Last Day at First Glance Skatepark

Last Tuesday we celebrated my last day with First Glance Skatepark Ministry. It was a fun relaxing time just to be with everyone one more time before I leave Akron, OH. It was definitely a bittersweet time, skating hard with everyone but knowing it was the last time I would see a lot of these faces or at least for a long time.

We had a little farewell time and all the guys prayed for me. They gave me a departing gift that had all the signatures of that skaters that were there on the bottom of the deck with my favorite brand of trucks and wheels. I'll be using the trucks and wheels but I'll hang onto that board with their signatures!

Jeremy DePace made a Farwell video for me. I didn't realize he did this but am so glad he did. It really means a lot to me seeing all these faces in this video that I have spent time with almost every week and almost every day for some of them. Thanks for the video!

FYI: There was kind of a joke that got started tonight, the kids in this video refer to me in a way that isn't very nice but its all a joke, they don't really think of me that way....I hope. :)

Normally when the park closes at 10pm I'm eager to shut the doors and leave. However this last session I didn't want to end. I stayed at the park till 11:30pm skating with one of my favorite dudes Isaiah Jones and Joe Simpson. There was one trick I really wanted to do before the night was over and they stayed there and pushed me to get it!

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.

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

Kickflip Tailslide

I've been trying to land a kickflip front tail on and off for five years now. Finally I started landing them on a normal height ledge about two weeks ago. Then I decided to take it down the hubba...

New Boards: Bearded Man

Jeremy Depace has come out with another sick board design for First Glance Skatepark. I am excited to order these in. The kids where super stoked on his last design.

Power Line: Isaiah Jones

This is a video I filmed of Isaiah Jones doing a First Glance Skatepark "Power Line". This is the first Power Line video we made so far and plan on posting more weekly on the youtube channel. Isaiah kills it with how consistent he is. It took him less then 10 tries to film this line.

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

Tyler Blackert - FS Flip at FG Skatepark

Tyler Blackert skate a lot like myself but better. I'll be thinking of a trick I want to try and then later see him try the same thing. His kickflips and fs flips are probably some of his best looking tricks and are always high.

Jordan Maselli - Airwalk at FG Skatepark

Jordan Maselli does airwalks better then anyone I've ever seen. He extends his legs out super far while doing 2-3 kicks. Most airwalks I see have very lazy extension and are only one kick.

First Glance Skatepark Halloween 2013

Nick Welsch - Big Transfer at FG Skatepark

Nick Welsch took many air to ankle compressing lands before rolling away. Then after he did he only wanted to get it better causing more ankle compression from landing straight to his feet into the quarter's wall.

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.