Monday, January 3

My (Dave Raffa) top 5 photos of this year.

Welp! 2010 is over.
It has been, arguably, a good year. Tons of great riding, plenty of filming and lots of photo opps. Some sick shit when down. Central Jersey's riding scene is thriving, lets keep it that way. Unfortunately, it was also a year of bad luck and injuries for pretty much everyone except PQ. Both Brett AND Danny tore their ACL's, they won't be back riding for a year. Doroba broke his wrist punching a tree while filming for the summer edit, and he now has a girlfriend. Soooooooooooo don't expect to see him for a while. Even worse than that, Eddie ruined his leg last week. He broke both the Tibia and Fibula and his leg badly. =( Everyone wish him good luck in his recovery. We love you man. And lets not forget me, I had a lovely get together with my face and the pavement at South River Skatepark (R.I.P.). I am doing fine now, but that shit sucked. Lets hope this year runs a bit smoother.
As you may already know, the Pb:Bmx summer edit and Deprived Child "100 proof" (track down Dan Diehl and buy a copy, you won't regret it) both dropped this year. With all that filming going on i had a bunch of opportunities to shoot some photos. Here is my Top 5!

I am Going to start with this shot of brett.















Shot in the Woodbridge ditch and featured on Kink site . This COULD have been one of the better clips in the summer edit. BUT while I was shooting this, Brett was riding, PQ and Erk sat on the grassy knoll. No conspiracy theory here, no second shooter. Sitting next to the camera bag, neither of them thought "hey! we should film this!". No clip was logged. Photo came out well. Its super sharp, and there is a funny story behind it. Good times


















This one is a classic. Possibly the best story behind any photo I have ever taken. At a quick glance this looks like some haggard building in the jungle. But it's really some haggard Empty building along NJ turnpike north. Almost the same thing? Right? I believe Lanham brought us there. Dan (Diehl) had seen it from the pike, and always wanted to check it out. Rails were low, and looked perfect, but looks can be deceiving. Especially when you're riding street in New Jersey. Aluminum, They don't slide. Dan contemplated tire riding it, Before we were quickly distracted. By what? That the doors to this place were unlocked. Let the games begin. Start with an empty abandoned building plus a few Bmxicans. Then add some fire extinguisher to the mix. There is no way you're not going to have some fun. While Billy Rainuad bombed out the empty structure with the contents of old fire extinguishers, Dan's eyes lit up with a plan. If you have all ready seen Deprived Child "100 Proof" you know where this is going. I set up my camera gear. Dan explained to Doroba how he wanted it filmed. With hopes the clip would come out looking good, he crossed his fingers and trusted Doroba with the filming. (a bigger risk than the trick itself) Lanham and Rainaud found extension cords and tied them to the door handles. Dan then held his breath and unloaded the last fire extinguisher in the corridor. In one epic moment, hidden to the camera Lanham and Rainaud swung the doors open via the extension cords, smoke pours out. Dan rides out though the smoke like an 80s hair band entrance, and tire rides the rail first take, one try, perfectly. Got the clip. Got the pic. Got a great story.
Now go buy "100 Proof"



Goggles! I took a trip down to South Jersey East, to ride with Rob Peffer aka Goggles. He took us to the local trails "3hump" and this awesome tennis court spot. Just like every other photo there is a little story here. Apparently It was an old swim club or something, a long time ago. So long ago that the buildings are gone, pools filled in, and 3/4ths of these hidden tennis courts are over grown with 10 foot tall saltwater marsh grasses. This place is completely hidden from roads and homes. So old the chain link fence is nearly rusted though. An absolutely perfect place for some kids to ghetto build some ramps. Their own little make shift skatepark free from the law, security guards, and pretty much everything. Goggles is great guy and a great rider. He has an awesome attitude toward riding. After a day of riding, a few photos, and clips. I thought, Goggles would be a great fit with our crew. Welcome aboard.

















Next up, we have this little guy right here. Another Dan Diehl clip from "100 Proof". I believe it was a high school in Avenal N.J.. Dan ate it a few times on this. He fell pretty hard day one and called it quits. Returning another day to give it a few more tries. In the end he landed this double peg to ice clean. I am siked on this photo. Why? because, usually shooting wide doesn't work out for me. This one did. This is the only wide angle shot in my top 5. Cheers.

















Now we move on to this one. This my most recent riding photo. My reason for putting this one on the list is, the set up. We hit up this spot for PQ. He wanted to crook the rail. After getting up close and further examination, he wasn't going to try it. Stairs were a tad narrow and the pillar on the top was in the way. Bummer. I was half set up for a photo and had to start packing up, when Little Mike said, "I'll turndown this shit". According to Mike he had never even jumped stairs this big. Let alone turndown them. "I'm only doing this shit once" Mike said. I finished setting up and took a test shot, everything looked good enough. Mike walks up the stairs, turns around, takes three cranks, and clicked that turndown you see above. This is the only photo I have ever taken that was one set up shot, and one take for the rider, and perfect timing. Everything worked out as good as it possibly could have. Nattaboy

Well that was my Top 5 photos on 2010. Thanks for checking it out. Hopefully 2011 is filled with as much shredding as the last year, if not more. I wish a fast recovery for my fallen soldiers of the shred war. 2011, let the good times roll.

And just because I am a nice guy, I am giving two bonus shots. For notable mention.















"The could have been picture of 2010!" This is possibly my favorite riding photo I have ever taken. But, and there is always a but, he did not land it. When we rolled up on this spot, I saw that background and immediately knew I had to shoot something here. At 1/10th shutter I really had to bump my flashes up to freeze the motion. Why shoot such a slow shutter? To get the satellite dish in the shot! I had all 4 of my flashes set up. The 4th on an optic slave. I was still having trouble with the angle. I ended up pulling Doroba's truck around and setting up my tripod in the bed of his pick up. I even snooted one flash with a cooler. DIY all the way. I got the shot I wanted. I couldn't have been any happier with it. Lighting looked good. It was sharp. And had a good composition. I held my end of the bargain, Doroba couldn't hold his. Better luck this year.
















Bonus Number Two. My favorite non riding Photo of 2010.
And yes, there is a story behind this one. Back in 2009 Me, Erk, Tom, PQ, Brett, and some others filmed a video. GR2 (GutterRats two) was the culmination of a few trips and about one year of filming. After editing I knew I had to have a premier party, a good one. So in March of this past year I packed roughly 40 people in my living room to premier the video. Everyone was in high spirits, and once the video ended, we partied. It was awesome. A tv went though a window. I received a black eye. Pagless drank a bottle of whiskey, blacked out and did inappropriate things in front of literally everyone. Including teabagging a passed out questionably Indian kid. Baboon was smashing bottles on his head. Those are just some of the ridiculous things that occurred that night. The next day most of us were too injured or hungover to ride. There was glass all over my living room. I had to literally rake it all up. While cleaning up the over 200 empty beers, I looked into the recycling bucket, and saw a photo opp. I then took the photo above. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Check out These pics and more on My Flickr
Or My Online Portfiolo

Fairwell 2010, hello 2011.
Shred on.

-Dave Raffa