Venice Beach Skaters

Photo: Teen Skater Jumps Off Ledge, Venice Beach, California

I stayed off to the side initially. I didn’t take photos for a while until I felt comfortable and so I could blend into the background. At first I just took wide angle snapshots from far back to warm up for close up action then gradually worked my way closer. A couple of the kids asked me questions, but once they were on their boards they did their thing. Then I noticed that all of them were starting to line up for jumping off this ledge so I went over there too. I crouched next to a metal trash can where I knew they would be avoiding a crash landing and took photos from as close as I could safely get.

I had my composition ready before the skaters jumped and waited to catch them as they flew by. What I was hoping to do was catch some mid-air tricks and maybe a few wipeouts but no one landed badly so I had to settle for the tricks. I would have liked to have gotten this guy’s entire arm in the frame but I think the rest of the image is interesting enough to make it a keeper.

17-35mm @ 17mm, f8, 1/320 sec., ISO 100, handheld