2014 Flatland Calendar - Behind The Scenes And Outtakes By Fat Tony

2014 Flatland Calendar – Behind The Scenes & Outtakes

 Words and photos by Fat Tony (unless otherwise noted).

Huge thanks to Fat Tony for this sweet behind the scenes look at the 2014 Flatland Calendar shoot! Remember, these calendars are free with any purchase at Flatland Fuel: http://flatlandfuel.com/

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Terry Adams – The Cover

Everyone has seen the photos and videos of Terry Adams riding on water, but no one has seen these particular images yet… When I flew to Florida for Terry’s special Red Bull project with Adam Errington I was there to film a day in the life video for Alli Sports and shoot a few photos for Headrush, Freegun, and myself. There was another photographer there that Red Bull hired to get the key action shots of Terry and Adam riding simultaneously, and since those photos were the bangers of the project and blasted out everywhere I never had any place to showcase the photos I shot of Terry by himself. As a photographer, sometimes it’s difficult to sit on photos for months at a time knowing there is no place to show them to the world that can do them proper justice. Luckily I have a personal project like the Flatland Calendar where I can use photos like Terry’s cover shot and finally show them to the world. I’ve shot thousands of photos over my career as a professional photographer, and hundreds of Terry all over the globe, but the cover shot of this year’s Calendar is probably my favorite BMX photo I’ve ever taken. It was shot at sunrise, and the way Terry appears to be holding up the sun is just priceless to me. Here are a few others shot at the same time that, for me, will go down in the history books…

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Alex Jumelin

Alex Jumelin had this spot in mind to shoot at in New Orleans because he was stoked that it said “Art” on the side of the building. I wasn’t really into the spot too much, but luckily there was a dope brick wall just across the street that worked out really well for both of us, and ironically it even said A.J.’s on the building…

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Bobby Carter

Not many people know this, but Bobby Carter helped me develop the idea for the Flatland Calendar six years ago. I went to him with my original concept because I really respect and value his opinion and sense of business, and he steered me in the right direction of how to pull off the project. With that said, I was stoked to have a photo of Bobby in this year’s Calendar… I had wanted to shoot at the iconic Santa Monica Pier for a while, so it was a perfect time to turn my vision into a reality. After we shot the image that went on the Diversion TV page of the Calendar Bobby and I decided to do a little light painting experiment and this was the result.

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Bryan Ledbetter (Photo by David Wainer)

It’s always awesome to get new brands involved with the Calendar, and this year Airtype Clothing stepped up and David Wainer came through with some photos of Bryan Ledbetter. They shot these in an abandoned building at night where Bryan pretty much had to ride in total darkness. Here is one of the shots they turned in that didn’t make it into the Calendar.

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James McGraw (Photo by Jim McKay)

James McGraw has been in the game a long time, and recently made his way back onto the contest scene. Seeing how stoked and motivated he was at all the events this past year was really cool, so it was great to get him into the calendar courtesy of London Bikes. This photo shot in Downtown Austin is one that Jim McKay submitted in that didn’t get used. 

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Matthias Dandois

This is the second year in a row I shot a photo for the Calendar inside the famous Oltorf Garage in Austin, Texas. Last year it was Jean-Francois Boulianne, and this year it was Matthias Dandois. As with most photo shoots, after this one I was left with a cool portrait via my lighting test.

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Rebecca Pergentile

This was the first time in six years we’ve featured a female rider in the Flatland Calendar, and I couldn’t be more excited about that! I’ve always felt like it was super important to support females in the sport, and Magnolia BMX has been doing just that for a long time. Aidas Odonelis shot a few photos of Rebecca Pergentile at his studio (Ruby Photo Studio) for the calendar, and this is one that was left over.

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Viki Gomez

Viki Gomez has been traveling pretty much non-stop, and one of the destinations on his itinerary was Austin, Texas, where he won the NORA Cup this year. While we were both there we managed to link up for a very rushed photo shoot in front of the Capitol building. I originally thought I’d be able to get a symmetrical, front-and-center-style photo of Viki in front of the of the building, but after we got there we realized the way the sidewalks were set up wouldn’t work because the building was simply too tall and it was impossible to get the whole thing into frame even with a fisheye lens. Without much time to figure out another spot, we moved to the side of the building and made it work with a brand new trick that Viki had never shot before.

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Ucchie

When Ucchie was in Louisiana for Voodoo Jam we linked up for a quick photo shoot the day of the pre jam. The guy working the boat rental stand at this dock was really stoked to see Ucchie bust out a few tricks, and thankfully didn’t give us any trouble at all. I was honestly shocked when Ucchie said he wanted to shoot his signature bike flip because I figured there was no way he had such a difficult trick that dialed, but I was wrong. I didn’t take long at all for him to land it, and it was a good thing because about 12 seconds after he stomped it to the pedals it started pouring rain and our photo shoot was over. 

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