn’t something I play with very often, as I’m typically using strong enough lights to overpower the sun, but it’s a neat feature in a pinch. Basically, it allows the use of a faster shutter speed, which can be useful stopping action, or cutting out ambient light. Anyway, enough mumbo jumbo, the action shot of above of Tim Breaux, was shot with a D90, using an on camera SB-800. The lens was a 10.5 fisheye. I also made a point to shoot at a mid range ISO of 640, to see how it looked at higher ISO settings.

Despite getting battered with blowing snow, and freezing temperatures, the camera did much better than I expected. The video capabilities really do change the game of photography.

Below (although to watch the HD version you have to click through to Vimeo) is the video I shot this weekend with the D90. A day with snow blowing everywhere is tricky for a camera to handle, but this was all shot without manual adjusting the exposure (autoexposure was used) to get a true feel for how the camera would react. That, and it was too damn cold to futz with settings anyway! All the shots are manual focus, as that’s your only option, but I think it gives you a neat effect if you’re patient with it. The depth of field possibilities are amazing with this thing. Also, I have despite poor reviews of the cameras audio, I thought it did remarkably well on the beginning interview, considering the blowing winds at the time, and mere mono recording. Not incredible, but definitely much better than I had expected. This video is a good example of what this camera can do on a very blah day! At some point soon I’ll throw something together with an “ideal” light day for comparison, but there is already a lot of that out there… google it. Also, the Studio shot below the video (of a Hufnagel Cycles headtube badge) was shot testing the D90 as well. For that one I used the “kit lens” with a screw on close-up filter, and then added two gridded studio strobes to light it.

Thanks to the YoBeat crew for dragging me along on an otherwise useless day to film the fun!

Opening Day- Southeast Portland from YoBeat Magazine on Vimeo.

And below is the above mentioned studio shot. While the lighting is studio strobes, it shows that this camera can work with the big guns if necessary.

I never used this for anything, and I have no idea why. 2004, John Saxton doing a tailwhip air in a chicken suit. I don’t remember much about this other than him saying something like “I don’t know if I can see my pedals with the beak on.” Also, Daniel Dhers, who now rules the world of BMX park, and learned much of his English through hip-hop records was on the deck. At the time his English wasn’t as stellar as it is now, and he kept saying, slowly, in a thick accent, “I want to touch the cock.”