Detroit, Michigan. The motor city of the United States of America, largest city in Michigan, home of the Red Wings, and by far the most ghetto place I have been so far. But on top of all of that, it is one of the most photogenic cities that I have gone to.

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

So far, we have been out on the road for just a little over a month. It has been amazing being out here seeing God move through out our van, seeing God move through out the crowds at our demos and really seeing God do work within all of our hearts. There have been some really hard times, but in James 1:2-4 it says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” So we have all these hard times, but within those hard times and trials we grow and our hearts really become stronger. We have all been tried with in the last month, but I have seen so much growth within my life and also with in the lives of my brothers.

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 a ton of 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

Last Tuesday, I left of the summer tour with Boarders For Christ. We will be traveling around the country putting on skateboarding demos and spreading the Word. We had our first demo in Steamboat Springs, CO and got to spend some great time with a family down there. They run this skateboarding ministry called Christ For Life Sk8 Church and have a very cool little community of youth there. Everything was running great all the way down there until we hit Texas. Our next stop was Kerrville, TX and like the saying goes “Everything is bigger in Texas”, everything was bigger. All of our problems escalated with in the first 50 miles of Texas. We just had purchased a new van for this year to tour in, but quickly found out that just because something is new doesn’t mean it is fine a dandy. We had our van overheat in Northern Texas the moment we got in to Texas which was caused by a water pump failure. We ended up getting stranded in Texas for the night, and what was supposed to be a 13 hour drive from Colorado to Kerrville, TX turned into two 10 hour drives with out air conditioning in 100+ degree weather. We finally  got into Kerrville safely and that is when we realized that Texas is pretty awesome. Texas completely redeemed itself and we were blessed to stay with a family in Kerrville. Here are photos from the first week of tour:

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

This last week was the last week that I will shoot skate boarding in CDA for a while. I leave next week with Boarders For Christ for the summer tour and will be gone for 3 months. I wanted to get one more solid skate shoot in before I left so Trevor Groth and I went to famous CDA spot down town and worked something out. The legendary church banks down town are always looked at, but nothing gets done on them. It takes quite beastly wheels to even roll up them, let alone pop something out of them. Trevor just boosted a large back side ollie out of it and to top it off, he did it on my filming board. Props Trevor, check it out:

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

The last few days in photo class, we have been venturing out on campus taking photos.

Here are the photos that I took:

The next photos were taken with my iPhone:

Corey likes to take photos.

Corey is a happy camper

Corey and his toy

Peaking through the fence

Check out the clouds

Corey?

Random

Essex has nice shoes

So do I.

Thanks,

Stay gold,

-Steve

Everything is worming up here in Coeur d’Alene right now. 60 degree days, sunny, smiles on peoples faces, it is really nice. It is time to start wrapping up the school year and finish things off right. Last weekend I took a little trip to Portland, OR to visit my Uncle Billy before he goes backs to Zimbabwe, Africa. So my family and a few friends took a little trip over there and hung out with him. I really didn’t shoot much over there but a few skate shots and a sunset. When I was shooting the sunset photo, I tripped, fell and hit my lens on the ground. Defiantly not worth the photo, but I thought it would be good to share it anyways just because of the story behind the shot. It was kind of fun to finally shoot a street spot in Portland since I have never really shot street there. Usually when I go to Portland, it is to go to skateparks and shoot those, but it was defiantly good to get some street stuff in. I still did shoot a little at one of our more favorite skateparks, Beaverton Park. I really am sick of skatepark photos and can’t wait to shoot a lot of street stuff this summer on tour with Boarders For Christ.
Check out my Portland adventure:

Joey Ozol | Front Board

Joey Ozol | Back Smith

Random kid (I think his name was Kyle?) | Kickflip Front Board

Also this last week, I shot some more senior portraits. Those are always fun right? Here is a little something from my shoot with Derek Scharf:

Last but not least, Tyler Jenicek and I found a nice little ledge downtown CDA a few days ago. I really thought that the shot would be perfect with a nice sunset behind it so thats what we did. I got exactly what I wanted with this photo and I am pretty stoked with it. I had one light for the main contact light at 1/8th power behind the tree and then also another flash right behind him to and some rim light to separate him between the trees and signs in the back ground. Check out Tyler with the perfectly excited back tail slide:

Tyler Jenicek | Back Tail

Snapped this after he landed it. It is always nice when a shoot goes quick and the skater lands it in the first few tries. But I don’t always get so lucky. Some times I have to go back to a spot, 3 or more times.

Thanks everyone,

Stay solid,

-Steve

This last week has been super crazy weather wise. We have had snow, sun, rain, wind and just about any other type of weather you could think of. But usually with crazy weather you can get some pretty cool shots. So this last week, I shot some portraits, and some nature stuff. I went on a nice hike with a friend and shot some nice nature photos. But earlier in the week I shot some portraits of a good friend, Noel, in the snow. I have done that before if you remember back in December. Perhaps Noel just looks with snow? I think so. To top it off, I shot some more portraits of Trevor Groth. If you don’t know him, you are missing out. I am really trying to work on my portraits again, I feel a little rusty and it has been awhile. I need to get back in the portrait game if you know what I mean?

Check out what I have been up to:

My inspiration for this week is Mike O’Meally because of his well roundness of photography. He really gets in his groove and that is skateboarding, but he kills it in many other aspects of photography as well.

Thanks,

-Steve

This year for Focus 208 I chose McEuen park mainly because of the change the park will most likely see in the next 10 years. There has been multiple different ideas that have been purposed to the city, but nothing has been decided. Let’s hope for a new skate park.

Here are my images for focus 208 this year:

I tried to shoot everything really wide to get as much stuff as I could get in the frame, but I also got a little distortion. You win some and you lose some right?

Stay classy,

-Steve

Yep, senior photo season has officially kicked off. Some early birds are wanting them done right now, and I have no problem doing them this early. It makes it a lot easier on me because I am not pushed to have them done by the date that their school needs them, it gives me time to schedule other shoots and when the weather is nice, it is really nice.

I always have enjoyed shooting senior photos because it is so personal and what you are trying to do when you are shooting them is create an image of who that person really is. I really like doing them and I will take as many as I can get.

Take a look at Jackson Helgren from our shoot last weekend:

I am leaving for the whole summer at the end of May with Boarders for Christ going on the summer tour and I am trying to get all the people who want their senior photos done to get them done before I leave so I do not have to rush in September with all these seniors who want them done. Seems like a good strategy to me.

Also this week, I shot some photos at my good friend Chucks house while we were burning time waiting for some people. I actually got a few cool photos from just messing around. Check these out:

Chuck was really into Nazi Zombies…

Meet Rome. Best dog on the planet. What other dog plays Nazi Zombies with you?

Have a good week everyone,

Stay tight,

-Steve