con cuidado

Bayside

Like most from Miami, I spent a lot of time skating here over the years. Always fun to return to the places that you grew up at.

Dreams to Reality

Working on this MIA photo project a major goal is to incorporate all that is unique not only to the city but also the skate scene. One of the places that stuck instantly in my mind and that I wanted to make sure was in there is the Miami Marine Stadium aka Rooftops. I have shot a few photos there over the years, but I wanted to try and capture it from a different perspective, from above via helicopter. Like every project these day's we are on a tight budget, so I threw the idea out to Forrest and was instantly down to make it happen one way or another. After a few calls, price checks, and a little convincing of how amazing the photo would turn out he was down to pay for it with high hopes of getting the photos run in a mag so he could get paid back with the photo incentive. We had herd a rumor that you couldn't get up on the roof any more, so the day before we snuck in past the barb wire fence and security guard, and made sure it was all good. It was actually repaired a little bit from the last time I had been up, which was a good thing. A major catch to this, is that it is illegal to be there, and I have been kick out by both a full time security on land, and also by a police boat. So we had to time it out so that he wouldn't be getting kick out while we were in the air, and lose the cash on the chopper. So I dropped him off with a few water bottles and set off up to the airport, while he would wait an hour or so up there till we showed up in the air. The pilot was also a photographer and gave me a few tips. He really made it a point to explain that it was a lot harder than you would think. The chopper was almost constantly moving, and that usually the photographer only comes back with one or two usable photos. We took all the doors off so that I could shoot from both sides. This being my first time up in a Heli, it was a bit intimidating already let alone with no doors between me and the ground. The "hard than you think" comment that the pilot made was really true. There was a strong enough wind to where he could only stall in one spot for a short amount of time. So we kept circling around while Forrest was trying to crack off down below. I would have to time out at about where we were going to be at in relation to when Forrest was going to get him in the air, then get the appropriate lens on, frame it up, focus, expose, then reframe hoping to be in the right spot at the right time that Forrest was in the air. After about ten or fifteen circles I felt like I had what I was looking for and we broke out to cruise over the beach on the way back to the airport. I knew that I had gotten what I originally set out shoot, but it wasn't till I got back that the experience settled in, and I saw everything full size that I realized what it was that we created all from a random idea.

The Perfect Man

Kenny once told me that "organization is the key to life". As I have been digging through over ten years of film and digital files for the last few weeks looking for a few specific photos, this keeps ringing in the back of my head. Never having a real system of organizing my film I have been finding the randomest photos some how in the same sleeve or folder. I have seriously found a photo of Rupp in Canada 2002, Suski in Spain 2005, Tony Manfre in Miami 2004, Bam in New Zealand 2005, Sabback in Greece 2006, and Nesser in Chile 2007 some how all grouped together in the same folder. Now this my sound like an interesting and even entertaining walk down memory lane, but when you are trying to find one frame of 35mm from Miami in 2003 at 4 in the morning, it's not that tight. Only for the last few months I have been finally getting one system of filing my digital photos. In the past I would come up with a new way, and two weeks later I would be off it, but I have been using the new system for a few months now and it seems to be working. As far as getting all the film sorted out, I'm gonna wait till I get my office and an intern.

R.I.P. Andy Kessler

I was out in New York a few weeks ago to work on a project with Jahmal, and got to meet and shoot Andy briefly. Yesterday day I woke up to Jahmal's email regarding that day.

"That was the last time I seen him.
And I almost let him get away that day.. before you shot those photos
But something inside said call him back...
He had already left the shop.
When he answered my call... he was like sure, be right there.
I was so stoked Ian when we were shooting photos with him.
IM so stoked that I have that picture as a reference for a amazing memory..
that I will cherish for the rest of my life."

refresh

Posted some new flicks, iocphoto.com

Digging

I am working on a new project for MIA and I need to dig up a few old gems in the film archives.
Joel was one of the first "sponsored" skaters that I shot with. He was really straight up and actually kind of harsh on the critique of anything that I showed him. At first I would be kind of bummed but I got used to it and it only made me get better. He always has dope photos due to his spot/trick/gear combo, and is down to try pretty much anything for a photo. Here is a print from when I was in the college darkroom of a switch crook at an extinct DTM flat bar circa 2000.
Digging through all this stuff I would notice the guys that shot and spent a lot of time with, Forrest, Selego, Joel, Nesser, Renaud... Looking back on all of the stuff that I have shot with Danny is a trip, cuz it's all so good. This switch back tail at the Jew rails is probably one of the better ones. I had to shoot it black and white and with out flashes due to the fact that I had been caught there before and I would go to jail if I got caught again. So I would hang out across the street, and when he would start getting into it I would run and pop off a few then retreat to the side walk where I couldn't get arrested. Reda asked me one day why I didn't shoot it in color, I guess he was thinking that it was a bail from a sequence (pre digi), or didn't know of my situation with the famous skate Synagogue, but I kind of like the raw timeless look of a BnW, Tri-X skate photo. I actully have a few photos on film of Dan that where shot right before his injuries(which he is now recoverd from) that were "lost" around the industry, but I have recently tracked them down and they should be coming out in Skateboarder soon.