Continuing on my quest to photograph the X Games, I was able to connect with Deano Tull who was putting on a skate competition in Effingham, IL at the local skate park. This worked out in a number of ways, 1. It was local, that’s always nice, 2. The turn out was going to be huge and 3. Not many photographers. This last one had me a bit nervous. As more skaters started to show up I thought surely every photographer and their dog would be crawling out of the wood work to photograph this event, creating a circus and causing potentially dangerous situations for the skaters because they would be competing for that one shot. Thankfully this wasn’t the case. A couple of newspaper photographers were there for a bit and then just a few others who stood on the sides. The reason I was nervous about this competition of photographers was because my style of shooting when it comes to extreme sports is getting as close to the action as possible. I love the thrill of trusting the skate not to mess up and putting myself and my equipment in danger. Let me rephrase because obviously I don’t LIKE putting my equipment in danger’s way but I like pushing it. I’m not a skater, I can’t do what these guys do, but where I lack in skating ability I make up for in capturing that one shot with my camera, no matter what it takes to get it. It’s a rush, but it’s this bar raising I do for myself that started since high school when I would shoot video and photo of BMX, motocross, and some skateboarding.
I’m not the skater type, it’s not my personality, it’s not my style of clothing, but this group of people I feel so comfortable around. The thing I love about extreme sports is it brings all types of people together and regardless of size, race, skill level, etc everyone is out there pushing one another, helping each other when they need helped, hanging out in a way that you wouldn’t know that these guys were complete strangers. It’s this community that is just awesome. I remember this from riding BMX and going to some skate parks and the friendships that are built are just awesome because you all share a common interest and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters to them. I never thought I’d get a mind-blowing revelation at the skate park, but I did. And it’s pretty unfortunate for the skater type because most of society looks at them as a nuisance or like they are a bunch of thugs, while they are quite the opposite and society could benefit a little by modeling itself after these skatepark “punks.” You definitely saw these friendships being built out on the park and even though I wasn’t participating in the events I was in a way because come on, who doesn’t want their picture taken in middle of a tough trick? Plus, I know what it’s like when the camera is out, it almost pushes you to another level knowing that the one thing you weren’t thinking of trying is now going to happen because it might be caught on camera, and that would be awesome!
For me personally though, as I’ve said in previous posts, I feed on this thrill of having one chance to capture the trick. And these tricks happen so fast that if you aren’t ready you’ll miss it because in the type it takes you to blink the trick is done. I had 2 cameras around my shoulders so I was ready for anything and I don’t know what was going on but I was dialed in. Switching cameras on the fly, quicker than a blink of an eye it felt like, if it were the wild west and I was in a draw, let’s just say, I’m quite certain I would come away a victor. Overall though, it was a great compeition. There were tons of amazing sponsors and local businesses that donated food and money. It’s awesome that Effingham as a community is willing to help out in this way and kudos to Deano for doing all the work he did to set this up! And of course a huge THANK YOU for allowing me to photograph the event! It was an awesome experience and I look forward to plenty more in the future (hopefully an X Games or two as well)
To View More pictures, go here: http://www.steffenharris.com/ham-city-jam-2014/
