TIM MOOLMAN – Skateboarding with Jean-Marc at Skateistan

July 27, 2018

I love skateboarding. I’ve loved it since I was 15 years old and I still love it to this day. Every time I step on a board to go skate I leave all anxiety and my worries behind. I love photography too so when I get to combine them both it’s pure bliss!

I recently shot the documentary (behind the scenes) side of an TV advert and hung out with a rad skateboarder from Cape Town, Jean-Marc Johannes. Jean-Marc is one of South Africa’s most successful skateboarders often travelling around the world to compete. He’s sponsored by Red Bull, Casio and Go-Pro amongst others. We got chatting about spots to skate around Jhb and it turned out he was staying just a few blocks from the new Skateistan park in Maboneng. Another surprise was that Daniel Monegi, who works at Skateistan, was one of the skaters hired for the advert and we managed to organise a session for the next morning where I would then be able to make some photos of Jean-Marc skating the park.

As always you have to be on your game as a photographer when capturing a great skater having an epic session. The tricks and setups were flowing fast and we worked well together understanding angles and timings perfectly. We even managed to break off for a quick lifestyle shoot in the surrounding buildings.

I used my wonderful X-Pro2 and a Samyang 8mm Fisheye lens for most of the skating shots. The supplementary and lifestyle images were made with the X-Pro2 and 23mm & 50mm f2 lenses. A single Jinbei 601 strobe provided the additional light.