tkemple Member since May 23, 2008

It’s no secret that more clients are demanding video along with their still needs these days. This a is a teaser for an upcoming post where I’m going to talk more specifically about the videos I (and others) are being asked to produce and where I see potential for the future.
The following vid is for [...]

We lost some good friends this week. This is a segment from the Sharp End which really captures just how bad ass Jonny and Micah were on and off the rock. Wade did a lot of work on this segment so it stands a great tribute to these three vibrant souls who were tragically lost in [...]

Finally a video that answers the questions I get the most about the 801. Serious blog backload on my part, more soon.

Check out the trailer for a new climbing flick called ‘Players‘. My man Brian Solano hooked this up. I did the titling work for the trailer in After Effects, and also shot the footage of Emily Harrington featured in the film. tk

Check out the trailer for a new climbing flick called ‘Players‘. My man Brian Solano hooked this up. I did the titling work for the trailer in After Effects, and also shot the footage of Emily Harrington featured in the film. tk


 
 

No, I didn’t get ink done in Brazil… although we were all tempted. Instead, I came back to a bunch of work in print and I really wanted to share because, well because I’m fricken stoked. Here’s what’s out right now:
- Popular Photography article about using speedlights on location (yikes, bad scan!)
- Climbing Magazine Gear Guide Cover (Alex Honnold crushing in the Czech last year)
- Outside Brazil is already running photo feature about this past trip in Brazil (fast or what?!)
- Runner’s World (great little piece about running outside of Seattle)


tk

Out of the cold of Patagonia and into the heat and humidity of Rio de Janeiro Brazil! Thankfully we have the knowledge of the Bintang crew to guide us as we learn to navigate the labyrinth of roads, trails, and beaches. This trully is one of the most dynamic urban environments I have seen. One of the TNF Athletes put it best “The pace of the trip might best be characterized by the traffic that endlessly cycles through Rio, chaotic, fast paced, and seemingly never ending.” tk

     So without question even though the year is only a couple months old, one of the most badass things I will get to do in 2009 is stand atop one of the spiky summits of Argentine Patagonia. To make it even better it was a great birthday gift to myself (yup another year older). If you haven’t been following the Vertical Carnival blog check out the spiky summit I’m talking about below and click to read more about the approach into the mountains.


 
      Argentine Patagonia became pretty famous in the states when Yvon Chouinard drove the Pan American highway in his Econo-line van from California in 1968. Soon after the face of Fitz Roy, one of the peaks of Argentine Patagonia became the logo of Chouinard’s new brand ‘Patagonia’. I call it Argentine Patagonia because the mountain range runs through Chile as well, and houses other spectacular places such as Torres del Paine. The little town of El Chalten is the last town at the foot of the mountains, and its where trekkers, climbers, and mountain peepers base themselves, and it was our home while we waited out the notorious storms that form when the cold air from the ice cap (on the other side of the range) meets the warmer air of the plains to the east.
This project was a collaboration of efforts between The North Face and Sender Films, who is producing a television series for National Geographic Television. My job was to shoot killer still images and video of our trio of athletes (Find them on facebook: Renan Ozturk, Cedar Wright, and Sean Leary) for use by The North Face and Nat Geo.
The approach to El Chalten involves flying into Buenos Aires and onto Calafate, in southern Argentina, then jumping a 3 hour bus to El Chalten. The crux is getting into basecamp in the mountains with all of your gear. The hike in is 8 uphill hours and including tyrollean traverses over rivers, jumping crevasses that run through the middle of glaciers, and sliding over moraines that have massive blocks await

We’ve learned to accept the idea that there is no bad weather… only weather, the idea of good or bad is purely a matter of personal perspective. The umbrella salesman for example would consider the rainiest days to be the best –tk–

Argentina is wet, but the wine is good!
 

Action Sport culture is no longer the way of the rebellious youth, it has become the Mainstream
Sure skate, surf, board culture have been defining fashion trends for the past several years… think Diesel was making those tight men’s jeans before it was skate culture norm 3 years ago, I don’t think so. Or that 80s plaid had any chance of making a comeback before Burton and others rocked it several season ago… but this is old news — though it is interesting to note that it took several years for mainstream clothing designers to ‘get it’ (and now that they have maybe thats why some of the originators are struggling..)
What I think is new, and what I’m seeing constantly for the first time is mainstream marketing latch on and use pieces of action sport culture to market their brands. I don’t know if its an influx of Gen Y into the ad agencies and brands themselves or if its just mainstream culture becoming more knowledgeable about what it means to be a Skater, Snowboarder, Climber, or Surfer but now music that once was only found in snowboard films is being used in car commercials a season later. Major brands are using action sports in their print campaigns and just right now there is a huge North Face ad on Pandora as I write this blog post.
This Cadillac commercial rocks thanks to tunes by Justice, but Alterna films used Justice when they were just getting hot in Apple’s and Oranges nearly 8 months earlier.

Read More… and I’ll get to the point after the break.
 

Personally I think the music cross over is some of the coolest things to come out of the trend towards mainstream. MGMT tracks that first appeared in ski films have since been on 90210 and Gossip Girl (really I heard about it through the grapevine) and a Citizen Cope track that I used in a film of my own a couple years back was recently in an Acura commercial. 
NOW TO MY POINT — I bring this up because the people that read this blog really fall into two categories. Eith...

I just got back in from Montana… where the internets [sic] run a but slower then I would have liked, hence the lack of blog updates. I’m going to be posting some shots, videos, and behind the scenes viddles from the shoot. 
The laundry is getting done quick because I’m packing up this week for a 6 week shoot in Patagonia (Argentina) and Brazil. I’m going to be shooting photos for the North Face (it’s their expedition), and helping shoot video as well for a National Geographic television show. Most of the crew is just arriving down in Patagonia and you can follow are travels on the expedition blog (http://verticalcarnival.blogspot.com/), where myself and others will be posting videos and photos. 
I’ve got a good collection of toys to bring along on the journey including a new gigapan unit that I’m stoked to shoot high res panoramas with on the trip, I’m thinking… Cerro Torre, Chalten Glaciers, and of course Copacabana Beach
 

tk

Merry Christmas, and some thought for the food: 
 

Action Sport culture is no longer the way of the rebellious youth, it has become the Mainstream
Sure skate, surf, board culture have been defining fashion trends for the past several years… think Diesel was making those tight men’s jeans before it was skate culture norm 3 years ago, I don’t think so. Or that 80s plaid had any chance of making a comeback before Burton and others rocked it several season ago… but this is old news — though it is interesting to note that it took several years for mainstream clothing designers to ‘get it’ (and now that they have maybe thats why some of the originators are struggling..)
What I think is new, and what I’m seeing constantly for the first time is mainstream marketing latch on and use pieces of action sport culture to market their brands. I don’t know if its an influx of Gen Y into the ad agencies and brands themselves or if its just mainstream culture becoming more knowledgeable about what it means to be a Skater, Snowboarder, Climber, or Surfer but now music that once was only found in snowboard films is being used in car commercials a season later. Major brands are using action sports in their print campaigns and just right now there is a huge North Face ad on Pandora as I write this blog post.
This Cadillac commercial rocks thanks to tunes by Justice, but Alterna films used Justice when they were just getting hot in Apple’s and Oranges nearly 8 months earlier.

Read More… and I’ll get to the point after the break.
 

Personally I think the music cross over is some of the coolest things to come out of the trend towards mainstream. MGMT tracks that first appeared in ski films have since been on 90210 and Gossip Girl (really I heard about it through the grapevine) and a Citizen Cope track that I used in a film of my own a couple years back was recently in an Acura commercial. 
NOW TO MY POINT — I bring this up because the people that read this blog really fall into two categories. Eith...

Its Friday!! Here another video we put together recently, this one is a rough behind the scenes form a recent fall outdoor shoot, we internally dubbed ‘Operation Fall Magic’. It was all shot on a D90, but the compression after upload isn’t where I’d like to be. BUT… the HD version should be up and available shortly, and that should look real perrrdy — I will link to it when it is. tk



 
 

Not many people head to the desert when its 105 in the city, especially to go hike up exposed slopes and solo on overhanging cliffs. But that’s what the weather was like when I got called to do a shoot this past July. This video is a rough of a concept we (NE2C Productions and I) are working on for an ad agency in NY. It’s a small piece of a bigger project, and it may have to come down… but I thought the climbing and BASE footage we nailed was pretty sick, so enjoy it for now. 

 
tk
 

A friend of mine has a cork-board next to the front door of his apartment and pinned to it is a note that reads, “Everyday you aren’t training, someone else is training, to kick your ass”. For lots of reasons that quote has resonated with me since I first read it and its a motto I try to keep in the back of my mind. It helps with the pre-dawn alarms, walking into an ad agency for the first time, or on Friday afternoons in Late October when the office is the last place I want to be. We all need days of

One of the first things I wanted to test with the D90 when I got it was the audio quality. I was concerned that there was no external in for video mode, but I was presently surprised on how it performed. In general I would say its on par with most of the consumer HD cameras such as the HV-20s built in mic.

I've been shooting a ton of running the past year. Some of which has been for The North Face, who is really pushing their endurance line of shoes and clothing. They've even got their own Endurance Race series which is pretty rad. Check out the video/stills we shot promoting these races.

Over the past weeks we've released clips from the promo piece that I shot [and DaBanks crushed on the editing end] for the Nor'easter. These clips will be playing in the EMS stores (all 80+ of them), the Nor'easter website, viral placements, and now here. This is 12 minutes of goodness, with some high level climbing footage, rockin' beats, and cool characters. So sit back and crank up the music, I hope you enjoy. Also if you really want to see this on the big screen and in higher resolution I have some DVDs