From Wood to Concrete
Fort St John is home to myself and many others with lots of exciting talent from each individual soul, But The Rotary Skatepark seemed to catch my eyes in more ways than one. Its full of life, from kids to Adults, riding scooters, bikes and skateboards. This concrete playground is where art is made with each flip of a board, grind of a deck and air time caught. From the time I was a kid I loved Skateboarding myself, its always had a sense of home and brotherhood with all your friends, trying to compete with each other and grow to learn new tricks but it was also where I first touched a camera. I filmed for my group of friends and made our own movies all inspired by the “Thrasher” skate videos and the magazines. Thats how Photography came into my life, wanting to become a artist and revealing other peoples stories to the world, so heres my first person to introduce and his name is Rex Sanderson.
(all Photos in this article are shot with Canon RT7 24-105mm lens)
F/4, 1/4000
Rex Sanderson, He’s a Local Skateboarder from Fort St John, British Columbia, born and raised. Rex’s local park would be the Rotary skatepark but makes trips to Dawson Creek BC, and Grande Prairie AB.
“I was introduced to skateboarding from my older brother & some friends that also skate boarded. My first board was an ATM my older brother gave me, I was probably like 11 years old. First trick I learned was an Ollie then I learned a fakie-half cab. My favourite memories for skating was at the old skate park. Night skating and hanging out with my friend & older brother all night. My friend called it “REB nights”, stands for Rex, Eathan and Bob. Unfortunately they both passed away but those are my favourite memories, Just skating all night with them, learning tricks & having fun. Skateboarding influenced me pretty big, I was a skater growing up. I was right into it when I was teenager. It was something fun to do. Something to go out, hang out with friends & kind of stay out of trouble.”
- Rex Sanderson
With all these shots I definitely had some pros and cons while trying to accomplish my photos during the shoot. The weather was clear as day, very hot, and the park wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be.
Although I prefer overcast the sheer light from the sun helped a lot with shadows and defining the colour of the park making it pop out more for my color photos. Which also helped with the contrast of my black and white photo’s. I tried to experiment with tracking shots and it made a cool effect with my "Frontside-boardslide flat-rail” photo below. I struggled with setting myself up sometimes because the obstacles were tricky to find the angles for good shots. Overall it was a fun and nostalgic photoshoot! Really got my gears going!
