Latent Image

I recently acquired a new 35mm film point and shoot camera and it?s pretty much been at my arm?s reach for the last two weeks. As far as optics and speed are concerned, the Olympus Stylus Epic DLX rivals other famed 35mm P&S cameras like the Yashica T4 or the Contax T2, but at a sliver of the price?I got mine on craigslist for $5! While I doubt the Stylus Epic is actually better than those later cameras I mentioned, you can?t argue that a $5 camera is much more expendable then a $200 one.

Seeing as I?ve been pretty short for words (or any content) on this blog lately, my goal is to post a Latent Image gallery of film photos once a week. Maybe it?ll be two photos of giraffes one week and 15 photos of BMX the next, there?s really no rhyme or reason, just a love for the light sensitive silver halide and all of the quirky cameras used to expose it.

Latent Image Gallery 1
Tech Info:
? Olympus Stylus Epic DLX 35mm, fixed 35mm focal length 2.8
? Kodak Tri-X 400 and discontinued and expired Fujichrome MS 100/1000.

I carpool to the Ride office with Fat Tony and Ryan Fudger as often as possible. One day while Fat was freezing his balls off in Estonia, Ryan and I found this random skimaskglasstache in the parking lot in front of the office. If it?s yours or you know who it might belong to, you can come pick it up at the office. We hid it in Fat Tony?s cubicle.

Fat Tony, AKA Fox Tony, trying on his new jacket he got from Fox just before he left for Estonia.

You never know what strange characters you might run into during a session in downtown Long Beach. A perfect example is this guy who came from out of nowhere riding a mountain bike with a lizard on his handlebar and one on his shoulders. He was proud of his lizards and stopped to show them off?he even let Ryan Fudger and I hold them.

Ryan Fudger strikes a posse with his new scaly buddy.

Last weekend I drove up to Woodward West to celebrate Ron Wilkerson?s 43rd birthday with Dave Jacobs, Aaron Bostrom, and Francis Delapena. Along the way we stopped in Mojave so I could shoot some photos and the crew could grab some snacks. Pictured here from left to right is Dave Jacobs behind the Panasonic and Aaron Bostrom leaning against a beast of a Volvo, and Francis Delapena on the western flank.

This is one of those things that most people probably drive past and hardly notice, let alone consider photographing. Yet oddly enough, when I told the crew I had to turn around to go back and shoot a photo, two out of the other three people in car asked if it was ?that shadow on the billboard??

A meth-weathered soul crosses the sun-baked asphalt.

Shooting into the sun while driving and not looking through the viewfinder is bound to yield some interesting results.

If you look close at the power lines you?ll notice a little yellow duck mobile. I don?t know who is responsible for them, but I?ve seen a few of them around LA. With my trusted Stylus armed and ready in the console, I was lucky enough to catch this yellow themed photo-opp right before the traffic light turned green.

I just got back from a long trip back East. I had an ambitious itinerary, beginning in Philly, then heading up through Jersey and NYC, and then onward to Buffalo, NY. I got to shoot a good amount of stuff with a bunch of people and I handled some photos for two large features for upcoming features in Ride.

It was great to head back to the homeland again and get a chance to shoot some photos in Philly and kick it with Tom White, Ratkid, Belcher, and Navaz, session some of the many projects in Coney Island with Scerbo, Ralph, and Navaz, eat at Kate’s Joint in the East Village and Veggie Heaven in NJ, and then drive through PA and upstate New York to Buffalo?I caught the tail end of fall, so there were still some colored leaves on the trees. The productivity kind of hit the breaks in Buffalo, no thanks to a lot of rain and wind, but we did all we could do and had fun doing it. The weather in Buffalo sure did make me miss home, though. 

Here are a few random shots from my recent travels…

There was an exhibit at the Philadelphia airport featuring bikes made out of natural materials. There was a crotch-rocket style motorcycle made from sea shells and this fixed gear made out of wood. Photo:Z

You can’t really tell from the first photo, but this bike was built for like a 9′ tall person! Here’s a pulled back shot with a person in it to give a better sense of scale. Photo: Z

Scope the details. Photo:Z

Jim Cielencki’s cat Miller was over the cold Buffalo weather and tried to sneak into my bag and come back to LA with me. Photo:Z

The state my car was in when I got back. Who say’s SoCal doesn’t have seasons? Photo: Z

Aside from the normal BMX tricks and photos, we also had the luxury of attending the Love Fest today, which is basically a huge outdoor rave/parade. Thousands of people were walking around wearing the most ridiculous clothes. A bunch of girls were dressed like strippers, and some were pretty much naked, which is why we stayed around there for a while, but then there were a bunch of dudes dressed up like girls, and we weren’t having that, so we bounced. We shot some good photos of wild BMX antics, but you’ll have to wait for upcoming issue of Ride to see those goods. Until then here are some more random photos.

-Z

This coffee cup lid had a really tight “fit.” Photo: Z

This girl spent ten minutes drawing all over her chest. It was nippy outside, too. Photo: Z

Apparently the Chiquita Banana girl and The Wizard Of Oz had a spawn and it live in San Francisco. Photo: Z

There was a lot of fruit on this bus. Photo: Z

Jackson Ratima was the one man welcome committee for all the lost girls in town for the Love Fest. Photo: Z

Someone in SF knows what’s up. Photo: Z

Howard and 6th St. Photo: Z

Eddie Cleveland and I drove up from LA to San Francisco yesterday. This trip has been in the works for awhile and I’m psyched to finally be up here, SF is an amazing city with tons of great spots and awesome riders. I’ll be hanging out up here shooting photos with Eddie and a bunch of other people. We got up here pretty late yesterday, so we just left the cameras at home and cruised around. I did bring my trusty point and shoot and managed to catch a few fine examples of the Mission neighborhood where we’re staying. 

While we were street riding, this guy literally hit the streets. Photo: Z. 

Wolfman and Eddie Cleveland redefine carpooling. Photo: Z

This lady was really, really, really tiny. Photo: Z

As some of you may already know, I just got married and we took a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco for our honeymoon. We made a bunch of stops along the way, including the famous Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, wine tasting in Paso Robles, Tree Bones in Big Sur, and then finally onward to SF for four days and three nights. Here are a bunch of point and shoot photos from the trip.

-Z

As soon as Mega Ramp Finals were over on Friday I raced down to Santa Ana from LA to attend the Bike Curious art show. The venue was cool, the crowd was chill, and I got to meet Bob Haro, his wife, and their new baby Avalon. Getting to chat with the Father of Freestyle in an upbeat art gallery amongst your good friends was a pretty sweet experience.

While Ryan Fudger (the Xtreme guy pictured above) and I were walking back to my car we couldn’t help but notice this yellow monstrosity with the ridiculous personalized plate and hand customized plate cover straight out of Hobby Lobby. Photo:Z 

Chillin’ with Mr. Haro. 

The Following day, while my coworkers were getting bombarded with X Games overload on Saturday, I played hookie and went out with Street Gold medalist Garrett Reynolds and his Nike teammate, Nigel Sylvester, to ride and shoot photos. Along with Glenn PP Milligan and Nate Moroshan, we sampled some of the finest spots that Wilmington and San Pedro, California, had to offer. Some hot moves went down that you’ll be sure to see in the pages of Ride sooner than later.

I spent my Sunday with a pretty good sized crew of shredders, including Brian Kachinsky, Dave Jacobs, Aaron Bostrom, Richard Wisconsin, and Thomas France. We went to UCI, where, do to the lack of chill spots, it’s basically “go big or don’t ride here. ” Kachinsky choose to ride there and went big with a techy move. After the UCI experience we wrapped the day up at the Santa Ana civic center. BK had never been there before, and needless to say, he loved it. Richard Wisconsin was doing a bunch of wild tech moves and we had to practically drag him out of that spot. 

This is our bird, her name is Rocket. While I was out galavanting around Orange County today, she was sitting around our house with a feather stuck on the front of her face. Wouldn’t it be nice if life were that easy. Photo: Z

-La8er ga8er.

I think the biggest news in the South Bay of Los Angles is that Ryan Fudger and his girlfriend Rachel, and their new roommate, Ben Ward (who was previously claiming Anaslime) moved to Long Beach. That brings the tally of riders in Long Beach to two more people closer to awesomely huge scene. We celebrated with a session in neighboring San Pedro with a bunch of people (read Fudger’s blog to learn more about that). XGames is coming up, are you excited! Personally, I can’t wait to get sunburn and hassled by security guards wanting to see my credentials every three minutes. Maybe I’ll see you there.

-Z

BK flew in a little early before X Games to do a little rail shopping. Photo: Zielinski

Adam22 will be psyched! Photo: Zielinski

There is going to be a bike culture focused art show on Friday, Aug 1st, at the Go,Zilla! Gallery on 3013 N Main St, Santa Ana, CA. Check gorillagozilla.com or click on the flyer below for more details. Be there or be square.

Jim Bauer, afterwork session.

I’m heading back home tomorrow, and as usual, I had a kick-ass time in Utah. I met a lot of new people, including two guys from Australia, Rich from Vegas, Mike (the BMX racing Gonz), Tate Roskelley, and Ben Williams. We spent a good part of the day sessioning an amazing bank-to-rail that I went to on a Sanfu trip like five years ago. I think the most amazing thing about this spot is that it’s running five years later and was still a zero bust. While we were there we had a front row seat to the Rob Wise show and it was worth every penny. Even though his spine is basically dislocated from his tailbone, Rob’s been killing it for his interview and he finally wrapped it up today with an outrageous banger. 

That’s It! -Z

Rob Wise was lucky his five inch shiner didn’t bleed much because his fresh DCs would’ve been tainted.