Faces of Bitter Cold Showdown by Shardy Nieves

Tags: bcd, bcsd 2011, 2011, bitter cold, bitter cold showdown, bitter cold showdown 2011, daniel kinney, detroit, live updates, live-updates, michigan, modern skatepark, pimp juice, shardy nieves

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With a huge event such as the 2011 Bitter Cold Show Down, photographers are never too far away and ready to get that epic shot. This year it would be no different for me. During our 13 hour drive from NYC to Royal Oak, MI I had ample amount of time to contemplate how my shots of this weekends events would differ from others. The shots that make headlines would of course be taken on the floor where all the action happens. But sometimes we forget that these competitors are also fans of rollerblading themselves.

Photography and write-up by Shardy Nieves

Since I did the floor shots at the WRS World Finals (and all the BCSD press passes were spoken for) I decided to do a portrait project which I felt would be unique to the Bitter Cold Show Down. I found a vacant location in the back of Modern Skatepark to set up my lights and the stool which would be the center piece of my shots.

I made my way through the park stopping not only Pro but Am skaters that were in attendance. The Bitter Cold Showdown brings skaters from all over the world to a single event so why not capture the different personalities of these rollers when they are not skating?

I had to wait until Saturday, the day of the Am finals and Pro comp to gather whatever available skaters that I could, however that means that I would miss the majority of the competition. But that's just a small price to pay for what I was trying to accomplish and there will be more than enough edits to fill me in on what I missed.

Here are the images that I captured during the event. Thank you to those of you who took time out to help me with this project. I was more than happy with the images that i captured being as I traveled relatively light and made the best of the available space. Hope you all enjoy.

Check out Shardy’s blog here.