02 Feb How I got the shot: ESM magazine Tony Hawk mctwist at the Quicksilver 80’s comp. Surf Expo 2011

Surf Expo in Orlando Florida is usually one big party for half the people and an insanely long weekend of business for the people actually getting work done. I shot up with a couple local pros to show our faces to sponsors and industry regulars.

Quiksilver brought in the legendary skaters from the 80’s for The Quik all 80’s Vert Contest with heavy legends such as Tony Hawk, Andy Mac, Christian Hasoi and others.  Every photographer there was getting the same shot… right up on the vert ramp in the skaters face or on the side of the ramp on a raised platform.  Don’t get me wrong, they were great shots but were all seen before and there was no reason to go compete with all them up there when I didnt need to.  Capturing the crowd and the interesting venue was much more interesting.  In order to light the skater I purposely relied on someone’s point and shoot flash.  Everytime a skater would go for an air a ton of flashes would fire.  All I needed to do was pull a chair over to get above the crowd, set the camera about a half stop down to compensate for the flash I was hoping to get and I would get it.  Well, not that easy.  security didnt like me standing on tables or chairs so I had to get Quik to tell them I was ok to be up there.  About 4 tries into it shooting 10 frames per second it looked as if I had the shot I was looking for.  But you never know till you get home.  When I did get home, I discovered I got it but it was really busy so that is when I converted it to Black and White.  It was shot hand held with a Canon Mark 3, Canon 16-35L II lens with no tripod, raw files converted and touched up in Photoshop and bridge. Nate from Eastern Surfing Magazine was stoked on it!