Standerd Slides

Subject: Eddie Valdez
Photo: Josh Letchworth

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Juice section, pages 8-9

Back in the Florida Keys again for the Nike 6.0 shoot. Man, the weather in the keys is straight up weird sometimes. We woke up the first morning to torrential downpours and lightning that cleared after 20 minutes of rumbling. The weather comes and goes so quickly. Think about it… you are pretty much sitting in the middle of the ocean on a tiny strip of land. The whole week we battled rain, strong winds, boat traffic and tidal fluctuations.

As I mentioned before, the ad concept required that we fit other riders into the shot, so I was constantly on the lookout for ways to show others in either the foreground or background. One afternoon when the sun decided to pop out for us, Eddie started hitting double ups in this little cove behind our house. As the boat came around I thought that I might be able line up a shot that showed a glimpse of the boat in the foreground with other team riders sitting in the bow, side rails and back deck. Again, I must have had Eddie hit 25 double ups over and over. He was a trooper, thanks Eddie.

When I saw him do this trick, I knew that was what I wanted to shoot. I love the way he was positioned in the air. We were never really able to see the others in the boat the way we intended to, but nonetheless, we still walked away with a good shot from the deal. Shortly after this shot, the tide dropped so much that when the boat would make its turn toward the double up you could see sand spitting out of the rooster tail. Crazy.

-Letchworth

Subject: US Marine
Photo: Ray Petersen

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Short Story section, page 107

This photo is by far my favorite, and luckiest, photo I had ever taken as a Combat Photographer. This was taken in the Pacific Ocean when my unit was heading back to Okinawa. We were stationed on an LHD (which is basically a small aircraft carrier). Our Air Combat Element wanted to put together this small air show for the unit. And I originally wasn’t assigned to cover this event, but I wanted to anyways cause I wanted to see what kind of shots I could get.

I was standing on the top deck on the ship, which was known as Vulture’s Row because it was the main observation deck that the officers would use when watching aircraft take off and land. And I was standing there and I was watching a few of the UH-1N Huey Helicopters taking off and I saw the Machine Gunner, at the back of the row holding this American Flag that he must have made from a broomstick. And I instantly switched to my 200mm lense and zoomed all the way in and took the shot. The funny part about it was that I was the only photographer there that got this shot. So it made a lot of my fellow photographers jealous.

- Ray Petersen

Subject: US Marine in South Korea
Photo: Ray Petersen

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Short Story section, page 109

This photo was also taken in Korea. The company of Marines that I was assigned to cover were conducting live fire exercise with Rifle Squads, Assaultmen, Mortars, and Supporting Fire Elements (which is what this photo shows). The Marines were firing an M240G automatic machine gun.

This was actually my favorite gun to fire. It properly opperated by two people. One person to be the gunner and the other to be whats known as the “assistant” gunner. The job of the “A-Gunner” was to properly feed the rounds through the chamber, since this is a belt fed weapon, meaning that the rounds are all attatched to links to form a belt of rounds.

But the best job was to be the main gunner because all you had to worry about was pulling the trigger and making sure the rounds were on target. I particularly like this photo because there was lots of sand and dust blowing in the air so it helped create a more dramatic effect with the photo. And the brass rounds flying out of the chamber was just icing on the cake.

- Ray Petersen

Subject: Nick Taylor and Matt Manzari
Photo: Josh Letchworth

Location: Book 1.2, Juice section, pages 4-5

I was down in the beautiful Florida Keys to shoot with the Nike 6.0 team back in April of this year. This was my first time shooting with that team as a group and I was very impressed with they way they operated as a group. Nick, Matt, Ben, Eddie, Steele and John are all great riders.

The concept for this year’s ads required me to think a bit differently about how I typically shoot wakeboarding and wakeskating. In every shot, I had to incorporate a “group” feel by putting other people in the shot besides just the main rider. Wakeboarding is a group sport, but at 70ft behind the boat the rider is often alone in his own world. It was definitely challenging to creatively show another person in all the shots.

For this particular shot, I bet they did 20 drive-bys just so I could line up Matt perfectly in the background. We even messed with his rope length to get him in just the right spot. I still managed to crop out Nick a little bit, leaving this one as an outtake. Since all the ads were going to be vertical, the abstract spacing on this horizontal shot fit perfectly for our Juice section.

Thanks Nike for the outtake, we appreciate it.

-Letchworth

Subject: US Marine in South Korea
Photo: Ray Petersen

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Short Story section, page 106

The story behind this photo was actually kinda interesting. This was initially taken during a field exercise in South Korea. The weather during that time was horrible because it was winter and the high would get to be about 19 degrees.

It sucks putting on war paint in that kind of weather because the paint gets really stiff and doesnt like to stay on the skin, so you really had to rub that paint into your face. And I remember this particular Marine was hesistant to put the paint on because he was afraid that it would cause his skin to break out. One of the Liuetenants heard him say that and immediately told him: “What, you got some kind of hot date to get to tonight, Romeo?”

We were in the middle of the Korean mountains with a company of around 150 Marines.

-Ray Petersen

Subject: Shaun Murray
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 22

Shooting for the Murray Profile in 1.2, we spent a day at the Orlando Watersports Complex to get some ‘indian line’ photos. I’ve been shooting a lot of shots just floating at water level lately. When I swam out into position, I noticed I had a clear shot of not just the corner cable tower (where the trick was going to be) but a clear shot of the starting dock as well.

The perspective of this photo shown from down low at water level attracts me to it. The blur toward the bottom of the frame and the strong depth of field gives it that unique look and feel. It’s cool to see even Murray waiting his turn just like the rest of us.

-MEDDOCK

Subject: Brett “Ike” Eisenhauer
Photo: Aaron Katen

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 25

We were using Ike’s boat to run some chase shots so we emptied all the weight out of the boat. He has this random ballast tank on the floor in the middle of the boat.  We were waiting for some of the clear lake bare-foot club to finish their footers and like a bunch of bored kids we decided to try and ride the empty ballast tank. Chris-O went first and then the biggest kid of em all…. Ike.

- Aaron Katen

Subject: Liquid Force ad (Book 1.2) featuring Collin Harrington
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, inside front cover spread

I took this shot last year at the 2006 Liquid Force annual Lake Powell trip. Originally, I was on the other side of the wake in a chase-boat with the sun at my back but wasn’t quite getting the “pop” out of the sun I was looking for. Rather than fight the conditions, I told the driver to switch sides so I could shoot directly into the sun for a possible silohouette photo.

Collin Harrington was just beginning his set so he started off with a few backside wake carves. I quickly switched my lens while directing the driver where I needed him to be, based on the move Collin was doing and based off the lens I was switching to. I intentially shot this pulled back to keep the sun and the clouds in the frame. I motioned to Collin that I was lining something up that I thought would make a sick shot and got him to continue for a few more carves.

Zooming past the position I wanted, I had minimal seconds to frame it up, get the sun where I wanted it, and still have Collin, the subject, be somewhat balanced in the frame. Turns out, this was and still is, one of my all time favorite shots…Lake Powell or otherwise.

- MEDDOCK

Subject: Chris O’Shea on the Amazon River
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section (Page 18)

Following in the chase boat, we came across this calm streatch of water while riding in the Amazon River. A huge green building/house thing appeared in the background. The Brazilians called it the Jungle House. To me, it looked so out of place for the scene of wakeboarding so I framed it up ignoring whatever Chris O’Shea was doing in my peripheral. Just as I framed up the building and got it in focus, Chris went flying through the frame nearly the same moment I snapped off the shot. It was completely unintentional for him to be in the frame. I love the final outcome of the photo and the constant element of surprise out of the unexpected.

- MEDDOCK

Subject: Patriotic Windermere Horse
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Peripheral Vision section (page 83)

Any Orlando-ans out there? If you are familiar with Windermere then you might recognize this horse statue. It stands near a cal de sac at an intersection I often drive past when headed out to shoot in the Windermere area. Each holiday, event, (or whatever other excuse they need) it always ends up painted an according color pattern it seems.

This particular image was taken a few years ago. The red white and has stuck quite well with the neighborhood community. The horse alone has a strong “American” symbolism and the paint job tops it off with that classic touch of patriotism, perfect for The Standerd book 1.2.

Of the top of my head I don’t even know what design it is now, but I kept this shot knowing that it would be fitting to use someday…and now, here we are talking about it.