Skating with Andrew Chang in Taichung

Skating with one of my favorite skaters in Taiwan, Andrew Chang. I use to skate with him almost every week when I lived in Taichung, Taiwan between 2011 and 2012. Since coming back to Taiwan, when we go skate together, we spend half our time skating and the other half just talking to each other about our passions, families, careers, etc.

(below video edited by Andrew)

Budget Camera Flash: Neweer Speedlite 750II Review

For the longest time (about 4 years), I never used any form of external flash equipment. It was either adjusting my settings to work with the natural lighting or using my internal flash, which in reality was never an option. I was always hesitant because of the cost of Nikon Flashes. However, I began researching cheaper options and decide that the Neewer Speedlite 750II i-TTL seemed like the best low cost flash ($55 at Amazon) for my Nikon. This flash should work on most DSLRs.

Even indoors, I would be shooting skateboarding with not much light which would result in me adjusting my settings trying to get the highest shutter speed possible without turning my iso to far up. The photo would turn out, but I would generally edit it to B/W because it helped hide the noise.

No Flash, 24mm, f/4.0, 1/125, ISO 1600             "Photo of Tyler Blackert - FS flip"

There is a cheaper Neewer option for about $35 but I opted for the $55 one because it has i-TTL. i-TTl is basically Nikon's why of having the flash communicate with the camera. It allows the flash to adjust to the correct exposure and can sense the lens zoom. Its basically an auto mode for your flash. The flash will send a quick pulse of light, quickly get a measurement and then send the full flash. This happens so quickly your eyes can't catch it.

Bounced Flash off of Wall, 18mm, f/5.0, 1/100, ISO 800       "Photo of Isaiah Jones - BS Crook"

Even with the high ceilings I was able to bounce the flash off of them for some other shots, though it didn't come out as well as when I had it bounce off a wall. The head of the flash does rotate into almost any angle you choose.

 

Slave

You can turn the Neewer Speedlite 750II into a slave. Slave is an off camera flash generally triggered by your on camera flash. This will give you the possibility of having a multiple light setup at a very low cost. Most you would need to spend is $160 to get three of these flashes. It does come with a component that will allow you to attach the flash to a tripod, just like you would your camera. In general though it is advised to use something more reliable like a Pocket Wizard to trigger your other flashes. However, if you are buying this flash you either don't have much money or will be able to buy Pocket Wizards with the money you just saved. (which should work with this flash because it has i-TTL)

Editing Process

First major difference I noticed when beginning the editing process of the photo that I used flash with was that I hardly had to increase the brightness to the photo. It seemed like the in-camera auto white balance was more accurate too.

The Shell

The body of the flash seems to be pretty solid. It is made out of plastic and has a good weight to it. You will definitely notice the weight when shooting in vertically. I've seen multiple SB flashes that had their hotshot broken, however I don't think this will easily happen on this flash. Although I'm not sure if you can easily find replacements for it.

The Flash head rotates to just about any angle that you would need it too. There is no button to squeeze to allow the head to rotate. Simply just move it without hesitation. 

The Neewer version seems to have all the same options as you would on a Nikon SB flash. I have had no problems with reading the display. Allowing you to easily change settings on the fly.

Comparison too the Nikon SB-800 by Thanks Review

Final Verdict

I would definitely recommend this flash to those of you on a budget. There might be some small downsides to it that in the future if you are making good money from photography would be worth the investment in a more expensive model. For $55 you won't have to worry about breaking it as much as a $300 flash. I will most likely buy two more of these in the near future to give me two off camera slaves.

Winter Skateboarding - Alex Kuss 360 Shove

Skate Perspective: First Glance Skatepark

Skateboarding to the outside world is viewed rebellious and destructive. However, skateboarding is an art form. We are creating and recreating what others have done. Our daily lives involves the act of exploring and thinking about what could be done that no one has done yet (also known as NBD). To create art we use our surroundings. A simple piece of metal is turned into a pipe that we dance across. This photo series is to display those pieces/surroundings that allow us to create what we view as beautiful.

Bellevue Skatepark Trip

Philly Skate Trip

Tuesday I received a text from Tyler B., asking if I wanted to Philly on Friday. He talked about going sometime in the summer before but this came up quick, we never even talked about the dates before. I quickly checked with my wife, and she was very supportive of me going on the trip. Luckily my job is pretty flexible, running a skatepark leaves lots of opportunities for things like this.

We left Friday around 5:30pm, not arriving to our Days Inn Hotel until about 11:30pm. As we drove into the hotel we knew this place was super sketchy. Signs in the parking lot read "We are not responsible for damages or things stolen from your car." As we walked inside, the front desk was shielded by glass separating the costumers from the employees. We stood there over hearing a conversation between the employee and the costumer next to us. The man complained and stated that the employee is lying to him as he complains about his room and how much they are charging him. When we arrive at our room, we open the door and see only one queen size bed, for all four of us to share. The brothers slept in the bed, as Dusty slept in the chair and I on the floor.

The first spot we hit the next day was the new street based skatepark, known as the Paine's Park. This is probably one of the best skateparks I've ever skated. It was mostly street based but had a really good flow with lots of tranny also. This park left many open options for lines and creativity.

Going to our next skate spot.

You can't go on a Philly skate trip without stopping in at Love park. Everyone has seen so many tricks go down here through skate videos. However, with the crowd and the wind blowing the fountain water everywhere we didn't stop to skate here, just to look at it.

The next spot we stopped at is one of the craziest things I've ever seen. It was the rail that Dane Burman fs 50-50 in the Zero "Cold War" video. This thing was enormous! Way bigger then it looked in the video. From the top of the rail it was a two story drop and coming off at the bottom of the rail is alone like jumping off a room of a building.

Dane Burman 50-50 on the Thrasher Cover

The plaza up at top of the rail, was flooded with skaters, I couldn't believe that these skaters weren't being kicked out be security by allowed to skate on all these objects. (Photo: Me - fs boardslide by Noah Blackert - edited by myself).

Tyler Blackert -bs board to fakie. Photo by Dale Nolan Jr. (Me)

There was plenty of homeless people asking us for money all day. However, after I refused to give this man cash, he asked me to take a picture of him, and to send it to him.

Being in Philly we had to stop at Kerry Getz's skateshop, Nocturnal. After we bought something to remember them buy, they directed us down the road to a pizza place to for lunch, known as Lorenzo & Son Pizza. For only $3.50, you get this giant slice of cheese pizza. I've never been so full I couldn't even finish the crust off a single slice.

Heading back to the car, we traveled through China town. It reminded me so much of Taiwan. I loved hearing the Chinese being spoken as we skated through the districts.

My phone had the gps location tagged to where we parked, however my phone died as we were getting close to Love Park. We skated for another five blocks trying to find were we parked but got a little lost and confused. Dusty was sure we parked near 20th st. No one was really sure though. Tyler B. insisted that it was on 9th and Arch. So we turned around and skated all the way back realizing that it was definitely not in this area. We skated all the way back to Love park again doing one big circle. Trying to retrace our steps, Tyler B. remembered that he had a ticket from the parking garage. He pulled it out revealing the street address of our car, on 21st St.

After we got back to our hotel, Tyler Blackert and I decided we wanted to ollie the rail across the street. It was getting pretty dark, which didn't make it easy nor did the rough cement that was our run up. However, we both managed to get an ollie over it.

The next morning, we hit up the Patrick Kerr Skatepark. It had some good objects, and some really bad ones. It was actually a really fun park for the horrible design, which kinda made it cool. 

While we skated, I got into contact with a friend from college, that lived 30min away. He and his wife managed to drive out to visit me, we got to chat for about 15min before we had to head back home. While we waited for them to arrive we explored the river.

Skateboard Furniture: Coat Hanger

I recently made a coat hanger from old skateboard truck bases. The original idea came from Steve Wolfe with Solid Foundation Skateboards. I saw the one he made for himself that he had nailed to his wall. I finally decided to make my own.

I used five Destructo truck bases on a 32 1/2 inch long piece of wood. I put about 4 1/2 inch space between the outer bases and 5 inch space between the inner bases.

Cyle Calmese - BS Feeble

When Cyle isn't throwing his board around in frustration, he's throwing his arms up from landing stylish tricks. I've been wanting to get a picture of his feeble for a long time. It only took two takes to get this picture because he lands this tricks every time he tries it. The only reason he had to do the trick twice was because I didn't like the first angle I took the picture from.

First Glance Skateboard Deck Commercial

I filmed this video in one day, however the project got kinda pushed off to the side as I waited for an ending slide to be made for it. Eventually I just decided to make my own ending slides just so I could get the video posted. Alex Kuss is an amazing skater, I love watching his switch fs big spin in this video. He recently hurt his foot pretty bad and still tried to skate our the Holiday Hubba Contest and also film for the First Glance Christmas Video. During the filming of the Christmas Video he hurt it more trying to nollie flip the stairs in the dark. I hope his foot gets better soon. I can't wait for him to get back on his board, so we can do some more projects like this.

FG Christmas Video 2013

Free Try Friday with Isaiah Jones

Isaiah is one of the best skaters that I've seen at First Glance Skatepark. He has amazing control in switch and nollie. I've been wanting him to come out for a Free Try Friday and he finally did and it was amazing.

Free Try Friday with James Amato

I'm trying to do more videos with the skatepark for promotion purposes and also to create a fun community and culture among the skaters that go to our park (First Glance Skatepark). A popular online website The Berrics, features daily videos of professional skateboarders. Now I don't want to try to copy everything they do, but I did take this idea from them, with a slight twist.

The first skateboarder to show up to our park, after he pays $5, we will give him a chance to win his $5 back and skate for free the rest of the night. All he has to do is land the trick we choose for him, first try. If he doesn't make it, we still give him a chance to redeem himself with more tries but doesn't receive his $5 back. This was our first "Free Try Friday".

FG Skateboard Decks

We have just received our first order of decks. We will be selling the boards for $35 plus free Jessup grip tape. Our boards are made by South Central Manufacture the same company that makes 5boro skateboards.

First Glance Skatepark Grand Opening

The park is officially open! First Glance Skatepark isn't just a skatepark. We are helping to develop the skate community of Akron, OH in a positive way. We want to create a park that has a focus on God and bringing skaters together in a positive way. We are going to try to have events each month rather if its a contest or something else.

We had about 40 people show up to the Grand Opening. We gave allowed free entry into the park and gave out free food. We started the events off with a Game of S.K.A.T.E. (like horse in basketball).

Alex Kuss - Winner of Game of S.K.A.T.E.

Next we had my favorite contest which is always the best trick down the stairs. I love to watch people throw themselves down the stairs trying slam after slam to get a trick. We gave them 20min. to try as many times as they would like.

Isaiah Jones - Switch fs 360

Alex Kuss - Hardflip over the hubba

Alex tried this trick many times in the past. He broke three boards in the process but managed to pull it off in the contest within two tries.

The hardest contest to judge was the mini-ramp jam. But in the end it was no doubt that the brothers from Kentucky, would take first and second place. Fifteen years old and his younger brother, who is only seven, amazed everyone at the park with their ramp skating. The younger brother was doing one-foot judos to fakie and airing out of the ramp.

We gave out 6 free boards plus 2 more from Sun Valley Skateshop, along with 7 shirts plus about 14 shirts donated by Acathla Clothing.

Go Skateboarding Day 2013: Chicago

Four of us from Findlay, Ohio left for Chicago at 8am to head for Chicago. We ended up an hour behind schedule from driving misdirection. Causing us to be an hour late meeting up with my friend, David, in Merrillville. (an hour outside of Chicago)

About 15 min after we got out of our car, the rain started pouring down. The segway tours ended in a halt under the trees. (picture) I've never seen so many segways in my life, but in Chicago it is a very popular thing, especially for tours.

We got some food while we waited for the rain to hault. After it slowed down we headed out to a bike tunnel I remembered so skate under. When we arrived there was already about 30+ skaters there. Without any warm up skating for us, they started a high ollie contest.

I made it to the final round with about 5 other guys. Everyone kept trying except for me and one other guy because they kept cutting us but no one was landing it.. We both patiently waited until the guy running the thing said, "Has anyone not tried it yet? Then the other guy went before me and ollied the six boards stacked on each other his first try. Then I went and made it over, landing on my board but didn't land centered on my board right falling off. 

David won $20 in the long ollie contest. It was between us and one other guy who ended up taking the final win.

Everything dried up soon after skating in the tunnel for a few hours.

Photo: Me

Photo: David Tanner

While skating the Sea Wall there is always a risk of losing your board in the water and Chaz did. His brother CJ climbed down into the polluted water where a dead goose, a hat, boomerang and other garbage collected in the exact spot of Chaz's board.

Chaz, "Thanks Bro".

Sick ledge spot we found by following a crowd of skaters.

Small skatepark. Photo: David, Manuel up and back down.

We ran into a couple kids at the skatepark, who asked me for a kingpin for their truck. We ended up giving them an extra complete board that Chaz brought.

Before our day was over we had to get some Chicago pizza. Everything was kinda expensive, but we were starting to get super hungry. So when walking buy this really nice looking pizza restaurant we decided to just check the menu to see what the prices where. The, who I think was the owner, told us that he would sell us a pizza for $5. We noticed that on the menu the prices for the pizzas where $15.

We were then offered free soda and a free 10 inch pizza if we let a guy take some pictures and video of us for some social media advertising. We ended up having a fun time talking to him, while he sat and chatted with us over our dinner. So if your in Chicago don't forget to stop by Bongiorino's Pizza and Italian Restaurant.