I tried skateboarding a couple of times in my younger days, never really got the hang of it though. However, there are many other options than getting around New York City on a skateboard. I usually ride my fixed gear bicycle (fixie) to work or just around the city on adventures. Although many people do not film fixie riders I have been around some of my friends that ride BMX style bikes that do get filmed. It is usually difficult for the person who is filming the tricks of the BMX rider or the skateboarded. Some of the difficulties of filming that usually are recurring is the lighting of the outside or inside space. Graphene is opening the door to better low-light photos in the form of an image sensor that can catch light 1,000 times better than traditional sensors. Oh, and it uses 10 times less energy, too.

To think that we have affordable digital cinema cameras in the present day that blow away the digital cameras that were being used in Hollywood eight years ago is bordering on absurd. Not only that, but technology is progressing at such a rate that everything is nearly outdated the moment it hits the market. According to Gizmag, scientists at Nanyang Technical University in Singapore have been working on a new graphene-based sensor which, they say, will be upwards of 1000 times more sensitive to light than existing CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) and CCD (charge-coupled device) sensors.

By trapping and holding light-generated electron particles for far longer than most sensors, the graphene version can take much clearer pictures with much less light. So it has the potential to be used in any type of camera including infrared cameras, traffic speeding cameras, and satellite imaging, to name just a few. What do you guys think? Are graphene-sensors the technology of the future? Will they open up some new creative medium? Are they even necessary now that we have cameras that are already fantastic in low light?

If you guys are interested in learning more about graphene check out my blog.

As a skater you already know how difficult it can be to skate certain spots when security is always lurking around ready to kick you out of that perfect spot of yours. In my past because I have a camera I’ve used it to my advantage in order to talk my way into letting the security guard allowing us to either stay to film or at least try a few more times.

I remember one night of late night skating in a parking lot in my town which had a nice curb that turned into a ledge and drop down into a bank into the the entrance of the parking lot. I’m filming with two skaters hitting the spot like it owes them money! when from the upper level of the parking lot a female security guard yells at us. Shes clearly asking us what are we doing here. Quickly thinking I pull out my college ID and tell her that I’m working on a very important project for school and I need this exact location to boost my project to an A. I then continue to tell her that we will leave once we are done and will pay extra careful to not brake anything.

Unfortunately the whole school project idea doesnt work and those pigs will still shut you down. When this happens I just leave respectfully and then come back when I can.

So you ride a skateboard and you have friends who ride skateboards too. Now that you have these things, you want to start taking documentation of you and your friends progress of skating or maybe make a sponser me tape for a skater friend. Thats cool. But there are things you should know first and thats where I am here to help.

Look through the blog and you will soon gather tips for certain aspects of skateboard filming.