J Grant Brittain started shooting photos at the Del Mar Skate Ranch in 1979 while he was working as a worker bee and eventually as the pro shop manager. He had watched the top photographers of the 1970s come through the skatepark with various pro skaters in tow and admired their work in the skate magazines months after they shot the photos. After borrowing his roommate's camera in February of 1979, he was immediately hooked on the art of photography. Grant honed his photographic skills by shooting his friends flying out of the cement bowls on their skateboards over the next few years. In 1983 he helped found Transworld Skateboarding Magazine, and over the next 20 years served as its only Photo Editor and as a Senior Photographer. His dynamic skateboarding photos shot all over the world were on 60+ covers over that time.  In 2004, Grant and his friends left TWS and started The Skateboard Mag. It had a great run (2004-2016), but now Grant is working on his own artistic, commercial, and personal projects: teaching photography, doing photo exhibits all over the world, releasing new photos from his 40 year archive, and is currently finishing up his book project. Grant is a lifelong North San Diego County native and lives in Encinitas with his family and his pets.