I've been thinking of making a book for some time now. I had a designer lined up to make a pdf version last year, thinking of chronicling the past 18 months of shooting and making it this huge thing, but it didn't feel right. I looked into the online printing options, Blurb.com was looking pretty sweet, but it still didn't feel right. A few photographers nearby were flying overseas to print their books, and while it seemed glamorous ... it still didn't feel right.

I had no idea what was stopping me from progressing with the idea, as much as I thought about it there were ten other things on the list that were more important, and it got pushed back. It turned into an idea that I had had once a while back, but again, it didn't feel right. I had been playing with an idea of loose prints, so they can be framed and hung on the wall, or kept in some sort of order in a box, but I think I was just waiting for something to come to me.

As 2012 broke and Sydney's weather has been somewhat of a drain it seems as I've been given a gift of time, something I was running steadily low on late last year. With no sun for days or clear water in sight I've been bunked down working on a that list of ideas, from Ocean series editing to treatments of exhibitions; along the way I stumbled across a handmade book short film online, and for once the book idea made it's way to the top of the list.

I sat glued to the screen for the first few days, agonising over layout measurements and style choices, then paper choices and again layout designs...this is before the actual edit came into play which is a whole nother rant in itself, but amongst the clutter and comotion in my brain it finally felt right.

Thinking back I now know why I was hesitant to follow the traditional route and print with an external printer. I've put so much into The Underwater Project over the short two years of shooting, which can easily be extended to 12 years if you take into account the formation of the concept and what I actually wanted to achieve through photography, that I didn't want to just offload the culmination of this time onto someone else and hope to heck that it turns out as I want. Sure, I could have quality control but it just wouldn't feel...right.

The past month of research and tests have led to this concept, a handmade fine art book, the product I can not only put my name to but that I can say it contains my blood, sweat, and breath holds; a labour of love. The Underwater Project Limited Edition Handmade Book. Ugh, that's a lot of capitals, and a mouthful of words.

In short, I made a book.

Limited to 250 copies, I hope you appreciate what this means to me.

Another year down. A few moments to sit back, look, reflect, and hopefully learn a thing or two; then get back to work.

...............

Valla Surfboards.
Having achieved more than I was hoping to achieve from shooting The Underwater Project I found that there was something lacking in the perception of what I was doing; when a general confusion of me being just an underwater photographer who makes pretty pictures came back, I wanted to show the storytelling side of the other projects I've worked on, through the same networks that the underwater series had. I wanted to tell stories of people who the ocean is more than just a pleasant treat, those who base their lives around the ocean, who somewhat depend on it to feel whole.
I started shooting the Ocean series at the start of the year with friends, those I knew their story and use multimedia to tell it.
I met up with the Joske family, a family of surfers and surfboard creators who I had connected with overseas and in Northern NSW in 2010. A week at their factory and home showed me a family who fit the Ocean story perfectly.
Sage and Paul in the shaping bay. Valla Surfboards.

Stoke. Abilities.
I've worked with a number of charities for a while, I get stoked on what they do to help others - and if I can help them help others, it's a cool feeling to see my work go to eventual good.
In February I was approached by House WIth No Steps during their re-branding to shoot the images to accompany the new identity. They help those with mental and physical disabilities and provide employment to people of low and high needs.
It turned out to be about a 10 day shoot spread out over three months, during which I was fortunate to meet some amazing people in the few moments we shared.
Most, if not all, were smiling while making the most of their abilities. Gallery.

Navigate.
April saw Bronte deal up the clearest water of the year, after Sydney's summer left a lot to be desired.
In January meteorologists said that it would be raining until May, (which sucked even more as I had recently sold my car and bought a scooter), and a lot of the summer/beach tourism companies were feeling the effects of a less than usual summer influx.
For me, I was fortunate to still be shooting freelance, half and full day shoots usually left enough time to race down the road and shoot for an hour whenever there was a break in the rain...providing there were people in the water.
Navigate was shot on a hot weekend at the end of April, after the miserable summer the crowds were out in full force.
It ended up on a NutriGrain cereal box in October and National Geographic's photo of the month for May, one of three Underwater Project National Geographic mentions for 2011. Gallery.

Frothers.
After the Valla shoot I was looking for another story to work on to keep the ball rolling, instead of looking somewhere else I looked local; while thinking somewhere in Sydney I was surprised to find one no more than 10 doors from my house.
The Frothers brand is a community of photographers shooting the ocean and surfing at sunrise every morning, to be emailed in daily updates to an ever expanding network, popular with office workers to see what the morning was like.
After running Frothers for four years online, founder Brad Malyon, girlfriend Christie and renowned surf photographer Bill Morris joined to open a permanent gallery, showcasing their catalog of ocean inspired images.
The team spent four months converting a former store into the gallery shopfront. Brad works into the night on the final sections of flooring in late May, a few weeks before the opening.

Sobo Rosi. Fiji.
When winter approached I turned thirty. I'm still not sure which hit me harder, the fact that the water was getting colder or that I wasn't in my twenties anymore.
I remember turning nineteen and leaving the adhesive pad that held my probational license plates to the window, adamant that that was the key to my teenage years as I moved to my full license - fast forward to 2011 and thirty was going to hurt.
So, doing the typical thing and looking to bail, I wanted to reconnect with a family I lived with in Fiji back in 2008.
Having had no contact from them over the past three years or even knowing if they lived in the same village I booked a ticket and bailed winter, while it was only for a week the thought of uncertainty definitely outweighed the thought of thirty.
I walked up to the open door of the shack where I last saw them and straight into the arms of Janette, where we spent a good few minutes alternating between laughing, hugging and looking at each other. This was repeated for the rest of the family, Jokka, Amini and Mereoni, then the rest of the village while feeling like I'd never left.
The following week was one of relaxing and reconnecting, seeing who was still there and who had moved on; plus noticing a change in myself where I'd put the camera down and soak it up without looking through the viewfinder.
The necessity of documentation fading away in favour for memories. Gallery.

Rio. Mentawai Islands.
I'm still amazed by technology. But, not stoked on how much it costs.
While in Fiji I had an email from a group of surfers asking if I was free to shoot their surfing trip and village work in Indonesia. Feeling the urge to reconnect with those who I met on previous projects I wanted to go back to Jakarta and see how they are ... plus I had heard that the weather in Sydney was shocking.
Looking for another Ocean project this seemed like a quick and simple story: a group of surfers taking time out from their surf trip to engage and help with the reconstruction of villages after the tsunami in October 2010.
While logistics meant the village work wouldn't eventuate I spent a lot of time with Rio, a local with young family from Padang.
Usually I shoot surfing from water, enjoying the freedom and challenge of being in the right place with the added calculation of shooting fisheye. However, with the surfers differing skill level I chose to shoot from the boat, which meant Rio had to put up with my bizarre requests.
Constantly he would stop the boat, sit back on the bulwarks, look at me with a strained expression and ask if I was "serious, you want me to go behind the other boats so you can shoot with them in the picture", before laughing saying that he's never done this with other photographers. With a simple nod of my head, we got along great.
During the trip he mentioned there was an advanced deckhand training course in Jakarta that would get him a job on another boat with more pay, which he would use to help fix his parents house and put money aside for his young son's higher education - but he was having trouble finding the course fee.
Upon returning to Australia I sold a few prints from the trip, photos that he helped me take by putting the boat where I asked, photos which helped Rio pay for his course.
Last update was that he landed a job on a new boat and was doing great. Gallery.

Milly. Lincoln.
The search is sometimes more fulfilling than the result.
Having scoured the coastline back home for a good part of my life, a trip to a beach in the middle of nowhere still gets me stoked. When traveling for surfing it's so easy to get jaded, there's so many elements that have to work together to create a good wave…more often than not, it's just not quite right.
After the Mentawai's I chose to accept winter and return to South Australia to hang with friends, and see if an ocean story would develop.
When I lived there we spent pretty much every spare hour roaming the coast for waves, rain, wind or shine, and found some incredible setups. It wasn't always just about the waves - being in the middle of nowhere with a few mates and no one around for miles was amazing enough - if we found good waves it was a bonus.
We checked the charts and noticed a large swell coming but also trailing super close was a deep winter storm.
After looking at the maps we drove for a few hours and hiked through the bush hoping to find a beach break we had heard about to surf and shoot before the storm hit, but when we arrived the swell was missing, and the banks were pretty straight.
Instead of bailing home we messed around in the water and tried a few ideas, one that a dolphining break through would look pretty sweet up close…had no idea how hard it would be to get right though. A half drunk Milly took the lead and came up with the goods.

Scott. Lincoln.
As the predicted storm hit we headed back to town; closed doors replaced swag zips and blankets replaced double hoodies - but worst of all tv replaced nature. Two days inside staring ahead drove us crazy - even Deadliest Catch was even wearing thin - and we needed to get back to the ocean in some capacity.
As the years pass I've found that we're moving away from the constant need to surf, but it's cool to see that our other activities are ocean related. When Scott's not working on a fishing boat, he's in his own boat fishing, when the wind is bad for fishing he's out surfing, or on his jetski looking for waves. Fail all that and there's always a cove out of the wind to catch some squid.

Look. Moree.
I've been working with the Salvation Army's Edify program for the past three years.
Initially it began as a personal task to see if I could break out of the studio/pose field and into documentary, which I thought held more honesty and value. The first Stump I attended sealed the thought, and I started looking to use the camera for good, instead of for profit.
A regular Edify trip has been to serve in Moree and run school holiday programs, as the kids love the interaction and have a chance to run amok in a safe environment…and have someone else clean up the mess. For Edify it's a way to continue relationships as the youth grow, while they may come and go as they please there's usually more than a few who remember the last trip and who Edify are.
My first experience was at times overwhelming; coming from shooting a short film in controlled situations one week to having 3 kids hanging off my arm asking if they could take a photo the next ... which was way more fun.

Edge. Fowlers Bay.
When my dad gave me my first Slr camera I remember being in the sand dunes in Lincoln watching the shadows grow, and I was happy that I had found something that I wanted to make into a career.
Then I got angry as someone walked into the shot.
I waited for a few minutes for them to leave, was happy, then got angry as they had left footprints.
10 years later to now and it's hard for me to make a photo without someone in it, as I can't relate to the photo without that human connection. Through the underwater series I was asked to shoot the same style for a longer form commercial being produced by a team of talented film makers - it's an interesting sign of the times when an artistic film can be funded by selective product placement.
After the underwater shoot was wrapped I headed to the desert for a week away with my dad, and took the opportunity to shoot some desert scape time-lapses for the film as the predicted November thunderstorms closed in.
I found it strange to switch back into landscape mode; expression and gestures were replaced by leading lines and composition. The bonus was the extra time to plan and assess instead of being continuously reactive; especially when shooting 6 second time-lapse where a 10 minute shot only makes 4 seconds of film. Watch the film.

Nancy. Challenge.
A friend of my girlfriend found four kittens in a cardboard box left in a park in the outer suburbs of Sydney, and put out a call for people to help. I've never thought of owning a pet, as my lifestyle isn't exactly conducive to responsibility; honestly it's just never entered my mind.
We took in Nancy and Oli in early November, these two balls of hair and paws found a home instantly; without losing a man card they're the coolest things since clear water.
As Christmas approached I don't really do the whole gift thing - not wanting to join the consumerism flow I'd rather give something that means something, (deep huh), and thought a set of photos of our new krittens would be a fitting way to adorn the walls of the house, while freezing them in the kitten stage in print.
I dusted off the lights and set up the seamless background for what I thought to be a simple half hour shoot…I couldn't have been more wrong. Two hours later as my patience was at it's end I managed to get a few photos that show their personalities...even if it did involve a food bribe.

Spent a few weeks with a film company working on a short film for Dulux, their idea to paint every Slsc building in Australia launched with a film. Having received the brief which extended from underwater project style to time lapse desert scenes, the collaboration process was as fun as the filming.

It's easy to get stuck in the one style. I've been shooting the underwater series for two years now - looking back through the thousands of images they're a pretty similar look, similar style, similar process to shoot; the thing that keeps me going is the unique  expression and body position of the people. This shoot asked for a different approach, sure there was to be the same style to have in the bag (which we got in literally 30 minutes of shooting), but then there were a number of other scenes that admittedly kept me guessing for the better part of the week. From closeups instead of wide to locked off shots underwater (tripod??), again, the process was as much fun as the shooting.

The short film has just been released, while a number of the shots haven't been used there's still a few token underwater style shots in there.

More to come, but for now happy Christmas, happy holidays, seasons greetings, all the best.

Stay stoked.

Watch it here.

Just got off the phone with Sergio from TWOTHIRDS about the next installment of the Underwater Paradise collaboration exhibition, opening tonight at 7pm at Concrete Image, The Hague Netherlands. Following the success of the exhibition in Bordeaux, France last month we're stoked to have it continue, into one of the underground epicentres of surfing.

A quick write up on the concept and my involvement - translated from Dutch.

Streetwear brand TWOTHIRDS from San Sebastian is inspired by the oceans that cover two thirds of our planet. This brand is called The Blue Company.
In collaboration with WAD magazine and PRACTICAL Basque presents an exhibition of Australian photographer Mark Tipple. In collaboration with several Australian organizations struggle with his work against social inequality, his work was also in the Gallery to see For Justice, a nonprofit organization that artists and their struggle against social inequality. The exhibition "Underwater Paradise" is one of The Underwater Project, an ongoing reportage of the Australian relationship with the ocean. Mark's goal is to work with attention to issues in the media often gives little attention. His refreshing view of reality is a source of inspiration and fascination for every visitor.
Protect what you love.

If you're in the area, stop by and check it out. I'm crazy busy in Sydney wrapping the past month's shoots, if you do, can you send me a photo?