I don’t often shoot skate photos with a telephoto lens. I usually use a 35mm or 15mm lens and get close to the action so that the viewer gets a sense of what it was like to actually be there. For this photo I used an 85mm lens at f2.8 in order to get a shallow depth of field, compress the space, blur out any distracting information and direct the viewer’s attention to the subject. I was also further able to direct attention to the subject by photographing at a low angle and using the lines in the street. I made the decision to convert the image to black and white to simplify the composition and give it some added drama.