I hit up the Tigard skatepark for the second day in a row, since my friend Anthony Napolitan was in town on a trip with a fancy shoe company you’ve probably never heard of. A bunch of people were down there shredding including Anthony, the shoe crew, and the usual Portland suspects like Ben Hucke (above), Caleb Quanbeck, and Roman Tencza. Check out some more photos after the jump.

Anthony Napolitan, lookback.

Caleb Quanbeck, tailwhip over a hip.

Ben Hucke nac-nac-attack.

Roman Tencza, one-footed X-up.

Caleb Quanbeck, invert.

Roman Tencza, one-footed toboggan.

Caleb Quanbeck, with a Justin Inman approved invert.

Caleb Quanbeck, no-hander.

If you have a smart phone, you’ve probably noticed it’s the end of the year. I dug through my photo posts from the past 12 months and pulled out some of my favorite action images.  It’s not a top ten or best of list, just a revisiting of some of my favorites. To see more, simply dig back through the posts on the site — All my favorite work ends up on here, usually within a few hours of its creation. Some are photographic favorites, others I chose for the subject matter. There’s no rhyme or reason other than I shot them all in 2010. Above is Roman Tencza in Portland, Oregon.

Justin Inman, Eugene, Oregon

Mat Hoffman, Woodward West.

Ben Hucke, Tigard, Oregon

Ron Wilkerson, Ashland, Oregon.

Shad Johnson, Tigard, Oregon.

Neal Hendrix, Woodward West.

Kevin Porter, Portland, Oregon.

Codie Larsen, St. Johns, Oregon.

Morgan Wade, Woodward West.

Roman Tencza, Vancouver, Washington.

Snotty, Portland, Oregon.

I’m a bit late to the trigger on my October Ben Hucke photo of the month. Travel/general busy time on both our parts coupled with the beginning of Portland’s rainy season has made it easy to slack on it, but, for two more days, it’s still October. And procrastinating got some fallen leaves into the photo of this wallride to 180. This spot is actually one of the first spots I saw when I first came to Portland several years ago (it’s in front of the apartments my friends used to live in), but I’ve never shot a photo at it. It’s the perfect jersey barrier to wall set up with some Quickcrete at the bottom. Despite me leaving several important pieces of equipment at the studio in my haste to make use of the nice day today, we still got a cool shot.

I’ve been doing this “Ben Hucke of the Month” photo feature every month, since I end up with so many photos of him. I’m actually a bit early this time around, as technically September doesn’t happen for another 5 hours in these parts, but I’ve got to go out of town this weekend, so I’m getting this one done now.

This time around is a photo taken with the iPhone 4, with natural light and no in or out of camera post. Straight-outta camera if you will (or is it phone)? The iPhone 4 camera is even better than the 3Gs was, not just in resolution, but in “shutter” speed. It fires essentially instantly, with no lag, making it more effective at capturing action. I was able to get some decent action shots with my 3Gs last year, but this one is much more on it. iPhone or not, I liked this shot. I think we’re at the point now with phones that it doesn’t matter that the photo came from a phone. The original file for this photo is as large if not larger than the first digital magazine cover I shot (seriously). At this point, it’s as good a tool as any, and it’s always in your pocket. There was a moment many years ago where people stopped worrying about whether a shot was film or digital. We’re on the verge of that happening with cell phone images. Click on the photo to go larger.

A couple weeks back I hit the Hillsboro, OR skatepark with a crew of guys including Tony Neyer, Johnny Devlin, Ben Hucke, Codie Larsen, and Caleb Quanbeck. This video is the result. I’ve placed it on my Vimeo page for my own HD archive purposes, so embedding is turned off, but you can get it on the ESPN site here.

Sometimes you get lucky, and this crow in Seattle made for a lucky moment. Suicide-no-hander. Crows wings. Happy accidents. Shot at Garfield High School in Seattle, a somewhat short drive from Portland, as the crow flies.

A few more shots from a filming day-trip we went on a bit ago to Seattle, and around this area a few weeks back. Caleb Quanbeck and Ben Hucke. Check the rest after the jump. The horizontal shots can be blown up by clicking to expand. Above is Caleb, no-hander down a big three-block set up into a high school track. 

While filming for a Shadow Conspiracy video a few weeks back, Ben hit me up to come out and shoot this rail a couple miles from my house. I’d seen a picture he posted of it on Twitter, but didn’t think he’d actually do it. Jump to rail to pegs, to jump over. You screw this one up and you’re done (and I would have been done as well). It didn’t make me feel real sure when he sat at the top of the stairs and said “You’re insured, right?” Yes, but no insurance needed. Pulled perfectly, a few times. Check out the photo after the jump for rail height reference. Not easy. Two story drop. This is one that would have been a video-ender a few years back, now it gets sessioned 10 or 15 times? Keep your eye out for the Shadow edit online soon to see the line.

Yet another Ben Hucke photo. He’s always got stuff up his tattooed-sleeve to shoot, so it isn’t hard to end up with good photos to post. This one has been sitting unused for a bit, and it’s too good to not use. Giant peg stall, out of an almost non-existent bank in Portland. Not bad.

Did a quick day trip to Seattle and Tacoma yesterday to shoot some photos for The Shadow Conspiracy with Ben Hucke and Caleb Quanbeck. More from the trip soon, but I wanted to post a couple shots from a concrete park in Tacoma we hit up. I blew it and didn’t get the name of the dude above. But he was killing the park along with Travis Lyons and some other locals. This lookback transfer was cool. There’s another shot of Caleb Quanbeck after the jump from another section of the same park: I liked how you can see the mountain in the background. There’s also one of Ben Hucke 180′ing over the ledge at the top of the big bank at Garfield High in Seattle. Check ‘em. Also keep your eyes peeled for more from the trip on the ESPN BMX page, and an edit from Shadow.