One of the main reasons why Dimitri and I ventured out into the wilderness that morning is to shoot some portraits. It has been a while since I have shot anything worth posting so I really wanted to go shoot some photos out in the woods and get a nice breath of fresh air.

Last saturday morning was probably one of the best mornings that I have had in a long time, thanks D.

Here are some portraits:

Plain and simple.

Also I have been shooting some random stuff this fall. I haven’t really been on task force which is a change for me, but maybe it has been good. I usually go out to shoot for a purpose and one reason. But this last season has been pretty bland in my photography so I have a lot of random, uncategorized photographs. Some are so uncategorized that I have a hard time deciding where to save them. I have shot a few portraits, landscapes, skate stuff, but nothing just with a purpose. Most of my photography comes out of boredom right now. I keep telling myself “If only I could go travel around and take photos somewhere new”. Well, I did that. I got amazing photos but that was not quite satisfying enough (spiritually, yes, big time. Physically, not so much) for my creative nerve. It is kind of like the excuse you get from people who want to move that just think all their problems will be fixed if they get out of this town. Those people always end up right back to where they started. I need to step back into my roots of photography and really work back up from the ground. I need to remember why I started taking photos and really continue to use this gift that God has given me. I want to dig back into what got me stoked on photography a few years ago. Photos are what keep me going spiritually and physically, with out that burning desire to take pictures I feel lost. Sounds cheesy, but it is art, so who cares right?

A wise man named Andy Worhol once said “Art is what you can get away with”.

Im getting away with what keeps me going inside.

Here are a bunch of random photos from this fall:

Joey putting his “pizza lip” to use. This was in Nelson, BC. They have great pizza there.

Ben found 20 Canadian dollars, this was Canada’s way of saying “We love America”

Classic photo of Joey.

Zombie photo of Joey, this was taken on the way back from Canada. We stopped to take a moon photo but couldn’t get any good photos. I took a photo of Joey instead.

Josh Monteith just moved over to Seattle, but I took this photo of him a few weeks before he left. Josh has seriously been one of my biggest inspirations for photography and just for life in general. I am very blessed to have a friend like Josh in my life. Love you man.

This was taken on a hike I went on with Josh. Beautiful Coeur d’Alene lake.

Cliche, but nice. This is on Canfield, I wanted to take landscapes, but I thought this was cooler than my surroundings.

Same goes for this one.

Finally the sun set a little bit and got a nice photo of the beautiful Idaho sunset.

Clouds. I should instagram this photo. #clouds

I went up to Lookout Ski Resort to film a little video for Chuck Schmidt and I took advantage of the prime portrait opportunity I had to take a photo of Aaron Vetsch. Dirty Ern.

Dirty.

Dirty.

I need to blog more, sorry for the massive dump of photos this time.

Stay gold,

-Steve

P.S. Sorry if this blog seemed a little dark, that is most definitely not how I am feeling right now.

Ten years later, I am doing it again but doing it because Joey Ozol were so bored on a Sunday Afternoon. Sometimes the simplest forms of fun can be the most entertaining activities. Especially for a teenager who has nothing to do on a windy, Sunday afternoon.

I had a random burst of creative energy to go shoot a photo of Joey flying a kite because I had never done something like that. It is a pretty simple, cliche thing to take photos of, but regardless it is still fun to get out and shoot. Joey and I drove out on to the prairie where the wind would be the most gusty and let the kite soar. Here are some photos from the day.

Earlier this week Trevor Groth and I went out to shoot a spot in Post Falls. Trevor got a few tricks and I got a few photos. A little on the artsy side, but still good quality skateboarding.

Trevor Groth | Frontside Tailslide

Trevor Groth | Frontside Crooked Grind

Stay gold,

-Steve

He landed it.

The other day, Joey and I were walking downtown Coeur d’Alene and found spot that hasn’t ever been skated. It was a diamond in the rough. In Coeur d’Alene, everyone know every spot out there. If you don’t know the spot, someone else does, but this spot we found had never been skated. No one had ever seen it either so it was a fresh spot. We were pretty hyped on the spot so I talked to Mikey (Marc) Carpenter because I knew that he liked backside tailslides and we went and shot it.

There is nothing as fun for me than shooting skateboarding on a nice fall afternoon. Temperatures are starting to drop in North Idaho, so skateboarding is going to wrapped up here in the next few months. I am going to try and stack as many shots as I can before winter hits. I better start hunting for spots. I was lucky enough to find this one for Mikey. Check out the photos from the shoot:

Marc | Backside Tailslide

Mikey actually got back tail bigspin out too, but I filmed that, I didn’t want to shoot that.

Right next to this ledge was this short, high flat bar. Pretty awkward to skate, but pretty cool to shoot. Mikey got a nice little front board on it:

Here is a portrait of Josh Santos too:

Welcome to fall.

Stay gold,

-Steve

This is a very summarized version of my jam packed month of August.

As soon as I got home from the BFC tour in the beginning of August I was back to the camera. I had quite a few senior photo sessions lined up for me upon my arrival back home, which is a blessing itself, but that kept me busy for quite a while. I don’t particularly enjoy shooting senior photos, but I do it.

I had the opportunity to go shoot out at Gozzer Ranch (a beautiful area out on Coeur d’Alene Lake) with Brooklynn Hathaway and shoot her senior photos. I was pretty stoked to go shoot out there because of all the natural beauty at Gozzer. I had no idea what I was going to do out there photo-wise because I had only been out there once previously and didn’t really take note of all the photo spots. But we quickly found some great zones and I pleased with what we received from the shoot. Take a look:

Brooklynn Hathaway

Brooklynn Hathaway

Brooklynn Hathaway

Towards the end of August, we had a few more BFC demos. One was in one our more favorite towns we go to called Troy, MT. Troy is something else to say the least. I love going there because of the community there. The people are awesome and they are so stoked for our demo because it is probably the only fun thing they get to see for the whole summer. The demo went great and photos came out pretty cool as well. I mean, they are demo photos so what can you expect? Check it:

Josh Monteith rips

He likes bikes too

Joey killed it, he had a real nice front board down the ledge

Zach with the power stance

High fives

After Troy, it was Joey Ozol’s birthday so we decided to take a little day trip to Missoula, MT. Missoula has one of the greatest skateparks in our area so it was a super rad time to hang out with some friends. A couple of our friends, Fred and Angelo came with us to the “zoo” town. Here is what we did:

Joey Ozol | Crook to fakie

Fred Jones | 50-50 Fronside shove

Angelo fell

Angelo Warner | Frontboard

Joey Ozol | Backside Feeble

Sorry for making your throw yourself down this Joey

These kids watched us skate

The last thing is the demo with helmets. We had a demo at the YMCA skatepark which was awesome. All though helmets were required, the guys still ripped. The demo went smooth and the kids seemed to enjoy it, thats what counts, right? Here they are:

Greg Foeller | BFC Melon

Zach Black | Back Tail

Greg rips

Hair metal

Tyler rips too

Bring it Zach

There is a lot more I could put up but I think I am going to wait and post the other stuff in another post.

Stay Gold,

-Steve

I am going to be trying to update my blog more rapidly now because I am back. I will do posts just like this with some fun photos from tour and just things that I like.

Something that I think you all should check out is this biking club and clothing company my good friend Jordan Halland started called The Damn Rascals. Check it out!

Greg Snider, from a church we had a demo at took us to a few spots in down town Detroit to skate. He showed us a few really cool spots and we had a good time. Except for Trevor. He split his shin open on a frontside flip down a little drop and ended up getting a few stitches.

Check out some photos from our day in Detroit:

Tyler Jenicek | Belle Isle

All the guys at the other side of the ditch

Some of the guys jumping over some barriers getting over to another spot

Trevor Groth | Backside 5-0 | Detriot

Tyler Jenicek | Backside Lip | Detroit

Mike Shamberg | Hurricane | Detroit

Zach Black | Frontside Lip | Detroit

Trevor Groth | Detroit

Zach Black | Detroit

Trevor, Greg, and Tyler | Trevor: Observer, Greg: Backside 180, Tyler: Fake filmer

Trevor split his shin open. Greg got him some water.

Over all, our day in Detroit was sick. Thanks so much Greg.

Keep your eyes peeled,we will be dropping another blog on the Boarders For Christ blog of more Michigan photos.

Stay Gold,

-Steve

Even though there have been some hard times, we constantly are having good times. Take a look at what we have been up to:

We got to spend some time in Chicago with this other skate ministry called Foundation Skate Ministry. Noah Arnold (Co-Founder of FSM) put us up in his apartment and then took us out on a trip around the city. We skated with all of his youth kids from the ministry through out the city and took us to some cool spots.

Johnny & Zach

Johnny, Sham and Trevor at a spot. Zach broke his board right away so we had to wait for him to set up another one.

We spent some time on the trains going through out town.

Some random kid played skate with one of the FSM guys. He was actually pretty good.

Next we traveled down to Bement, IL and stayed with Jeremiah Gregory and had a demo there. We were in Bement for about a week so we went up to Champaign, IL and skated for a day. Check out some of the photos from there.

Tyler getting a back blunt on a ledge in Champaign

Trevor at the Champaign skatepark with a front tail down the hand rail. That was pretty much the only skateable feature there.

Sham with his signature hurricane

Johnny front boarded this aluminum hand rail. Then he tried to back smith it and died.

Our good friend Garrett Lowenstein from Bement came to Champaign with us and he did this hand rail for me. I was pumped

That water tower is the highlight of Bement

The only skate spot in Bement. Trevor Backside flipped it. Oh yeah!

We are in Pennsylvania right now about to head to Creation Fest and from there we head to Michigan and then to Florida.

Stay tuned,

-Steve

Through out the past 3 years I have blogged almost every week with out fail and have ended up with 89 blog posts.

But don’t think I am stopping now.

Though the photo class I was in has come to an end, I plan on updating my blog bi-monthly and continuing to keep my blog going strong. I want my blog to turn more into a blog where it shows what I am up to rather that just photos. More writing and more photos that are just for fun or of my friends. Please continue viewing my blog, I would appreciate that.

Through out the school year of 2010 & 2011 I found my niche in photography. I spent the previous years working on portraits, landscapes and snowboarding photos, but this last year I have found what I want to continue shooting for the remainder of my photography career.

Skateboarding.

Skateboarding photography was introduced to me by a good friend Joey Ozol two years ago at the good ol’ Coeur d’Alene skate park. Joey and I have spent so much time shooting skateboarding together as a team and I would like to give a shout out to him for ripping my photos apart and helping me get significantly better at shooting what I love.

The main reason why I absolutely love shooting skateboarding is because of the emotion within the sport, the spirit of the sport, the love of the sport, and the passion that goes into the sport. Some spots that I will shoot we will be there for hours and the skater will not land trick, but at the end of the day when it is all said and done and we got no shots, it is one of the most fun things I can possibly do. The emotion that is in a street spot is so abundant and is overflowing so if you can’t get a good photo of the trick, you are bound to capture the pure emotion of the lifestyle.

For my end of the year final I chose to pick my series on skateboarding. I have spent so much time working with skateboarding and it is the field that I want to go into within photography, I figured it was appropriate to do my final on the sport that I love.

Taking it back to the basic fundamentals of photography, I have shot 10 skateboarding photos that show the concrete foundations of the art.

It has been pretty difficult to shoot this final due to the fact that I am on the road traveling around the country, but I have managed to shoot 10 skate shots that contain the basics but are quality images.

Here we go:

Trevor Groth | Kickflip to Fakie | Rule of Thirds

Trevor has been in my blogs for quite some time. He has been a major push to me in my photography because I want to strive to get the best photos to capture the excellence of his skateboarding. We shot this photo in Grayslake, IL at this little skatepark in town. Trevor boosts high than any other skater I shoot with and he stomped this kickflip to fakie cleaner than most people out there. This photo is a demonstration of the simple, yet sophisticated rule of thirds. Props Trevor.

Johnny Helgren | Frontside Tailslide | Leading Lines

Johnny Helgren is also another very influential skater in my life. I love shooting with Johnny because he seriously pushes himself to the limit to get the shot. We shot this in downtown Chicago, IL on a day shooting skateboarding through out the city. The best way to shoot this spot was by using the basic leading lines style due to the fact of this massively long rail. Props to Johnny for killing this spot!

Trevor Groth | Frontside Indy | Natural Framing

Once again, Trevor put down another stylish trick. This was also taken in Grayslake, IL at the same skatepark. I saw the tree there at the park and knew right away I could frame Trevor perfectly within it. I shot it this way not only to frame him in there, but also to do justice for the trick he was doing. I wanted to show the way he was turning, how high he was and also the placement of his shoulders to demonstrate his style. Good job Trevor.

Johnny Helgren | Backside Crook | Use of Large Depth of Field

At one of our demos in Burlington, NC Johnny destroyed our hand rail on our tour set up. He did just about every backside grind possible on it so I wanted to make sure to get a good photo of it. I wanted to get the sun in the background so I shot this with a very small aperture to get the sun start behind him. This is demonstrating the large depth of field as you can tell with lots of subjects in focus. Killing it Johnny!

Trevor Groth | Backside Nose Grind | Use of Limited Depth of Field

There are so many spots for skateboarding downtown Chicago, IL that is almost hard to choose which ones you want to hit. We spent near two hours at this spot, but finally, Trevor put down a perfect nose grind all the way across that 15 foot river walk ledge. The gnarly part about this spot is if you fall, you land in sewer waste and people have tried to cover it up, but the ply wood just doesn’t cut it. As you can see, Trevor is the focal point and he is the subject within the focus. Everything leading up to him is not, and everything behind him is not in focus as well. Trevor went here last year and was not able to land anything on it, he got his redemption. Good job man.

Johnny Helgren | Frontside Smith | Balance

As small as Kerrville, TX is, there are so many skate spots in the town. We were in Kerrville for about 4 days staying with a good friend who showed us around the town. He showed us this spot and I knew we would get a cool photo from it. Johnny got his trick right away which was a plus, but I had to set up my shot and make it perfect. I wanted to shoot this with a lot of space so we could use it for promotion. Photos that are used for promotion need to have good balance. This one seems to do the job right. Maybe someday you will see this photo in one of our BFC adds.

Tyler Jenicek | Switch Varial Heelflip | Creative View

The only way to do justice for this stair and show the size of it was to shoot it with the fish eye and get below him. Though this stair in Kerrville, TX is only a four stair, it is was a lot bigger than the standard four stair. Tyler popped a perfect switch varial heelflip down this stair and landed it perfect as well. I really like the angle because it shows the run up, the feature and the landing. Also the skater fits within the frame and shooting it this low makes the spot look how big it was. Props Tyler!

Trevor Groth | Gap Across Ramps | Simplicity

Trevor once again got his big ollie on. He seems to have those on lock. I didn’t really have any other way to shoot this besides with the fisheye so that is what I did. Turns out, it was the simplest photo from the day and seems to fit the criteria for the photo project. Sometimes simple is the way to go, in this case simple worked.

Johnny Helgren | Backside Lipslide | My Choice #1 (leading lines)

In the random little town of Kettering, OH one of the greatest skateboarders to ever have walked this planet was born. Rob Dyrdek. After he became pro, he sent a large grant to his hometown to have a skate plaza built for his community back home. We stopped by on our way to Chicago and we hit this plaza up. I chose leading lines for my choice #1 because it fit for this shot perfectly and also it made this shot look way cooler. Johnny, your good.

Johnny Helgren | Pain | My Choice #2 (Emotion)

I really wanted 1 photo to show the emotion of skate photography. So, I shot one. Johnny was having a very difficult time putting down a trick on this hand rail and ended up hitting his knee pretty hard. I think I did a good job capturing his emotion. The crazy thing about skateboarding is that you can go from being so utterly pissed off, to so incredibly stoked. Johnny, was pretty mad to say the least, he had a valid reason to be though.

Skateboarding. Definitely my most favorite thing to shoot photos of. I am very thankful to have the skaters in my life to shoot with daily. Thanks guys.

Last, but not least, the final portrait.

We set up the whole studio inside a small apartment that we were staying in and I had Trevor model for me, he did a good job. Here it is:

Trevor Groth | Portrait

I kept it simple, yet classy.

This whole year, I have had so many inspirations for my skateboarding photography. But the ones who really kept me going are John Bradford, Giovanni Reda, Chase Gabor (He is a filmer, but still an inspiration for sure!) Yoon Sul, Dave Chami, Dean Blotto Gray, Garric Ray and last, but certainly not least, Joey Ozol. They have all inspired me to shoot as much as I can and as best as I can.

I would like to give a big shout out to my photo teacher and my homie, Twitchell. Thanks for putting up with me T-Dogg. Stay Strong.

Stay gold,

-Steve

The Grand Tetons

At the top of the Teton Pass

METAL!

Clouds on the plains of Colorado

Steamboat, CO Sk8 Church

Sk8 Church

There was this fox at this skatepark. Pretty cool.

We were so stoked to be in Texas. Little did we know that trouble awaits us.

Johnny kept his spirits high when we were stranded.

We went to the Alamo in San Antonio, TX

San Antonio

San Antonio

We started playing a new game where we take photos of tourists getting their photo taken

Sham got a picture with a random lady

Johnny walks with his shirt open

Sham needed a break

Demo shots

Corey says it is a go!

Johnny makes kids happy

Applause

Tyler gettin’ that hana

So far, tour has been great.

Inspiration: Blair Alley

Stay gold,

-Steve

Later on in the week, I did a nice family photo shoot and got some pretty decent family shots. The Foss family is probably one of the most photogenic families that I know and I am glad that I was able to shoot for them. Check out some of their photos:

Inspiration: Giovanni Reda

From now on, the rest of my posts are going to tour related. Expect some real solid stuff!

Stay gold,

-Steve