Sinisa Egelja RIP

Sin Egelja, a friend to many within and outside the Skateboarding world passed away this last weekend.
He was a unique individual, one of the funniest people I knew and had a giant heart.
Sin was a great skate photographer and was so creative in the many endeavors he took on.
My heart goes out to his friends and family and especially his daughter, Stella.
We will miss you Sin, rest Brother.

Remember street plants?

Rodney Mullen upside down in 1987.

Hosoi

He's really good.

The Tom Penny Photo I Missed

It was 1995. Went to Huntington Beach skatepark, the one next to the high school. Tom Penny rolled up and wanted to jump down the stairs across the street next to the police station.
It was kind of a bust, it would have to be a quick one.
I set up my lights and walked over to a good spot to shoot from, I was looking down at my camera, making some adjustments, f-stops and such when I heard the distinctive sound of rolling wheels. I raised my head and saw Tom rolling towards the set of stairs and was barely able to raise my camera and fire off a frame of film. He made the kick flip with ease and we got the boot and I knew I didn't have the shot. I had no time to focus my zoom lens. The photo was out of focus so I never used it. "If it's not in focus, it's out of focus.", Stacy Peralta. Photos of Tom Penny are rare and they rarely don't get used. A while later Swift went back and shot a frontside flip at the same spot, so I guess it wasn't in my cards all the way around.

How everything and everyone around us inspires us

Photographers are sponges, I know I am. I take inspiration from my surroundings and get a lot of inspiration from the creative people I meet. This is a portrait of Stacy Peralta I shot at a taco shop across from the Santa Monica skatepark in 2009. The digi file got corrupted and this is how it came out of the camera, I don't mind the cropping. Stacy produced the Bones Brigade videos back in the 80s and set the standard for skate videos that followed. I have always admired Stacy's creativity and passion over the years and watching his art has helped my own work.