Photography Culture

Lester Jones on Shooting for Vans and Approaching Skaters

Chris Gampat
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09/27/2013
2 Mins read

Last Updated on 09/27/2013 by Chris Gampat

Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 9.22.24 AM

Australian based creative Lester Jones has been featured many times on this site. He runs I Dig Your Sole Man; a blog on the Vice Network about fashionable shoes in the street world. And recently he was commissioned by Vans to shoot a short on Australian skater Chima Ferguson. The video is fairly simple, but still quite beautiful due to a couple of detail shots and cinematic movements.

But beyond the video, there is also the whole notion of approaching a skater and talking to them about being captured on film. And for folks that don’t know how to do this or want to, Lester offers some tips after the jump; along with the video.

Vans x Chima Ferguson from Lester Jones on Vimeo.

Phoblographer: Why did you choose to do this in all black and white?

Lester: For a grainier more reportage feel. Skate videos are often highly saturated and colourful, this project aims to introduce a new angle on skate films so a new look seemed like a good idea.

Phoblographer: You used an Induro Hi Hat; how did it help you get the shots that you needed despite it not being a videography tripod?

Lester: Intimacy and low angle were the two things I liked the most. This thing is solid as a rock yeah small, light and very versatile for stills, video, and the use of toys like sliders.

Phoblographer: If a creative wants to approach a skater and start shooting them, what are some tips that you can give them to get over the initial nervousness?

Lester: Well, it helped that I worked with my mate and skate legend Anthony De Sylva on this, plus Vans have me the exclusive with Chima too. If you don’t have Ant or Vans in your corner I would suggest buy the skater in question a beer!

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Hi-Hat i dig your sole man induro lester jones Photography skater vans
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.