_Awesomest Markham Skatepark Session, 13/07

Although I’ve only had a decent digital camera for a short while now, I’m beginning to pick up some of the basics of how to take a decent skating photograph. The key to a quality photo shoot is your cast. I’m spoiled for choice in the GTA; I regularly get to skate with stylish and compentent friends who never complain about me mucking up a shot, missing a trick or getting the lighting all wrong.

Stephane collected me at lunchtime once he was done filming some stunts for a movie. Having locked his keys inside the car, I broke in with a coat hanger and we were off to Markham, collecting Taylor, Tom (from Walking Shadow and Fast-Motion) and Starbucks Vivanos on the way to meet Erik Burrow, Justin Lawrence, Andrew Boyle and Blair Lougheed at the park.

The second most important thing about photography is to stop skating for long enough to get your camera out.

Having had a skate for an hour or so, I returned to the car to collect the camera, and proceeded to urge my friends to injure themselves for the sake of a great photo- Stephane missing a stall on top of the bowl extension, Justin laying himself flat out while coming off of the rail- and the shots were looking fantastic, the blazing sun ensuring I would have to do very little to the photos to make them look incredible.

About half an hour later I look down at my camera, casually press the play button to review the last shot and receive a message on screen that breaks me out in a cold sweat- “Please insert memory card”. I am instantly teleported across the city to my apartment in a fraction of a second, where I see my humble SD card jutting apologetically out of the front of my laptop… Damn. Didn’t save any of those shots. I missed Boyle’s true top soyale across and down the high ledge, I missed Erik’s 720 and Stephane’s fakie bio 5 out of the launch quarter. I made Blair fall three times doing a handflip in the bowl, and Justin fell on his face. I feel so retarded.

I’m sorry friends! Thank you for busting your arses for absolutely no reward. Please accept my apologies- rest assured I’ll never make that mistake again.

(These photos are the closest I could get to the sheer awesomeness of our session… the real stunts were so much more awesome).

_TNS Iceland, 9th of July

Its funny how we can convince ourselves that even the most serious of injuries are trivial enough to skate through, have you ever noticed that? A brutal injury mellows out into a dull ache when the absence of skating becomes too much to bear. And so I find myself at Iceland on a Thursday night with my skates, jonesing for the buzz of a good hard skate.

After skating for an hour or two, I took off my skates and picked up my camera instead. Dan took first blood and helped me find a focus point with this negative acid.

Steve Kiley was a very excited man- first session on his new Razor Genesis 7s! Alleyoop Mistrial to break in the soulplates.

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_Testing the new Generator

I’ve finally got around to purchasing a little generator and a set of lights. The first session was great, expect many more.

_Trip to Guelph

While the boys headed off to Montreal with Stefan, Dan, Jay Smith and myself took a little trip to my home town of Guelph. A beautiful day filled to the brim with spots, albeit one being too deadly and 2 being capped, we still had a good session in the sun. Hometown hero Warren Wray met up with us at Guelph’s newest and first outdoor skatepark to join in. Returning home sun burnt and exhausted, thought I might as well upload some photos from the day. Higher res pics on our Flickr page of course.

Oh, and edit coming soon as well.

Jay’s tribute to the late King of Pop. I heard he died or something?

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