Blog. Rambles. Cohesion. Words. Story. Thoughts. Life.
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'SquidLips'
I have a few friends who confuse me at times. It could be the incessant need to hunt and kill fish, or the incessant need to hunt, kill, and attack each other in the process with offal from said catch, or all of the above when the weather is less than ideal.
But, I had a few things to test with a new camera setup, so I donned an old wetsuit and went along for the ride.
I Shoot People
Tourism North Queensland's 'One Day In Paradise' campaign
Shooting underwater is weird.
After four years of working on the underwater series I thought I had dealt with a fair few problems, from infections to reef cuts to White Sharks, so when Tourism North Queensland approached me to make a short film doing what I do on the Great Barrier Reef I said 'No problem'.
Add a late season tropical storm and an Irukandji (Box jellyfish) restriction; I was stumped.
The showcase film we went to make wasn't going to happen, and while reflecting on this in the interview we decided to focus on the challenges we tend to go through while pursuing our chosen career paths.
Even with the problems and copious amounts of stress I'm more stoked on this film than one I pitched, huge thanks goes to my crew for sticking it out.
DOP: Brad Halstead
Model: Holly Alifraco
Stills/Edit: Mark Tipple
Music: Rhian Sheehan
Stills: Canon 5D MkII
Aquatech DC-5 v2
Aquatech LP-3 8" Dome port
Aquatech 50mm extension ring
Video/Audio: GoPro Hero3 (requirement from the client)
Steadicam Smoothie for GoPro
Rode NTG3 & Zoom H4n
Shades of Morning
I spent February on Bondi Beach, working on a series of photographs that capture the essence of the beach culture along Sydney's Eastern Beaches. At sunrise every morning you'll find hundreds of people exercising, swimming, photographing, just enjoying the morning - only to disappear at 9am when the tourist buses roll in. It's a magical time of morning, and I tried a variation of the Thirty Minute technique to find the spirit amongst the morning people.
See the series here - www.marktipple.com/shades
Twelve from Twenty Twelve
2012 was about rolling with the hits and misses, learning and adapting, while staying true to what I believe. No compromise.
See the review here - www.marktipple.com/twelve
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Surfers Against Sewage 2013 Calendar
My collaboration calendar with UK based environmental org Surfers Against Sewage has just been launched, featuring 12 photos from the underwater series. I'm stoked to use what I've focused on for the past three years to help organisations who are actively looking after the ocean. Priced at £15 with postage, funds will go towards their Protect our Waves campaign.
Mare Vida.
"I'm done bro, I'm done."
With those few words Mike rose to his feet in ankle deep water and began the 10 minute walk towards shore, dodging thick black urchins and sharp reef outcrops while assessing his wounds. Even from behind the waves I could see a stream of blood run down his arm, and t-shirt turn red across his shoulders.
This was in the first hour of a 10 day shoot.
We both knew the reefs on the island were shallow; we'd been there before and surfed the waves, but shooting The Underwater Project dictates no boards and definitely no wetsuits - meaning the danger of losing skin was increased tenfold.
With a wary eye watching for rogue waves I watched as Mike left the water, he stumbled on a few urchin spines adding insult to injury; and I wondered if there was something else that I could shoot underwater.
After a few technical adjustments (read : complete confusion with new gear); the Mare Vida series found me.
See the whole series here - www.marktipple.com/marevida
Kigamboni Community Centre
In June I spent time at the Kigamboni Community Centre in Tanzania, working to showcase the positive impact they've had in rising up talents of the local youth.
We held an exhibition in Sydney last weekend to raise funds for next year's education programs which went pretty well; I'm super stoked to be involved in helping people help others.
Jackson is one of the standout stories from the centre, see his story below, and the rest of the stories at www.marktipple.com/risingup
Myths. Dispelled. Dark Paradise
Summer 2012 was tough.
With the amount of rain and storms marching
through Sydney I was hanging out for April, last year April proved worth
the wait with crystal clear bath warm water all along the beaches in
Sydney.
Being lazy as I am, I focused on Bronte beach, having moved
a few blocks away to a larger apartment at the start of the year my
shooting consistency dropped as the books proved more work than anticipated, plus the added distance meant I had to battle traffic and trigger happy parking rangers….my pet hate.
However, April didn't let me down. I was working on a few underwater
film shoots with scuba and a tripod, sometimes much to the surprise of
the swimmers when I surfaced in full scuba right next to them, had some
weird looks and comments as it was only 4 foot deep. Even so I managed
to shoot some stills in the lay days.
Dark Paradise was shot on
one of those lay days, when the water looked clear from above but
wasn't totally free of sediment and weed below. I was going to pass on
it but I had a few hours to kill, and needed a salt fix. The waves were a
playful 2-3 foot, big enough to produce the plumes of whitewater but
not big enough to stop swimmers from coming out further to where they
were breaking. I was a little out of position as a wave started to form,
and thought of shooting right behind through the breaking water and
maybe seeing the beach through the glassy wall, but a touch of
sea-breeze made the lip crumble and the face bumpy.
One of the
luxuries of this digital generation is the ability to shoot regardless
of the wave or my position; I'd rather have to delete a bunch of
'nothings' than run the risk of missing the moment by simply being
conservative and not pressing the button.
As the wave was
breaking and moving away from me I saw the splash and shadow of a
swimmer start to dive under, for some reason he angled himself across
the wave and not straight through, as my camera buffered out and the fps
slowed considerably I was left with the last image on the display
keeping me stoked.
I try to be as close to swimmers as I can to
show as much detail and expression as possible, although this was shot
from more than twice as far away as usual it just seems to work.
See more from Summer 2012 here - http://
Summer 2012 Gallery.
This summer was tough.
I lost count after 10 consecutive days of rain earlier in January, then when the clouds finally parted allowing the sun to shine the water was filled with sediment and muck for the following week - which would coincide perfectly for the next spell of rain. Frustrating to say the least.
While Sydney suffered under El Niño's grasp I spent a fair bit of time in South Australia, wanting to focus on the Ocean films I've been working on I teamed up with good friends Mike and Luke to produce West Away, a film about why we do what we do. Personally it was an epic time as I've been away from that sort of searching trip since moving to Sydney a few years ago. Even though the Underwater Project was put aside to focus on pre and post of West Away I'm stoked on the outcome, it seemed all the more fitting to feature Mike in the film having started the Underwater Project with him on a dusty trip to the desert almost two and a half years ago.
As winter creeps a little closer every day, the Summer 2012 Gallery is somewhat of a reportage of the past 8 months with some good days in amongst the bad - while also paying homage to some of the selects from years past. In the coming months I'll be focusing on another Ocean film and a humanitarian project, until sometime in September when the clouds disappear giving way to warmer water and sunny skies and the underwater series will start up again.
In the meantime, I've added an acrylic panel print option along with the standard matte/gloss/canvas options - acrylics look amazing as the waves are almost 3D - check the window on the right hand side of each gallery for more information, and the books are still finding their way to homes around the world. I'm still humbled on the reception of the series.
Navakai Village Floods.
The recent floods in Fiji happened during the busiest time for me this year.
Shooting for 8 days straight both underwater and with charities I
heard about the floods through a friend asking if I had heard from my
friends in Navakai.
While watching the news footage I thought the
worst and quickly called whoever I could but failed to get through, my
fears were compounded by the limited phone and internet facilities. As
the water began to recede a few Facebook messages confirmed that the
families in Navakai are ok and 'getting through it', however now the waters have receded the longer term impact is being felt.
The
families I've heard from have lost almost everything, from electrical
cooking appliances to bed sheets and mattresses. My good friend Tui said
in a Facebook message "dude it was one of worse ever nothing got spare at home inside it was up to knee level i hope u see the picture"
Over
the past 3 years the families in Navakai have welcomed me in and shared
their food as though I was family, without question or hesitation, also
took time out to look after me when I was sick and helped me regain my
strength.
If I can help by using the diverse network that the Underwater Project has gathered it'll be fulfilling the reason why I started this series. I touched on this a few months back in a short interview (watch it here - http://theunderwaterproject.com/about).
Ocean : West Away
Surf films have bored me lately.
Even with the amazing waves and incredible ways of riding them, I found myself still wanting more.
The standard format with surfing to music has been around
foreverandaday, and, I used to make them myself spending hours studying
them to match the editing style and song selection, however during the
past year I've found myself being drawn to longer form documentaries
with a story lines and interviews.
It's strange to think that I've
never heard most of the top pro surfers' voice, but can easily recognise
their style of surfing like the back of my hand.
My breaking point came late last year when I watched the premiere of a
high budget surf film that seemed to be almost edited to a formula; an
empty wave - three turns then barrel - a heavy wipeout then transition
to a walk up the beach holding a broken board.
Instead of
complaining about it I thought of adapting the short form story telling
format I've been drawn to over the past year to a surfing story, and
made plans with two good friends to tag along and see what came from it.
I used to meet up with Mike and Luke in remote parts of the country
to spend a week surfing, camping in the dirt and telling stories, then
part ways and plan to meet up again for the next swell or wind pattern.
Having
been away from that lifestyle for the past few years it seems foreign
to me to now drive for a day to catch a break in the weather and surf,
then drive a day to return home and study the weather maps to do it
again wherever looks good next.
It turned out they had been planing a
trip to a part of South Australia that I know well and used to call
home, and thought this would make a good story.
We were away for a week, drove more than 6,000 kilometers, found some
super fun waves and explored places we had researched on the map but
hadn't been. We dove in knowing that December isn't the best time for
waves over there but we were positive that we'd find a window that would
align the swell and wind and make the effort worthwhile.
West Away
is a short film about the passion behind the endless number of
kilometres and places to search, which I hope will resound with people
who either live that lifestyle or like me can relate to the effort we
used to go to just to get a few waves.
A huge thanks to Mike and Luke for allowing me to tag along and tell their story, they're a creative pair themselves, which made my job that much easier.