happy friday!

So bummed that today is my last full day in AK. It has been so much fun. Not really sure what is on the docket for today. But, Thursday was so nice and sunny. The image above is what I woke up to. We went to the boat basin in the morning and checked out some pretty cool hardwood fishing boats. It blew my mind that they still make boats out of wood like that.

In the afternoon we went to a local beach and caught some rays. My shoulder is actually still sore from skipping so many rocks with my nieces.

Have a great weekend!

4th of july

Nothing says says happy birthday America like parades and fishin’. Hahahaha. So, that is exactly how we spent independence day. We hit up the Ketchikan parade around noon. I think that my favorite portion of the parade was seeing the Native American wearing some of their tribal gear, etc..

After the parade, we borrowed a boat from my b-i-l’s friend Mike at Knudson Cove Marina. We headed just around the corner from the Marina and dropped in a couple of fishing lines. Things got crazy.

Yes, those are Carhartt jeans and Xtratough boots, I’m wearing. I was geared up like a pro. Even though I grew up fishing pretty much my whole life. This was definitely an excursion like none other that I had ever been on. I caught 3 different varieties of salmon, including a white king (which I’m told is kind of a big deal).

After we arrived back at the pad, we fired up the coals and grilled salmon/steak, then watched fireworks from my sister’s deck. Not a bad way to celebrate the 4th of July.

lions tigers and bears

2012-shotbyjake-com-2034

Tuesday started off with a hike through the Tongass Forest. It is a temperate rain forest, and the largest rain forest in the world, aside from the Amazon. You’re welcome for the factoid. Hahah.

In the evening we did some ziplining with Alaska Canopy Adventures. It was bananas. We literally zipped from tree top to tree top. I felt like I was in the Ewok village or something. Here is a POV shot of my feet zipping at about 35 mph toward the final platform.

Tori, Jessie and Sarah on one of the platforms:

After zipping we went on a bear walk. We walked out to an area where we has seen some bears earlier in the week. I knew there was one nearby, because I could hear one growling. As I was hanging over some railing trying to see farther down the river, I heard my sister choking out the words “there is a mama bear and her cub right over your head.” I looked up and saw this:

I was able to snap a couple of shots as we were retreating, including this one of her manicured paw.

Sarah snapped this one of me getting the image at the top of this post.

Let’s not forget the barn cats. They followed us the whole time we were walking around this boardwalk.

Capped off the evening with some warm-up-lap fireworks courtesy of my sister’s neighbors.

misty fjords

I apologize in advance for the quantity of photos in this post, but Monday was seriously bananas. To give you an idea, we shot close to 1300 frames, and had to pair it down to this handful (top photo by Maya).

We got up bright and early and jumped a flight operated by Promech Air. Promech is a super cool outfit. I was able to meet several of the individuals that work with Promech and they are good peeps. Our plane left from the docks right in front of downtown Ketchikan, and took off past the cruise ships that were at port.

We flew over the fjords and landed at a dock to do the return trip by boat.

New Eddystone is a large rock formation that in one of the main channels. My sister and b-i-l were actually married there. Not long after passing New Eddystone, we passed a couple of orcas playing.

Even though the weather was kinda drizzly most of the morning, by the afternoon/evening, it cleared up, and the sun came out. So we went down to the beach to build a fire and goof off.

it rains a lot here

I successfully survived my first full day in AK. It was pouring rain on and off, Sunday. That didn’t stop us from getting out on a hike to Ward Lake, among other activities. Today, we are off to Misty Fjords, in a float plane, which by the way are ubiquitous here. I snapped the one below from my sister’s living room. I’m getting pretty excited about it.

Here are a couple more snaps from the hike.

i was awake for 23 hours

Yesterday morning, I voyaged from sea to shining sea. My journey stared in the lovely Pennsylvania Station, NY. Since I was there at 4:30 AM, I had the pleasure of sharing the NJ Transit train to EWR with all of the club kids on their way home after a wild night out in the big city, hahah. It was less than enjoyable. Fourteen hours later, I was lounging on my sister’s couch watching the bald eagles fly around outside of her living room window.

We didn’t waste any time getting the party started. We went on a couple of hikes. My little nieces Maya and Sophie are fantastic hikers (above: Maya and Sophie discovering America). They weren’t afraid to break out an occasional parkour move between rocks or over a log.

Don’t forget the bears and eagles. I was greeted by both as I exited the airplane concourse. They are literally everywhere over here.

It is a lot more challenging that I had supposed, to shoot here. Since it rains so much, the light is very subdued. This means that I find myself shooting with the aperture wide open and often w/a shutter speed of slower than 1/200 (because I refuse to shoot any higher than 400 iso [noise]). Makes it tough to get a sharp image hand-held at 200mm. The low light and constant drizzle also throws off the AF quite a bit. I’m sure that I will get it figured out eventually.

aether summer photo contest

I saw this the other day and thought that I would pass along the info to any fashion savvy photogs who happen to read this page. Aether is holding a summer photo contest. The prize is lots of cool Aether accessories/apparel, plus a camera. Here is their description:

 

Topic
Anyone familiar with us knows we’ve sort of got of a thing for inspirational imagery. (If you’re not, feel free to look around our site.) Good photography has the ability to transport, whether that be to a physical location or to a particular state of mind. And with warm weather in the air we’d like to be transported to a summer state of mind, so we’re asking all of you to share your pictures of summer adventure. What is your idea of a perfect summer trip?  What does summer mean to you?

Submissions 
(June 15th thru July 15th)
We’ll be taking submissions for a little over a month, up until July 15th. Please email us your name, the title of the image, a brief description, and the picture as an attachment to journal@aetherapparel.com. Please use the subject line SUMMER PHOTO CONTEST. We will only accept one picture per person, so please only send one. Also, this should go without saying, but please only submit your own original photography. (Google has gotten really good at sifting out fraudulent work.)

See their official page about the contest here. There are still 2 weeks to enter. So get snapping!

rick ross

Tuesday night alife held a private show to celebrate the launch of ‘Self Made Vol.2’. It is a collaborative album with other members of the Maybach Music group. I covered the event for Titel. These are a couple of my faves. Top: Rick Ross. Below: Wale.

Stalley–

koston x oakley

Over the weekend Vice Mag threw a party at the East Village Standard to celebrate the new collaboration between Eric Koston and Oakley. Eric is a really cool guy and was fun to shoot with. Check out the coverage on HS for the full recap.

Aaaaannnddd, here is a photo of me in a mirror. Hahahah

weekend throwaways

I was super busy shooting earlier this weekend. It’s funny how often I find that as I’m flipping through a set of images, that I end up liking a certain aesthetic images that I won’t be able to use for anything. I generally refer to those images as throwaways. Most of the time I just muse over them for a couple of minutes in lightroom, then don’t even bother exporting them. Today I decided to pick a handful of throwaways from Friday and post ’em up.

Above: sunset on Friday eve. Below: roof of the EV Standard.

Above: Cooper Square from above. Below: some diehard who was shooting for Vice.

The same scene from above 3 minutes later:

 

moto x in md

Saturday I took a trek down south to Mechanicsville, MD with the RedBull KTM moto-x crew to shoot some outdoor track action. It was a really good time. For one, we took Amtrak to get to MD. Something that I have not done in my adult life. I have taken regional trains since then (here and in Europe), but nothing over like an hour or so.

As far as the race goes, there wasn’t much competition. Ryan Dungey (above) detonated both rounds with a gap of almost 10 seconds at the checkered flag. But the atmosphere was very fun. The weather was beautiful. Plus, I love motorcycles. Here is an overview of the track.

My friend A-Raj, who also came along–

Trusty 70-200 f/2.8–

Fave shots from the ride back–

happy friday

I received a copy of the latest issue of L’equipe Sport & Style in the mail yesterday. It is a French mag that did a story on KAWS this month. They approached me last month about using the photo below. It is one that I snapped at the Aldrich museum in Connecticut during the exhibits opening soiree.

About to rock a morning run before packing for Charleston. I’m pretty amped about this trip. It sounds like my homeys down there have plenty o’ good lined up for us to do. Sangue bom, those two. Have a great weekend!

tats

I am the type of person who appreciates tattoos from afar. I don’t think that I would ever get one. Most of my siblings have them. A couple of my siblings have a lot of them. Anyway, this week I’m working on a project for SL, where I get to snap some tattooed New Yorkers. I’m having a pretty good time doing it. These are a few of the images, so far.

weekend recap

Despite the rainy forecast, the weather was actually quite lovely over the weekend (never mind that the rain has resumed again today). As a result, I probably put about 50 or 60 miles on the bicycle odometer. I think that my favorite ride of the weekend was Saturday evening, when I rode uptown on the Hudson greenway, almost to the northern edge of the island. I brought my camera with me to snap a few sunset shots from Riverside Park. They came out pretty cool. But, my favorite shot from the evening was the one above. I snapped it near the 70th St. pier on my way back downtown. Isn’t it cute the way that birds stand on one leg (even little songbirds). That shot was with a 50mm, btw. The bird let me get right up near it. I think that the birds here become very accustomed to people being in their space and tend to drop their guard a bit as a result.

Anyway, it was nice to have a mellow weekend before the very busy week that I have lined up, starting today. I’m going to be shooting some stuff this week that I’m kind of excited about, including some tattoo work. Happy Monday.

sunset seq

This nutty Memorial Day weekend weather had produced some pretty stellar sunsets. Here is a sequence I snapped from my bedroom on Saturday night.

happy friday

Amped for the long weekend. Stopped by Fafi’s book signing this week on Bowery. It was good to get out (despite the rain) and see my peeps. One of my fav’s below: Ricky Powell doing the over-the-glasses “how you doin’?”

I also ventured out last night to celebrate with my friends who recently started this page.

Plans for the weekend include:

-Fix Bike

-Run

Hopefully I can squeeze everything in.

slacking

It’s not like I haven’t been busy. Because I have. Just a little too lazy to write on the interwebz re: what I have been up to. I know that there have been scads of first world humans out there waiting with baited breath for the next post. So– sorry, dudes. Anyway, John Mayer again last weekend. (above).

As if that wasn’t enough– JR threw up this piece on the High Line a block from my pad.

And another shot.

More meaningful words later, maybe.

happy friday

Finally got this shoot knocked out, last night. The image above was exactly what I wanted. Nabbed another helicopter one (below) just for good measure. I have also decided not to run the BK Half tomorrow. I just don’t feel like dealing with the logistics, given all of the other items that I have going on this weekend. So, I feel like kind of a loser. But, oh well. Have a grand weekend.

happy friday

Happy Friday, I guess. Normally I really love the weekend. But, this weekend I’m struggling with a few items. Most of my friends are bouncing (home to visit their mothers, else to Costa Rica [else they live in Florence]). So there is that. Then there is the unbloggable stuff :/. Not unlike instagram, I [once loathed, but now] have apparently started to embrace emoticons. Mostly likely it is because all of my favorite ones involve commas and/or dollar signs. Money and tears– that’s all you need to make rap songs and emoticons.

In less lame news, I perused the private preview of the latest Opera Gallery exhibit on Thursday night (detail of ‘circulations of a linear lust’ by Augustine Kofie, above). Some of my fave artists were on display (including B*nksy). I also met Ron English, which was dope.

Finally: true love does exist. I realized that when I was going through the photos from last weekend. Look at the photo below by Jeni Bell. I gave her a quick crash course on how to use an SLR via the “focus/recompose” method of shooting. I think that it is pretty obvious by this photo that she only has eyes for one gent (the same one that she has been with for like 15 years, now). Have an amazing Mother’s Day weekend.

Also, this went up Monday. And I posted something over here, today.