I had an idea to make a basic skateboard photography tutorial for our DIY section. Not that I’m the greatest photographer or anything, but a few simple tips can really go a long way for the beginner, especially in this day and age of relatively cheap digital SLR’s. Heck, the best photo advice I ever got was from Kevin Thatcher when he was at the helm of Thrasher. He sent me back an envelope full of negatives with a hand scrawled note that read simply “Use a faster shutter speed and your pictures won’t be so blurry. – KT.” In the spirit of that advice, I present this link to Heyday Skateboarding’s Shot Composition Basics tutorial that features a lot of solid tips. Of course all of these tips are hard to remember when you are trying to capture fleeting shots that aren’t set up or have some technical difficulties, but that’s what separates the guys who don’t get paid for skate photography from the guys that don’t get paid very much. Heyday also has some video editing tutorials and a lot of other content to boot. Some people will try to jealously guard supposed industry secrets while others aren’t afraid to help out for the greater good of all. I know which ones I’d rather hang out with.

Back in January, Local IQ: Albuquerque’s Intelligent Alternative included an article about their new skatepark. The article Skate City is available on their website and includes a feature about and photos by Mörizen Föche formerly of Thrasher Magazine. Looks like a cool setting if the pictures are to be believed, they did a good job referencing the local architectural and skate heritage. Too bad they obscured the photos with their fancy graphic designs.

The Examiner reports: “Skating a worldwide phenomenon.” Please click through for a thoughtful analysis of this late breaking news item.

Found after the Battle Ground grand opening.

Aside from being a place where you can buy skateboards online, Ward Boards has a couple of nice pages worth of photos that date from the 70’s through present day. The park in the top left (name?) reminds me a little of something else. It looks like it could have been a lot of fun or a complete nightmare. Let’s not forget the barrel jump shot directly underneath. That’s about the only aspect of 70’s skateboarding that hasn’t made a comeback.

I’m keeping the same deal in May as I did in April. No Jessees, Grossos, McGills or Hawks. We’re all sick of looking at them, right? Instead there will be more unusual stuff. Maybe not as high dollar, but a lot less dull. This month also saw the Ray Underhill charity auction. Lots of pros and industry bigwigs auctioned off items of interest to raise money for Ray’s medical bills. Now, while this a worthwhile cause and I applaud all of the people who bid high on the auctions, these were often one of a kind items, or more common items that were signed, whose prices were far higher than normal because of the cause. So I won’t be featuring a ton from the Underhill auctions, just a few random items that grabbed my attention.

This month, the column is fueled by nothing. I’m late getting this out because with the weather actually being good I’m out there skating more instead of typing this. So I’m trying to keep this quick and to the point. Also, I want to mention the Art of Skateboarding site. I use it for some of my research, and although it’s not 100% reliable (who is?), it is an invaluable resource. You should check it out.

eBay Watch for May 2007

Last weekend,as threatened, a couple of us went to check out the new Placed to Ride skatepark in Seaside Oregon. Drinving out from Portland, the weather looked like it was going to be a crap shoot. Luckily, although the pictures are all gray and it did sprinkle and mist several times throughout the day, down time was never longer than ten or fifteen minutes. The sporadic moisture kept the crowds at bay. The downside is that the session was not particularly heated so you’ll be getting a lot of general park overview shots. Check it out.

UPDATE: Ported the old static HTML and updated the link.

Old people skateboarding certainly has been done before. (See Granny Skates for CarMax) This is a pretty good commercial from the UK, although I was disappointed that the old guy was a stunt man. For some reason I thought he was actually going to get on a board. Maybe the happy music made think it was going to be one of those touchy-feely “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” public service type of commercials. Instead it’s an ad for something called 118 118 which, near as I can tell has something to do with a phone directory or phone service. The park is Something called BaySixty6, which is apparently sponsored by XBox, whatever that means. I guess Playstation has a park too, why not. What do these sponsorships mean? Are they permanent? We know who sponsors the park, but what about the stunt rider? Whoever he is, he rides for Vans and Quicksilver. Check out the old school varial in the action sequence. Nowadays it seems like all the pros forego the the varial for the shove-it instead.