I spent the past couple months working on a new website. The design and building of it took a long time but I also spent a lot of time going through my portfolio and deciding what to put up, so I am pretty happy with how it all turned out. Take a minute to check it out and let me know what you think!
In between the first and second legs of tour this summer Mark Waters graciously let me and a few of the other Game of SKATE guys not only crash at his house, but also skate his amazing backyard bowl well into the night. Here, Matt Zweisler, an Indianapolis local and recent transplant to Long Beach, floats a frontside ollie over the bump into the deep end.
And looks like after posting this photo on flickr, Z got some attention from overseas, being featured on www.EuropeSkate.com as the photo of the day. Nice!
Almost halfway into November here in Chicago the days are getting shorter and the air is getting a lot cooler, so any chance to get out and shoot some skating is great, but a weekend of warmth is even better. Last Sunday I got out with Andy Patterson, Eric Thomas, Nick Merisko, Thomas Hawver, plus a few more, and wound up with almost more photos in that one day than the sum of what I've shot since getting back from tour. I shot 4 or 5 rolls of Velvia, but here are a couple of digi shots from the day..
Nick Merisko tossed a crooked down this previously untouched metal rail/hubba in Chicago. Andy and Eric also both threw some crazy tricks here, the film of which is at the lab. This spot is going to blow up, but these three laid down an admirable foundation of tricks for kids to step up to. At the last spot of the day, Bank One, I had pretty much packed up for the day, satisfied with my pocket full of 120 film, when I saw Thomas trying this Pop Shuv off the bench and into a slightly banked wall. I threw up some flashes and Thomas rolled away in a few tries.
Also, if you haven't checked out http://PhilBlairPhoto.com since its redesign last spring, check it out, because I am tried of the layout again and am working an all new redesign. The new site will most likely include a blog page so further content will be over there, but I'll post here when that is ready to go. Enjoy the autumn air, everyone!
The Program Zine is a project from Louisville photog Andy Collins that is gaining steam with every issue it puts out. Presently only available for viewing online, the tenth issue just dropped last week and I was pleasantly surprised to see myself as the "Featured" photographer for the issue. Andy laid out a whole bunch of my photos in a great looking format, featuring mostly skate photos, but also a few portraits and some panoramic stuff too.
It would be awesome if you would check out my Feature, but also take time to "flip" through the whole issue, there are some great stories and photos in there. Head to www.TheProgramZine.com or click one of these tear sheets to be redirected!
On the weekend of July 10th, 2009 a year's worth of planning came to a head in Costa Mesa, California when the biggest names in skateboarding came to the Orange County Fairgrounds to compete in the 2009 Maloof Money Cup. Thanks to my internship with éS, a SoleTech brand, I had the awesome opportunity to shoot photos at the contest for the MMC and its title sponsor Etnies.
The following photos are a few selects from throughout the weekend. Being contest photos, I didn't have the option to set up flashes and shoot the way I normally shoot skating, but it was still a completely unique chance to shoot a huge number of top skaters all in one place, so the photos are cool in their own way. Not to flatter myself, but just to cover the bases, these photos are all shot by Phil Blair and are not to be taken for commercial or personal use without the consent of the photographer. Thanks!
Click on any image in the slideshow to see it bigger.
About two months ago that is what I saw after submitting my website and a short statement explaining why I wanted to hit the road with the éS Game of SKATE to take photos. Honestly, the next thing I expected to hear about the contest was an update on the éS site (which I checked daily) awarding some California photographer this amazing oppurtunity, but it was a bit sooner when my phone rang on a particularly slow day of workm which happened to be the day of the judging for Red Bull Get It On Record, and Mark Waters and Jay Brundege at éS were on the other end running through some questions with me, the biggest of which being "Would you be interested in hitting the road with us?" And just two days later they called to let me know that out of everyone who applied, and the finalists they interviewed, they had chosen me.
From there out the whirlwind began. I had to quit my job, find a leaser for and move out of my apartment, and gather everything I would need for an entire three months of skateboarding, taking photos, and living out of a van, basically a dream summer, and did I mention it was all expenses paid in addition to getting college credit. And now here I am, on Jay's couch, two Games and two weeks down, many more to come. We will be leaving Sunday for everywhere from Seattle to New York to Tampa and back. There will be lots more to see over at the éS Game of SKATE Website where I and others from the tour will be blogging from the road. My first post is up there now, so click the picture to check it out:
So this is the promised update on the first of the two exciting contests I have recently won. In short, this contest, put on by Red Bull, in its third year overall and first year in Chicago, was a design competition for college students. I applied with three images and a short statement about why I thought I would be good for the contest. I was accepted as a photographer and put on a team with a filmmaker, Jordan Gzesh, a designer, Katie Swanson, and we, group 10, were assigned a client. Our client was a breakdancer named Torsion. Our assignment was to create a marketing package for our client, however we interpreted that, utilizing all four of our respective talents. In the 30 days we had to complete the project we met many times, bounced ideas off eachother, always building on what everyone else came up with, and just collaborating in every sense of the word. While almost every tangible part of the final project materialized in the last 10 days, the prior 20 were what made the project what it would become. I was super lucky to be grouped with 3 talented individuals, and without further description, here is the finished product (click for larger):
Photography: Phil Blair Video (Shot and edited): Jordan Gzesh Design (Graphic work as well as book construction): Katie Swanson Dancer: Tori "Torsion" Howard
Those are the shots of the finished product. The book, handmade by Katie Swanson was held shut magnetically, and when opened contained a tri-fold pullout featuring large images, a DVD with Jordan's video, and a digital picture frame that cycled through a slideshow of Torsion. Also contained are Torsion's business cards, which feature his logo and contact info on the front and back, and in between is a flipbook of Torsion breaking. The flipbook sequence is featured at the end of Jordan's video, which is here (I recommend going HD and full screen!):
Also, Click here to be taken to the Flickr set of all the images featured in the project:
Thanks so much to Red Bull for sponsoring this contest, and Katie, Jordan and Tori for being so awesome to work with! The experience was worth it, but having the win on my resume and the gift card for an Apple Macbook are nice perks! 1st Place!
It has been a crazy month, and an even crazier week, culminating in two huge announcements worthy of this blog. Each probably deserves its own in-depth post, so I will do that when I have a minute, but before weeks go by without mention I'll do a little brief updating here.
As I mentioned a few weeks back, I qualified to shoot photos as part of a team for Red Bull's student design competition, Get It On Record. My team, Jordan Gzesh on video, Katie Swanson designing, Tori "Torsion" Howard as our dancer, and I, worked super hard for 30 days and came up with something we were really proud of. What's more, we won! 1st place!
I will update soon with the pictures I made for that and our finished product.
A few days after that excitement, I got a call from Mark Waters at eS telling me I have been chosen to hit the road with the eS Game Of Skate as the Photographer! I am beyond psyched on this opportunity and everything in store for me. I feel like my years (over 5 now!) of shooting skate photos, working hard (as hard of work as one can consider this), and traveling have really paid off in this.
Again, I'll get more in depth with what each of these wins means and how I got there, but I wanted to let anyone who reads this blog know what's up!
So a while back I posted on how excited I was about getting a Horizon Perfekt "Swing-Lens" Panoramic camera. Since I got it I have loved pretty much every photo that has come out of it, all having such a unique look, and without the normal low-quality that comes with Lomo cameras.
Another appeal was, I thought, there is no way to do this with digital, as you can't curve a sensor the way the 35mm film in my Horizon curves. But it looks like the folks at Sony may have outsmarted me (big surprise).
I don't know what the quality will be like, and there are definitely advantages to the Perfekt, not the least of which being that you can make quick exposures, rather than slowly manually panning the camera, but with quirky images like these, having digital to toy around with all you want, instead of a finite roll of film, is definitely a selling point. Plus if you take the DSC-HX1 out with you, you can still make "normal" non-pano photos from the same camera.
Furthermore, apparently there is a pretty effective algorithm in Photoshop to accomplish the same end as seen here (before and after) captured on a Nikon DSLR. So, while nothing beats the wind-up sound my Perfekt makes as the lens sweeps across the film, are these better alternatives?
"OBJECTIVE: Judges will select the top 30 creative's from the applications and form teams of 1 designer + 1 photographer and + 1 videographer. Your team must utilize the expertise and talents of each member to present a package that clearly defines and presents your client's image."
I submitted a few images and a short statement and I got an e-mail the other day saying I was chosen as one of the ten photographers for this competition. The first meeting is this coming Monday when I will meet my designer and filmmaker, and we will meet our client. Even though this next month is going to be way too hectic, I am super excited to start collaborating and to see how this will all play out.
The 8+ inches of snow and 15- degrees outside have me inside and going through old files. Messing with this snap was more fun than prepping a portfolio for internships.
Chicago can't keep its face out of the news lately. Chicago's own recently impeached Governor Blago put a national spotlight on the breadth of corruption in our fair city. Furthermore, in 2008 Chicago had more murders than any other large city in the U.S. coming in with 508. Only one week into 2009 Chicago has already seen lives lost to violence, and late last night five young men were shot in a drive-by at a well known Chicago skate spot, Dunbar High School. Dunbar, on South King Drive, is the home of the 7-flat seen in lots of local videos including some runs in the Midwest Video. Obviously these kids weren't skating, nor were they skaters, but its worth noting what goes on at the questionable places we sometimes choose to put ourselves in.
60 seconds of ripping in HD set to More Than a Feeling. Solid. And it warrants mention on this photo blog (really, this is) as you see tons of hassy fisheye in a bunch of those clips as well as a skater who has no issues avoiding the maze of flashes we skate photographers like to set up.
I'm a photographer born and raised in Chicago, living and working in Southern California. I love taking photos of skateboarding as much as I love riding one myself.
See all my work at http://PhilBlairPhoto.com
