Just wrapped a 5 day shoot in Auckland, and wanted to throw down a couple personal shoots while I was there, thanks to the help of my awesome producer, Tracy from Halo Enterprises. As timing would have it, I was able to shoot the lovely Emma Ostilly, the day before she left New Zealand. Such a sweetheart and quite beautiful to say the least.

I’ve asked them a few questions on their longboard passion, which you’ll find the answers below.

Where are you from, and how long have you been skating?
NATHALIE: I represent Queenz, but I skate out in Brooklyn! Been longboarding in NYC for 8 years now and still going strong!!

JENICA: I grew up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina where my brother taught me how to surf and skate;  so when i moved to nyc- skating only seemed a natural way to commute; that got me on a board about 12-15 years ago.

When and how did you find your passion for long boarding?
NATHALIE: I was attending Barry University in Miami, FL and saw a guy “surfing” to class one day and I was attracted to his interpretation of “freedom”.  He was everything I wanted to be in that moment and instantly I made a promise to myself to go back home to NYC, become fearless and begin living free.

JENICA: Being on any board has been a passion since i was a little. It wasn’t until about 2004 when my husband introduced me to a longboard; and I’ve been in love ever since.

How does skating effect your emotional well being?
NATHALIE: Longboarding has allowed me to connect to this beautiful world we all live in and knowing that I’m “awake” in it brings truth to my existence both spiritually and mentally. When I skate, my senses are enhanced to hi-def and most of all, I know that I’m breathing…ya gotta try it to understand where I’m coming from I guess.

JENICA: Skating is everything to me. Its a way for me to push away from everything chaotic in this city and in life. To have that moment where its just you and the board; that is an incredible feeling, to feel alone in a city full of millions of people. Its a necessary therapy, i find. To be able to reconnect with your soul, and in turn, connect with other people that share the same sentiment. Its a beautiful thing. And not to mention, it makes getting where you need to go that much more awesome! Who else in nyc can say that much about their morning commute?

Tell me about your “Steez” in relation to your skating.
NATHALIE: My steez is “street surfing on concrete waves”, my favorite wave in NYC is Times Square!  Just because it gives me a rush and I enjoy traffic surfing so much.  I’m able to interpret my art, which is skate, amongst the flashing lights and race against not only taxis, but crowds of people!

JENICA: Steez is your style you express in your skating. I grew up surfing- so i get my kicks from flowing; from riding these concrete waves. Skating is not just a sport- but a lifestyle.

How does fashion integrate to your skate sessions?
NATHALIE: I love to be fashion forward when it comes to my “skate clothing”, the fresha the gear, the fresha my skate that day will be! Haha! I pretty much wear everything u shouldn’t skate in, but it works for me because don’t forget, I am a girl & I’m always hanging out in the city.  I balance the streets w/the edgy downtown scene

JENICA: In a city of millions of people, fashion can be what sets you apart from the sea of masses. It a great way of self-expression. It all ties into your steez, your style. It is a reflection of my personality- colorful and fun, functional, and eclectic. My favorite thing i wear to skate are my ripped up Levis and my grandmas sweater:D and my high-top Nike dunks.

What’s on your iPod when you’re skating these days?
NATHALIE: J*Davey’s “New Designer Drug” album is on repeat during my skates! And I just downloaded Alanis Morisette’s Greatest Hits LP! I tend to keep my music very eclectic so life is always sounding good for me while I’m ridin dirty

JENICA: Sublime is always a favorite, along with Cake, and the Dirty Heads. Im also a huge fan of the throw back jams, like new edition, Naughty by Nature, even the temptations;) Trevor Hall and of course, Jay Z. My music is like my skating- all over the place.

DJ Jasmine Solano(Check out her stuff here: http://jasminesolano.com/)

Jesse Boykins III(Check out his stuff here: http://jbiiimusic.com/)

Stalley

Post studio lookbook shoot(directly after) we moved into the private party where they partnered with Livestream to broadcast the event live to the web which included me shooting wirelessly to their server so they could be posting the pics I was shooting into the feed while the event was going on. Check the stream out here. Live pics below.

There comes a nice mystique when not researching the place you’re going before you go. I like going without expectations, which partially happened on this trip. One of the big reason’s I wanted to go to Tibet was the amazing travel portrait work of Phil Borges. I met him a while back and saw his book on the Tibetan Portrait, including the Dalai Lama. Since then, the Tibetan nomads were what appealed to me, and what I inspired me to want to shoot there.

That said, my expectations upon traveling there were very different than what we found. I think a lot was due to the areas we were in. None the less, we shifted directions into something that I found even more interesting. The Tibetan Buddhist Pilgrimage. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before first hand. The animation above is the 57 year old Buddhist monk, Lubsang Shlrep doing his prostration pilgrimage from his hometown Yunan. The prostration as you can see is three steps, hands up in pray form over your head, down to the chest, to the stomach, then the whole body on the ground forehead touching, back up to your feet, and over again. Lubsang had been doing this every day for 1 year, 3 months, and one day the day that we met him. He sleeps on the side of the road in a plastic bag, and carries his belongings in a hand pull cart on wheels. He pulls the cart 150 meters or so, then goes back to where he left off and does his prostration. Over and Over again. The end destination is Lhasa, the Buddhist holy city. It’s about 2000K from his home town, and he covers about 5K per day. Witnessing this event for the first time completely blew my mind, as I’m sure it does if you’re reading this information for the first time.

The journey continues with Jeff Holt, our guide Lumbum, and “driver”. Mind you, you can’t go anywhere in Tibet as a tourist without a tour guide. You have to have one to even get permits to get into the country. One one of the other highlights of the trip was camping with a group of people on their pilgrimage at 1 year, 5 months, 1 day. They were a friendly bunch, and very welcoming to us. They had some kids in the group that just walked along with them, then the youngest pilgrim doing the prostration was 20 years old, all the way up to 36. Camping with them was an amazing way to experience, even for an evening what they’ve experienced for roughly 516 days. They’ve even gone that long without a shower! Living like this quite puts things into perspective. This crew of people were mostly comprised of Monks and Nuns on their journey from Amdo. Dena, is a young nun that’s in charge of taking care of the kids in the group, and staying ahead at the camp sites to cook the meals for the rest of the group. Even though she doesn’t do the prostration, she is still considered on her pilgrimage but serving in a different way. The ones doing the prostration have calluses on their hands and their foreheads from the repetitious motions. They are geared up with aprons, hand paddles, gloves, and sometimes tire rubber attached to the toes of their shoes. We hung out with them by the campfire that evening. Being a white American, my homie Jeff Holt turned out to be a big deal and a few of the younger gen kids wanted photos with him.

The second highlight of the trip was the next night staying at a famous monastery that was at about 15,000ft in elevation. You really feel it up there, especially if you’re walking up stairs for about 3-5 steps. The temperature was about 15ºF outside, and probably 16º inside our room. The view was pretty incredible. The next morning at sunrise, we hiked up to see the Sky Burial, yet another crazy thing to see. People from all over bring their loved ones’ bodies to the monastery to be buried in the sky there. Essentially, the monk brings the body out of a box, starts cutting off the skin, and when they’re ready, the hundreds of vultures hovering around get welcomed to devour the body in a matter of 10-15 minutes leaving only the bones left. They then cut up the bones and either feed them to the birds or burn them. Being sky buried here at this monastery means you’re guaranteed to be re-incarnated to a human body in exactly 49 days. I wish I could have taken photos, but they were strictly not allowed. In fact, we got kicked out and ended up having to watch from way up on the hill.

Upon our return to Lhasa, we stopped to say hi to our friend Lubsang as he was probably about 25k further down the road from where we saw him before. The rest of the time in Lhasa, we shot some portraits of the different people that have made their pilgrimage to the holy city. The people watching around the Barkhor is fascinating. Buddhism manifested at it’s fullest.

All in all, it was a great trip. Tibet is one of the most interesting countries I’ve been to due to the religion that dominates it. The prostration as interesting as it is, is very difficult to capture it’s entirety in one single image because it looks so bizarre. You can learn more about how I shoot travel work in my book, Photo Trekking.

Many thanks to our guide, Lumbum. Check out his site if you ever venture to Tibet: Tibetanshamantour.com

Lubsang Shlrep

16,500ft

Lhasa, The Buddhist Holy City

Had a fun weekend in Miami doing this little test with my friends down in Miami. I met the stylist chicas (We Can Pretend) on a Nike job a few months back and wanted to collaborate with them, so we made it happen. The create a lot of do it yourself pieces that rock. It was a gnarly rainy weekend, but the sun broke for us on Sunday when we shot. The crew was awesome, and I’m excited about the results.

CREDITS:
Styling: We Can Pretend, Duda & Cristy
Hair: Marc Bensemhoun and Justin McKay at Prive Salon Miami,
Make up: Anais Guerra
Models: Carlye and Evelyne at Ford Models Miami