I remember a few years ago as photographers we’d labor over strange ways and devices to get cool POV perspectives. In the last few years, GoPro and a few other manufacturers have made it incredibly easy and cheap. I’ve been itching to try some flatland stuff with it for a while, but kept forgetting. This time around, I remembered to bring it, but forgot to charge it, so I only got a few clips, but I thought it was neat. These suckers have become cliché in an “everyone’s doing it sort of way.” Nevertheless if gives a neat perspective that can be used well in moderation. Next time, with more planning and battery charging, I might try it with two of them, to splice different angles together.

I started toying with BMX Freestyle sometime around 1983. In August of 1985 I went to the AFA (American Freestyle Association) Masters contest in Fitchburg, MA, the first contest I entered (13 and under open). From that point on never really thought about much else, much to the chagrin of unreceptive grade school teachers, who knew for sure that those kids bikes would get me nowhere. I guess they didn’t. I mean, I’m still riding them, and taking pictures of them, so in the grand scheme of things I haven’t really “gone” anywhere.  The photo above is from 1986, a year or so after the Fitchburg AFA Masters. From the looks of my outfit I was destined for Portland, and some sort of hipster pioneer. My mother dug up some old photos, most of which I’d consider the “middle school era” of BMX Freestyle. The 1986 shot above is a bit more old school, but most of them are a bit later.

Trophies from the King of the Flatland series. 1986 or 1987 I think.

This was some sort of ghetto, reconfigurable street set up I'd built. Rock Walk drop in. 1989.

Smith decade. Or a "Pegade" as they were called in New England. 1989.

Halflash. 1989.

An overview of the King of the Flatland competition in Manchester, NH. 1989.

This was my backyard halfpipe in 1990 or so, Sharon, MA.

When I moved to California in 1999 I faded out of riding flatland and started riding more ramps and skatepark, mostly because that’s what the guys I liked riding with out there rode. The last full flatland video part I filmed for was Moronics in Action, a New England area video made by Mark Florek around 1997. While I was pulling together some old footage for the interview ESPN did a few weeks back, I came across this section, and figured I’d upload it so I’ve got it archived. The first link is over a minute long. At the time I was really into the whole linking shit forever thing. There were some other clips spread throughout the video, but this is my main part in the video. This video came out about two years before I stopped riding flat regularly, so I’m sure there’s some newer footage somewhere out there, but I haven’t come across more than a couple clips. A few months back I posted an older section from Wire’s “Live Wire” (1995), which you should check out here.

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.

Mike Parziale started Grease Not Gas along with Aaron Stuart of the band Piebald. They convert diesel motors to run on waste vegetable oil from restaurants, and Grease Not Gas was started to educate people and assist in conversions. When you consider the cost of fuel, a free product is an incredibly appealing solution.

Grease Not Gas have also converted buses used on nationwide tours for Snowboarder Magazine, Clif Bar, and a number of bands, Piebald included. Last winter Mike started the Grease Bus, which shuttles people from Portland, OR to Mt. Hood Meadows, for a mere $10 round trip (a 1.5 hour drive each way). A steal by all accounts.

Given his ties to the snowboard community, YoBeat.com gave me a platform for the above short video interview with Mike, in which you’ll see a bit of how the process works, and find out where discarded restaurant waste has taken him.

Back in 1999 I started doing my business cards styled after Polaroids. Since then I’ve done a bunch of different “Polaroid Cards,” some of which I’ve attached after the jump. As you’ll see they’re designed and printed to look just like a polaroid photo (down to the large black square and type on the rear, which I use for contact info). When I started doing them, Polaroids were still widely available, and it was more of a visual pun. Clients tend to hold onto them, and it’s always been a more interesting way to display work, than a stock 4×6 card. Now that Polaroid has discontinued their 600 films, it’s more of a historical nod than anything. Come to think of it, the background image of the header graphic at the top of this very site is a polaroid 600 image of some old letraset press type I have kicking around. Two dying breeds for sure.

Recently Polaroid dropped an online Polaroid generator. It’s a great, fun little tool that makes something old new again. You have to download an application from the site, and from their you can drag and drop photos into it. If you start with a high resolution photo, you end up with a decent quality photo (1392×1692 pixels).

The sample above is one I had on my desktop of Axel Jurgens that was taken for a Profile Racing advertisement. It made the perfect guinea pig for the generator. While it’s no substitute for a tactile polaroid that you hold in your hand, it is a fun little tool and one that I’m sure will see tremendous overuse in the future. For now, you can still find Polaroid film out there if you try, so get it while you can.

Below are some samples of the business cards I’ve been doing since the late ’90s. A few of the early cards were actually shot with Polaroid 600 film, however many of the more recent cards use images ranging from 6×6 film to digital.

Above is the word mark redesign we did recently for iconic(?) snowboard site YoBeat‘s relaunch. Apparently YoBeat is, or was a big deal. Then the internet took off and they got lazy. Good timing. Anyway, they’ve relaunched and it seems to be operating in full swing.

Going through some new stuff to print for the studio I came across this one from last year of Anthony Napolitan. One of the shots from this shoot has been running in a Levis print and web ad, but this one has been sitting around collecting virtual dust. I like this shot for a lot reasons, but no-handers are such a good photo trick, and have been since the early days of Joe Johnson. I really like how the tree in the background fits right in under the arm extension. Simple light, subtle colors. I like this one.

The bakery downstairs from my studio, Sweetpea, has brunch on Sunday. A while back I did these four-color posters (see the whole thing after the jump) which more recently evolved into business cards, and there has been talk of redoing some of the retail packaging with the same direction. Strangely, when I got to the office this morning Sweetpea had a new walk-in refrigerator. I think that makes Lisa the only person I know who owns a walk-in refrigerator.