I was fortunate enough to have two Blading Cup features in ONE Magazine's online features this past week, with my ongoing polaroid project coverage of the competition and a majority of my footage being used for the second of ONE's official video edit of the competition (they released a 'Quick Cuts' edit the day after the event).
The Polaroid article and gallery, 'Blading Cup in Polaroids', was a bit unexpected. I submitted the photos to my editor a few days after the competition, expecting only a few to be posted up. Instead, I got the go ahead to do a short write up and found out after it went up that all the photos were used! It was the first competition I had covered in polaroid, being quite a challenge! It's not knowing who everyone is, tricks only being done once, distractions abound, and the skaters disappearing in between heats. At least I came prepared with 10 packs of film and my SLR 680 & SX-70! I learned my lesson at the last big event I covered, which was cameras jam and you can miss key moments when you're out of film.
The "Perfect Day" edit was less of a surprise, yet still as exciting! ONE's editor approached me a month ago and asked if I was able to help him film the competition and film some lifestyle shots. I jumped on that and said yes! The nice thing about having a camera in hand is event coordinators and staff are okay with you walking the course, running up ramps, getting in much closer than you should. Which was exactly what I did at last year's Blading Cup, except I wasn't press then. haha.
My friends had to comment about that before the competition, saying they were all looking forward to me making myself at home amongst the pros and whipping out my camera. The best story comes from my friend Omar and Luis, who both said one minute I as in the bleachers, talking with them. The next, I was over the barriers, in the course, on top of the starting box with all the pro skaters. A friend of mine who just started shooting this year asked if it was okay to get over the barriers and I told him "just hold a camera in your hand and walk around like you belong here." That's worked for me at every event I've photographed. There was a full 16gb card of footage I plowed through and sent the cream of the crop to ONE. Took a few tries to send to them, as my connection failed a few times. A couple days later, the edit went up and honestly, I wasn't expecting my footage to come together the way it did. I should have known better, having spent 2 years filming my video "Take Your Time". The footage is like a puzzle or better still, like building a wooden desk. You refine each piece and one by one, it comes together, with the finishing touches making it something to be proud of (I've been known to refinish furniture from time to time). ONE did a fantastic job chopping up the footage into something that captures the day ever so well.
When I get the chance later in the week, I'll post up some polaroids from Blading Cup. In the meantime, catch them on ONE's website or my Flickr page.
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