Wednesday, September 2, 2015

very


whenever i've a stint of not posting on my blog i can't help but question everything, mainly relating to my passion and what it is that drives me to make photos and i am posting now because i’m excited by the realisation that the reasons for inconsistency have always been very simple and the best bit is i’m fine with it... but this rant is in no way a means to an end, simply an introspection i wish to note. 



BD5C0304

a storm over Bavaria, a few years ago i drove across the Czech, it's pretty sweet but not the best place in the world...



you see, back when i was cutting my photo teeth i enjoyed nothing more then taking photos for the instantaneous visual gratification [hooray for digital] of capturing something i considered beautiful or intriguing, this is still the forefront of why I've dedicated a solid part of my life to photography.  Getting stoked from the simple act of operating a camera was great, it got me hooked, however i was without an avenue to log my experiences nor share the documentary resulting from my personal intrigues regarding individual/collective existences that make us human's within this insanely rad situation of being alive and mostly free.  Now, that wasn’t a problem but what initially turned my attention towards photography was the joy and pleasure i obtained simply from witnessing a stranger photographically document a slice of my reality, more on this below.   I was driven by that stoke and it led me to aiming for the ability to send the stoke i now received by trying to give something to the lives of my homies through providing them with the means to perhaps obtain visual stoke and ideally motivate them to join me in the pleasurable comprehension of the visual world around us.





char_RAD_0510


Big Lean being the one getting wet for once.....




That may seem altruistic but thats not the case for I am a very selfish being, I treat the world around me as an avenue to enjoy myself but i feel that is not necessarily a bad thing.. It’s only a bad thing if I don't respect my surroundings and its inhabitants...   Perhaps my only saving grace is that i know there is plenty of pleasure to go around and i want us all to have as much fun as we can.





IMG_9808


an Albuquerque afternoon 




What got me into photography was watching a relative stranger have more fun then anyone else, simply through the act of operating camera and it got me stoked!  I'd never considered anything 'creative' as my 20 years leading up to that point were spent pursuing sport and things i thought were important, for no reason other than misguided preconceptions implicated in ideals handed down from schooling, i’m not saying i don’t like sport, I’m just saying i was close-minded.





089C2718gg



nature is fucking sweet




Seeing that photographer, Megan Cullen, froth like that forever changed my attention and consideration of visual creativity and from then on I began getting great pleasure from simply looking at photos, at that stage taking them was not something i'd figured would be a thing i'd do but shortly after that I crippled myself in the surf and with that operating a camera became inevitable, as a means of starving boredom.   Thankyou Brisbane's insanely progressive electronica scene, a place where the most influential heavy bass players of the 2000-10s played infront of 8-15 people and thankyou Dank Morass.






RAD_4692






now, i think i mentioned in the first paragraph that i'd touch on why i am fine with not posting- a realisation i've only just realised…  perhaps more then touch, I’m pretty sure that was the sole motivation for this post….  Basically, back in the day, this blog was my only means of hopefully spreading stoke through visual pleasantries therefore it was my most prolific application of imagery and also my sole avenue for self-promotion, nowadays I spend more time creating for other people, as a job for which I’m eternally grateful and my positions brings me copious stoke because it’s a means/medium of access that i’d never get personally, which makes me feel nice because it means i’ve the chance to share stuff with more people and get them stoked through our collective passion.   although it’s a commercial avenue i feel more people will give it the photos time, because its a company, not a singular lamb.  Perhaps there's something inside lamb that demands I dedicate a certain amount of time spent trying to spread stoke because i feel guilty that i can do all these fun things, back then that 'amount' was only attainable through this blog, then with facebook and now with downhill skating.  I can’t figure out which is more selfish, my desire to alleviate guilt or my desire to promote myself?  





RAD_1601

billy bones in taipei




both sound pretty shitty but in the end i can’t worry too much because sad people make sad stuff and sad stuff doesn’t get people stoked, sure i dig the provocation but why be an advocate of tears when you can be an advocate of fun and stoke.  






000027


kyle martin takes in the fresh air on cape town's table mountain.




however I’m in a spot, i felt like id figured my life out, i started working for a company of rad dudes a while ago but recently dabbled in more formative type operations, basically marketing, whatever that means.. i feel marketing requires only common sense that’s malleable enough to temporarily adjust ones perspective in order to gain insight into potential markets and those things probably can’t be taught but maybe learnt, perhaps you’re just born with whatever that is… also “marketing" is realistically 80% analysis, if you’re doing it right.      anyway, i dig it, but flexibility and instantaneous decision making is not something the corporate environment facilitates and that is what im struggling with, troubles resulting from my previous job of 10 years at a shop where i worked everyday with a boss that new how to hustle and make decisions before i'd even realised the options. 








0022_22lbl


30minutes from downtown Vancouver...







RAD_8843


the punchbowl, behind me is the Korean DMZ, a stark bifurcation of beauty and coexistence.  








Monday, April 13, 2015

just go for it





IMG_9970








slipping into rhythm is definitely something i have no trouble with, not because i am a habitual being but because i definitely am not...  When i say these things like habit and rhythm i'm pretty much strictly referring to my ability to wake up at an sort of practical hour and my reference is strict because when i'm in straya i run at minimum output; as i've spent too long with this holidaying-whilst-home mentality.. a mentality motivated almost solely by my motorbike and desire to achieve whatever i consider to provide me with maximum contentedness at any given moment.  I think this pit was dug because I was lacking any goal to motivate me to something i consider worth attaining, but i'm back on track now and up in Vancouver crushing days with in an office with like-minded preachers of well-rounded lifestyles..  











DSC_6780









i don't have any real plans outside of attaining mobile living before the winter, that way i opportunities to migrate will be ideally acceptable...   mobility is essentially all i want right now, ill get a motorbike soon but for now im getting so much stoke out of riding my pushbike that a part of me wants to avoid motorisation, however, all parts of me pertaining to logic suggest buy a motorbike ASAP but use pedal power for work commutes [as i beat my motorbike riding homie to work thanks to bikepaths etc]







10411273_865134280194934_7835964294472193582_n 











Travelling and taking pictures along the way is no doubt dope but i was silly by considering that a job, it gets me paid but it's nowhere near stimulating enough to make up for the home times and their desire to minimise critical thinking.  










10424280_867384339969928_3407090243246744079_n














RAD_3099













RAD_4371


I'm excited be the prospect of Matt moving up here too!  









10425470_871385909569771_33485661040977657_n


"disguised, perhaps by the night's fog, was not the steepness of the dirt road but the concern for our livelihood and immense terror felt as a result of selecting the 'nearest mountain peak' option of my Czech GPS... and to its credit it did just that, but i relearnt the valuable lesson that having blind faith in automated systems can potentially result in slipping off a 35% dirt logging road, at a point barely wide enough to accommodate my wagon's axle, clinging to the side of a 3000m+ mountain in a foreign country without a phone or anyone knowing where you were, 2 hours above civilisation. The fog-roof of recklessness."  me







I know im looking for something, im not sure what it is but i have a feeling that acquiring mobile-living is the step i need to make in order figure out if i am infact looking for anything, or im just excited by the vasteness of adventure and how much adventure can be had when your house moves and has a dual-sport attached to the back.  phwoar life of lamb pt. 4 









22102_874300492611646_1054085064240022376_n












Saturday, March 28, 2015

Roy. G. Biv







thank goodness for airports otherwise i’d never be motivated to painstakingly scour my flickr logs for colourific representations of Roy G Biv’s spectral representation of whatever colour actually is…..  







01_red_




Never really liked red to be honest, i mean its rich, commanding and is said to enhance humidity, but offers very little in the way of casual intrigue…  this was shot on the side of a road in Sth Korea and, to be completely contradictory, i find red leaves so incredibly beautiful, perhaps due to the 1 season regime [fucking hot] of queensland and the extreme lack of deciduous flora.












02_orange_DSC_8224



Orange was the first pickle in selection as a singular colour palette in the natural environment is incredibly rare, especially when the spectral range relevant to his first name [Roy] rarely exist separately..  thankfully sunsets happen everyday ;)














03_yellow_DSC_7931



This photo was the fuel for this post [and 14 shots of coffee] but mainly because yellow, outside of flowers [i was trying to avoid including flowers as thats cheating]  and this is the one picture i’ve found that presents a strong yellow.   this is a mineral pool that i found in Valle De La Muerte (Chile)













04_DSC_1064


Throwing back to my party days of disco lasers and documenting {mostly} underaged drunkards …..  don’t do this with your main camera, apparently it has the power to blow sensors [youtube it]
















05_blue_DSC_6859



Well this is pretty much a perfect wave, typical for TOS.















06_OZS_3037


Galahs at dusk, probably scouring the urban environment below for potential roost. 

















07_DSC_8579



rant via my fb page :  much like the Catatumbo lightning of Venezuela this storm cell in the NW of Argentina fires 150+ days a year without ever moving.. perhaps interestingly this phenomenon usually occurs in methane rich environments and the reaction which, in the case of Catatumbo, generates more tropospheric ozone than any other source on earth..... primordial soup intrigue.









this is the last track of a valentines mix by Ryan Hemsworth for BBC1..  its rad






Monday, February 16, 2015

return of the past






almost exactly two years ago i found myself on my first international skate adventure, having been drafted by DGM as a picture maker.  I was unaware of the project and 4 out of the 5 people involved so this trip was a sort of meet and greet/make bulk photos that would ultimately sit around for 2 years before catching my attention this morning, distracting me until this point, and for a few minutes into the future.  The trip was epic as I got to travel and shoot with the 4 most influential people in my downhill life, the ones that onset my passion of downhill skating and eventually taking pictures of it.   






RAD_2372bw

Noah Sakamoto and JM Duran in NorCal. 









Those 4 fellows were James Kelly [probably the best downhill skater ever and pioneer of modern downhill and the whole standup thing], Cliff Coleman [invented the hands down slide back in the 70s (named the coleman slide), also a world pro yoyoer] finally Noah Sakamoto and JM Duran, two of the 3 blue-suit bombers, the guys who first alerted me to the adventure of downhill and influenced me to want to ride mountains, as opposed to little hills around Brisbane.  The 3rd member of the blue-suits was, and still is, awol...  supposedly flying off some of the largest rock formations on earth.   It was hectic, these guys were the biggest deals in downhill's core yet they were so mellow and down to earth; a realisation that led me to want to spend every moment inside that sport and it's community.  I also met a handful of other rad dudes whom i still acquaint with today, i realised that NorCal is a place to be.










RAD_2419l


Noah by the bay and noah on a hill.


RAD_2271










cliff

Cliff, Berkeley Hills.







As i mentioned earlier, the trip was for DGM which is a photo-collective of downhill photogs which i was involved with until i left last year.  They're doing well, having released issue 1, yeoow!  












RAD_2172

JM 











RAD_2188

Byron Essert












tomio_tryptich


Tomio Choi











RAD_2592


the American Dream













RAD_2616a

Bob











RAD_2108

Im fairly certain i was star-struck when i took this photo.











RAD_2676


Bobby the assessor. 






note:  i did not make this film, this film made me.  [along with their first video of this style - Bombing Claremont]