I want to introduce you to my awesome new friends, Coco && Breezy, who I met a few months ago on a photoshoot. We have come to find that we are kindred spirits, and have become good friends. But, let me just brag about them for one second. The stylist on a shoot pulled their studded glasses, that you’ve seen on a few small stars like Lady Gaga, and Nicki Mnaj. Little did I know how famous these girls are, let alone how awesome they are. Breezy and I chopped it up like we had known each other for years, and I came to find out how awesome these young hustlers really are. They work hard and have built themselves as a great brand in two years. I have mad respect for these girls as they are young, they “get it”, and they hustle. They have a great story of how they came to be where they are, and are definitely going places. Check out their brand for yourself. Watch a few of their interviews.

http://cocoandbreezy.tumblr.com/
https://store.cocoandbreezy.com/

Minus the Polariods below, these were all shot on my Hasselblad 503CW with Kodak Portra 400 & 800

The recent portrait here in NYC of the 10 most stylish social media gurus for Style Caster just dropped today. We shot the social media peeps from Conde Nast, Donna Karen, Michael Kohrs, Bergdorf Check out the story and what everyone does here on their site: 10 Most Stylish Social Media Gurus

A few of my fave pics from the series:

Farryn from Michael Kohrs. You may know her from her site jetsetfarryn.com

Raman Kia from Conde Nast Group
Aliza Licht of DKNY

Steven Rojas from Grandlife Hotel
Sarah Reynolds from Iced Media

Danny Chung from Diane Von Furstenberg

Leslie Steinberg from Everyday Health

Cannon Hodge from Bergdorf Goodman

A couple months ago I got the opportunity to shoot for one of my favorite highly prestigious magazines in the travel world, Conde Nast Traveler. Even better yet, I ended up shooting the cover. When I got the call to go to Turks & Caicos, Jamaica, and Barbados, needless to say I was pretty excited. The shoot is now in the June 2012 issue that’s on the shelves now.

The title of the story is called “Don’t Just Lie There, Do Something” and the article is about doing sports in the Caribbean, but on another note, the title is so befitting to me and my life in general. I like to live life doing as much as I can instead of lying around doing nothing.

I’m pretty excited about how the 10 page article turned out. The design is a great compliment to the photos. You can also check out the online 40 image slide show of the other images from the shoot that aren’t in the printed magazine on Cntraveler.com

Got to pull off a second test while I was in New Zealand. It’s always nice when you can shoot, be productive and explore new places all at the same time. After the big job, we shot out to Piha, which is the west coast of the north island of New Zealand. Only about an hour away from Auckland. We rented a cool mountain retreat for a couple days, chilled and a little work. Thanks to my NZ team, Tracy, Lucy & Stacy.

I’ve always been a fan of Dana Neibert’s work, and I recently came across his new kickstarter project called the DigiPlate. What I love about this is that it solves a lot of problems we encounter on set, and I’d love to see this product come to life.

We’ve been using a laptop bag for digital teching, and pretty much the only one we’ve found out there and it is awful, but what can we do? One of the major problems we encounter on a 10 hour day, is the laptop overheating in this case, which the DigiPlate not only mounts the laptop, but acts as a heat sink and helps pull the heat off the laptop. It also allows you to attach the station to different types of stands some cable management.

Enough of me explaining. Get all the details and support it on Kickstarter here. You can see an in depth description and videos. Check out the updates page for a video where they mount the laptop to the roof of a car and drive 80mph.

I have to say, I wouldn’t blog about it if I didn’t back it. Back it with me so we can see this product come to life!

Check it out!

Skydiving is one of the most amazing feelings ever. I would much rather jump out of a plane than bungee jump. The rush of falling at 180mph for 60 seconds is incredible. You actually feel like your flying. I just went for the 2nd time in Byron Bay, Australia this week. I swear I could get addicted to this.

We jumped from 14,000ft which is the highest package literally, but worth the extra freefall time. If you pay extra, you can get a dedicated photographer that jumps out of the plane with you and shoots photos of your short lived journey to the earth. I was curious of how they do it, and I learned about a cool little piece of photography technology that is interesting to share. They use mouth trigger that they can fire the camera by biting down on it as they’re falling through the sky(see the pic below. He’s holding the mouth trigger in his left hand). The dSLR camera is mounted to the top of his helmet(unfortunately he had a garbage Samsung camera inside).

Unfortunately most of the images were terrible. Due to a couple reasons. His camera settings were wrong, and he was using a Samsung camera. If he was using a Canon and set it right, 90% of them wouldn’t have turned out blurry. At least I got a couple decent ones that I had to really doctor in PS.



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.

Always a good feeling when someone hires you to help change their branding visually with your style. I’m very excited with how the final ads came out. I like how the typography is very complimenting to the imagery.

After fighting schedules, I was finally able to shoot my bad ass longboard skater friends, Nathalie & Jenica. There’s something I find sexy about attractive girls that can shred on a board, not to mention these girls are just plain awesome.

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.

I wanted to tell you guys about a recent other blog I’ve just launched called SLICE. Being that I’m into a lot of other things than just photography, I wanted a place to curate and distil the things I like since curation is the name of the game these days as we are bombarded with an over saturation of everything. Pulling the best out of the mess what we must do now a days. Tumblr is a great way to sift through content, and tumbl/reblog your favorite stuff, then have a place to go back and refer to it in the archive.

SLICE is a collection of snippets of some of my favorite photographs I’ve shot, other photographs I like, tech gizmos, music, food, great design & culture pieces.

Check it out here. http://www.nickonkenslice.com Tumbl and follow