Freeze Fame: Craig Benabu #2

“Monday afternoon after reading the announcement of the Coleman skatepark session this upcoming Saturday, I decided to check out the park for myself. I didn’t have much expectations for the park based on it’s old layout and how quickly the new park was built, but I was surprisingly shocked with how well the outcome of the park was. Sifting through the many kids that filled the park, I started taking mental images of the spots that I would love to take pictures of during future visits when not a lot of people were in attendance. While skating, I saw that two NYC veterans were in the park as well. Phillip Suarez and Felix Guzman. I started filming, getting a few clips of both skaters on the main box in the middle of the park. I then saw Felix debating on hitting the ramp to rail on top of the fence. His first attempt was very close so I knew he’d be able to do it within a couple of tries. I filmed him lacing a top acid and fishbrain on the rail, but felt like the fisheye I was using to film really didn’t do the tricks justice. The height from the ramp to the top of the rail is pretty high and the angle of the ramp is really steep, so you definitely need some hops to make it atop. After picturing how I wanted to present Felix’s trick, I asked him if he’d like to do it again for a photo.

After a few approaches to the fence with many kids getting in Felix’s way, Phillip took on the role of temporary bouncer to give Felix a clear runway to hit the rail. I hopped over the ledge, leaving the park, and positioned myself on the fence of the baseball field next to the park. I wanted to shoot it from this angle to truly show the height of the rail and show the distance from the ramp to the rail, which is about where the concrete ends and the fence begins seen in the photo. I felt like this angle would do Felix’s trick justice and was happy with how the photo came out when Felix laced. I hopped back over the ledge and kept skating on into the night with Phillip, Felix, and many others that joined in. Hope to see you guys there this Saturday for the session!” – Craig Benabu.

Freeze Fame: Ryan Loewy #3

“Recently relocating to Queens, I have started to connect with bladers in the area. One of those bladers happens to be Joey Lunger, an 18 year old New Yorker with 6 years of blading under his belt. Joey caught my eye back in September at one of the box comps at LES, and again when I saw him in the Roachies edit. Intrigued and eager to shoot more blade photos, I hit Joey up to see what his schedule was like, and after learning he was a resident of Queens, we decided to meet at the Astoria Park under the bridge a few days later. After warming up a bit and grabbing a quick portrait, we began hitting the streets along the shoreline, stumbling upon this ledge. I fumbled around a bit, shooting a few different angles before settling on a dead on view of the ledge, positioning my flash accordingly. Joey began hitting the top ledge with some back royales, eventually upgrading to a smooth cross grab back torque, which you see above. We moved onto some rails and shot a bit more before calling it quits, but I was sufficiently pleased with the results and really look forward to working with Joey again, as well as exploring the various hidden gems of Queens that I know are out there” – Ryan Loewy.

Freeze Fame: Sam DeAnglies #2

“As the long winter comes to a close and Spring rears it’s head, the NY street sessions begin. All throughout the 5 boroughs of NYC the streets were once again moved by the sounds of rolling urethane and sliding plastic.

On a warm Spring weekend, some NJ bladers and myself headed out to Staten Island to meet up with Franco Cammayo and the crew. We started off at the infamous curved red ledges to warm up and snap the first two photos. After a quick session I grabbed the camera shot Steve Nichols with this sweet Tru Mistrial. With the strong sun my single flash wasnt doing enough to fill shadows so I had to use my reflector, gripped by myself, to ensure a well lit shot.”

Freeze Fame: Justin Euras

“I ran into Jay during a typical Wall Street session in the city one night. He recently made the move back to New Jersey and has been skating NYC on a regular basis. After sessioning the ledges I saw that Jay was making use of the sculpture a block away on Pine Street. Using the hollowed out circle as a launch to wallride, I knew the trick would make for a great photo. I hope you guys at I Roll NY and the viewers enjoy” – Justin Euras.

Freeze Fame: Richard Enormas

“When Dave Ngo isn’t busy ruining other people’s clips or providing the lulz for everyone, he’s usually lacing the most stylish tricks ever seen in NYC. Unfortunately Dave is one of those talented assholes who doesn’t really like skating to get clips or flicks. He just does it cause it’s something he loves. I mean, who does that anymore? Anyway, on this day we ended up at the Thomas Greene “skate park” in Brooklyn, NY. I quote skate park, because it’s pretty much a basketball court with a couple of ledges in it, but it provides pretty chill vibes. I wanted to try my new fisheye out at the park and asked Dave if he’d oblige. Luckily he did. For some reason I have an affinity for negative tricks on curved ledges, so I asked Dave to lace a negative makio since I knew he had the trick in his vocab. Dave laced with no problem and we ended up getting a couple of shots. I let Dave choose his favorite one out of the three we took to be featured in I Roll NY’s Freeze Fame. Enjoy.

Photo specs: I used an aluminum Dragon HLX flash while shooting with my Canon GL3 at 1/20th at f0.1 ISO 090988979177231 during an eclipse” – Richard Enormas.

Freeze Fame: Craig Benabu

“I met up with Jordan Thursday December 29th at the box on 12th Street and Avenue D located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We started filming for an upcoming edit and moved from the box to the bank ledge. There wasn’t a lot of lighting in the area making it difficult to film so we decided to try get some photos instead. After a few test shots, and discussing how we both wanted the photo to look, I was able to catch Jordan lacing this fishbrain stall. After both approving of the photo we moved on and kept filming at the next location” – Craig Benabu.

Freeze Fame: Andy Brinker #2

“Thursday night, September 22nd, while I was making a beer run, Austin Croteau called me to let me know that he was in my neighborhood and that he wanted to blade. Never one to pass up on a session I met up with Austin and our friend Con at the local 7/11. After getting my basic point and shoot camera and digital slave flash, along with the beer I originally intended to get, we made our way to the MTA bus depot in the Bensonhurst, Brooklyn area. The depot is surrounded by yellow barriers all in great condition but with a horrible cracked up cement floor. We went inside the depot’s parking lot where a barrier and container are used to divide the entrance and exit of the lot. The parking lot provided a smooth pavement approach to the barrier making this the ideal spot of the night.

Austin and myself have talked about shooting a photo at this location before and that night was the night that we actually made it happen. As Austin was warming up and as I was setting up, I suggested that he try to grind from the barrier to the container. After a few attempts, a few misses, and a few delayed flashes, I was able to catch Austin at the perfect moment as his topside foot grinded through the barrier to the container. This was a difficult shot to get as I was shooting with a basic digital camera that did not allow me to control the shutter speed, but thanks to Austin and his consistency I was able to get the timing right” – Andy Brinker.

Freeze Fame: Ryan Loewy #2

“On a rather warm night back in February, I headed downtown towards the infamous marble ledges to meet up with friends Dave Ngo, Joey Rojas, and a few others. As typical NYC sessions go, the numbers would soon rise and I found myself in a larger group of rollerbladers, some of which I didn’t know. After being kicked out of marble we headed over to the Chase ledge, where one of the unfamiliar faces in the group caught my eye by trying a back royale to pole bonk out. I soon learned that it was Dan Bradham of Long Island. He had a few more goes at it before getting tired of it and headed over to these smaller rails. I decided to set up my flash at camera left so that the reflections on the steps would lead you right to him, and using a slower shutter speed to create more of a blur. Dan started off with a royale for warm up, then a backslide to stir the pot, and then ended it with a nice front savannah that you see here” – Ryan Loewy.

Freeze Fame: Andy Brinker

“Sunday night June 12th a small group of bladers met in the downtown area of Manhattan, NY. Not wanting to skate the typical ledge and rail spots we decided to investigate the newly built structures in the popular South Street Seaport area. We came across a set of benches that looked ideal for our need to skate something new and different. As we took a closer look, we noticed the rivets and holes at the top of the bench and questioned if the bench was indeed skateable. Deciding that it was, we took on the task of waxing, making sure to get chunks stuck into the holes of the bench so our frames and soul plates could slide with ease.

As each blader laced their tricks, hyping up one another, I decided to “setup” to take photos. A lot of tech tricks were laced on the bench but Kunga Ngo’s fast plant on the bottom of the bench to backslide on the top of the bench stuck out to me the most. Kunga has improved dramatically in his skating abilities the last year and I feel this trick showcases his progress.

The photo was taken with a basic Sony point and shoot camera with minimal manual settings which if I remember correctly were at f5, 125sec, and ISO 400. An automated digital slave flash was held to my left as well to light the scene. I hope this photo is used as an example that even though you many not have the most expensive equipment, or even in this case a DSLR, you can still capture a great trick” – Andy Brinker.

Freeze Fame: Hillel Dov

“This was one of the more memorable Lets Roll NY sessions to go down. Billy O’Neil, Jeph Howard, Chris Farmer, Dave Lang, OG NY rippers like Jon Ortiz, Ryan Jacklone, Dave Ortega and others I’m forgetting all showed up to session Pier 62. It was the first session I’d shot in a long, long time and I was having a lot of trouble keeping up with everyone. Farmer laced the soul up the bank ledge to drop soul on the straight ledge. Ortiz hit the backside royale with steez across the whole ledge that Billy O’Neill is disaster fishbraining. Dudes were going off.

I put together this 3D typography experiment for I Roll NY but it wound up not working for the original plans. It’s dope that it’s running now since it was just about a year ago to the day that this was shot.The photo itself doesn’t have a lot of manipulation to it. Standard levels, saturation and sharpening. (Seriously, and no I didn’t add the fucking lens flare in PS) But I did spend a bitch of a time in the new (at the time) repousse plug-in in photoshop. 3D ain’t easy. At some point you kinda have to accept that it’s never gonna look real (at least with my skills) and just focus on the lighting.

Lighting is everything. Even if the textures don’t completely make sense, your brain will accept the 3D as possible if the lighting is right. And perspective, that’s definitely a big one. The right perspective is what makes the text look like it’s sitting and not floating. Like any technique, you need to use it when appropriate. Like drop-shadows, 3D won’t always be the right execution. But to me it send the right message, which is, standing strong in the middle of everything” – Hillel Dov.