Justin Kosman Photography

We aren’t in Kansas anymore

But I was…

I was in Kansas last weekend.  I had the opportunity to head back to Harveyville, KS to shoot a music video for Kid Congo in an old high school during a mock prom.  Ron Miller and Nikol Lohr live in the school and have a pretty awesome program going on.  Ron is a tattoo artist and mixed media painter, and Nikol is an author and knitting entrepreneur.  They raise half a dozen sheep and chickens out on their property and do kick ass things like record music and harbor artists looking for a long-term retreat from city life.  Ron is the drummer in Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, and Golden Brown was the song I shot live during the prom party.  I was able to take off early enough to check out a place Ron told me about in Topeka called Truckhenge.  You must see this to believe it, and it’s not just the boats and trucks buried ass-end up. Hearing Mr. Lessman’s stories about his battles with the tax and zoning corruption in his county are legendary.  Can’t a man just bury some trucks!
Here is a photo of Foxy the dog on the Lessman Farm.

Where is Guam?

Between Japan and Hawaii

To be honest I didn’t really know where Guam was.  I would have guessed it was closer to Japan but, it’s still over 1500 miles south of there too.  I’m headed there now with a crew of skaters and BMX riders from Vans to shoot a demo for the troops on Andersen Air Force Base. Mix in a little snorkeling and I’ll be taking a breather before the summer really gets busy.

This Winter/Spring has already been unusually busy for me. Here is a quick list of some shoots that went down in the past 60 days:
Anthony Napolitan for Red Bull in Las Vegas.
Brian Kachinsky “Calling The Shots” Episode
Olympic Snowboarder Scotty Lago at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire.
11 Rider Vans/Pro-Tec Team Road Trip from Phoenix- Albuquerque.
Ryan Guettler Vans Ad shoot in Greenville.
Jourdan Barba street video for Espn.
Luke Parslow and TJ Ellis video for Espn.
Chase Hawk ad shoot for Vans.
Dennis Enarson ad shoot in Malaga, Spain.
Adam Taylor skate shoot for Matador/Jack Links.
Colin Mackay BMX video & product feature for Vans.

After this trip to Guam I’ll be headed to New Jersey to shoot a poster with Scotty Cranmer and then straight from NJ to Cincy to shoot a Red Bull 3Style DJ Battle and then straight to the Protec Pool Party in Orange, CA.

Here is a nice tilt shift photo of the monster jump at Cory Nastazio’s ranch in Tehachapi, CA.  Some big moves go down on this pile of dirt.

New Monochrome Gallery on ESPN

A couple weeks ago I put together a gallery for ESPN that features only black and white photos. The majority of these shots were B Roll, meaning that at any given location I shot two photos of the same trick.  This gallery represents many of these B Roll shots that were too good to retire.  Check out the gallery here.

“Any photographer will tell you that there is always another angle for any given shot. And that is sometimes the question I’m left with after shooting photos, “Was there a better angle?” And if we are lucky enough to have a rider shoot with us for two different angles, one of the toughest things to do is to choose between two angles of one trick. Many of the shots in this gallery were second angles that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. I just got home from a commercial shoot, which was all black and white, so my mind was in B&W mode when I made these gallery selections.”

I am off to Phoenix for the next week with some of the Vans BMX team.  We are hitting up a race and some of the amazing skateparks so look for some fresh footage in the coming weeks.

New Shadow Ad Revealed

Albert Mercado gets his 180 On

The Shadow Conspiracy just posted up their new print at with BMX rider Albert Mercado.  Shot in National City, California Albert is pictured here showing off his mad pop with a 180 over this bike rack.  The surrounding area is really good for riding and there is a skatepark really close by where he filmed his infamous blue ramps edit for SBL.  The sun was setting at this spot and lately I’ve really been into keeping some lens flare in the full frame images.  Thanks to Albert and Ron Bonner for making this one happen. Buy those handlebars.

Malaga, Spain - The Final Days

In the days of rain

I’m finishing up a ten day trip to Spain with a couple riders from San Diego and to be honest we were rained on for the better half of the trip. At one point we made it back to the airport only to find that every rental car place was booked solid for two weeks straight.  So driving to Barci was out of the question.

Every other day it was a battle against the clouds. Popping out for an hour, sometimes two hours and other times at night.  A couple days we were stuck in the muggy flat we rented and over dosed on coffee. Everyone put in some major work when the rain stopped and we are coming back with some amazing shots.  Big thanks to Rueben and Stefan for showing us around and making us dinner last night.  And big thanks to youtube for for keeping us sane on the days were were cooped up. Here is a shot from the castle we hiked to on the fifth day. 

This week I got to try out the new Elinchrom Ranger Quadra A pack and head and I give it a preliminary grade of A-.  The power is max at 400 watts, the modeling light is bright, the controls are a little confusing without the manual nearby and with a bigger reflector I’d say this is the best new flash for action photography on the market. Good job Elinchrom. Finally a fast pack without a car battery. Looking forward to next week with a couple Red Bull photo shoots and some more Vans shoots coming up.