Be-Mag, One, and other craziness..

So I have been relatively quiet lately on my blog.  It  has been absolutely hectic the last few weeks, but I have had news to post up here.  If you haven't caught it, I had two photos placed up on Be-mag's online photo pages.  One of Rainer over in Pic of the week and one of Anthony Gallegos over in Global Connections...

In the same day, I found out my photos of Kevin Yee had appeared in his Xsjado In-depth Interview..

 

The photos are on my Flickr under the SF Tour and Kevin Yee's set. 

Now, what else is up?  I was at LA All Day the other day and took a ton of photos (a good 170+), which I'll get to work on this week or so.  Not so much skating, but the feel of the event.  I always go to these sorts of things for the atmosphere you get having that many people share your passion.  It definitely fills the air with a vibrant feeling.   Sure the tricks are amazing, but getting to meet new people is just awesome.  I got to meet a pal of mine, Ben Karris from AZ, who writes for One and talked to Justin Eisinger, editorial direction of One.  Very chill guys!  Fret not, there are a few skate photos, Anthony 'Peanut' was killing it with true spin top souls and acids on the rainbow rail and some crazy nutter had backside backslide to topsoul on that thing.  I caught a few clips, so I'll try to post those up later tonight if I can figure out Final Cut Pro.  Or if I'm lazy, I'll just render them with Handbrake. lol.

Also found out at the comp. that one of my photos will be appearing in the next issue of One! My jaw dropped and I wasn't sure what to say afterwards other than thanks and "uhhh...uhh..uhh".  It'll be my first printed work, so I'm absolutely stoked.  Keep an eye out for it! 

Oh and I built a hackintosh a week or two ago, so edits and photo editing should be coming up.  I've been testing the stability and so far so good.  A few quirks like usb  freezing if you wake it up through a keyboard (just unplug and replug) or an odd pop if the audio hasn't been 'used' in a while.  It was this or buy a 2k mac pro vs the 600 I spent. Not too shabby!

So that is what is going on with me.  I'm looking to shoot more LA rollerbladers, so if anyone's interested, hit me up!

The Hazards of Skate Photography

There are quite a few things photographers will do for their shot. The Shot.  Plenty of hazards we'll conveniently forget about.  Anthony approached me about shooting this drop ledge at the far end of Tweedy.  It wasn't a nice spot.  It was too dark to shoot with natural light, had only one or two angles to shoot it from, the landing was 6-7 feet from a wall, a pain to light.  It took 15 minutes to figure out a workable lighting.  I told Anthony, "let's give it a shot". I asked him what trick?  He said top porn.  He then asked where was I going to shoot it from?  My response: "at the bottom, against the wall".  Wait what?  He would land 4 feet out and force a sudden stop a hair's breath from me.  Not only that, my human light stand, Abel, would be right next to me—as Anthony was doing a liu kang off this ledge.  Nothing is more terrifying than 145 pounds of flesh and plastic coming at you and your job is to time the photo, and quickly pull back to avoid being hit while the guy next to you trying to do the same.  It turned out to be an awesome shot under the less than ideal circumstances.

I suppose I value it because I put my camera and myself in harms way.  okay, and Abel's life. ha.  Or maybe because throughout the shoot, there was constant dialogue between skater and photographer about how to shoot, tricks that would work best, lighting, spot selection, and an understood trust.  Trust that you'll make the best of the shoot.  And of course not get kicked in the face.

Camera settings: 1/125, F/4.0, ISO 400.
Lighting: 580ex speedlite positioned camera left, 1/2 power.  sb-25, gridded, being held 8 feet up behind the camera at 1/2 power (I think?).

Thank you Greg for the Valo Shout out!

My good friend Greg was ever so nice to let me know he got some photos posted up on the Valo-brand page.  Even nicer to know they were photos I shot of him for an interview that didn't use them, and I even got a little shout out.  Things like that make my day.

Time Capsule Footage, 2004-2005

 
Mystery Edit from Jonathan Labez on Vimeo.
I was digging through some old hard drives, sorting out old footage from my Canon Optura Xi and I came across the last edit I made sometime back in 2006.  Like every kid, I wanted to film and make a video.  But I wanted to be artistic and make it interesting to watch because so many edits were just blasé.  It wasn't about the best tricks, but how you showcased them.  That attitude must have carried over into my photography which I became heavily interested in later that year.

It's interesting to look back and remember all the fun times and remember exactly what it was like skating then, just because of a two minute edit.  Some of these people have meandered off and haven't strapped up in years.  Some of them I pick up every Sunday without fail.  I've seen them (and myself) develop as rollerbladers and as young adults, becoming an extended family.  Anyone I skate with on a semi-regular basis is part of that family, which includes anyone I've met in the last year from the Long Beach scene/Monday Night Skate.

I remember how foreign it was to walk in that first night a year ago and not know anyone, but know I was excited to see that many rollerbladers.  I hadn't seen anything like that since LA IMYTA years earlier.  My driver friends weren't into driving out far, or going to spots we had already been to a hundred times before.  I like to explore, check out new places and spaces.  It's how I ended up at Monday Night because I had been driving 6 months and I ran into some rollerbladers at Tweedy saying we should come out to Monday Night.  I haven't regretted that decision.

My family's grown exponentially with some of the coolest people you'll ever meet.  A year's worth of memories and friends to add to the years of rollerblading.  Here's to 2010 and the new memories coming up on the horizon..

Anthony Gallegos' Trick Tip up on A Chosen Few..

My good friend Anthony Gallegos (Guy-uh-goes) just did a trick tip profile for a new online video series, A Chosen Few (run by Quinn Feldman).  So of all the tricks out there, Anthony did True Kindgrind on a ledge, a practice rail, a handicap, a down rail and up a curved ledge...revert 360 out.  Talk about versetile!  Anthony is a very consistant guy, so I'd listen to everything he has to say.  Check out the video!  He's due to have a profile on A Chosen few sometime soon, so be on the look out for that as well!

A trip to Long Beach based Urban Rolling skate shop

On a cold wet and dreary day, Chris and I ventured out into the world to get our rolling fix.  Spent 11-4:30 at Vans Skate Park.  $12 dollar entrance fee for an all day session.  Not too shabby!  Other than Chris dying after eating a Carls Jr meal and trying to skate, there weren't any serious injuries for once.

With a few hours to kill, we figured we would go to new skate shop that just opened in Long Beach, Urban Rolling.  I had heard about it during Monday Night Skate, but hadn't brought myself to go.  It's a mission to drive down to downtown Long Beach just to stare at some skates and maybe get wheels.  But today was different.  Chris and I were further south and the 5 freeway would be packed.  I texted Jeremy Soderberg for an address and off we went.  We used Chris' G1 phone to navigate our way to mecca.  Let me just say Google Navigation is the best thing ever. But the battery on the G1 is all sorts of fail.

We've driving down Elm St wondering where the shop would be.  Chris says "I don't see the skate shop..hope we didn't pass it."  As we come up on 3rd st, there's a large sign "Urban Rolling".  I think that answered our prayers.  We park after having our spot in front of the shop snagged.  We walked in and you know it was oddly refreshing to go into a shop to buy goods.  Last shop I bought goods from in person was during my Norcal extravaganza trip last  December where I went out of my way to visit Amall.  It was just nice not to stare at a screen to look at skate goods.

The first thing you see is the front desk, oddly unmanned. When visited Amall, I had that same kind of luck.  I have a photo of it somewhere...

 
We wandered around the store aimlessly, staring at everything.   Well, first we gravitated to the skates.  Wouldn't you?

Let me just say the Ben Schwab Xsjados look loads better in person than they do online.  So do the Carbons.  They even have the Jr Razor skates.  Get your sibling a pair of skates from here.  $109 dollars.  Okay shameless plug in complete.

They have a few backpacks for those of you interested..

I'm not fan of the GC bag after the first version of this bag decided to stop zipping.  Since then I've made some fun of GC's proven ideas slogan.  The irony is I'm riding GC featherlites now.  haha.  They were gifts from a friend so I can't complain.  Surprisingly good frames compared to my last pair of frames, the Mooks.  Oh and if you're wondering, yes, they sell frames too.  Too bad I only caught photos of their wheels and random hardware.  But if you like GC frames, they have them in stock.

They have Street Artist wheels! I'm glad I didn't have extra cash on me or I would have been one broke boy.

They also sell some clothes.  A few Vibralux shirts, some INRI shirts and jeans, Gost gear, and a few other companies...

 

 

We ended up talking to the owner for a good hour or so.  Turns out his kid skates, Sean.  Who's Sean I asked myself?  He showed us some edits of his son and then it hit me - I had skated with Sean on numerous occasions and had even taken photos of Sean!  Case and Point...Sean and Dan below:

 Ah that was such a fun shot to shoot!

Anywho, it was fun talking to Sean's dad (oh, I'm so sorry for forgetting your name, I'm rubbish with remembering names!) about England, Sean's skate, things he's trying to do with the spot, the transition USD is making from distribution to direct, new products, the website, the old days of rolling, old skates long forgotten in our closets, life in the states (I found out Sean and his dad were from the UK.  That was a trip!).  He was a chill guy to talk to.  It certainly makes it worth the drive just to shoot the breeze with him.  He mentioned he's trying to work with a bearings company out of the UK called Bulldog Bearings.  Cheap, effective quality bearings.  Sounds like a rad deal to me.  Bulldog's slogan was hilarious - Bulldog Bearings, "Doin' it doggy style".  Come on, doesn't that make you want to try them? haha.

After talking for a while, Chris and I ended up buying some goods to show our support.  I bought some Vicious Abec 9 bearings to replace my dead Vicious Abec 7s.  I'm going to die.  But that's okay.  I'm glad I'm a fast skater, so we'll see how this works out.  I'll have to post a review about them soon.  It's raining so it'll be a good couple weeks.  That and I want to try my hand at product shooting, so we'll see what I come up with.  Gives me a good reason to use my new Nikon SB-25.  Can't wait!  Onto Chris' purchase!  He ended up buying a key chain that says "Go and Roll". So random but it was neat.  That and Chris wanted to replace his 1up plush mushroom key chain.  For $3 dollars, how could he say no?

 

With our purchases in hand, we said our adieus, thanked Sean's dad for the interesting conversation and hoped to see him soon.  Glad we took the detour home. 

All in all, this topped off the day as one of my better Fridays.  

Check out Urban Rolling's website or if you can, go in person to show your support.  They're located on 3rd street and Elm in downtown Long Beach, CA.  Once you see the sign, you can't miss it!  They're open 11-7 Friday and Saturday, and 11-6 the rest of the week.

Tour photos and updates..

So the Get Out of Town Tour was a complete success.  For those of you who did not know, I was up in San Francisco with some of the Long Beach crew - Anthony Gallegos, Gregory Preston, Danger Dan and Warry.  It were packing a tight car.  Tighter still with Kevin Yee giving us the grand tour.  All I have to say is I had an absolutely amazing time! Took a ton of photos but I'll have to hold up on posting them up since Shock is giving us the space to post up our tour photos on their site! How flipping cool is that?!  So it means I'll be working hard this week to edit a ton of photos.  No sleep for me.  Then again, when do I sleep?  Anywho, to sum up the tour, San Francisco architecture was stunning, their city planners are on top of things, there's a sense of community (albeit a little militant), things are open late, the streets are sketchy, we skated some well known spots (hubba's hide out for one), I can't remember saturday night (oh my), and did I  mention I got to skate with Kevin Yee?  Such a good skater.  But the pictures will speak for themselves... In the meantime, you'll just have to make due with some camera phone photos.

At beginning of the drive, Dan show's off his stunner shades.

 Somewhere in the grapevine.

Obligatory smoke break.

We managed to park under a ton of bees.  No one wanted shotgun at that pit stop. haha.

After a stop at Jack in the Box, we're off again.

Anthony smiling as usual.  I think were were just glad to be out of town.

Anthony has a t-rex on his mirror which I thought was uber cool.

All I have is a wooden cat head on my car.

Greg watching Fantastic Puncher.  Wonder what he's thinking about..

The mystery that is Greg's mind?

The GPS lost signal for 15-20 minutes midway through the drive.

A blurry photo of Greg balancing two folks on two toothpicks.

Also, a subliminal Valo ad.