An Afternoon at the Venice Beach Skate Park

This past weekend, seeking some respite from my home office and laptop, I rode my bike down to Venice to photograph people at the skate park. There can be too much time spent inside and at a certain point, you're just ricocheting around the internet without accomplishing much. I needed fresh air and some pressureless, fun photography.

I've never actually photographed skateboarding before, which I find kind of funny. Two of my first three magazines I subscribed to as a kid were Snowboarder and Skateboarder magazine (the other was the free Lego magazine). I got them just to look at the pictures and dream of being a professional skateboarder and snowboarder myself, though I always faced a severe lack of concrete in Wyoming.

The park was full of boarders taking advantage of a nice day, but one in particular kept trying a big trick out of the pool. He was a fun kid with a lot of energy, and the concrete was pretty packed with spectators and boarders, so I found my opening and pretty much stayed there, playing with different ways to photograph the action. I tried not to concern myself with getting all the angles or doing anything that I'd usually push myself to do on an assignment. I was there to relax and have fun, and acting like that takes some of the fun out of it.

I came out of there with a couple pictures I liked, feeling refreshed by a relaxing excursion outside of the house to a place I hadn't been before.

Hope you enjoy the photos.