No Skateboarding

I've started a new blog thats all about "NO SKATEBOADING" signs (you can subscribe/bookmark it at noskate.tumblr.com), since I first began Skateboarding I have seen hundreds upon hundreds of these signs trying to deter skateboarders from riding in, outside or even near certain business's and insitutions. They are pretty much some of the most pointless signs in the world (Skaterboarders really get great pleasure from blindly obeying signs) I've always wanted to start a collection but never actually did anything about it.. till now, my goal is to accumilate the worlds largest collection of these informative gems, and I need your help! Whenever you spot a "NO SKATEBOARDING" sign or logo just take a picture with your phone or whatever camera you have on you at the time and email it to me straight away. The quality of the image doesn't matter but what is important is that they need to be completely un-edited, just include the loctaion (business, school, city, town, country or whatever) and/or any other information or comments you would like to add.

You can email photos to: noskate.tumblr@gmail.com

..or use the "Post Your Signs" link on the blog page.

Thanks for your help team.

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Poptent

Okay, so for the last two weeks I've been particularly busy and one of the reasons was that via my friend Kevin Roberts I discovered a website called Poptent which basically puts out a call for filmmakers to create commercials for brands and then those brands pick winners and pay the creators for their work. In one way its a great way for clients seeking advertising to get extremely affordable and dynamic work as well as for filmmakers who would have not had an "in" in the industry to have their work shown to the marketing execs of some of the worlds biggest brands. On the other hand anyone who has worked in the television/advertising industry knows how much time, money and other resources it takes to bring an idea to fruition would understand how tough it can be to have done so much work for no financial reward. But besides all that, my friend Renico van Wyk and Myself decided that we would throw caution to the wind and have a go at one of the current assignments and wrote, directed and edited a commercial for Harrah's, as Las Vegas resort giant to help them communicate that they do not charge their guests with hidden resort fees..

- "Don't Get Slapped with Resort Fees!" Directed by Shaun Stander & Renico van Wyk, Starring Jason Hunt, 2010.

We had quite a few challenges in getting this commercial done, including a total budget of $90, extremely conflicting schedules, horrible lighting and ninja cats. But we finally got it nailed down with the help of Jason Hunt, Nick Spencer and my brother Ryan Stander. It was a great experience, thanks for everyone who helped! look out for the next one!

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Archive #3

 - Spences Bridge, British Columbia, 2009.

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Dinosaur Country: Part 3

- Brachiopods, Horn Corals and Sponges found in the North West Territories , Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drum Heller, AB, 2010.

The End.

Dinosaur Country: Part 2

- Stegosaurus, Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drum Heller, AB, 2010.

 - Fossil Store, Horseshoe Canyon near Drum Heller, AB, 2010.

Dinosaur Country and Leather Boots & Open Skies.

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Dinosaur Country

Back in July in the original posting of our roadtrip to Calgary, Alberta, I had explained that I was having the photographs scanned and corrected and that I would be posting them along with a short description as they became available..

 - Horseshoe Canyon, Near Drum Heller, AB, 2010.

This shot was from the second last day we were on the road and the first day we had had rain. After much discussion (and persuasion on my part) the night before we decided that we would drive the 140 Km road to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drum Heller "The Dinosaur Capital of the World" East of Calgary (the opposite direction of Vancouver, our destination). Nothing was going our way, at 6 AM, cold, dreary and raining heavily. With sleepy eyes we packed the car in the predawn light only to that find half way there the government had deemed the road unfit for use and had ripped out about twenty kilometers of tar for replacement exposing bumby bare earth as our highway to "paleontologic delight". We pushed through the muddy to terrain and made our way toward the town of about 8200 residents. On the way we spotted a sign marked "Horseshoe Canyon" so we pulled off the main road and made our way along a short dirt path which opened up into a view point of a section of the Canadian Badlands which due the geographic history of glacial movement and unique erosion patterns have yielded countless rare dinosaur fossil finds as well as the occasional coal deposit. We took our time and stood in the rain a few moments admiring the beautiful terrain, I kept on imagining what it must have been like seventy million years ago.. a hulking Albertosaurus chasing after some smaller prey through the dense brush.. or possibly the lively sea floor of a prehistoric ocean. It was cool. 

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Kulash Taxidermy

- Kulash Taxidermy on Kingsway, Vancouver.

The End.

Market Collective

On August 21st & 22nd I will be showcasing and selling selected work from my Zululand Snow Project at the Market Collective exhibition organized by Angel Guerra and Angela Dione in Calgary, Alberta. The Market has been running since 2008 and boasts hundreds of talented local artists and musicians and attracts thousands of Calgarians. Its sure to be a great time! So if youre in the area its definitely worth checking out. You can find it at 148-10th Street SW (in the old Ant hill building Kensington), more details can be found HERE. I have printed up some top notch Giclee's on four hundred year archival Hahnemühle paper (40cm by 60cm actual image size.. thats 16 x 24 inches for those of you not using metric).. they are going to be tasty, you can get a sneak peak of the selected work by downloading the zip file HERE. I also have a few other surprises up my sleeve but you'll have to come down to find out what they are. See you there.

- The Market Collective, Calgary, Alberta.

 - Zululand Snow.

Market Collective Facebook Group.

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Archive #2 George Kavanagh

In early April 2008 I was fortunate enough to have been contracted to do digital operation job with extremely talented George Kavanagh on a shoot for Miele appliances. Our location: the Dolomites in the Italian Alps (the same location used in the feature film "Cliffhanger" starring Sylvester Stallone.. woop!). We spent three days in the small town Cortina mostly eating fine Italian food and waiting for the weather to clear, eventually we got the bright skies we were after and we completed the shoot. We then returned to London after a short stop in Venice (I know, we sound like movie stars.. double woop!) where I spent the remainder of my time visiting with friends and exploring the city before returning home to South Africa. Here are a few images from my time in London as well as Cortina that I shot with my then newly acquired Leica M6.

 - Man on Oxford Street, London, 2008.

 - Budweiser in a fountain, Corner of Oxford Street & Tottenham Court Rd, 2008.

 - Woman on her phone, Newsstand, London, 2008.

- Woman on the bus, On my way to Bournemouth to visit Tara, 2008.

 - Oxford Street, London, 2008

 - Cortina, Italy, 2008.

 - Cortina, Italy, 2008.

 - Snow covered pines, Cortina, Italy, 2008.

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Explosions In the Sky

So a little while ago I told you to keep an eye out for some postings featuring Photographs from my recent road trip to Alberta, well you might have to a wait a little longer.. I've decided to get my work scanned with Greg & Jon at Wetink Design, Pretoria, South Africa who have in the past handled my scan and especially my print work. So as I type these words theres a package en route to South Africa containing about fourty 35mm slides that will then be scanned, shipped back, spotted, colour balanced and then posted here. So for now you'll just have to sit back and enjoy some audio. This recording is from our final evening in Calgary where we went to watch the fireworks display of the Stampede Rodeo's closing cermony. We perched on top a valley across from the Stampede grounds and enjoyed the surprisingly short but still awesome light show.

- Calgary Stampede Fireworks #1, Alberta (03:01 min, Please use headphones where possible), 2010

- Calgary Stampede Fireworks #2, Alberta (02:34 min, Please use headphones where possible), 2010

 - Fingers Crossed.

Details: Recorded with a Marantz PMD661 + Rode NTG1 Shotgun Microphone.  

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Jason Hunt

My friend and extremely talented actor Jason Hunt is in the process changing agents and decided it was a good time to get some new images for his card. We teamed up yesterday afternoon and shot some character shots near his Kitsilano home in Vancouver.

 - Private First Class Jeremy C. Burrows, 2010.

 - Private First Class Jeremy C. Burrows, Last Stand, 2010.

 - Detective Muska, Crooked Vice Cop, 2010.

  - Detective Muska, Crooked Vice Cop, 2010.

 - Eric Chalmers, Sports Dad, 2010.

 - Eric Chalmers, Sports Dad, 2010.

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Sasquatch

Ever since I started making recordings I have been struck with how tough it is to get good clean ambient recordings without having any unwanted hum or background hiss on the track, if you really listen you'll notice that theres a substantial amount of noise pollution in our day to day lives. So while we were camping at Alces lake in Whiteswan provincial park twenty two kilometers from the nearest paved road I thought that on a moonless night far away from any human beings would be the perfect time and place to get some ambient recordings of the forest that surround the lake. I drove for about ten minutes on the dark dirt road stopping and turning off the engine every couple hundred meters or so to have a listen to the sounds outside. Eventually I just chose a random spot since they all sounded about the same, it was quiet, not a breeze, not a cricket, not a sound, everything was dead still.

I stepped out and left the the car with its headlights on the road for illumination, set up my stereo microphone on a tripod and took a few steps into the black forest and began recording. Its at this point when I realized that my recorder which I had recently acquired had an electronic fault that embedded a crackle in the recordings making it impossible to get decent sound, frustrated, I made my way back to the car. As I was approaching I noticed that mosquitoes, moths, beetles and many other insects attracted by the headlight were floating around the front of the car. Despite the crackle I set up my microphone just in front of the right headlight and began recording. About two and half minutes into the recording I heard a chilling sound coming from the forest to my left. Sharp and decisive snapping sounds moving from the left of where I was facing to the far left behind me. You can't really tell from the recording but it was moving fast and didn't seem to disturb anything around it.. it just went "snap, snap, snap!" as it moved, I stood still and listened as it passed to my left eventually it went further and further away until I couldn't hear it anymore. I have no idea what it was, if you know, please let me know or post your best guesses under the comments section.

- Strange sounds in the forest, (Apologies for the poor audio quality), Alces Lake, Whiteswan Provincial Park, BC (01:16 min, Please use headphones where possible), 2010

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Leather Boots & Open Skies

As some of you know I have just returned from a week long road trip to Calgary, Alberta. And I must admit it was one of the best trips have have taken in a long time. Two thousand nine hundred kilometers of scenic highway, rustic dirt roads and crackling camp fires punctuated with moments of breath taking stillness and rambunctious exuberance & excitement. We (my friends Jean-Mare, Nicola and Myself) had planned to only spend two days and three nights in Calgary, the rest of the journey would be "on the road" time where would camp and explore as we went along. For the trip I made a decision to only shoot film using my Leica M6 and M4P since I wasn't in the mood to shoot digital and lets face it.. there ain't nothing like film.. as well as the fact that the smaller film cameras were smaller and more mobile. I also brought along my Marantz PMD661 digital audio field recorder and a couple of microphones to record any interesting sounds I'd come accross. Over the next few weeks as I get the slides which I shot processed, scanned and colour balanced and the audio processed I will be posting them on the blog as well as the corresponding "on the road" stories to go with.

For now here are two recordings I made while we were camping at Alces lake which is in Whiteswan provincial park which is about fifty kilometers as the crow flies south east of Fairmont Hot Springs. We arrived there on our second day of our traveling all tired and dusty. We set up camp in the passively dimming late afternoon light and then drove back on the dirt road on which we came to take advantage of the natural hot springs which we had spotted on the way in. The hot springs were made up of four separate rock pools starting off extremely hot and getting progressively cooler as the water approached the nearby river which was FRIGID. I started out in the top rock pool which was the warmest and almost seemed unbearable but as the sun went down and I became accustomed to the temperature it became "just  right". It was a really special moment there we were soaking in a natural hot springs in a pristine wilderness with a beautiful river flowing only a few meters away. Pretty soon it was time to head back up to the camp site and get the fire going before it became completely dark. The recordings below are of a pot of water being boiled for brushing teeth and tea and such and the second is of Jean-Mare pouring water on the fire out before we went to sleep. Keep and eye out for the future posts on the trip.

- Boiling water on the the camp fire, Alces Lake, Whiteswan Provincial Park, BC (08:45 min, Please use headphones where possible), 2010

- Putting out the the camp fire (CAUTION: Its gets loud!), Alces Lake, Whiteswan Provincial Park, BC (01:29 min, Please use headphones where possible), 2010

Details: Recorded with Marantz PMD661 Recorder and a Rode NTG-1 Shotgun Microphone.

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Hobos Just Wanna Have Fun

This past Saturday night was the second annual Hobo Hoedown which was held at an undisclosed open air location. It seemed to me to be the wrong side of the tracks near Main Street and Second Avenue. Moonshine, baked beans and old sandwiches were in good supply which lead to a rather festive mood among the wayward travelers. There were a few train hoppin' musicians among the lot, Shiloh Lindsey, The Moonshine Express, Shirley Gnome & Her Gnomes to name a few. Luckily I had my recorder and microphone on hand and managed to capture Jarred Greff and The Johnnie Ninety-Nine Hillbilly Alumni Orkestar performing a few numbers for their peers.. (please use headphones where possible)

- Sound Check (04:42 min) 2010

- "A song about not having money and trying to be in love with people who do have money" A Dollar or Two (06:18 min) 2010

- Track 02 (03:14 min) 2010

- Another Sound Check (03:44 min) 2010

- Track 03 (04:15 min) 2010

  - I didn't shoot any pictures that night, but heres a shot of Jarred playing him and his brother Scott's prized mandolin, the same mandolin in the show, Vancouver, 2009

Details: Recorded with a Marantz PMD661 and an AT8022 Stereo Microphone.

The End.

Alfonzo's Ride

My friend Alfonzo had asked me to take a picture of his Modified Nissan 240SX about a month and a half ago. I was taking a comfortable dip in the well of procrastination when my conscience finally pushed me to just go out and do the shoot. I gave Alfonzo a call to see if he was free and he came right over. I had spotted this location a few nights earlier and thought it looked pretty cool, we set up in no time at all but due to the sun only going down at 9:30 PM our poor planning made us wait for about two hours before we could start shooting, eventually the sun dipped down behind the mountains and we shot the image below. (be sure to listen to the audio and to enter the competition near the bottom of the page).

 - Alfonzo and His Modified Nissan 240SX, Vancouver, 2010. (Details Below)

- Behind the Scenes: Engine Troubles, Vancouver, 2010.

- Alfonzo (and I), waiting for the sun to go down, Vancouver, 2010.

  - Follow Alfonzo and I as we drop off a package at the Fairmont Hotel, Listen to the clip below.

- Alfonzo and Myself drop off a mystery package at the Fairmont Hotel in his Nissan 240SX, Vancouver (09:30 min, Please use headphones where possible), 2010

*Who wants to win the mysterious mystery prize? Post a comment with your guess of what was in the mystery package that was delivered in the audio clip above.. and I will mail you something rather intriguing.. I won't say what the winning criteria are but everyone gets two guesses. good luck!

DETAILS:
1990 Nissan 240sx Specifications/Modifications

Engine (ka24et):

Garret t25 Turbo
Gladman Manifold
FMIC (front mount intercooler)
2.5`` Intercooler Piping
2.5" custom downpipe
3" Stainless Catback Exhaust
SAFC Neo Fuel Managment/Tuning (Car was Dyno Tuned at Racing Greed)
Bosch diverter valve
Methanol Injection System, mounted in the trunk (works during boost)

New Non Turbo Parts:

Timing Chain done 5000kms ago.
New Slave Cylinder
New Brake Master Cylinder.

Suspension, Brakes and Wheels:

Eibach Proline Lowering Spring.
Sportmaxx 962's 17x9 all around gunmetal
Rims wrapped in Sumo Firenza Streched Tires. Lots of Tread left.
25mm spacers all around.
Hawk HP Brake pads

Body:

180sx style sideskirts
Chuki front bumper
Bings lip 

Interior:

Both passenger and drivers F1 spec fiberglass bucket seats.
Short shifter
Momo Replica Steering Wheel
carbon fiber b&M shift knob
SAFC NEO
Boost , Oil pressure, and Wideband (Air Fuel Ratio) Gauges all on drivers side pillar. All autometer gauges.

And special thanks to Kevin Roberts of Vast Avengers Pictures for loaning me his Canon 17-40mm lens.

The End.

Leaving LCD

On a wet but sunny Vancouver afternoon (May 30th 2010 to be precise) the American group LCD Soundsystem played a show in the Stanley Park's Malkin Bowl. The tickets were priced at around forty five dollars a piece, but fortunately for us the Malkin Bowl is nothing more than a fenced off open aired piece of lawn with a stage at one end. Which meant that even if you didn't have a ticket you could still listen to the show. By the time I had arrived, LCD was already in full swing playing songs off their new album "This Is Happening" as well as some of their older songs, the atmosphere on my side of the fence was quite festive with loads of people just hanging out, enjoying the music as well as the late afternoon glow. I enjoyed most of the set but left early. Heres the recording.

- LCD Soundsystem / All My Friends, Leaving the Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park , Vancouver (08:48 min) Please use headphones where possible, 2010

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Breaking Things with Trevor

There's something quite cool about taking a picture of something and then immediately afterward, completely and utterly destroying it. Its like saying .."don't worry, it doesn't matter if you're no longer here, I have a picture, you will be remembered.. your memory is enduring. You can go now..". Some of you may recall the shots I took of a Dolly Parton 8-Track and a Screeching Weasel Cassette Tape about a month or so ago. But what I didn't mention previously is that my younger brother Trevor was visiting me at the time and we decided that these artifacts had finally fulfilled their usefulness. We laid them on the road, waiting patiently for a vehicle to run them over. It only took about four or so minutes before a chocolate brown panel van did a nice job of crushing them. The cheap plastic and thin metal popped and cracked as the heavy vehicle passed over top. We made a brief inspection of the remains as wind threatened to blow them away, Trevor decided that the job wasn't quite done yet and made a second pass with his '95 Subaru. The results are below.

-  Trevor, Vancouver, 2010.

- Vancouver, 2010.

 - This Blog Entry can be seen HERE.

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24 hr

- 24 hr, Petro-Canada:  East Broadway & Clark Drive, Vancouver, 2010

- 24 hr audio, Petro-Canada: East Broadway & Clark Drive, Vancouver, (04:29 min) Please use headphones where possible, 2010

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Field Recording (Part 2)

So what is field recording anyway? According to Wikipedia, field recording is the term used for any recording produced outside of a recording studio. So basically it is any recording made in the real world, out there, in the field. Which when you really get down to thinking about is an incredibly vast array of subject matter & situations, think about all the sounds that you can hear just around you right now? the clock ticking, computer humming, maybe you can hear some birds or a car outside, a lawn mower running in a neighbours yard.. listen? All of these sounds together are 100% unique and will never happen again in just the same way you heard them right now, that concept is so intriguing. Now think about all the sounds you could hear just within a one kilometer radius of where you're sitting, leaves on a tree brushing against each other, wood expanding and contracting in the sun or cool of night, someone striking a match to light a cigarette mid-conversation, the dull rumble as a mole pushes through the earth. Its endless. The way I see field recording is a way to preserve an audio experience that I feel is special or noteworthy in someway and then by making a physical recording allow myself and others to re-experience it. Its impossible to record every sound from every angle continuously forever, but just like photography, it becomes a matter of discovery and careful selection.

Field recording has many practical uses/benefits such a research, audio documentaries, sound art, audio effects in film or games among others. But I find it to be a very rewarding experience in itself in that it teaches me to listen to what going on around me. And once you have learnt to listen you discover that the world around you is far more fascinating and intriguing than you had realized. And your experience of the world is sublimely heightened.

I am still an extreme novice but from the few field recordings I have listened to, here a few examples that you may find interesting. If you have the time please listen to them fully and use headphones where possible.

- A great clip of BBC recordist Chris Watson talking about his passion for sound and the capturing of it.

- Rain Thunder Hail Storms / Dr Dirt's Ambient Collection #1 - Gary Ruble, (04:08 min), 2001.

- Nightjar on the banks of the Zambezi river at dusk - Chris Watson, Mozambique, (02:59 min), 1998.

- Journey to the South Pole - Chris Watson (50:21 min), 2010.

- Relief helicopters (Nada-Ku, Kobe/Oji Athletics Ground) After the Great Hanshin Earthquake - Takao Iba, Japan, (08:04 min), 1995.

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Field Recording (Part 1)

I've always noticed when I watching a family home video from a few years ago how real and vivid it all seems, I mean these are images and sounds from another time that have somehow been captured on threads of magnetically charged video tape and now a couple years later those images and sounds are playing out once again exactly as they happened, word for word, moment by moment. You hear yourself speak, you sound so strange, you want to believe that the recording has somehow discoloured or faded with time, but it hasn't, that is you, those are your family and friends, that place is real. Its at that point when your realize how badly your memory has been deceiving you. The events you had in your head seem dreamily opaque compared to the high fidelity rendering currently presented to your senses. For as long as I can remember I've been fascinated with and seen the value of these representations of the past or near present. I think part of that notion is what lead me to be a photographer in the first place. I could use this medium to record the things that I experienced and let others share see what I saw and if I did my job right, feel what I felt as I was there.

- Trevor and Myself hiking down to Wreck Beach, Vancouver (04:36 min) Please use headphones where possible, 2010

For many years I've been wanting to make audio recordings in much the same way I take photographs and allow others to experience the same sounds as I did. When you mention audio recording your mind typically associates it to either music or spoken words which are two of the most powerful human forces around. I began learning about the subject and as I delve deeper I found that there was an aspect I really wanted to explore, the audio spectrum most of us take for granted, the background noise of human existence, all the sounds that our brains and modern life have taught us to ignore. So a few months ago I purchased a portable stereo recorder and took my first steps into what is known as Phonography or Field Recording.

Some recent Stereo Field Recording examples, please use headphones where possible.

- Power Failure on a dark and windy night, Vancouver, (03:48 min), 2010

- Seniors 5-Pin bowling, Grandview Lanes, Vancouver, (02:19 min), 2010

- Sitting on the cliff over looking Wreck Beach, Vancouver, (04:09 min), 2010

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Four

The End.

Good Kids

I sometimes end up with what I call "Orphan Images", photographs I simply shot without any greater series or specific application in mind, they don't particularly fit in with any of my current projects I have going on, they are simply pictures of things & places that caught my eye. So here they are a few for you, hopefully you'll take a liking to 'em, what they need most is a safe home and a little love in this cold cold world. Do the right thing.

 - Grocery Store, Surrey, 2010

 - Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge, North Vancouver, 2009

 - Shannon Falls (Near Squamish), 2009

 - Charlotte, Shannon Falls (Near Squamish), 2009

 - Squamish, 2010

 - Man walking his dogs, Merrit BC, 2010

 - Sandon (ghost town) BC, (49.983°N 117.233°W), 2009

- Part of the 7821 Km Trans-Canadian Highway, BC, 2010

 - Tow-Truck Snow Chains, Trans-Canadian Highway, BC, 2010

 - Phoenix (ghost town) BC, (49.1°N 118.583°W), 2009

The End.