Some changes are a-brewin here at Alliance Wakeskate. Someday soonish you are going to click on the site and it’s going to look completely different, and maybe have some new features as well. But one thing that’s not going anywhere is Monday Covers.

Honestly, Monday Covers are my favorite part of the site. On top of that whole, “a picture is worth 1000 words” thing, and no one reading anymore, it’s a chance to give a great single photo the weight it deserves. But what is it that makes a photo a Monday Cover? That’s a bit more complicated.

First off, photography is totally subjective (if you don’t agree, go check out the lengthy comment string on the weekly photo battle over at my snow site.) And while many college professors would have you believe there are basic rules that make a photo “good” or “bad” it’s much more complicated than that. We get technically great photos that don’t work for Monday Covers regularly. And that said all of these rules we’re about to set forth are made to be broken! But in general, here is what we look for:

1. Vertical shots. A horizontal shot can work, if it’s composed technically “wrong” with the subject almost dead center. This shot of Kirby is a good example.
2. In focus. This is one that’s pretty straightforward.
3. A good trick. Ideally we’d run a new crazy trick every week, but as you can image, that’s easier said than done. But when we say good, we mean properly executed more than anything. Style counts kids!
4.  An interesting photo. In short, this is something about the photo that makes it unique. Be it angle, lighting, background, foreground, etc. The photographer wasn’t just standing there holding the camera, but actually thought about how to make the photo look good.

Once a photo makes it past that criteria, we think about who is pictured (have they had a cover, or three yet?) A new rider can make a photo that much more desirable. Is it timely? If the shot is from an event that happened that weekend, it will get precedence over potentially more “timeless” shots.  I could keep going, because literally every Monday Cover submission is taken on a case-by-case basis, and agreed upon by not just me, but other members of the Alliance staff as well. The only thing that is 100% definite is we are always looking for shots! So if you have a photo you think would work, please send it to me at brooke@alliancewake.com!

Thanks for reading!