MIGHTYKILLERS®

seattle

2015

Lifestyle, Travel.Comment

What's your goal each year?

 

You may have a resolution that you've set to accomplish or you may just want to live each year to the fullest. Whatever the objective is the end result is always the same, to be better than the previous year.

For MIGHTYKILLLERS, 2015 was HUGE. The #MKEXPLORE hash tag grew from 50,000 posts in the beginning of the year to 777,000 as of today! We even had the opportunity to connect with people from around the world through our MKEXPLORE meets. As we made stops all over from Mumbai, Tokyo, Shanghai, Pacific Northwest, Sacramento, Boston, Toronto, and the list goes on and the support grows with it. Being able to host meets across the U.S. and internationally has always been a shared dream by everyone in the company. This wouldn't of been possible if it weren't for the community and the support you've shown.

Not only did we get to connect with individuals, but with companies as well. Collaborating has always been a huge part of our core beliefs, so it was exciting to work with many industry leaders from Jaguar Land Rover Motors to SanDisk, and even other creatives such as Duarte Inc. We can’t thank them enough for letting us bring our own sense of style and touch to each project, and we look forward to any new projects in the future.

Many may not know, but MIGHTYKILLLERS first started out as a clothing brand. We may have evolved a bit from a basic clothing brand, but our roots are still very much in fashion. We believe that everything is connected from fashion and styling to photography and travel. This year, we pushed out even more product while designing each piece with high quality materials that we wear everyday. The amount of support we’ve received from each drop has been incredible. For the next year, you’ll be sure to see more releases with the same dope designs.

 

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Now for me personally 2015 is probably best summed up into one word, unexpected. If you told me in the beginning of the year that all of these things would happen I probably wouldn’t believe you. That’s not to say that I live a boring life with no excitement, but rather it’s a justification as to how amazing the year was. It definitely had some rocky times and moments of uncertainty but honestly would life be any fun if it didn’t?

One thing that stayed pretty consistent was my group of friends who've stuck with me for sometime now. Year in and year out they have always been there for me, and always continue to push me to do better. Whenever I see my friends/family succeed it always fills me with a sense of pride, and this year was a testament to that. From passing the California attorney bar exam to getting married, I’m pretty sure all of them had it covered. It was a big honor to not only see two of my best friends get married this year, but also be apart of their special day.

I had the opportunity to travel a lot this year; not just with a group of friends but also by myself. Up until this point I never realized how life changing traveling alone can be. If you haven’t already, I highly suggest just taking a trip by yourself somewhere. It doesn’t have to be far or expensive; just get out of a familiar surrounding. Every time I went away, I found out something new about myself, and improved on something old.

Within these last few months, it really started to hit me that I'm getting older. I realized that people come and go in your life, but when some people come in they really make an impression and help you see things in a whole new perspective. Those are the people you really have to thank because a fresh new perspective will always give you a whole new outlook. So with that, I'm excited to be looking towards whats in store for 2016.

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.

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.

MT. Inspiration

Travel.Comment

How do you find inspiration

Lately, I've been hit with a shooters block.  Questioning everything from the angles of the shot, all the way down to the final edit. I'm sure that I'm not the only one feeling this way. Sooner or later everyone will be faced with something similar. So the question now is, "How do we get through this?

I try to force myself to take at least one overnight trip each month to just get out and shoot. My goal isn't to shoot for Instagram worthy material, but rather to reevaluate my passion for exploring. After these trips, I always seem to remember how I felt during that time, but never what I saw.

Don't get me wrong. It's dope as fuck to see and shoot the base of a waterfall from 5 feet away, but the feeling of being that close was even crazier. The power of the wind created by the crashing of the falls made it that much more intense; however, my roshes weren't doing too well in the grip department on the slippery moss covered rocks. It was pretty sketchy, but definitely worth almost dying. I felt alive and energetic after getting the shot, and it reminded me that nature inspires me to post on Instagram, not the likes or followers.

Too often today, I see people going out to shoot just to get recognition.  Thats cool, and I'm not going to knock that, but are you shooting because that moment inspired you, or because the latest trend on the explore page said that was what you needed to shoot? 

So now tell me, what really inspirers you?

The Last Cave

TravelConnor Surdi1 Comment

I guess I should introduce myself first....My name is Connor Surdi and I am a photographer from Seattle, WA. This photo trip was a bit difficult to say the least....I left to hike Pilchuck around 2AM. But - as soon as I was about .6 miles away from the trailhead, the road was blocked with fallen trees and bushes. So I had to find a cool place to go to and some place that was easy to get to by sunrise....And the Big Four Ice Caves was about 40 minutes down the road! So - I ended up driving there and walking in the dark with a terrible spotlight until I reached the caves...Or shall I say, Cave..Since the other 3 have already melted away.  I fell asleep and set an alarm for the sunrise but...I was so cozied up in my sleeping bag, I woke up, saw the sunrise, made a mental photo of it and then just went back to sleep. Do I regret it? Yes, it was a beautiful orange hue with fluffy clouds. I'll just go back another day, no problem!  As soon as I woke up again a few hours later, Skye and I just walked around the caves and even went in for a few minutes. This cave is melting quick and it's not safe at all to go inside of it but......I got some cool photos out of it and I'm still alive so I can call that a mission success. After shooting inside the cave and outside with the smoke grenades, we walked over to the little waterfall area and just enjoyed the sun beating down on us while we tried to warm up from the icy cave earlier.  I thought it would be a good idea to try and climb up onto the big rock and take a photo of me...But man I didn't realize how difficult that would be! Nearly killed myself but hey, I have a cool photo so it was worth it. After we walked around that area..It was time to go home. My second trip to the Ice caves was definitely worth it! Until next time.

Cave Dwellers

Travel.Comment
bigfour.jpg

Exploration with friends is always a good time, but exploring won your own is something that everyone should experience.

Recently, I took a spontaneous trip by myself to visit the Big Four Ice Caves in Granite Falls Washington. I'm not sure what cam over me to venture on something so out of my norm. Maybe it was the constant reminder on Instragram that there is something bigger out there beside my mundane 9-5 lifestyle. Or maybe it was the the excitement of not knowing what adventures a "fuck it" mentality might bring

Once I landed in Seattle,  I rentred a car and took off driving in whatever direction the GPS told me. The weather conditions were perfect for my first time, and exactly how I pictured the weather in the Pacific Northwest to be. Everything was covered in a low rolling fog that sat just above the tree line. Pockets of clouds would clear up every so often; allowing you to see the mountain range bend it. 

I got to the ice caves and quickly realized that pictures simply don't do it justice. The sheer size of the cave is amazing. I was stuck starring at it; wondering how the different layers of ice are layered and carved so perfectly. Its easy to say that the ice caves left me in awe, and gave me confidence that I did not need to rely on anyone to go out and experience something this great. 

The journey is not the most difficult part of travel, but rather getting yourself up to actually start it. Everyone has obligations on a day-to-day basis, but finding time to for personal growth through exploring could have you coming back with a whole new perspective on things.