What’s good Sean? Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions... How have you been holding up through the lockdown?
Hey what’s up Rich. No problem thank you for having me. I have been holding up pretty good during the lockdown. A little stir crazy here and there but it could be worse.
That good to hear, I hit you up today to gain a little insight on your photography as well as your Pro riding career.
What came first for you bikes or cameras?
Bikes came way before, I started out when I was little kid.
I got my first bmx like 10 or so but had a mountain bike before that.
Haha same man I ripped a little 20” mtb and pretended it was a bmx before I could convince my parents to get me one.
Do you remember what your first BMX bike was?
Yea it was a chrome Royce union from toys r us. Soon followed by a haro NyQuist backtrail
Oh those backtrails were pretty sick when they dropped
What about your first camera?
Haha yea that green color way was my shit. NyQuist was also my favorite rider at the time so it was a no brainer for me. My first camera was a little Pentax zx60 film camera.
What were the steps from getting this first camera to deciding to go to school for photography?
It happened around the same time in when I was about 16/17. I was interested in photography from bmx magazines and stuff and my school had a program where you could leave for most of the day and go to training at the local college for whatever career path you were interested in. I signed up for photography and got my first camera for that class.
It’s crazy to think of what an impact magazines made on us all when we were younger, this is how I got interested in a lot of what I still do today as well.
What was your first paid photo gig after you graduated?
Yea it is, and I think about if I would have even got into it without those magazines. After high school I had a summer job at the park district that I had every summer for years with a few of my really good friends so I was just doing that and riding and shooting photos for fun. I was riding a lot of trails at the time so I would always be back in the woods with my camera just shooting whatever. BMX was really in the front of my mind around that time so the idea of getting paid photo jobs wasn’t even a thought. I was starting freshman year of college that fall and all I wanted to do was get that out of the way everyday so I could ride and kick it with friends.
When did your riding take a more serious turn?
Well I started racing when I was about 12 and was on a race team for a few years. They took that shit pretty serious and I wasn’t really feeling it after a while. That whole time I was learning to ride skateparks and stuff and luckily met this dude a few years older than me who rode and took me under his wing. I was def the little annoying kid but learned a lot about bmx so quick and it always felt kinda serious haha. I would ride whatever little contest I could and convince my parents to let me go to Louisville park back when that place was insane. It consumed my entire life and all I really cared about for a long time. It got way more serious when I moved to California my sophomore year of college.
Yeah it’s kinda funny how serious you can take it at first when there’s all that new info to consume and tricks to learn I remember it feeling limitless.
Did you have any sponsors yet when you moved out to California? How did that all come about to the point where you were making a little money off it?
No I didn’t have any sponsors when I moved out here. I was just riding, going to school and whatever. My bike got jacked and my good friend Miles Simone hooked me up with a Federal so that was my first free bike but obviously not a sponsorship. I was riding a ton and filming videos with my friend Shane. STLN BMX got ahold of me through him and then I started getting stuff from them. I was like 20/21 and started getting a little money from them a year of so later.
Nice it’s funny how it works out so differently but so similar for most people. One friend is connected then your around and it just kinda happens.
Were you living off riding at any point or working as well through that?
When I first got hooked up I was living in Santa Barbara and working at a bike shop. That town is expensive as fuck so I always worked when I lived there. After a while I moved to Long Beach and was living off riding for a little bit but it wasn’t much fun scraping by so I would usually do stuff on the side and eventually got back into photography.
That’s dope, that stolen team was a real moment. Did you start getting photo gigs in BMX or outside?
Yea it was fun times for sure during that time with them. I got started in photo gigs outside of bmx. I was still interested in it while living in Santa Barbara but was just focused on riding and that sort of thing. One of my best friends and roommate in SB was a photographer and eventually both ended up in LA area. He started working for this photo company and convinced me to do gigs for them. It was a photo booth style company that evolved into other types of photography, and that really got my mind thinking that way again and made me really take photography seriously again.
At what point did you realize you wanted to make that your “day job”?
Pretty much right away. Although the photography didn’t start out desirable I knew In my head it was a great building block that I could work off for a while. Eventually I worked my way up and good stuff started coming.
I remember seeing you around at this point and you were still riding pretty heavily and even had a few popular signature products out. What caused the move from the Pro rider life?
Yea , I was still fully riding for STLN but I could see the writing on the wall. I see a lot dudes done with riding and confused about their next step. I decided early I’m not gonna let that happened and I slowly started working on the transition out during my last few years with them.
I can respect that for sure man but you don’t seem like you’ve really slowed down riding, I see you out all the time still. Do you look at it different now when you’re riding at all? Like weigh out out if it’s worth it to hit the rail before a shoot?
Thanks man. Yea the point for me was never to slow down riding on a personal level. I still ride all the time and expect myself to keep progressing as long as I’m healthy. I actually fucked up my ankle really bad before a big shoot a couple years ago though and that really bothered me a bit. That shoot was 14hrs and one of the worst days of my life. I won’t do anything crazy bmx wise on the same day of big job anymore. I think about the risk vs reward a bit more these day but for the most part it’s business as usual.
Speaking of risk vs. reward... Haven’t you’ve recently taken the plunge and started your own photo business?
Yea. I just started a wedding photography business this past December. It’s been a wild first year with corona and all but I’m still really siked about everything.
Congratulations on that man always hyped to see the bmx family make moves. Where can people check out your work or book a zoom wedding shoot haha?
Thanks man! It was a long time in the making, hyped to get it off the ground. It’s called The OWL Weddings and you can check it out and book your wedding on the front page of The knot & WeddingWire, www.theowlweddings.com, or insta @theowlweddings
Was there anything you learned through your time focused on BMX that helped your progression in photography?
Yes there are a lot of lessons i learned through bmx that I apply to photography everyday. Mostly centered around self motivation and work ethic. Nothing much easy comes quick and all those years of bmx helped me learn so much about myself and having patience. BMX taught me to not take anything for granted.
With the statements you made recently regarding your experiences as a a black BMX and the obvious lack of black representation in BMX how have you found the photography industry by comparison?
Like many industries in the past month or so people have had to look in the mirror and that’s no different for the photo industry. Huge brands have been called out for their lack of diversity in front of and behind the lens. I’ve showed up to a shoot more than once and someone was surprised I was the lead photographer. I’ve also had black people come up to me at a big shoot to tell me how siked they are to see me shining. Even since all of this stuff has happened a few more doors have opened for me in the wedding industry and just hope it continues on that path.
Cool I thinks that’s a wrap... Thanks again for taking the time out to chat and hopefully inspire others to pursue their passions. See ya at the park in the morning, sorry for taking your whole day with all the back and forth!
Thanks for having me and no problem at all. It was great talking with you!
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