Skateboarding Photo

The newest issue of Skateboarding Photo is out now. And I have 2 photos in it!

Skateboarding Photo is a free online magazine, full of brilliant skate shots from all over. Have a look here – www.skateboardingphoto.co.uk

One of the shots is of my good friend Tommy, and the other is another good friend Matt. This winter has been fairly poor, so we’ve been going on quite a few skate missions. The shot of Tommy is at the infamous Black Cross Bowl in Basel, Switzerland. It’s a crazy little home made bowl, where not one transition is smooth or even. It’s tight, short, slippy and amazing fun (when you get used to it).

The shot of Matt is at another little crazy place in Switzerland. It’s at this strange skate shop/mini ramp/museum called Pulp 68 in Geneva – Pulp 68. They have all sorts of old school boards hanging on the wall, retro computers games and a cabinet full of classic pumps from the likes of Reebok and Nike (think Reebok pumps and Air Jordans!).

Definitely two places any die hard skater should check out. I had a great time skating them with my mates, and great fun shooting the photos. So as you can imagine, it’s awesome to see them published.

Wonky Walls

Amateur Photographer is my website of choice when it comes to news, forums and general photographic stuff (check it out here). They also run a great monthly competition, which has a high standard of entries. This month I didn’t get a new mug or camera awarded to the top three spots, but I did get a special mention. Not only that, I also got a critique of my photo from Editor Damien Demolder. Which is probably worth more than all the prizes together.

Here is what he had to say, and the improvements he did:

“His City Worker is a masterpiece of content, with the CCTV camera looking down on our unfortunate worker, checking he is on time for work, as he approaches the brick tree that passes for nature in this 1984 Big Brother era. The light is perfect, picking him out with highlighted clues to his existence on his bag, head and shoes, and it is directional enough to paste that tree, melting upwards Dali fashion, on to the wall in sharp factual relief.

But you know what a freak I am for uprights being upright, and all I can see in this image is a wall that is about to fall over backwards. In fact, I so worried about the wall coming down it has stolen my consciousness away from the glorious scene you have spotted and captured. So, I’ve taken the liberty of straightening the wall for you, just so I could relax, and at the same time I’ve reduced the picture to its graphic elements by switching it to black and white. I wanted to emphasis the structure of the brick wall, so using the dodge (highlights 8%) and burn (shadows 8%) tools I’ve increased the contrast of the wall to make the brick pattern more vigorous. Some vignetting prevents my attention leaking from the edges of the frame and some burning on the fence stops it from competing with the worker for my eye.

You’ve made a brilliant picture, I’ve just brightened the blade, but with that sloping wall its impact is so reduced. It is a small detail, but like the difference between salt and sugar to a cheesecake-maker, it is a detail that means everything.”

And here is the photo.

My original version is on the left, Damien's verison is on the right.

So what do you all think?

Drop Cliffs, Not Bombs

Piers Wilson is a man with a plan.

A daily check list is what guides him forward. On Saturday, that list included this massive drop in the Stash up in Avoriaz. It’s been snowing quite a bit recently so the landing was in good condition. The run in took minimal work, and Piers took some time to assess the task ahead. Don’t tell anyone, but he knuckled his first attempt. Most people would probably shy away from a second attempt to stomp it, due to the sheer size. But that won’t stop a man with a plan. After a bit of readjusting of the binding that twisted round on impact, Piers was back up for the second attempt. With a little more speed and a bit more pop, he stomped it. Enough said.

Big tick on that list.

Piers Wilson dropping the peaceful way in Le Stash, Avoriaz, France.

Piers Wilson dropping the peaceful way in Le Stash, Avoriaz, France.

Le Stash

I had a relaxed day on Friday, shooting photos of friends in the Stash in Avoriaz. If you get the chance, go there. It’s amazing. All you could ever want from a snowboard park, made from trees, in the trees, with lots of snow. Here is a quick sneak peak of shot of the day. Enjoy.

J-Mac front board on the big skinny rainbow

thestash.com

Sunny days and mountain peaks.

The last two days have been gloriously sunny here in Morzine, so I took some evidence. Here we have two local mountain peaks, Ressachaux and Roc D’Enfer. Neither is lift accessible, both are rideable.

More photos to come soon, keep in touch.

Wideopen Magazine

It’s a new year and a new start for many. For me, however, it means more photos in the excellent FREE online bike magazine Wideopen. For those of you that haven’t heard of it before, it is the only free online bike mag worth reading. For those of you in the know, it’s my 2nd issue with photos in, so as you can imagine I’m pretty stoked! Have a good read and send the guys some love. They put in a lot of hard work to keep us up to date with all the happenings in the world of UK downhill bicycling.

Wideopen Issue 11

I wish you all a happy new year, and good reading.

Neil

I’m here, not there.

So, I am now in France for the winter. It’s great to be back in the beautiful village of Morzine. The place is slowly filling up, with more new faces arriving by the day. It’s also been good to catch up with a few old faces.

The snow has been falling, a little down here and more up there. They have also been bombing the slopes to make them nice and safe for us. Rumour has it that the lifts will be open for the weekend, so I’ll get some virgin snow pictures when I get up there. For now, here is a taster of what is to come.

So that’s all for now, check back soon to see some more.

New news blog

Welcome to the new blog for Sharpography.co.uk

This is where you will be able to find out what I have been getting up to, and what I am planning to do.

Stay tuned!