The feeling of some skateboarding sessions is genuinely one of a kind, and sometimes you want to capture that magic. The right photo can capture just that. When it comes to pictures and skateboarding, shooting tricks can be challenging. Barely anything works first try, and you have to shoot the photo at the right time.
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No Re-Do’s
While multiple attempts are common in skateboarding, they aren’t in instant photography. Having just one go for each photo, waiting for it to develop, and not knowing how to photo looks like for ten minutes, shooting Polaroid pictures doesn’t seem like the ideal choice for skateboarding. To me, shooting photos isn’t about getting the sickest trick on film, rather about capturing the moment and the vibe of how it feels to be around.
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Personal Background
I started to read up on instant photography during summer this year (2020) and bought my first camera in June. So far, I’ve been getting exciting results, and it’s a lot of fun to bring out the camera on any occasion. I don’t go for a walk or to the skate session without my Polaroid anymore. If this sounds interesting to you, you can save 10% by buying your Polaroid starter pack using this link.
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Annual Collection
This year is the first release of my annual Polaroid Skate Collection. Since I’ve got this camera for only half of this year, there are fewer photos for this release. Future Collections will feature more (and hopefully better, lol) shots.
The first skateboarding shot is from Jörg. What I love about this shot is that you can clearly see that everything is still under construction. We worked on the ramps all day long, and to finish the day off, we decided to get a little session on them. All of this really comes through in the pic: the chaos, the sunset, the skating, all of it.
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The star of shot number two is Jörg’s son, Tino. I asked him to manual across the newly built fun box. I really like the framing of this picture. This picture also shows a tremendous analog accent. Look at the stripe looking thing next to Tino. This wasn’t intended, nor was it expected. It’s a happy chemical accident. It was hot that day, and that also shows in the picture, as it has a warm tone.
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Image number three shows my girlfriend Toni, who I told to sit next to these barriers like that. I shot this on a Sunday at an empty parking lot. I love how the store wall looks like in the background; you can’t really tell what is behind her, and having her sit next to the barrier makes everything look like she’s not supposed to be there.
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Picture number four show’s Toni again. This is a great one to explain, but it was quite tricky to capture adequately. You can see her sitting on my popsicle, visibly exhausted, water bottle in her hand, and while she looks tired, the wall in the background represents a cheering crowd. That day I taught her the secret of ollies, and she landed her first few ones.
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The fifth entry in the series has an ironic story behind it, and there is a lot of irony in the picture. My girlfriend and I live in a long-distance relationship. When looking for places to skate near her home, I decided to just go on maps and see if we could find something there. Eventually, we came across a skate park on the app, and Toni didn’t know that there was one. A little later, we grabbed our boards and took off. You can see Toni popping a trick in the image background, and she almost slammed funnily. Not knowing how that is gonna look on the picture until it developed was funny suspense.
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The sixth and final image represents the first session on my brand new skateboard. Skating an all-new setup with unfamiliar specs is always a fun and memorable experience. It can be a game-changing moment once your brain clicks on the new stuff. As you can see by the blue tone of the picture, it was cold outside; thus, that’s how the Polaroid chemicals developed the photo.
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