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WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

Travel, Urban, LifestyleMarvin King | @MIGHTYKILLSComment

As we approach the end of this year, I always like to go back to the very beginning of the year in my archive and just relive some of the moments. Moments that took my breath away. Moments that I forgot even existed. Moments that continue to inspire me everyday. Moments with old and new friends. Moments with my family. Moments that changed my life. The fact that I am able to do this makes me appreciate what I do and what I’ve done a million times more. Photography has been a huge part of my life and I seem to get caught up with everything that’s going on that I tend to easily forget what it is about photography that I love so much. However, when the years end nears; I’m reminded. That there are so many precious moments in your lifetime that slip away. Regardless of how good you think your memory is, you can’t deny the fact that when you look through an old photo album, there are always a few photos that make you relive a moment that you had forgotten existed. 2015 has been nothing but a blessing. I had the opportunity to travel the world, meet a ton of cool ass people, shoot non-stop with good company and best of all, I got married to my number one. I can’t help but to feel as if I’m on top of the world… I’m living a dream. But for me, the dream resets every time that new year ball drops. We always want to top the previous year; in health, in wealth and in happiness. Seemingly very hard to top but that’s when ambition kicks in. I can’t wait to bring on 2016 and see how it unfolds. 

I’ve put together a collection of photos all taken from this year that are my favorites. Reasons being that they hold some sort of sentimental value or for that moment in time, I realized exactly how blessed I am. What a time to be alive.

Halloween in New York

Travel, Urban, LifestyleKarl Orotea | @KARLNIKOLAIComment

Hasselblad 500CM + Fujipro 400H, Kodak 400 Tri-X & Portra 400NC

It was my first time visiting New York during autumn. I never catch a flight out at the time, but my friend Eric and I got lucky with the Jetblue sale (scored a $188 round trip ticket, sorry kind of have to flaunt that). Anyway, usually trips to NY are just mostly meant for leisure time away from hectic school schedules. Had the pleasure shooting alongside with the homies Insighting and marcel_white during my few days there. 

On another note, shooting street photography is quite challenging on film, but it also made me quite bored of just straight documenting. After getting the photos developed and scanned (self-processed) I found it amazing how color correction on scanners can easily make photos taken on a 4 or 5 decade year old camera give digital a run at its game. Well, this will probably one of my last posts of strictly focused documentative and aesthetically pleasing photography. Hopefully I'm able to bring more of conceptual, meaningful photos, either it be surrealism or series, without falling on the spectrum of fine art photography. That'd be the day honestly.

The Sunken City

Lifestyle, Urban, TravelComment

I tend to hit the LA every few months for work but this time I wanted to switch it up a bit. During my trip, me and a few friends decided to take a trip outside of the city and head down to coast to a place called The Sunken City. When I first walked into this place I felt like I had landed on another planet. What used to be a populated neighborhood street is now an explorers dream due to the landslides and graffers that have transformed these ruins into what it is today. Thanks to my homegirl Minnie (@minniemorkie) for being my muse for the time we spent there. After that day I realized that there is much more to SoCal than just LA. I also realized that you should never snapchat while climbing loose rocks or you'll slip and smash your camera against a rock as you attempt to stop yourself from falling down a cliff.....

TOUCH THE SKY

UrbanMarvin King | @MIGHTYKILLSComment

As tradition goes, we've been holding photo contests at almost everyone of our EXPLORE meets. It's an awesome way to really challenge our guests to be creative and think differently than the person next to them when capturing photos from our meet. One of the things I enjoy most is being able to look back at all the photos taken from the meets and seeing just how different everyone captured it. All these different perspectives gives me a breath of fresh air from my usual style and edits; that is exactly our intentions with EXPLORE. We wanted to create a space, an archive, a collection that can inspire others to go out and explore their surroundings and capture it. On our third EXPLORE meet, sponsored by NICHE, there were two photos that really stuck out to us from the photo submissions on levels of style and creativity; Jordan and Carlos. These two won a free helicopter ride with Golden Gate Helicopters over San Francisco with one of our own, Nikk. A lengthy six months had passed since we announced our winners and we finally got them up in the air. Shout out to these two for being some genuinely dope people, gnarly photographers and of course, some of the most patient people I know for waiting six months for this to finally happen!

All the photos from this post are credited to both Jordan and Carlos, make sure to shoot over to their Instagram profiles and check out their work. Cheers

Night Adventure in Seattle

Urban, LifestyleConnor SurdiComment

It's been a while since I have gone out for the pure fun of shooting at night...I think it's been because I've been in a slight funk with my photography and personal life but tonight was definitely needed. But I saw a quote the other day that said... "The only way out is through." and that really struck home for me.

I recently just sold my 5D3 and upgraded to a Sony A7Rii and I think tonight was a good test run. Lots of shadows, lots of highlights, levitating photos, etc. And to sum it all up, it did the job quite well! It's a big change coming from using Canon for 7 years. The buttons are very different and menus are way different. It's a learning curve but the only way to learn is to keep shooting! 

Rachel joined me and was my model for the night. Being as she's behind the camera 99% of the time...I think she did a pretty damn good job.

IN THE BAG WITH MARVIN KING

Travel, Urban, IN THE BAG, LifestyleMarvin King | @MIGHTYKILLSComment
ITB_MK_Line.jpg

We recently had the pleasure of staying at The LINE Hotel in Los Angeles this past weekend after our long trip out in the desert. Let me be the first to say that after hiking two full days in the Mojave Desert in the 90's, with no access to running water, checking into this hotel was definitely beyond climatical. First thing I did was jump into the huge shower, that could have fit all five of us guys in there (not that we did...) and washed off the two-days worth of dirt/sand layers from my skin and jump into the cozy-team room slippers... which eventually became my on-the-way-to-the-airport-slippers. During our quick one-night stay at this freaking awesome suite, there were just a few essentials that I had to have. 

  • The LINE Hotel Room Slippers
  • MIGHTYKILLERS Basic Cap
  • Magazines & Books with an awesome Erin Althea design paperweight.
  • Voigtlander 21mm f/1.8 Ultron
  • Sony A7ii with Sony battery grip
  • Voigtlander 12mm f/5.6 Heliar (Mounted)
  • Canon FD 85mm f/1.2L with variable ND filter
  • The LINE Hotel stationaries
  • Sony batteries
  • Incase accessory pouch
  • The LINE Hotel gummy bears
  • iPhone 6 + Moment Lens + 18mm with caps
  • Klipsch Reference R6 headphones
  • The LINE Hotel room key
  • Two crumpled up Dollar bills cause I'm a baller
  • Louis Vuittion wallet

Streets of Boston.

Travel, UrbanSam Graves | @thesamgravesComment

Boston is such a beautiful city. Having only seen it in pictures, movies and on TV, it did not take me long to grow fond of her. It was a foggy and chilly day but wandering the streets left me with a sense of calm as my sisters and I meandered our way through the city on foot, allowing us to experience some of the textures of the city. Something about the brick laden sidewalks etched beneath the towering walls of several hundred year old stone and brick town houses that make you feel like you're in an entirely different time zone. Theres something magical about this place that I don't feel everywhere I go, despite living in a city like San Francisco. Even after only one day in Boston, it found a way into my heart. I will be coming back soon. 

A SURREAL OSAKA

Urban, TravelMarvin King | @MIGHTYKILLSComment

i remember when i first came about this style of editing about a year ago and it's just really stuck with me. i loved how moody it made each photo. i would always contemplate back and forth between my standard edit style and this. majority of the time, i just stick with the standard style but then from time to time, i can't help but to go crazy on some yellows. i've seen a ton of people try and mimic this look, which is cool i guess. i mean, i do always try and tell people to try out anything and everything because that's the only way that you will really learn... and the only way to really find your own personal style. but often times people confuse experimenting with straight up copying. whatever though, to each their own. 

here is a set of photos i took in the outskirt suburbs of osaka post rain. i've always loved taking photos after a rainy day, when roads are still wet and sky is still gloomy. the soft box of a sky really makes the roads look unreal. it leads your eyes into the photo. take a long stare at these and get lost.

City Guide - KOBE jpn

Travel, Lifestyle, UrbanNandin YuanComment
“約一年前、私は神戸という街に引っ越してきました。

神戸は港町ということもあり昔から貿易が盛んで、住人の国籍も 様々です。その影響から街には日本独自のモダニズム建築や教会、インターナショナルスクール、チャイナタウン、高層ビルをはじめ、世界一長い吊橋、夜景などフォトジェニックな被写体が数多くあります。また幸運なことに、自然にも恵まれ街の北側には六甲・摩耶山からなる山々がそびえ立ち、その一部は霧の名所としても知られています。

そんな神戸は大阪から30分、京都から1時間の好立地。京都、大阪に来る際は神戸もぜひプランに加えてみてはいかがでしょうか。”

About 1 year ago, I moved to KOBE-City.

Kobe is the port town, because active trade from long ago, and the resident's nationality is also various. In the town, modernize architecture and china-town, church, high rise building, world’s longest suspension bridge and great night views such as there are many photogenic spots. Fortunately,  KOBE is blessed with a richness of nature, Mt.Rokko was also known as a much foggy spot.

That KOBE is half an hour from Osaka,and 1 hour from Kyoto.

If you come to Osaka or Kyoto, try to consider Kobe in your plan.

Seattle Chinatown

UrbanConnor SurdiComment

I was contacted a few months ago to collaborate on a project for Seattle Chinatown. The goal was to bring out the feeling of home and also a unique perspective from people eating or working in China Town. Of course that could be done many different ways so we had to sit down together and decide on a specific idea. Tons of ideas were bounced around but then someone said, "we need to show their point of view." and that sparked this idea. I've seen it in videos with guys parkouring all over the place and it looks like a crazy video game. So why not do it with this project? I thought it would be perfect.

So I went to two restaurants, a fortune cookie factory, an old grocery store that is now in a museum to be preserved and a bakery that had burned down. All of these places have been in Chinatown forever and are the heart and soul of the international district. Through these photos...I did my best to capture it all. It was an amazing experience and I was able to have a bunch of awesome food and way too many freshly made fortune cookies. I would love all of my shoots to be like this!

Cheers.

Tsukiji Fish Market

Travel, Urban, LifestyleGuest UserComment
 
“東京、築地市場。初めてここを訪れたのは2015年6月上旬のことでした。土曜日の朝の9時過ぎ、混雑して熱気にあふれたその場所で、ストリート・フォトグラファーのように撮りまくりました。

この場所も、もう来年には新しく豊洲に移転することが決まっているんですね。なので、もしここを訪れたいと思っているなら急いだ方がいいです。「記録しておきたい」そんな風に思える場所ですよ。”
 

It was the first time I went Tsukiji Fish Market in early June 2015.  It's a large wholesale market for fish in central Tokyo. About 9AM on Saturday, really crowded when I was there. Things coming and going. I was trying to photograph working people and tourist as a street photographer. It was a really fun experience.

If you are planning to come here, you should hurry. The Tsukiji Fish Market is scheduled move  to a new site in Toyosu in 2016. It's supposed to be clean and neat. I mean old and dirty is better for capturing documentary photograph. 
-Takashi Yasui