I shot a bunch of photos of Roman Tencza last month (and over the course of the last year really) that turned out to be some of my favorite things I’ve shot recently. Those shots evolved into a bio for the ESPN site, which evolved into a video to go with it. This feature is a good example of why I like producing content for the internet: I can melt together all the aspects of content that I like into one piece (photo, video, etc). Roman shreds the skateparks up here in the Northwest. Don’t be surprised if you see him on the contest scene this year too. He’s got the big tricks, but the style and flow to go with it. Very Rob Darden, Brian Foster, and Brian Hunt inspired style. Awesome. Check out the video above, and click here to go through the photo gallery and interview. It’s worth it.

Mt. Baldy. If you’re a skateboarder, BMXer, even a rollerblader you’re familiar with the Mt. Baldy fullpipe. The drainage tube, located in the hills of Southern California, behind barbed wire fences and across a menacing chasm, has been shredded by several generations. I grew up looking at pictures of Salba and Blyther carving the pipe, so when I moved to California in 1999 it was one of the first places I went.

To this day, Baldy continues to be a spot that just about every serious skater or BMXer has on their hit list. It’s been in every magazine and countless videos. The graffiti is ever-changing, but the pipe remains the same after all these years.

I found this image I shot back in 2000 while digging through some photos and thought I’d make some shirts out of it. Hafltone images can be tricky, especially on dark shirts, but my friends Jamie and Jenn at Ink Brigade (you old school BMXers will know Jamie McParland’s name) said they could get it done. And they did. Turned out better than I thought they would.

I planned to just use these merely as holiday studio mailers to some industry types and friends. After all, skaters and BMXers alike can appreciate this one. Baldy is an icon. I posted a picture on Twitter and a lot of people expressed interest in them, so I’m making a limited number available for purchase. YoBeat has done me a favor and put them on its web store, and you can buy them there if you like $15. Printed on a nice, soft, ringspun t-shirt. They are a small style cut, so you may want to go up a size, especially if you’re of a portly stature. No logos or brand name bullshit on this one. Just a picture of god damn icon.

Anyway, if you would like, here you have them. Baldy. Concrete to Cotton. Icon. Get it.

If you you’ve been following my work, this site, or my Twitter feed, you’re already aware that I shoot photos with my iPhone on a daily basis (in fact if you follow me on Twitter you’ve seen at least a few of these already). You can view my iPhone-tography Part Three post of photos here and access the older ones from there. UK Mac site Cult of Mac also did an interview with me a while ago on how to shoot action photos with the iPhone which you can check out on Cult of Mac here.

Check out some newer iPhone photos you may not have seen yet after the jump. As usual, all photos are straight out of the iPhone, processed using Camera Bag, Old Camera, and Photo Gene.

Shot a couple of portraits of snowboarder Shayne Pospisil up in Government Camp, OR for his YoBeat interview. View them both larger after the jump.

Dig Magazine just posted up a “Shooter” interview with me over on its site. I’ve shot stuff for those guys for a long time, and they’ve been doing good stuff over at that magazine since the mid-90s. Check out the interview here.

I also directed a strangely awkward interview which is up over on snowboard site YoBeat in which Internet Celebrity Sarah Morrison interviews Snowboard Legend Peter Line. It is awkward, makes no sense, and they are smoking while sitting next to a gas can. So in other words I’m happy with it. You won’t learn anything watching it. But there are some funny moments. I also filmed a little documentary style interview with Sarah while she was in town which should be pretty interesting as soon as I can get around to editing it.

The latest ASA Action Sports World Tour stop took place out in Cincinnati, Ohio at Kings Island. I’ve been shooting the events this year for BFD.com (where you can see full coverage) and I’ve embedded the BFD photo galleries for Skate and BMX vert below. I’m a bit late to the punch here… I posted these to BFD the night of the event, but kept forgetting to put them here as well. Cincinnati was vert only, and the contests were awesome. From Steve McCann’s absolutely perfect triple tailwhip to Danny Mayer’s kickflip McTwist, there was a lot to take in. You can watch the videos of the top three runs at BFD.com as well. The photo above is Simon Tabron. Check out the galleries after the jump.

BMX Vert Finals

Find more photos like this on BFD.com

Skateboard Vert Finals

Find more photos like this on BFD.com

BMX and Skate Vert Prelims

Find more photos like this on BFD.com

Dug this one up out of the files the other day. Taj Mihelich (and Roscoe running toward me), from a shoot on the Terrible One ramp down in Austin, Texas back in 2002. At that time I was the main BMX photographer for the Etnies team. I was down in Austin quite a bit since a good portion of the team was living there at the time, and Taj was one of the “main guys” on the the team. Right before I left for this trip PETA called me asking if I knew any BMXers that would be good for its ad campaign. Taj was a Vegetarian, and treated his dog Roscoe pretty well (note: the dog in the bike trailer in his part in the Etnies video was a doll, not a real dog) so I suggested him. Anyway, this was shot during the PETA shoot (the ad they ran is after the jump). I don’t think anything from this particular angle ever got used for anything, but I always liked this one, mostly cause of Roscoe creeping in the foreground.

More stuff from this weekend at Woodward. I’m leaving tomorrow, but may be shooting some more vert stuff with Kevin Robinson in the morning. Dennis McCoy has been in town this weekend as well, so I shot with he and John Parker today on the vert ramp in Cloud 9. Lots of heckling back and forth as is customary when Dennis is around. Large Ray, Warren, and a few of the other King of Prussia, PA old school crew were out as well (minus Gary Pollack this time unfortunately). Ray always has a vintage bike of some sort with him, and this time brought along a pristine 1986 Redline RL22. Amazing stuff.

I don’t know why this came up, but Dennis is still concerned that the legendary Camarillo ramp in the 80s had some rigged numbers on the height pole to make people look like they were going higher. Allegedly there are several photos in existence of relatively short people standing next to the height pole and being 7 feet tall. I’m glad that is still coming up in day to day conversation, but anything is possible when Dennis is around. I never noticed this, but I will be going through my old magazines when I get home to look into this further. DMC doesn’t miss a beat. He also called me out on a factual error I wrote in a magazine in 2002. I’m glad that took seven years. So if anyone is wondering, Dennis did tailwhip 540 tailtaps on mini ramps before anyone else.

Since I’ve got my iPhone with me at all times, and since we are becoming a “If you don’t upload it to the internet right away it didn’t really happen” society, I’ve been experimenting more with photos from the little bugger. While it’s sort of quirky, slow, and awkward to hold as a camera, it’s always in my pocket so I might as well get the most of out of it.

I’ve discovered a few neat little “Apps” along the way including “Camera Bag” which was used to take the above photo of Mt. Hood. Camera Bag is a collection of seven filters which can be applied to your photos(similar to how a Photoshop plug-in can). Presets include various B&W settings, a Polaroid setting, and one that mimics the look of Holga (toy camera). You can download that one through Apple’s App store for $2.99. I’ve also been toying with “Tilt Shift” which (sort of) mimics a tilt-shift lens, in other words you get somewhat selective focus. Tilt Shift is available for $1.99.

Both of the above applications can be applied to existing photos in your iPhone library, so you can play around with them, save a new version with the desired effect, and keep your original.

The key to getting decent shots with the iPhone is good light, and a steady hand. Use both hands if you can and wait for the shutter to do it’s thing. Hold it steady the entire time. It’s awkward to push the button and keep it steady, but it can be done.

The silliest addition to my iPhone repetoire is a snap on fisheye lens with 170-degree view. Similar to a video camera lens adapter, it has a magnet and pops on over the phone’s lens. Neat. Totally stupid, and awesome at the same time. Available for $20 at usbfever.com. It ships from Hong Kong and takes about 4 weeks to arrive. They also make a variety of wide angle and telephoto options. You could replace you’re whole camera bag with a hip pack full of mini magnetic iPhone lenses. I just got mine so I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it, but a photo of my messy desk is at the bottom of the post. You get some wild distortion outside the areas of focus. Should be a fun toy.

One App I haven’t tried that looks very handy is Snapture, which offers a variety of features including a multi-shot mode which will capture three frames in a row. They also have a timer mode which delays the shot by five seconds, a 3x digital zoom feature that lets you zoom in or out using the slider, and the ability to capture images in multiple sizes. Sounds really handy. The downside is you need a “cracked” iPhone, and I haven’t sucked it up and hacked into mine yet. If yours is cracked, Snapture is free.

Other enhancement options include Panolab, a free App which allows you to stitch multiple images together into a panoramic. If you want to adjust your images levels and sharpness manually after the shot is taken, something like Photogene or the more heavilly featured yet clunky Magic Touch might be for you. At $5 each, Magic Touch has more to it but Photogene’s interface seems more intuitive.

If you’d like more info on some of the above iPhone Apps, iLounge has some decent reviews of 13 photo Apps.

If you’ve seen the movie Twilight (which seems to be gaining a cult following) you’ve seen Roman Tencza’s work. Roman moved up here from Denver and does a bit of acting/modeling, aside from being a really good bike rider. He did some body double work in Twilight recently, but even though he’s that bigtime I got him out to a backyard ramp I’ve been wanting to shoot on for a while here in Portland. Roman is also a recent addition to the Verde Bikes flow team. If you need a bike, I can vouch for the niceness of the Verde. I’m holding on to my favorite to shot at the moment to see if the mags want it, but since they all seem to be going under lately (or on their way) it will likely end up here soon, which is fine too.

This one is a fufanu on the pool coping extension. That transition is pretty tight, but it worked out. I love the look of the ghetto plywood on the transition. It’s fine for bikes, but I feel bad for the guys at the house who can’t skate that side of the ramp. Thanks Dude Barn dudes.