Finding new angles

Atiba Jefferson’s passion for skateboard photography leaps from the pages of Thrasher, one of the world’s most influential skateboarding magazines. Inspired by the work of Spike Jonze, Ari Marcopoulos and Grant Brittain, he has developed a dynamic and distinctive visual style, freezing moments of action with precision and clarity.

His roots in skateboarding give him a unique advantage, but he has also pursued other passions to great success – including working as an assistant to the staff photographer for the LA Lakers during the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant era, as well as directing music videos and co-directing an Emmy-nominated documentary for ESPN.

Despite raising the bar for skateboard photography, he remains down to earth in his approach. “There are only so many ways you can shoot a skateboarder doing a trick or a basketball player holding a basketball,” he says, adding that finding a new angle for familiar subjects “is a challenge for all of us.”

Atiba describes his creative process as similar to skateboarding itself. “A skateboarder wants to learn multiple tricks and different ways of doing things on a skateboard, and that’s how I approach my photography – trying not to be just one type of photographer or have a single style. For me, it’s about learning as much as I can and then applying those different techniques when they feel interesting.”

“In skateboarding, the number one thing you want to show is where the skateboarder is coming from and where they’re going. That means you’ve got to show the spot as well as the skateboarder,” Atiba explains.

“That’s why a fisheye lens is great – you can capture the whole scene and make tricks look bigger. And with this Canon fisheye lens going even wider to 190°, you can really accentuate that effect, making everything look bigger and even more distinctive.”

Here, Atiba offers his tips for making your work stand out from the crowd, and insight into how the RF 7-14MM F2.8-3.5L FISHEYE STM is an ideal creative tool to help achieve this.

Understanding where to stand and when to press the shutter release are a given for creating stand-out shots. But with sports and action, you need to go further and study it like a coach. When he moved from skateboarding to basketball photography, Atiba had to learn the right moments to shoot and how to do it properly.

“You need to understand what a crossover looks like, and the best time to shoot a dunk,” he says. “If you’re a sports shooter, you have to know your sport inside out. Studying the master photographers of the sport and knowing what the important moments are is the fastest way to make a great photo in those situations.

“Portraiture is different. A bit of advice I got way back at the start of my career was don’t look at other photographers because you’ll subconsciously rip them off, and that’s very true. So there are different ways to approach things.”

Over the course of his career, Atiba has lived through skateboarding’s evolution – from DIY skate parks and the street revolution to its global cultural expansion and mainstream recognition. He’s helped to shape the look of skateboarding photography during this time and says that Canon camera technology has enabled him to do things differently.

“Technology will always change the way your photos will look. I’ve been there every step of the way – seeing cameras go from 4MP on the EOS-1D to 45MP on the EOS R5 Mark II, being able to shoot at 40fps, and taking advantage of autofocus tracking which now makes it possible to follow your subject while shooting with a shallow depth of field. That was something that you just didn’t attempt before.

“What I really love is that all these amazing things that technology pushes have helped progress my photography. I don’t want my photos to look the same way they did five years ago. I always want them to look different.”

RF lenses are designed differently. The high-speed RF mount delivers new levels of performance and enables innovative prime and zoom lenses, allowing photographers like Atiba to push their art in new ways.

The immense 190° angle of view available on the RF 7-14MM F2.8-3.5L FISHEYE STM has given him the power to create even more bold and immersive results.

“It’s amazing,” he says. “Fisheye lenses are usually around 180°, but 190° has really made a different dynamic. We’ve seen a lot of progression for 70-200mm and 24-70mm zooms, but not much for fisheye lenses. I used the same 15mm fisheye lens from 1995-2022 before changing to the EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens. So to now have something that goes even wider is amazing.

“Compared to just getting a new 15mm fisheye where you can put your lighting in the same place and execute the shot in the same way, I’ve had to really look at the way I set up everything. It’s been a whole new learning experience, which is great.”

The ability to plan, prepare and pre-visualise your images means less is left to chance – an important consideration when there is an element of risk involved. At the same time, leaving room for instinct and opportunity can take a shoot in unexpected directions.

“Skateboard photography is one of those things where you have to think quickly on your feet,” Atiba says. “You can’t just set up and wait. You don’t know what’s going to happen, and that pushes you creatively to keep learning, challenging yourself and trying different approaches.”

The short focal length and ultra-wide view of the RF 7-14MM F2.8-3.5L FISHEYE STM offers plenty of creative freedom when you need to react quickly to what’s happening around you. It also makes it easier to capture more dramatic images at arm’s length, while keeping the full scene in the frame.

“It can be difficult to concentrate on composition with a fisheye lens when you’re worried about being hit – either in the face or the camera – by a skateboard,“ Atiba says. “Most of the time you’re using the vari-angle screen folded out, holding the camera low. It’s usually the best angle, but also one of the most dangerous.

“What’s impressive about the RF 7-14MM F2.8-3.5L FISHEYE STM is that when you’re shooting all the way out at 7mm, you can cover almost everything safely. You’re far less likely to crop an arm out at 190°, which makes composing feel more relaxed.”

Although skateboarding photography has been a constant in his life, Atiba has taken what he’s learned and applied it to basketball photography, portraiture and video directing. His career has evolved in surprising ways, proving that being prepared to apply your experience and creative skills in new ways can open new doors.

“Basketball is what really changed my photography in understanding high-speed sync and different shutter speeds,” he explains. “Assisting Andy Bernstein, the Lakers’ team photographer, on commercial shoots meant really studying lighting with flash outside of skateboarding.

“In skateboarding, you can build a formula that’s fairly straightforward, but it was the commercial work that made me approach things differently and really understand flash photography and lighting. I applied what I learned from skateboarding to basketball, and vice versa.

“The idea was to cross-pollinate techniques and ideas, which I think gives you a different style, I think rather than sticking to one approach. I was lucky to learn how to do things in different ways.”

If you’re looking to develop a more distinctive visual identity for your photography, do the opposite of what you’re seeing, Atiba suggests. “A lot of times, especially when shooting skateboarding, I might think I’ve found the right angle and then I step back and say to myself, challenge yourself – what’s different? Is there somewhere to get higher or lower?

“Your first instinct is always the easiest. Challenge that. Do the opposite. If you see a photo that’s really bright, use just one light. If the sun is facing your subject, shoot into the sun.”

For Atiba, it’s less about following formulas and more about challenging habits. By choosing lenses that open up new perspectives and rethinking conventional approaches, he continues to find new ways of seeing subjects that have been photographed time and again.