Tuesday Night at the Skatepark
The Casper Skatepark is an interesting place. Once seen as a “beautification project” by the city; a place where parents would drop off their grade-school kids for the day, it has long since been orphaned and the ramps and surrounding area have fallen into disrepair. It is a fairly popular hangout for non-skateboarding types, and beer bottles litter the parking lot, barely visible through a haze of pot smoke. What a perfect place to capture some great skate culture photos.
The locals aren’t very territorial, but I think outsiders feel uncomfortable anyway. Fortunately, I’m no real stranger to the local skate scene (in fact, I was once the subject of many local skate myths: that I could ollie cars, for example). Having since dropped out of the day-to-day at the skatepark, I’ve lost touch with the social hierarchy; who’s who, who is respected, who gets made fun of when they’re not looking. People are generally getting used to me being around again, working on new tricks, taking breaks to photograph great skateboarders when they show up, etc. They’re patient while I set up shots, and if they land a trick but I missed it, they’re always happy to try again. I’m not just there to get tricks, though.
In my opinion that also happens to be fact, Glen E. Friedman is the greatest skateboard photographer ever. Not only are his photos excellent, he was taking them at a very important time in skateboarding, and they tell the story of that era of skateboarding’s progression. That era is gone, and no skateboard photo will ever have the sort of impact those classic photos did/do. That doesn’t mean that every skate photo is frivolous just because it wasn’t taken in the late 70’s/early 80’s…there’s still a story that can be told. It’s not about getting the most XXXtreme photo you can, it’s an entire counterculture that demands to be captured. Oddly enough, for that reason, that last photo in the previous post is my favorite photo, even though there is no skateboarding going on.
Anyway, there’s a point to that art-fag rant. Of the following two pics, the first is a decent action shot of a flawless blunt stall, but it doesn’t really say anything about anything that happened at the skatepark tonight.
The second one however, helped capture a part of a story that unexpectedly unfolded tonight, and it turned out to be one of my favorite photos yet.
At about sunset, the park begins clearing out. The city has refused to put lighting up at the park despite years of begging and pleading for it. A couple hardcores will stick around and hit the transitions until you literally cannot see, but tonight was different. The only people left at the park were myself and two guys I had never seen before. One had come back from a couple years’ hiatus from skateboarding and was trying to get his shit back together, the other was a friend of his that had never ridden a skateboard before. We had stopped skating at this point, and they were sitting on the halfpipe having a couple beers. I was going through the photos I had taken earlier and they offered me a beer before even introducing themselves. It was Bud Light, but something about “free” makes even the most watered-down beer magically turn into sweet, sweet nectar. I sat and enjoyed my frosty beverage while the kid that couldn’t skate told surfing stories. He then decided he was going to learn how to drop in in the mini-ramp. Since I had my camera handy, I looked up and saw a great photo opportunity. Sure, I could have used the flash, capturing the fear in his eyes as he dragged the tail down into the bottom of the pipe, rocketing his board out the other side of the ramp, landing square on his hip and elbow, but I wanted to tell the story a different way. Before he even had his front foot on the board, I snapped their silhouettes in the last few minutes of the sunset, and I ended up with a piece of art, rather than a Jackass-style freezeframe. Of course, just seconds later he was on his side, wheezing, screaming something about his kidney, and we all laughed.
Anyway, I think that makes for a damn fine skateboarding photo.
July 27th, 2005 at 1:04 am
I think you have a good point there about the story behind the picture being the rewarding thing about photography and all, but still, I am always up for a good “newbie-thrashes-himself-whilst-dropping-in-for the-first-time” photo opportunity.
July 27th, 2005 at 2:30 am
Yeah, I kinda blew that one, didn’t I?
July 28th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
I heard the half shark, half alligator, half man, known as “Bill” could ollie 3 burning cars while eating a sub sandwich… no wait… it was The Muska.
August 1st, 2005 at 5:09 pm
You might be interested to know that Lisa, night photo editor for the Kentucky Herald, thinks you have some very good shots and have a good eye for composition and color
August 1st, 2005 at 7:29 pm
Sweet, when do I start? I have over three weeks of experience.