Just got the last of these back from the printer. This is much of September and October around the studio. This is the fifth year in a row we’ve produced the catalogs for Woodward Camp, the largest Action Sports, Gymnastics and Cheer summer camps/training facilities in the world. This year it was five catalogs in total (three for Woodward in PA, two for Woodward West). We’re designing for a broad, young audience on these — about 7-17 years of age. It’s a relatively quick turnaround for the scope of the project (five forty-page catalogs in two months), but the quick pace and deadlines keep things fun. You can check out a few details after the jump.

Dean Dickinson put together this short video interview/profile on my for ESPN.com. There’s some old BMX footage, some behind the scenes photoshoot footage, etc. The results from one of the shoots in the video, a shoot with Roman Tencza, can be seen here.

Shooting “Action Sports” contests can be a total mess. When I say action sports contests, I mean the contests put on by the TV networks or the larger outside corporations — they are the ones calling this shit “Action Sports” in the first place. True “inside” BMX and Skate contests are still fun to shoot, and far less of a hassle. The bigger contests require credentials, and even when you have said credentials you can’t get anywhere you need to be. X Games, Dew Tour… it’s a total fucking disaster no matter what pass you have (media, team manager, friends and family, etc., I’ve tried them all). Last year at X Games I actually had to borrow Mat Hoffman’s pass so I could where I needed to get a couple shots before I changed my ticket and went home early. Pathetic really. So this year I didn’t even bother to go, despite being in Southern California anyway.

I’ve been shooting the ASA Action Sports World Tour for the last couple years, primarily because I shoot it for the event organizer (ASA) and have a proper credential. Even without that “special” pass the events are a bit less restricted, and at least a bit closer to a true BMX contest. So a BMX publication could, in theory, go and shoot photos without the “We don’t give a fuck about you or your stupid magazine” attitude of X and Dew. During X Games this year they had a contest called the BMX Triples running in Costa Mesa, about 40 minutes South of LA and X Games. So Costa Mesa it was, and I avoided X at all costs.

This gallery is a selection of the photos I shot for the event and BFD.com (where you can find a replay of the live webcast from the contest’s final round and more photos/results). My friend Aaron Nardi also posted a gallery, and a cool video from the contest on his site. Check that out after the gallery below.

Note: Shot above is of Josh Hult doing a superman tailwhip.

From 2005-2007 I helped publish seven issues of a magazine called Sophisticated Rider with Pro BMX rider John Parker and Pro Skateboarder/Writer/Commentator Paul Zitzer. The magazine focused on Skate, BMX and FMX (the winter issues had a bit of snow as well)… an Extreme round-up as Zitzer would call it. All seven issues were distributed for free at skateparks around the US (and beyond).

About two years ago we decided the amount of work vs. the costs involved were getting to be too much. We didn’t have anyone focused on selling advertising, and none of us wanted to deal with that end, so we put the project on indefinite hiatus.

I’ve intended to put the issues online for a while and this week decided to put some effort into it. Unfortunately issues 1-4 were created in Quark Xpress, and since most of the design world has moved on from Quark and into the InDesign realm, it’s a bit of a clusterfuck to to get those issues into PDF form. I can’t believe I was still working in Quark in 2006. I’m not sure what I was thinking. So those 4 Issues remain a bit of a ball-up. Issues 5, 6, and 7 however were created in InDesign, which made them much easier to translate to PDF form.

So the last three issues at least are online for download (5, 6, and 7). I hope to at least get 3 and 4 sorted out and online in the future, as those are two of my favorites, at least design wise. If it comes down to it I will have to just scan a hard copy. Feel free to download the last three issues anyway, and maybe there will be more to come. They are in PDF format, so just click the link below and you’ll be able to flip through each issue, ads and all. At some point I’ll do another personal print project. When and exactly what remains to be seen.

Download the issues here>>>

Issue 5: Spring 2006
Issue 6: Fall 2006
Issue 7: Winter 2007

A couple days ago I posted a few action shots from the LG Championships this year, and now, some portraits… 30 of them. BMXers, Skateboarders, Inline Skaters and Freestyle Motocross riders. Of over a hundred faces we shot, here are 30 very different faces.

Click on the first thumbnail, and then click the next button at the bottom of the pop up image to move on.There’s a little of everything from X Games gold medalists to Guiness Record holders.

I’m always a bit conflicted about mainstream media delving into BMX, Skateboarding, and other sports they flat out don’t understand. A recent USA Today, and its website published a story on Bestwick using some of my photos. I guess I’d rather have them use proper photos than pull some absolute garbage from Getty or the AP… hopefully it helps people look past lines like “He just doesn’t have enough ‘dude’ in his personality.”

Of course, I’m confused that newspapers still print paper copies. I’m all for magazines as more people hold onto them and their features tend to be more substantial. Newspapers are another story. I can get all the news I need, anytime I want, from anywhere on my phone. A newspaper is just the pile of waste outside my hotel door that gets in the way when I try roll my bag out of the room.

The photo above is used with the web story, but the print version used another image I shot.

It was a very, very long weekend in Seattle, shooting the LG Action Sports World Championships. Portraits, BMX, Skate, and even rollerblading — yes, they still do that — made for a lot of photos. Very glad it’s over. I’ve attached a gallery after the jump (That’s park winner Daniel Dhers above). If you want to read more about the contest, you can go to the event site.

I just spent the weekend down in the hot, dusty Inland Empire of Southern California shooting the LG World Championships of FMX. It was a bit windy during the day, so the mid-day seeding rounds were canceled which meant most of the shooting was at night.