Standerd Slides

Subject: Jeremy Nelson
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Critique section, page 104

St. Johns River, FL. A few friends and I went over to the river to snorkel, swim and relax. Other than the man-eating gators in most of the river, there is a spring that constantly blasts cold water (away from the beasts). The water is crystal clear where the spring is and there are tons of fish and underwater wildlife to observe.

I was standing on a ledge just beneath the surface when Jeremy jumped off it a few feet away from me. The photo is a bit deceptive. It looks like he’s floating in the air, or free falling into the abyss. I like the water reflection on his skin and the strange view of the underwater scene.

- MEDDOCK

(click photo to view larger version)

Subject: The South Island
Photo: Josh Letchworth

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Critique section, pages 86-87

Lets all raise our glasses to Ivan Mennim. He’s the guy that makes it all possible to go clear across the world to wakeskate all over the country of New Zealand. This trip was the 3rd installment of Red Bull’s exclusive project they invented for only a handful of invites. This year was entitled “Human Trailers” and was more or less a road trip across the entire country. We carried with us a winch, 6 ipods full of good music, many bottles of vino and good spirit. It is a classic traveling group that is mostly made up of the old broken Cassette team, Brian Grubb and some NZ locals.

This shot was taken at the bottom of the South Island just before we arrived in Queenstown. It’s really hard to describe the vastness and the beauty that the South Island offers. Landscapes like this are around every corner. We had been cramped up in van for 6 hours before this, so when we got out, there was this energy that I cannot describe. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and put yourself there. Or better yet, get on this list for next year’s trip.

-Letchworth

Subject: Silas Thurman
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Critique section, page 93

This was a test shot. I was sitting there waiting on Erik Ruck to get his slow ass across the lake when the sun began to set. Silas Thurman was in town at the time and was there to “help out,” drive, set up, whatever.

Ruck and I built this tiny little rail for a sunset overhead shot looking down on the rail. We set up the rail and were ready to go, but Erik dipped out and ran into shore for a rope, or vest, or something he forgot. The idea of the shot was to shoot it right at sundown. We were all ready to go, just no Erik in sight.

This was a shot that could of been something dope, instead it’s Silas looking into the glassy distance waiting for Erik to show up. Kinda funny after the fact but damn, it would have been that much cooler if somebody was shredding that rail rather than somebody just sitting on it.

- MEDDOCK

Subject: Gainesville band Something Big
Photo: Megan Miller

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 22

Every year the Gator Wake and Ski Club up at UF hosts Wakefest out on Lake Wauberg. It’s all about wakeboarding and live music all day long. This year I covered the event for the school paper, the Alligator.

The weather was crappy all day, but by the time the third band, Something Big, started to play the sun came out and everyone started taking turns behind the boat.

I’m glad I stuck out the weather and stayed around because not only did I get extra credit in both my reporting and photo classes for covering the event, but I also heard about The Standerd for the first time that day.

-MILLER

Subject: You Are Beautiful
Photo: Bryan Soderlind

Location: Book 1.2, Peripheral Vision Section, page 82

There is an art movement around the country using this phrase. There are a few in Pensacola now that have appeared after the hurricane hit. I love it. There is another photo I have with this phrase that was painted on a brick wall. It always makes me think of that special someone.

- Bear

Subject:Wes Brisco
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 34

I got a call from Wes one day telling me about a rail idea he had for his backyard. He had the perfect setup, we just needed to build the starting pool and hammer in the rail. Sounds easy enough, right?

It tooks hours upon hours of prep time…so I hear. All I had to do was show up and take the shot. Wes seriously busted ass building this thing. It’s not even the rail thats an issue, it’s always the damn pool that gives us trouble. And, without fail, about two minutes before the pool water was at proper level, the corner blew out leaking water everywhere. We were forced to let it leak out, rebuild the corner and start from scratch.

Now, after about three hours of “setting up” Wes was ready to session this thing. We hooked up a long rope to the Sea Doo and tossed him the handle. Previously, I positioned some lights up in the trees to help illuminate the shot. He and some friends hit the rail several times as I snapped off some shots from various angles.

I originally wanted this shot to be run huge in The Standerd, but I wasn’t happy with sharpness of the image, forcing us to use it small…simply put, my fault 100%. I felt bad after the fact, because I knew how much sweat equity Wes put into the building this rail. To see it run so puny in The Standerd was a disapointment not only for me, but Wes as well, I’m sure. Sorry Wes, we’ll make it up to you!

-MEDDOCK

Subject: Vietnam Art Museum
Photo: Bryan Soderlind

Location: Book 1.2, Peripheral Vision, page 82-83

I stopped at this Vietnam Museum out in Oviedo one day. I hung out and talked to some vets, had a hot dog and was really happy I stopped by. It seemed like a great place to get away from everyday life for the guys and they all did their part with landscaping and stuff like that. The boots were just a given to shoot.

- Bear

Subject: Pat Panakos
Photo: Josh Letchworth
Concept: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, front cover

Joey Meddock (concept):
Damn, it feels good to finally have a medium that supports one of many photographic ideas I’ve had boiling in my head for years. There is so much more to do with wakeboarding and wakeskating photographically. It just takes time and dedication to make those ideas come to life. The best part about The Standerd is finally being able to see ideas like this come around full circle, and land on the pages in the final print.

I’ve wanted to do this idea for quite some time now. Each year, when the fourth of July came around, I’d always paint this picture in my head of a rider on a rail and have the fireworks blasting off in the background. Until now, I’ve been biting my tongue about the idea. I knew how to pull it off, we just had to give ourselves the right rail set up and have the physical property (space) where we could try to control the conditions.

Since the birth of The Standerd, I felt I could let the cat out of the bag and actually make this thing happen. Speaking to Josh about the idea, he was keen to shoot it. I made my way up to Sky King fireworks and armored up with several packs of morters.

I mentioned the idea to Pat Panakos and about shooting it out at The Projects. Before long, he had a rail strategically built in a position where we could catch the fireworks in the background and was ready to give it a shot. Ironically, this shot went down on May 5th, 2007…Cinco De Mayo. Weird.

Josh Letchworth (the shot):
Yes, of course the fireworks are real. Do you really think that we would just take them from clip art an drop them in behind him? I like photoshop, but not THAT much. Besides, who doesn’t like shooting mortars over and over again until you get the timing right?

So, Joey presented the idea to me of doing a long exposure of someone on a rail while timing a fireworks display in the background. I tend to be very optimistic and seem to think everything will be “no problem.” Just compose the shot, light the mortars, signal Pat and the driver, open the shutter, hit the strobe and hope that everything happens just right inside that window of opportunity. Let’s just say it was a good thing that Joey bought 80-something mortars and that Pat can do really consistent tail presses.

There is always more to the equation once you actually get out to setting up a shot. You really just don’t know until you actually set up and look at it. This shot just presented a lot of variables that had to all happen flawlessly.

First off, it was dark. That made it hard to set up. Joey put his headlights on the rail, so that helped a bit. We had two strobes for this shot and we were having a hell of a time getting the flash duration set right. They were not my strobes, so the unfamiliarity was getting the best of me. Still to this day, I am not convinced that we got them set 100% right. Sometimes you just have to wing it.

We must have moved the launch spots for the mortars about 10 times until we got it right with only a few to spare. Pat stuck the tail press and booming all around him was the sound of independence. The lights fell perfectly around him. We knew we had the shot.

James Krawczyk (photoshop effect):
Pretty much as soon as this idea was on the table, I was envisioning the fireworks “bursting” out of the top of the photo frame. After witnessing the shoot first-hand and seeing where the fireworks would be in the frame, I started thinking through the steps to accomplish the effect we were going for.

We don’t typically “mess” with photos (in photoshop), so we wanted to be sure to stay as true to the original photo as possible in this case.

Basically, we needed the fireworks removed from their dark night sky background and on solid white. I knew masking or clipping them out manually wouldn’t work with the level of detail in fireworks, so it would have to be done using what is called “adjustment layers.” Adjustment layers are editable, non-destructive ways to manipulate the color (and other details) of an image.

Using an adjustment layer called “selective color,” I was able to pinpoint and remove only black and dark grey colors. I then used contrast and color-level adjustments to further clean the color up so that I got just the original fireworks on a uniform white background. After some other corrections to get the natural colors of the fireworks to show up on white, we had the image we needed.

Then in InDesign (the page layout program), I simply placed the special fireworks image behind the original cover photo. That allowed me to get the two images lined up perfectly, so the “photoshopped” fireworks were in their exact original location.

Using a separate image for the fireworks afforded us the most flexibility for where the top of the original photo ended, and where the “bursting” fireworks began.

The progression of this concept showed us a whole new dimension in the design of The Standerd. As the photo was being shot, I could offer advice on ways to shoot it that would help in the design phase. Then as we moved from camera to computer, Joey and Josh could make comments to help me hone in on the exact image we were all picturing.

By working together in this way, we could take an abstract concept and turn it into the Book 1.2 cover shot.

Subject: JD Webb
Photo: Aaron Katen

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Critique section, page 92

JD is one of my favorite wakeboarders right now.  He kills it in contests and his free-riding is unbelievable.  I always get something good when I shoot with him.  He’s got such a good attitude about the sport too.  Even if he’s having a bad set he still looks like he’s havin a good time.  It’s not too often he has a bad set though…

-Aaron Katen

Subject: Ben Horan
Photo: Josh Letchworth

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 23

Ben Horan is one of the best-kept secrets that wakeskating has ever seen. I had to get that out. That kid is amazing in every dept…on the water and off. For this Nike ad, we wanted to get a rail shot. This meant 2 things: we had to hammer in the posts to coquina rock and we had to put people extremely close to the rail if we wanted to incorporate them in the shot with a wide angle lens.

It was crazy. We had 2 guys with reflector boards bouncing light, we had 3 riders dangerously close to the rail, we were only 5 feet or so off the rocks and I had no water housing. It was quite a scene. I kept yelling to Ben, “get on it earlier.” For this one he went front board almost to John’s head. Sometimes you just gotta push it. We all know our limits and we all trusted Ben to consistently hit the rail as he did.

The shot came out very interesting. It sill baffles me sometimes how a camera can really stop a moment in time. This happened so fast. Ben on the rail and gone before you could blink an eye, but the camera slowed it all down for us. Nice face John, what did that look like for you?

-Letchworth