Atiba Jefferson has shot some of the hottest players in sports – from basketball’s Kobe Bryant to skateboarding’s Tony Hawk. He has established himself as a standard for action sports photography, and the world of professional photographers.

Mostly self taught and completely self-disciplined, Atiba has earned the recognition that he's got because of his commitment to improve his understanding of all aspects of photography. For many, Atiba is considered the best skateboard photographer out there.

It all goes back to when he first saw medium format film cameras on the LA Laker’s basketball court.

His photography training began early when he took a basic black and white photography class in high school in Colorado. He learned a lot from famed skateboarder photographer J. Grant Brittain, part owner of The Skateboard Mag. "When I was living in Colorado I would send skateboarding pictures to Grant and he would send them back and tell me what I was doing wrong," he said, "That was huge. I've never heard of any photo editor who would take the time and energy to help someone the way he did." Atiba is thankful for Grant’s feedback, helping him jump ahead in his skateboard photography.

Later, living in California, he was still trying to figure out where he going. He had really wanted to do basketball photography, and then he heard that the Lakers were always looking for new young talent.

Atiba got to assist Andy Bernstein, the Lakers' team photographer. Bernstein has been shooting the NBA since 1981 and is the NBA's Senior Official Photographer and official Lakers and Clippers team photographer. He has documented some of the greatest moments in NBA history.  "I just started assisting Andy on the side. I'm just a huge basketball fan- a Laker fan. To have the opportunity to sit on the court and learn more about photography... best experience ever," he said.

Take a Closer Look: Selected Photographs from Atiba Jefferson
Donnie Edwards		Justin Eldrige		Kobe Bryant
LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers		Palm Desert, CA		Sean Malto
SnoopDogg				Tony Hawk

Click on image to enlarge

At the Lakers, Atiba saw that they had mastered a system of multiple cameras and were shooting with medium format cameras. "They were getting higher synch with medium format than 35mm (500, not 250)," Atiba said. This introduced him to shooting medium format, which would set him apart throughout his career, and establish his look and style. "I wouldn't even be shooting on medium format right now if it wasn't for this guy showing me that I could shoot action with a medium format camera."

Atiba is not the guy who invented shooting skating with medium format, others had done it long before him. What he learned from Andy changed his skateboarding photography. "I remember when I first started running medium format with a fish eye, no one was really on it. I would show the pictures afterwards and people would totally notice the difference and ask me, ‘wow, what did you shoot that with? Why does it look so good?’"

Atiba learned all that from Andy. "He pushed my skate photography to a whole new level probably without realizing it. And with my basketball stuff I was able to take things from skating and apply it to that."

Close up: full sized Atiba Jefferson image Zoom in and catch the fine detail

Close up: full sized Atiba Jefferson image Zoom in and catch the fine detail

Atiba is very satisfied with shooting digital. "The amount of frames you can shoot now, or how you know you've got a trick right away. It's definitely a different WAY of shooting but my approach is pretty much the same," he said. "You can't beat instant gratification... I'm 100% into digital photography. The amount of stress it takes away from the photographer is amazing."

Some of the challenges of shooting skaters, with their fast movements, are the flash sync and capturing the full color range. "Now you can trick the DSLR, essentially obtaining higher shutter speeds," he said, "Most people are just shooting all Canon/Nikon. There is a quality difference in the results. All the new magazines that use my stuff with the Leaf back see that it looks better."

Atiba recently upgraded to a Leaf Aptus 75 (33 MP) back.

Looking back, high-end medium format has had a big impact on Atiba. "I probably would not have progressed in my skating shooting career if I didn’t have a medium format camera and the Leaf back," he explained, "it’s kind of what determines what my photography is. I’m really one of the first to be only shooting these sports in medium format."

About Atiba Jefferson
Atiba has been shooting the things he loves most in this world for years; skateboarding, basketball, music, just life in general. And everywhere he's gone he makes an instant impact much like a D. Wade or Ben Roethlisberger. When he was staff photog from Transworld Skateboarding the magazine hit new highs, when him and his pals started The Skateboard Mag it immediately dominated the market. To be honest, I had never even heard of ESPN, Adidas, Nike, Panasonic, Mountain Dew or Pepsi until he shot campaigns for them. It really is like everything he touches turns to gold. I bet if he touched his wife just so a baby would appear; he's just that good. (Bio by Chris Nieratko)