I am a casual BMX rider for the past couple of years. Besides riding my bike and enjoying the skate scene I also like to capture the world through a lens. While being a casual BMX rider, it came to my attention that the skating lifestyle in Amsterdam brings so many different people together. I think the way people are brought together in one place, enjoying the same type of lifestyle, is underestimated. I want people to see how regular people chose to hang out and blow off some steam at Marnix Bowl, also how some of us just sit on a bench with their friends or kids to enjoy what they see.
I would like to capture some of the typical skaters at Marnix Bowl to share how.

• Just being there
  I started off by just by just being there. In my years of experience of being around skaters, I noticed the most important part of having fun is by getting to know people. It makes whatever you are doing at the skatepark more fun and more productive. Sadly, when my project stated, I haven’t been to the skatepark nearly as often I used to. After a while I became disconnected. So I started by just showing up and talking to people as I BMX.
  
  After a view sessions I brought my camera and started shooting. The difference of the pictures I took a year ago was clear. I shot pictures with more personality. The people I talked to became more open and you can see that in the pictures

• Having multiple sessions
  In total I had four shooting session. Eventually I chose the pictures that were the most personal for me. Pictures that focus more on the subject and less on their tricks.
  
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• Selection
  Most of the work for me was the selection. I had so many beautiful pictures of skaters making the best tricks and the highest jumps. But I had to chose the one that were suitable for my project. I made a good decision to make a selection every time I had a new shoot. The problem with some shoots however was that the weather was not as good like it was before I went on vacation. With less weather there were almost no skaters present. So I had two not so useful shooting days.  Luckily I had enough good material to work with so I decided to focus on selecting and editing the last week.