A couple of nights ago I met up with my buddy Stacey to shoot some good old fashioned street skating. This is another area of photography that I’ve been wanting to try out, so I grabbed a couple of lights and jerry-rigged my tripod into a lightstand and off we went.

It took a few tries to get the timing just right and figure out where he would be in the frame for each shot, but we got the hang of it after a little while. We had a great time doing what we love to do and we both pushed ourselves to do some new things. The good news for me, is that those new things would not have involved a trip to the hospital if they had gone horribly wrong. Not so much for Stacey.

Stacey took me around to a few of his favourite spots to skate and we worked out the angles, the trick he was going to do and where he was going to take off and land. Catching him at just the right moment took a bit of patience but I got there. I found that at first I was taking cues from the sound of the board, so I ended up firing too early, but figured out that I really just had to watch and rely on my not-so cat like reflexes.

The good news is that nobody ended up in the hospital, none of my gear got clobbered during an out of control landing (not that he ever lost control or anything!) and we had an awesome time. Thanks Stacey!

Now I can’t wait to get out and do some more of this. If you’d like me to come out and shoot you skating, riding, jumping rope…whatever, let me know (info@dannysheppard.com). Action sports are being added to the list of things I photograph!