Journal
Iceland: A Road Trip on the Tundra
"I really don't know how I feel after the experience. We circled the island with broken hearts and open minds. Young souls constantly waiting for the sunrise. That's who we are. That's how we do." Follow Barcelona-based photographer Enzo Iriarte on a goosebump-inducing summer's trip through the moody tundra of Iceland. The famous Ring Road encircles the entire country covering over 800 miles on Route 1. While you could technically drive the whole thing in less than 24 hours, Enzo & friends took 10 days, stopping where they could along the way. Food was expensive, but the memories were priceless. Swipe through the photos below and see more of Enzo's work here. Models: Katia Ramos & Zakari Kunakey
Watch: British Columbia by Tom Welsh
A collection of holiday memories from 10 days in BC, Canada, by Tens co-founder Tom Welsh. "After a commercial job I was DPing finished in Vancouver, I delayed my flight back to London and spent a thoroughly enjoyable week and a bit in the Canadian sun. I hadn't intended to shoot much but grabbed my camera right before I left Vancouver, taking the seaplane out to the Island - I thought it'd be worth shooting, and ended up grabbing little bits of the rest of the trip. I shot less than 2 cards but it seemed a shame not to do anything with it. Locations: Sooke, Vancouver Island, Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, Fraser River Reaction Ferry, LOTS of Highway 99. Equipment: A7SII + SLR Magic 50/1.1 & Tokina 11-16/2.8 + Zhiyun Crane, PP8 Cine 4 + DELUTS See more of Tom's work here.
Empowering Youth Through Skating
“I support Skateistan because I believe skateboarding can be a catalyst for positive change, especially among children." Tony Hawk, pro skateboarder Skateistan is an award-winning international non-profit organisation that provides programs combining skateboarding and education to children and youth aged 5-17 in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Through the hook of skateboarding they engage children, especially girls and children from low income backgrounds, and provide them with access to safe spaces and education. Skateistan's innovative programs teach children valuable life skills that go beyond the skatepark and the classroom. Their core programs aim to keep children and youth involved in the Skateistan community for the long term. As students get older, they become role models to the younger children and the wider community. Join us in Donating Today The animation below, created by Berlin-based illustrator Maria Giemza and animator Dominik Grejc, tells the story of an Afghan girl empowered through skateboarding and education. Based on the real life of a Skateistan student in Kabul, Afghanistan, the animation showcases the impact Skateistan's programs have on the lives of children and how the charity works to empower children and youth around the world. Skateistan Students Over 1,800 children and youth are part of the programs worldwide. Skateistan believes that positive social change happens when children are educated on how to take care of themselves and their community. Skateistan addresses gender inequality by including as many girls as possible in their programs. Over 50% of registered students are female, and Afghanistan has the highest percentage of female skateboarders in the world. Skateistan offer girls-only sessions at all of their Skate Schools worldwide. Educational and recreational services for youth are often compromised in places of long-term conflict and concentrated poverty. Yet, when millions of youth miss out on experiences of playing and learning, they lose opportunities to develop essential life skills, to imagine a new world for themselves, to evolve into leaders, and to develop effective solutions for their communities. Skateboarding is accessible to children with physical and cognitive disabilities as it can be practiced in some form by virtually anyone. The ability to take part in sport and creative activities builds students' confidence, self-esteem, and provides a valuable platform for self-expression. For children of migration backgrounds there are many obstacles to accessing education. Skateistan works with internally displaced youth, nomadic communities, economic migrants and refugees. Q&A How do youth benefit from skateboarding?Skateistan’s model is founded on the belief that skateboarding is a great equaliser. With a safe space and staff trained in delivering quality programs, we develop community leaders and skateboarders who know how to safely fail and persevere through adversity. This new generation of role models is equipped to tackle complex problems in their own lives as well as in their local and global communities.What are the benefits of children being part of Skateistan’s programs?At Skateistan, children find a fun, safe community where they can play and learn, free from discrimination and violence. Within a diverse peer group they come to understand themselves as equal with others, while learning new skills and building friendships. As members of a thriving learning community, youth develop key life skills and increase their confidence. Youth set goals, stay in school, and become involved in civic engagement activities. Many become role models for their peers in the skatepark and classes. At 18, youth graduate from Skateistan and from high school with an expanded notion of community, and the tools to seek out further education and employment. Some become Skateistan volunteers and staff, and all join a global community of active, engaged citizens - promoting such values as equality, education, and inclusion.Was the community involved during construction of the skate schools?Yes. Involving the local community was important for consent; we put in the effort to operate in a culturally-sensitive and appropriate manner. It is common for local government, youth, parents, and community groups to work together to build safe, supervised, and youth-friendly facilities. Watch how the Skate School was made in Johannesburg.Can girls participate?More than 50% of students are girls! Getting girls on a skateboard has been a priority since Skateistan's beginning. However, we acknowledge that there are many obstacles to teaching girls — and that is why we hold the support of the parents, local community and government in such high regard. Half of our students are female, giving Afghanistan the highest rate of female participation in skateboarding in the world. They are taught on separate days at the park, by an all-female staff. In South Africa and Cambodia, Skateistan hopes to address the gender gap through their girls-only sessions. We run 14 of these girls-only sessions each week around the world.Can people with disabilities participate?Yes. A focus of ours is working with youth living with a disability. Students can take part in our Skate and Create program and we run Outreach sessions with partner organisations. Skateboarding is accessible to children with physical disabilities, as it can be practiced in some form by virtually anyone. The ability to take part in sport and creative activities builds students confidence, self-esteem, and provides a valuable platform for self-expression.Are the students safe?The Skate Schools are supervised and secure private facilities that are built and run with community consent. We are in regular communication with local safety organizations, as well as with government and local community leaders, so that we receive regular security updates and conduct activities safely. When skating all students must wear a helmet and safety pads.Are the programs free for children?Yes, this is essential, as most participants of Skateistan cannot afford to pay for lessons. There are absolutely no costs incurred by students for any activities, for example, all materials needed in the skatepark or the classroom are provided to students by Skateistan. Additionally, we arrange transport for girls in Afghanistan to make it easier and safer for them to attend. Images & words courtesy of @skateistan. Learn more at skateistan.org.
Watch: A Tens USA Road Trip
"We drove for 90 hours across 3,392 miles to discover the States' finest views." Follow young Swiss filmmaker Kevin Ringli through west-USA with Tens. He brought with him a very talented crew who dreamed of capturing a new part of the world in a different light. After growing up and developing their skills in and around the Swiss alps, the golden light of the west was calling... Images by David Hubacher Follow the Crew @davidhubacher, @kevlevitate, @opticchina, @dom_nike & @kevin_mr Gear (video):Canon EOS 1DX MKIISigma 20mm f/1.4Sigma 35mm f/1.4Canon 100mm f/2.8Dji Ronin MDji Phantom 3 ProGear (photo):Canon 5D Mark IIICanon 16-35mm f/2.8Canon 35mm f/1.4Sigma 85mm f/1.4
Burma: To Stand & Stare
By Tom Welsh With a looming job in Singapore I persuaded production to book me an early flight out from London - the very next day. Facing a week on my own anywhere in South East Asia, I juggled the well-trodden destinations... but a couple of friends suggested Myanmar (Burma). Hours before my flight left London I submitted a visa, booked a flight from Singapore to Yangon and a couple of nights in a Hostel. I barely knew anything about the place and joyously had no time for Trip Advisor threads & information overload; I’d packed no digital video kit or laptop, just my Bolex & a backpack of 16mm stock. I dictated my movements each day on advice from locals & other travellers, trying to cover as much of the country as I could by train - travelling North through Bagan up to Mandalay, and further on to Gotiek. It’s a truly beautiful country with undoubtedly the warmest people I’ve met; and a place I spent whole afternoons without seeing another tourist or traveller. The verse is from ‘The Golden Gate’ - a book of British poetry for Burmese school children that I bought on the street on my final day. The poem felt closed my trip perfectly - I’d spent most of the week staring out of train windows feeling a million miles away from London. Soundtrack by the wonderful Leif Vollebekk. I had his record ‘Twin Solitude’ essentially on repeat for the whole of the trip. Shot on Kodak Vision 3 with my Bolex S16. Process & scan by Kodak London. Follow Tom Welsh on Instagram.
Shooting Our 2017 Campaign in Mexico
For our 2017 campaign, we went to Mexico for two weeks. Why Mexico? Because it was December and Mexico was (mostly) sunny... Five of us from Tens (Kris, Tom, Iain, Taylor & Marty) flew out to the east coast of Mexico, meeting up with the most incredible team out there to help us pull together the campaign. We worked with an old friend Bex from Luna Negra, photographer Omar Coria, his assistant Izack, and Frank & Esperanza on hair and makeup. We could not have asked for a better crew! We landed in Cancun, and picked up our rental for the duration - a 15-seater V8 bus that was definitely the largest thing we'd ever driven. Vehicles in the Americas are just on another level of huge. Adjusting to the automatic gearbox, reverse parking the thing, and driving on the other side were the first of many, many challenges. These included, but were not limited to stolen plates, various cop pull-overs / searches (we had a LOT of kit), mosquito bites, painfully spicy hot sauce, tequila, tropical downpours and our lack of Spanish lingo. For our scouting and shooting days, we set up headquarters at an Airbnb in Playa del Carmen. The location was ideal as we were right in between Tulum (where we were filming), and Cancun airport. Having to pick models up and drop them off there everyday meant having to find a suitable midpoint. Once we had adjusted to the time difference, and our stomachs adjusted to the (super) spicy cuisine, we called up our friend Bex, and started off the trip with 4 days of location scouting around the truly incredible Tulum. We explored the beaches, resorts, jungles, cenotes, highways & the Caribbean Sea - mapping out our spots for each of the six models we were shooting with over the next week. Once we had a rough idea of where we were shooting, we got started. Despite the 30ºC heat for most of the day, we didn't have as much sunlight as we thought. Each shoot day we were up at 5am to head down the highway to catch the sunrise and get the most out of the daylight. Luckily the team, and our models (from Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia & Holland), were incredibly easy to work with - making even the toughest moments feel effortless! View our BTS 'Handycam' movie above, and take a look into how we created our 2017 film. The kit: Sony FS7 Sony A7Sii Bolex S16 Sony RX100iv Zhiyun-Tech Crane 3-Axis Gimbal Devin Graham Signature Series Glidecam Vintage Russian Prime Lenses ~ Visit our Kickstarter page here to pre-order our new collection.
Tens 2017 Has Arrived
Pre-order now We’re super proud to present our brand new video, lookbook and five new styles - all featuring our signature lens tint to make life look happier. We’re hugely grateful for your support and hope you’ll love and share what we’ve been working on. In addition we’ll be giving a limited edition Tens t-shirt to the first 100 backers of our all-new collection. We really do hope that you like it and whether you’re a new backer of Tens or have been with us since the beginning, we’re hugely grateful for your support.Watch our new film below, and browse our 2017 lookbook here. All shot in Tulum, Mexico. Visit our Kickstarter campaign page to pre-order your pair, thank you so much for pledging if you've already supported the campaign!
Aerial Frontiers: A Drone Film Showreel
The past year has been an incredible adventure for our friends at Aerial Frontiers. They have worked on over forty projects (including for ourselves) across the globe. They travelled worldwide flying their DJI S900 drone equipped with the Panasonic GH4, and the DJI Inspire Pro equipped with the X5. The film features work from the likes of Mercedes Benz, The Yacht Week, Irn Bru & much more. Hit full screen, plug in your headphones and be immersed in some of the best aerial cinematography around. Check out more of their work here ~ aerialfrontiers.com Photos by @aerialfrontiers & @campfireagency
The Problem of the Wilderness
A film by Tens co-founder & filmmaker, Tom Welsh. I went to Alaska for New Year with my friend Dan; we spent a week travelling North from Anchorage by rail, 4x4 & light aircraft. I took along my A7SII for the trip. Towards the end of 2016 I desired a trip disconnected from technology & work, somewhere 'into the wild' that I could disconnect somewhat from life in London. After our Tens campaign shoot in Mexico in December, I headed north to Vancouver and spent Christmas snowboarding. Alaska looked like the most logical stop after that for a week or so in the wilderness. The more (little) I researched and booked, I realised I should probably take a camera with me, but didn't want to be inconvenienced by all the gear I usually travel with - FS7, 16mm kit etc. So just took the basics. The verse is from a book I found in our cabin - 'The Problem of the Wilderness' - that really resonated with the journey. Bob Marshall was an environmental activist who wrote extensively about Alaska in the early 20th Century. "It is well to reflect that the wilderness furnishes perhaps the best opportunity for pure esthetic enjoyment. This requires that beauty be observed as a unity, and that for the brief duration of any pure esthetic experience the cognition of the observed object must completely fill the spectator’s cosmos. There can be no extraneous thoughts—no question about the creator of the phenomenon, its structure, what it resembles or what vanity in the beholder it gratifies. “The purely esthetic observer has for the moment forgotten his own soul”, he has only one sensation left and that is exquisiteness. In the wilderness, with its entire freedom from the manifestations of human will, that perfect objectivity which is essential for pure esthetic rapture can probably be achieved more readily than among any other forms of beauty." Everything is shot on the Sony A7SII, often with the Zhiyun Crane 2 axis gimbal. I used 3 lenses: Sony 24-240/4-5.6, Sony 10-18/4, SLR Magic 50/1.1. I shot in PP8 Slog3.Cine colour with CINE4 Gamma, graded with DELUTS (deluts.com) in Premiere. Follow Tom's future adventures at @getdeluxe
