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Before you read this article, please watch the video below : )

These two, skateboarding and photography, goes hand in hand with each other. Like peanut butter and sandwich, Starsky and Hutch, like… well you get it. A professional skateboarder can only be fully shown its true potential by an equally good photographer. Even the most gnarliest of tricks cant be justified to the outside world without a photographer capturing that moment. Daewon Song is one of the most inventive skateboarders still breaking limits till today and most of his epic moments are captured by Pro Photographer, Seu Trinh. Going beyond just taking a ‘normal’ skate photo. Seu ‘up’s the game by making his photographs almost into an artwork , worthy of gallery walls.

Photo by legendary skate photographer, Seu Trinh, i’d hang this photo on my wall any day, any day… trick: 360 flip to fakie on weird yellow sculpture.

Skate photography isn’t just about capturing the most awesome-est tricks and showing them off to your buddies, but more to the raw emotion, a moment in time where nothing else matters-except-landing-the-damn-trick, showing the true self of the skateboarder while trying to get the right light and not getting busted by the guards while at it. It may even be as exciting to the photographer as the skateboarder itself.

A common rule among skateboarders is that we hate water, but this clearly doesn’t apply to Daewon Song. Trick: Switch crooked grind on a waterfall.

I love the film effect on this photo, frontside 180 on steep bank.

Like most things in life, it’s not easy. With ALOT of variables involved in getting that perfect shot. Wasting Gigabytes upon gigabytes of data is inevitable. Patience is a must as we cant control the outcome, but the photographer can control certain parameters such as lighting, composition, timing. But in the end, it all comes down to the one pushing the deck. Taking the session with calmness and being cool about everything will make everything smooth. Its a team work thing. The photographer gives encouragement while the skater gives the damn best he can. In the end its a win-win situation.

Don’t you just love the shadows?  Photo by Ricky Montalbano, check out his AWESOME skate photos!

With all hard work, the harvester will reap what he sow, and with us behind the shutter waiting, time frozen, hard urethane rolling on the smooth cement, a loud cracking popping sound, followed by a burst of shutter frames latter, continued by a smooth landing. Thats when you know you’ve got it. A europhic feeling swells inside us, fists shoots up in the air, followed by high fives to your fellow comrade. When that time comes, nothing feels as good. ‘Sweet’ is all we say, a smile on our face, victory achieved. Man i love that feeling.

Photo by Shamin of Lensa. Note from myself: (See that white halo around his hand? That means crap)

Personally i have seen many of my friends shooting skate photos, but only a few of them really expresses what skateboarding is all about. There’s that special moment in time where the ingredients are just perfect and it fuses together to create an exquisite dish. You’ll know it when you see it.

Here are some of my tips on how to capture skateboarding photos:

• Shoot from a low angle, make that skater look like a giant. When he’s in the air, it’ll make him/her look like their soarin way high.
• Get as close to the skateboarder as possible, a wide angle lens is great, a fish-eye even better.
• Capture the skater at that peak moment when they’re doing the trick
• Use AF-C, auto focus continuos servo
• Continuos shooting mode, that means the shutter will continue on firing while we push the shutter button down.

Photo by Ricky Montalbano

• AF-Area mode  Dynamic, so that it’ll constantly track and keep your subject in focus.
• Look at alot of skate photos online or in magazines. You’ll understand the lighting used and composition, not to mention know the name of the tricks.
• Just take alot of skate photos and keep on practicing. No other simpler way.

Coming from a skateboarding background, both Rafie and I consider skateboarding to be one of the major influence in our lives. For me personally i got interested in photography through pouring countless of hours in skate magazines. Passion is the driving force behind everything we do, while having fun along the way is what makes it enjoyable. I’ll finish this article off with something that Picasso once said,

” Every child is born an artist, the hard part is how to remain as an artist while growing up“.

Whether this is completely relevant to this article is another matter. Peace in the middle east.

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