Last fall photographer Shem Roose got ahold of me about assisting him in a shoot with Jake Burton… the creator of this company. Canadian action sports magazine, SBC, was doing an interview with Jake at his house in Vermont so they asked Shem to get some shots of Jake around his property. I was honored that Shem asked me to come along to help out, Shem is an OG in the game, and it is always cool to see how other people work. He definitely came away with some great shots that day. For more details on the shoot check out Shem’s blog. More of his photos after the jump.

Rome is doing another live Twitter interview this Friday… this time with designer Shawn Dumont. This guy is responsible for the design of a lot of the stuff that gets pumped out of Rome including gloves, art on the outerwear and bags, tees, the Postermania graphics… the list goes on. Anyway, hop on twitter on Friday, type your question to Dumont and end it with #Romedesign and he’ll answer em. They are going to pick a random person out of the entries to be hooked up with a 2011 outerwear kit that the man designed himself. So fire away, and make em juicy. For more info go here.

My friend and filmer Sean Mehen has been sending over videos he has been making with skater Tom Ryen and photographer “Jeffrey Moustache“. The last one they did was on TomTom’s 25th birthday where Tom did 25 different flat ground tricks on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. To check out more of their videos go here.

Mike Basher… this guy has a lot to say… and he should after working for Snowboard Magazine for the past six seasons. He was one of the guys who helped create the magazine and since then has gone through the ranks as photo editor and most recently, editor, of the mag. But as of January 2010, Basher took a step back from his spot at Snowboard. He decided it was time to move on since, with his new position as editor, he was spending much less time doing what he loved, shooting photos. Included in this interview are his reasons for moving on, why he thinks Colorado sucks, and his big plans for what is to come. Read the what he has to say after the jump.

To see more of his work check out his site and follow his blog.

Poster I designed for Quiksilver’s Cluck Off comp going on the same weekend as the Roxy Chicken Jam (March 25-28) at Mammoth in Califonia. Should be a good time, see you there I hope.

The other week two of the guys I work with and I took half the day off and went up to Venice for an “inspiration field trip” to see this art show about the evolution and art of skateboarding in California. I didn’t really know what to expect but it turned out to be pretty interesting. There were these 4 older ladies who were volunteering as the tour guides, which I thought was amazing. The lady that gave us the tour (in the picture above) was so enthusiastic, but obviously didn’t know too much about skateboarding. I thought it was refreshing to get a tour from someone on the outside… not a know it all that was just rambling off facts about who rode this board and who they were sponsored by at the time. Instead it was more like, “Can you believe this kid glued a pot leaf to their skateboard?! Those rebels!” It was less about naming names, and more about the art and culture behind it. Which I liked a lot. Anyway, enough of my rambling. The show is up till May 30th, so if you are in the area check it out. More info here.  Tons of photos from the show after the jump.

Pretty sure the whole world is behind you Kev. Thanks to the Frends crew for the video.

Back in 2008 my friend Blotto asked me to shoot this photo of him for an interview with European based Snowboard Magazine, Onboard. I’m not going to lie, being asked to shoot a photo of a photographer as established and someone I look up to as much as Blotto was a bit intimidating. I’m pretty sure that leading up to shooting this I was worried something would go terribly wrong… Did I double check my battery was charged? What if I left my memory card at home? But things went smooth, rolled up to Burlington airport (BTV), set up, shot a few photos, and that was that. Anyway, I bring it up now because he used it again for an interview he just did with PetaPixel. Make sure you check the interview out here. And if you aren’t already following Blotto’s blog, you should. He keeps it updated constantly with high quality/interesting content.

My last few interviews have been based around snowboard photographers, but this interview strays away from that a bit. I met Brendan a few years back at some college party in Burlington, VT. He would always be the kid walking around the parties with a camera in his hand, snapping random shots throughout the night. I started checking out his stuff to make sure that there wasn’t anything embarrassing of me from the night before and realized the guy had talent. Since then I have been keeping tabs on him, watching his photos progressively get better, and he recently moved to New York City, where he is pursuing a career as a photographer… some might refer to this as “killin it”. Check out his site to see more of his work. TheAngryPenguin.ORG

The man himself. Brendan McInerney.

Place you call home:

Then, Kents Hill Maine – Now, NYC

What is it like working/coming up as a photographer in New York City? Is it a little fish, big pond situation?

New York City to me, is definitely a little fish big pond situation. I come from rural Maine, so this place is the exact opposite of home. Unless you have some serious connections here, its a wake up call in terms of making a living. The range of wealth here is also fucked up, one neighborhood is extremely poor, and down the street are multimillion dollar lofts. Plus, you might walk by someone on the street shooting with a 20,000 dollar Mamiya camera, and you can’t help but be envious. I think I just had to come to terms with the fact that we all come from various financial backgrounds, and that’s life.

Tell me about the company you are working for now? How did you get involved with them?

Right now I’m working for Mighty Healthy. They are a skateboarding/streetwear company born and raised in NYC. The founders Ray and Denis grew up skating with some of the most respected people in skateboarding, so  legend class skateboarders are coming by all the time. My friend Kashia was working with Mighty when I came to NY to visit, and hooked me up with a gig shooting some photos for them. It was funny, she said I was just going to shoot some shirts on some of her guy friends, and then she calls me the morning of, and was like, “Oh yeah, you’re actually going to be shooting Gino”. (Iannucci). So that was wild for me. Mighty has taken me to LA, Tampa and Vegas in the last 4 months, so I really can’t complain about traveling and shooting photos of people I grew up idolizing. Like in LA, we were at a Matix clothing party, just having drinks with Mike Mo (Capaldi), Jeron (Wilson), Mike (Carrol), Vance (Capaldi) and Guy (Mariano). And you realize they’re just skate kids like you, they’re just fucked up good at skateboarding. It’s hard to imagine meeting these guys, let alone shooting the shit with them, when you’re 13 skating flat ground in the middle of Maine, that’s all.

You went to Champlain College (in Burlington, VT) for graphic design right? Is your education you received there relevant to what you are doing now? You happy you went?

I am very happy I went to Champlain, I have some amazing friends I owe to that place. At Mighty I am the head photographer and the second graphic designer, and *personally*, I think the education I got from Champlain is completely relevant to what I am doing now. I say “personally” because I know people that say college was a waste of money and time, but realistically it comes down to how much you’re going to apply yourself afterwards. I mean look at kids like Aaron Blatt and Laura Austin, you don’t see them bitching about how unfair college was, because they are too busy working their asses off doing what they love. “If the winds not blowing, row your fucking boat.”

You came out of an area (Burlington, VT) where most kids who wants to be photographers turn to snowboarding, what led got you interested in shooting fashion?

I think its fair to say that people shoot what they care about, and over time what they care about changes. My interest in photography has always been in people, and people do all kinds of wild shit, they skateboard, they snowboard, they dress up in all kinds of outfits. I just like learning about new stuff, and I didn’t know anything about fashion before I came here. Its pretty crazy…A good example would be The X Games and Project Runway. They both do almost no justice to the things they are making a profit from (as far as exposing what it is really all about). I mean, how many people know who Shaun White and Tony Hawk are, but have never heard of Scott Stevens or PJ Ladd?

Photo with the best story behind it:

A few months ago I was shooting a party at some ballin ass club in midtown Manhattan. There were big ol patron bottles and champagne popping off at like 3 am (Aaron Blatt would have loved it). And somewhere in this jungle of thick beats and lights, some girls got their drinks knocked to the ground, complete with shards of glass etc. And instead of getting all pissed the girls’s friends just threw down their glasses and started that infamous dance-off type circle. I figured at least 5 people were going to the hospital, but they just didn’t give a shit, and just went nuts. So this photo was in the heat of that moment…

Some say print is dying… do you agree?

Nah, have something you made printed, it looks cooler.

Natural Sunlight or Flashes?

You gotta understand both, but natural sunlight is the best, no question.

Black and White or color?

Black and White.
Everyone can already see in color.

What’s your favorite thing to shoot?

Anything pushing perfect geometry, be it women, sports, nature or architecture

The most played out thing in photography right now-

The Holga camera, and wasting Polaroid film
(unless you are Gerry Webber)

Favorite photographer outside of snowboarding:

I have a few…
Robert Doisneau -life
James Nachtwey -war
Federico Erra – women

Do you think that people either have a good eye or they don’t…. or can someone learn how to become a good photographer?

This is a hard one. Like with sports, I think you need to have something deep in your brain that just understands it, because if you don’t it will show, no matter how many classes you take. With that said, I know tons of people who would be amazing photographers, but they just never got into it…

What kind of projects are you working on now?

I’m actually trying to shoot skating more. There’s so many good skaters in New York, it seems dumb not to bring my camera when we go skate. I’m also trying to shoot some fashion/modeling type stuff. It’s good to learn about all sides of you craft.

What’s next?

Try and take better photos, and do more photo work so I can get a house in NYC where all my idiot friends can come stay…

If you have the March 2010 issue of Snowboarder Magazine open it up to the masthead page and check under the contributing photographers section. I’m not gonna call out which photo is mine since it isn’t that big of a deal… but it feels good to be included in a list with some amazing photographers. Thanks Bridges for hitting me up for the shot.