My friend’s dad has been shooting photographs of stationary subjects, then afterwards painting an acrylic replica of the image he shot. The majority of his paintings involve really incredible detail and shadows of wicker baskets, fruits, or vegetables. Basically, he paints the intricacies of still life.

Just before I went and shot some garage photos at Jim Bailey’s place, I was fresh out of a viewing of those acrylic paintings. The details were amazing, the shadow in particular.

I walked into Jim’s garage and quickly took note of the sun beaming through one of the windows which reflected off of this huge table saw. We lost a bit of detail in the printing phase of this photograph, but in the real thing it reminds me of my friend’s painting. The hard line of the shadow and the detail in the dust and shavings made me think of those acrylics that will one day be famous. Check it out: http://krawczykstudio.com/

-Meddock

Jim Bailey has a surplus of vintage tools and memorabilia at his home office/workshop. Stacks upon stacks of paperwork and just “stuff” sits on his desk, and I see this giant magnifying glass. I came into his office and immediatley started tinkering with it wondering if I could use it somehow for a portrait of Jim. As soon as I did so, Jim grabbed the edge of the glass and pulled it closer, consequently breaking it off the wall where it was mounted.

That may have been the last it was used for all I know. It didn’t look like it got much use. As Jim moved it around a bit, he looked at me through the end of the magnifying glass, making his face, eyes and head appear huge! I thought it looked hilarious and might work out for a great headshot. I went and grabbed my tripod and began to set up.

The whole batch of these images turned out great. Jim sat there and peered into the lens making faces and expressions for a solid 20 minutes. It was cool to see a different side of his personality shown in these images.

-Meddock

I borrowed Scott Byerly’s Chopper bicycle one day to try out a shot I wanted to do of his new leg tattoo. This was the shot and I planned to do it with Scott, but I didn’t get a chance before he took his bus on the road with the Byerly Board’s team.  I don’t remember exactly what the shutter was at, but it was slow.

-Bear

We gathered the FOX team together right after the Wake Games here in Orlando, FL at OWC. They wanted a shot of the team in the water somehow. We talked it over and came up with the idea of them making an arc around me and the camera in the water. I had to position them in each spot so they would fill the frame properly. I put Dallas and Adam closest the lens knowing I wanted the bigger dudes toward the back. I thought the perspective might be best with the smaller bodies closest to the frame. Naturally, Rusty was farthest from the camera.

I put him and Gus Shuler on both sides of where I thought the gutter of the layout might be.

They all held their breath and dropped down to about nose level in the water and laughed a whole lot. Afterward Rusty picked up little Gus and launched him into the air like a rag doll. It’s funny all the things that happen just before or after the photo that is used in a lot of ads and editorial content. This was no exception.

-Meddock

I stopped Reed in the middle of a session one day out at his house in Groveland, FL to take this photo.  I thought that orange groves looked really cool even though there was no oranges.  Reed was landing every move that day and I figured we got some good stuff so I got him to jump out of the water for this quick lifestyle shot.

-Bear

Aw well, “Just visiting,” as it says in the magazine caption about this shot; and that we did. Water level was kinda low so half of the crew who came with left early, but we decided to try it out anyway. You never know what to expect behind a fence like that (if you remember my tale about the dead rat). It’s always exciting to go for it despite the warning. It’s the kind of “no trespassing” sign that you want to read as: “Please, come in.” I was just following along behind the guys. Good thing I took my RB67 out so I could snap a couple frames of the trespassing act.

Collin Harrington decided to round up the troops and make the trek from Florida to Georgia one afternoon to go ride at the Gravity Research Compound. We were on our way up to Smith Mountain Lake, VA with Collin, Clay, Chris O, Tino Santori and myself. We arrived mid-afternoon and rode until the sun went down, set up some lights and continued into the night.

Feeling the fatigue from the long day of driving and riding, the shore side acted as box seats to the wake rails they had set up. Over it, cold, and ready to chill, Chris O and Clay began to play the guitar as the riders went back and forth for hours on end. The lights were all set up from a previous shoot, so we fired them up and BBQ’d into the night as the boys jammed on the guitar. I snuck up behind them with my trusty 35mm old school camera and lined up Clay’s head right in front of where the light was coming from. It silhouetted them out perfect. I was stoked to see the hard outline of the two figures when reviewing the film.

-Meddock

I shot this at a nice random winch spot out in Maitland, FL. I was supposed to be up in Gainesville, sitting in class, but I kept stalling on making the drive up there after my spring break ended. I thought, I’ll just skip Monday, people are riding today. Then it rained. So, I thought, missing Tuesday wouldn’t be so bad, people are riding today! Then it rained again. Finally Wednesday afternoon it was sunny long enough to really get out and do some riding.

All the riders there that day, Andrew Pastura, Matt Hooker and Ben, just to name a few, were as eager to get out and winch something as I had been to get out and shoot it, and that showed. They all tried a bunch of things that day they had never really done before, like Ben hitting this ledge, and they killed it.

I was stoked to have gotten to shoot it, thanks for letting me come along guys!

-Miller

Joey is a friend of mine from growing up in Pensacola.  We decided to hang out one night and try to mess around some with a light I had rented.  I shot some stuff of Joey and his brother Graham who both are really good wakeskaters.  Joey also paints a lot so this was a piece he was working on in his garage.

-Bear

Chris O has been on fire lately. Contests aside, he’s been a media magnet. Erik Ruck, Chris O’Shea and Daniel Watkins all rode together this evening when I got this photo. I used some “funny film” to give it that blueish cast you see. Yes, I did say film.

I was floating in the water for this shot, camera completely exposed to the elements. There were boats all over the place that evening. Clear Lake looked like a lake circus. Weird how that is occurring more and more these days. I was lucky not to get run over. The only thing coming close to hitting me was Chris O. Being that low in the water, it’s hard to see the rider coming toward the camera. First the boat will block my view of the rider, then as the boat passes, the wake will block my view. I only had a few seconds to find him in frame, adjust, then press the button. When he cut in for the wake, I first thought he was way too early. I was a sitting duck waiting to get squashed. When he hit the wake, I knew it was going to be close and there was a huge chance of getting soaked if not injured.

Hats off to Chris O for not making my head a hood ornament on the tip of his board. Apparently he could judge the distances a hell of a lot better than I could that night. I’m a survivor.

-Meddock