Cover Stories: Jeff Z’s 10 Favorite Cover photos

Jeff Z.

• April 08 2009
• 4,167 views
• 15 comments

October 2006, Issue 125
Mike Hoder, 180, Hollywood, California

There are some things that I’ve shot that really stressed me out—worrying about the rider’s safety, worrying about getting in trouble, and hoping I don’t f-ck up the photo! Mike Hoder’s 180 over the Hollywood High fence wasn’t much of a bust, but I was worried about him getting hurt and stressing the importance of not blowing the shot (show me a photographer who never messes up and I’ll show you a liar). I remember thinking maybe Mike was getting in a little over his head, even though he tried it the day before (without a photographer) and blew up his wheel. I just kept thinking with such a big drop so much could go wrong. Mike proved all of my worries wrong, though, when he pulled it perfect on his first try—imagine how bummed he would’ve been if he put his foot down turning out of that 180. A high profile spot, huge drop, and good tucked 180—this will always be one of my favorite cover photos. 

April 2007, Issue 131
Edwin DeLaRosa, bunnyhop truck, Tustin, California

 

Another photo issue; another conceptual cover…this idea was set into motion a day or two before the photo deadline for the photo issue. We racked our brains for a few weeks for a good idea for that elusive photo issue cover, but nothing was materializing. I had thought about shooting a photo of Edwin doing a bunnyhop truck in the studio for a while. But not until a few nights before deadline while I was talking to my wife (then girlfriend) about ideas for the cover, when the idea finally hit me…the cover line “Out of This World Photos” and a shot of Edwin appearing as if he was in space doing a truckdriver. We even rented a spaceman suit complete with a helmet from a costume store, but it was too small for Edwin. (I think it fit him well enough, he just didn’t want to wear it.) The thing about this cover that I think some people didn’t get is that the whole background is the actual photo—no Photoshop postproduction was done. I simply poked a bunch of holes through the seamless paper and popped a few flashes through them from the other side, Keith Mulligan added a gel to one of them, and then I put wood on the floor, painted it black, and once it got dirty it looked like some kind of lunar surface. The whole shoot went down in our makeshift studio in the warehouse behind the Ride office. It’s a really small space, so Edwin only had about a crank, and then had to go for the truckdriver in the designated shooting area, and then stop before he crashed into a workbench. The overall scene was pretty hectic, but you’d never know that from the photo.

December 2007, Issue 139
Eric Lichtenberger, 180, East Los Angeles, California

It’s kind of hard to believe that Eric did this 180 on two different occasions. He has a sharp eye for spotting ridiculous setups that most riders would never notice—Eric noticed this wild one while driving through East L.A. with Ryan Navazio while they were filming for Insight. Aside from the sheer originality and difficulty of the trick, I was really happy with the timing of the shot, there is a sliver of space between his back and the top railing, and his wheels are ever so slightly above the ledge still—I think that helps convey how small of a space he’s actually fitting through without ever touching the wall or the rail on the one he pulled.

January 2008, Issue 140
Tom White, hop-over-to-Smith grind, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Sometimes a rider will show me something that they’ve been looking at doing for a while—it’s always something really cool, really scary, and would make for a great photo. But they just won’t be feeling it while I’m in town with them, which is understandable—you really have to be in the right zone for that kind of stuff. So then I just walk away, feeling a bit teased by this awesome photo opportunity I just saw. Then usually a few months will pass and I’ll see a photo or video clip of them finally doing it. When Tom showed us this setup he didn’t seem too set on doing it, and I thought I was getting teased again. Tom is one of my favorite riders to shoot with, he always finds wild set ups, does crazy sh-t, and he’s just fun to work with. This hop-over-to-Smith takes the title for craziest thing we’ve shot—it’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever shot, period. 

December 2008, Issue 151
Garrett Reynolds, no-hander-to-icepick grind, Los Angeles, California

This photo was shot the day after Garrett won a gold medal in street at X Games 14. Going out to shoot photos with the dude who won the X Games the day prior is a pretty big deal, and this was the first time Garrett and I were shooting in a non-contest setting, so I was hoping that some wild stuff would go down, but in all honesty, I really didn’t know what to expect. We initially met up at this rail and then decided to roll over to a warm up spot and maybe come back to the rail a little later. Eventually we made our way back and Garrett warmed up with a couple icepicks, a tooth hanger, and then decided to barspin-to-ice it. He made that one first go, and then said he’d do a no-hander-to-ice, too. At this point I was frantically moving around my flashes because I didn’t want to shoot both photos from the same exact spot. I was also worried that I might miss the full extension of the no-hander—barspins and no-handers on street are usually really fast and easy to miss. I knew Garrett’s no-hander was going to be super quick, but I really wanted a sweet still shot, so I set up for that, and then gave another camera to Nigel Sylvester and set him up to shoot a sequence. After Garrett did the no-hander we played the sequence back and low and behold, you could actually see one of the flash bursts in the peak action frame of the no-hander—that was a great indication that at least my timing was on point. Once I got the roll back, I actually had four banger shots of Garrett from the same day. He definitely lived up to my hopes for some wild stuff, and I was pretty relieved that I came through on my end of the deal, too. On a side note, while driving home from the shoot, I was so psyched on how productive the day was that I wasn’t really paying attention and I sped past a motorcycle cop who clocked me going 60mph in a 45. Glenn Milligan was driving behind me and saw me get pulled over, which was a bonus. A solid day of shooting, wrapped up with a hefty ticket—imagine how pissed I would’ve been if I blew those photos after all that.

So what is your favorite Ride cover? Is it the trick, the photo, the rider? Tell us what you’re psyched on in the comments.