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Cynthia Groseclose, food stylist and creator of Salt & Water Magazine, had a great story to pitch for her magazine on skater Rutledge Godley. Rutledge is college student and craftsman who enjoys skating and makes his own skate boards. Charleston photographer Christopher Shane had worked with Cynthia in the past with some editorial jobs, and hopped onto the project quickly. Christopher loves to shoot outdoor lifestyle work and grew up skateboarding, which made him a perfect fit for the Godley project.
Salt & Water needed Christopher to shoot both stills and a short video to promote Godley and his skateboards. Cynthia and Christopher had several creative conversations about what they could accomplish in a one-day shoot. Shooting stills and video can be a challenge to accomplish in one afternoon, but with how easy-going and flexible Rutledge was, things went smoothly. They decided to let Rutledge guide their team in terms of what he does to make the skate boards. They followed him around his workshop to capture his work process, his environment, and his local hangouts. They kept everything local to avoid wasting time on travel.
Luckily, Rutledge’s workshop is in a cool older neighborhood that has some nice backdrops near the water. I wanted to make this a little more interesting than the typical skate video’s that are out there, so it became a promo for Godley more than anything.
The biggest challenge that Christopher faced during the project was shooting a video of someone skateboarding while being on a skateboard himself.
I’ve been skating since I was a kid, so I knew I could operate a camera and skate at the same time. We had a few close calls (mainly with me hitting small rocks and nearly crashing with a camera in hand).
Based on the final video, it looks like Christopher handled the board like a pro. Check it out below:
Having only recently delved into shooting video, Christopher was excited to get a chance to dig deeper into the medium and learn even more.
Working with motion is on a whole different level than stills; the composition and camera movement that is required versus shooting still images is quite different and challenging at first. Though I always enjoy a challenge in my work.
Cynthia, Rutledge, and the public have loved the images so far. They were published in Salt & Water, and were the most viewed content of that month’s issue.
Rutledge is still in college pursing a business major, but when he has some down time, Christopher and Cynthia would love to follow up with him on what their shoot did to propel his business.
To see more photography from Christopher, visit christophershane.com.