New (to me) Nikon D2x

Last week I was fortunate enough to find an affordable used Nikon D2x camera body on the internet (http://www.keh.com/ I always get great service from them, and even their bargain grade equipment is in great condition). The D2x is the upgraded version of my previous camera, boasting 12.4 megapixel and a frame rate of up to 8 frames per second.

Steve, crooked grind. D2x, Nikkor 18-70mm @35mm, ISO 100 f4.2, 1/250th

We went back to the middle school on Friday with a new plan. We brought my Speedotron strobe set and some extension chords, and dragged an old picnic table down to the stairs. Steve and I had been talking about setting this up for a couple of weeks, and he always claimed he'd crooked grind down it. So we set it up, and after some manuals and a backside grind, he finished off the night with this. Backside crooked. It was so much fun to bring all of my lighting out to a skate spot and light it as if we were in a studio, and being able to shoot it on a current pro end camera was a great feeling.

Next week I will be spending the week with my family in Hawaii. I am bringing my cameras with me, so while I won't be able to post from there, I promise to post a double blog about my trip.

Go Skateboarding Day 2000 and 10

Go Skateboarding Day 2010 was a mild success. I had to work most of my day so I didn't get to go skate until the dwindling hours of the evening. Steve and I went out to the middle school, dug our old bench back out of the garbage pile, and set it down the two-flat-two stair set. This shoot was a sentimental one for me, because I had been skating this set of stairs with obstacles set down it for ten years. I remember skating near by with friends while the older crew like Dallas, TJ, Jeff, and others skated the stairs. We'd wait for them to leave and try our hardest to mimic their tricks. What made today special was that we skated this spot with Dallas, and had a skate trip down memory lane.

Steve, BS grind. D1x, 18-70mm @56mm, ISO 200, F4.5 1/320 sec

This picture turned out to be my favorite of the day. Out of better, more difficult tricks, this photo really sticks out to me. The main reason, is because it was completely on accident. The flash on the right had not been firing correctly, so I ended up forgetting it was there. Eventually throughout trying different flash combinations the flash on the right ended up pointing almost directly back into the camera, messing with my polarized filter by throwing a big purple ring into the shot. This was one of those moments for me that made me step back, realize how I screwed up, and figure out how to do it again on purpose later.