(click to enlarge)

So I’m here currently, wearing pink underwear, a mexican wrestling mask, shoes, & socks- nothing else.

Through Scotty Stopnik, I met Mitch Abshere.  Through Mitch Abshere, I met Shin Yamasaki.  Through Shin Yamasaki, I met Enoshi Takashi.  Enoshi Takashi is a surfer, a shaper, a biker, and one solid dude.  I had the privilege of working with Eno while he was visiting here for over a week to meet and make new friends, as well as visiting the Sacred Craft expo.  Enoshi is a great guy and is doing some amazing things over in Tokyo.  Check out his website, Rough & Rugged- as well as his rippin’ sweet blog, Built for Speed.  Hopefully next time I will see him on his home turf back in Japan.

Scotty Stopnik & ‘Meow’ /// Kassia Meador & ‘イルカ’ (pronounced: Lu-ka)

Al & David enjoy one together, while Robin tries hiding behind a red umbrella to get away from the camera- FAIL.

Making the best of less than sub-par lighting conditions; Truly frustrating and not very rewarding, but it’s been nice meeting/shooting with new friends none-the-less.  These are all from Monday night, besides the shot of JJ- taken last Friday afternoon.  Special thanks to Mitch, for setting everything up and having the patience with planning out a successful session.

Jr. is back (from his torn meniscus) and ready to shred the living crap out of everything in his path.  I love this dudes style more than anybody at the moment.  His approach is so insane, so solid, and just plain brutal.  Here he is, at home (ridiculous pool) doing the deathbox for his fathers birthday present, as well as signing the birthday board.  Welcome back Michael.

click photos for more from the same session…

These top two photos are sequential frames that i shot of Turkey and Scotty discussing something I can’t quite remember…

I didn’t shoot these, Keith did.

My good photo buddy Keith Romanowski, took the above black and whites on a few trips he’s been on recently- and I just had to share them, as they really impacted me artistically.
Keith and I met on a NY BMX trip for Fox, which was a couple years back now, and have kept in touch ever since.  Keith is a super inspiring (yet very, very, quiet) guy, and has such a pure approach to photography.  His BMX work is just plain mental; whether it be action or lifestyle, and his portraits are technically powerful and moody.  I find myself being inspired by his work, whatever it may be, quite frequently.  If you’ve picked up virtually any BMX mag in the past year or so (foreign or US), I can almost guarantee you’re familiar with Keith’s work, without even realizing it.  The dude knows flash exposures better than any other photographer out there in my personal opinion.  It honestly blows my mind the things he can pull off with his 6+ flashes…(& I’m pretty sure he has even more now…)
It’s always refreshing being inspired by things, people, and lifestyles you may not participate in full time- and seeing the inspiration you can derive from it as a growing artist.  I grew up riding BMX and worshiped the ground Robbie and Castillo walked on when I was in 7th grade (’97), as they were locals around all the trails I’d ride everyday after school (of course, after i watched all the Road Fools videos…and Robbies epic Dave Mirra skit with the toy skate park- if you rode/ride, you know exactly what i am referring to).

Keep it pure & sincere.

Wayyy too many shots to go through at the moment, so we’ll start here with this gem of T. Cooper at Ridiculous…

(Ektar100 shot at 1/400th @ f11, exposed at 125iso (rated @ 64iso), pushed one full stop & processed C41)

(exposures don’t exist on Diana; all just trial and error.  Stupid plastic cameras…making it wayyy to easy.)

I only finished off one roll Thursday while I was at the Stopniks.  It was a roll of HP5 120, and I developed it today in the darkroom, and was really pleased with the results.  I think I shot around 4 or so something rolls (a b/w & color roll of each 120mm & 35mm if my memory serves me correctly..), but didn’t get to complete the other 3- as the Thursday night Hurley shred fest was about to go down, and we had to call it a day.  We should be finishing them up early next week when the boys are back from this weekends bike show.  Stay tuned…(if you’re interested)

I’ll be posting more images off this roll here in the next couple days, with my best effort to not overload Zombie content.

I have been beyond MIA as of lately, and for this i apologize.  I was in the ER until 2a this morning, due to my chronic vomiting syndrome.  Still quite a bit delirious and out of it, but hey- it’s life.  Anyway, glad to be back- and glad to share a couple of ridiculously absurd (yet technically amazing) portraits of me out in our backyard..

(erin & david met up the other day to template erin’s new 9′2 almond log.  the tail is great, and there is virtually no rocker.)

(listen to YYZ off ‘exit stage left‘_)

This is my best friend, Theodore Mark Hetherington.  We became friends in 1989 or so, and 20 years later we’re still going strong.  Theo introduced me to pretty much everything I’ve become so passionate about today.  In the past I’ve heard Him tell people “Yeah, I got Kyle into pretty much everything; I got him into Zeppelin at age 9, I taught him how to ollie & kickflip, I taught him how to surf, and I taught him what ‘f-stops’ & ‘apertures’ are.” It’s totally true too, He’s not lying.  I have pictures, videos, and best of all, memories to prove it.  It trips me out each time I decide to shoot Him, because it honestly feels like one of the first times we shot photos together- when I was 16, lol.  Here’s to you and me Theostyle- taking this shit all the way; The Nextdoor Neighbors for life.

(Theo checking the display he installed containing His, Mine, and Kenny Hurtado’s work; it’s still a trip that we all grew up together.)

I skated this pool a bunch during college, as it was only an hour or so south from campus, and wilderness bowl was only going wed/fri nights- so it was the perfect solution to a backyard pool day mission.  This was some creepy crackhead hotel where the owner allowed people to skate the pool (and evidently allowed the tenants to smoke their crack).  I don’t know if it’s still there, because when we showed up to skate it this day (July of ‘05)- the tree had been cut down, and they had implemented cement blocks at the bottom of the pool, and the owner came out screaming at us saying “NO SKATE! NO SKATE!”  If I remember correctly, we removed the blocks with shovels and took like, three or so runs each then bailed..  I haven’t been back since…

It’s like beanie babies for grown ups- but Vans/Slayer hi’s instead.  I feel extremely privileged and real badass now, real badass.