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. 



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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.





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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.





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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.





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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.






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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?  





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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.  






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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. 








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30minutes from downtown Vancouver...







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