Journal
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.
Best of the Month - Vol. 2
Welcome to March's edition of 'Best of the Month'. The clocks have gone forward, the days are getting longer and summer looks to be finally on its way. We're celebrating the warmer, brighter days by sharing some of our favourite finds, photos and music from March. Enjoy! Best of the Web Ice, driftwood, foamy waves and … skateboards? Four skaters head north to the cold Norwegian coast in this film by Jørn Nyseth Ranum, applying their urban skills to unusual conditions. Here, they trade concrete, stairs and rails for beach flotsam, frozen sand and pastel skies. The film was shot using RED Dragon with Zeiss Ultra Primes, and you can watch the full length documentary about the project here. Photographer Daniel Soares presents this beautifully moody collection of neon-soaked stills of New York. The set truly captures a city that never sleeps as the ultra-bright fluorescence pours onto the streets at night. View more on c-heads magazine. 'Huis Ten Bosch' is a Dutch-inspired park in Kyushu Nagasaki Sasebo city, Japan. One upcoming attraction is this floating hotel room that takes you to a deserted island less than 4 miles away. As you fall asleep in the panoramic top floor bedroom and gaze at the stars, the capsule will transport you slowly to the island overnight. This slo-mo footage of Bottlenose Dolphins chasing a speedboat is the most relaxing thing we've ever seen. Shot on a Sony F5 by Bevan Crothers & Damian Christie. During Art Basel Miami in December, artist John Margaritis presented “Hoop Dreams” with New York Sunshine, blending basketball with the beach and ocean. The installation consists of a sunken basketball hoop with a chain link net, creating an unusual juxtaposition as the standing sports equipment breaks up the vast serenity of the view. Just last week, the creators found a piece of mirrored plexiglass in a vacant lot nearby and updated the backboard, reflecting the Florida sun down onto the waves. Tens Soundtrack This month featuring new music from Little Dragon, Thundercat, Drake, Jacques Greene & more. Hit the Spotify logo in the player below to open in the app. Be sure to follow the playlist, and save out any favourites! Best of Instagram Check out some of our favourite accounts we've come across on Instagram recently. We're always on the hunt for more inspirational feeds, so tag us in a comment if you'd like us to check you out. This month we're featuring @erikmarthaler, @space.ram, @jasonjko, @sophiachang & @ilkinkaracan. Best of #FilterYourWorld At Tens we put our community first, no matter what it is that we're up to. Here's where we share some of our favourite customer photos with Tens from the last month. We love seeing your tags with Tens, so be sure to tag us + #FilterYourWorld for your chance to be featured! Photos submitted (in order) by @eastcoasthealth, @domstuart (x2), @nclrnld & @marciaskints. ~ What things have you discovered this month? Are we missing anything? Message us on Facebook with suggestions!
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!
Crowdfunding Our New Collection
The eyewear industry has long been dominated by a handful of multi-billion dollar companies, making the landscape very difficult for smaller brands like Tens to thrive in. It is a fiercely competitive market, both online and offline. Whilst the story of Tens so far has been a success; the reality is that we still face the daily challenge of being up against the giants. We’re launching our all-new 2017 collection as a pre-order on Kickstarter at a special discounted price. We work hard to constantly deliver a high-quality product, and this year we’ve been able to source improved materials across the range. This includes the finest-grade Mazzucchelli acetate, originating from the renewable resources of wood pulp and natural cotton fibres. Essentially, we are able to launch our finest product to date via Kickstarter, whilst keeping the price tag even further below that of the giants. We’ve worked to keep the cost to you, the backer, as low as we can without ever jeopardising quality. Kickstarter allows us to do this as we can accurately predict quantities when we place our order with the supplier. We’re passionate about the product experience that we’ve got to offer and we can’t wait to share it with you all. 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. Want to be notified as soon as we go live? Click here.
Desert X: Bringing Illusion to Coachella
Running until April 30th, the Coachella Valley and 45 miles of its surrounding desert landscape is being disrupted by 16 contemporary art installations. The free event, curated by Neville Wakefield serves as the perfect bridge between Palm Springs Modernism week and Coachella music festival. "What excites me about this project is it’s an opportunity to see how art behaves outside of institutional walls," says Wakefield. "To see what it does to communities and how it draws different people in." 'Mirage', by Doug Aitken is modelled on a typical California-style family ranch, only the building is an empty shell that's fully clad in mirrors. The effect camouflages the building against the horizon from afar, but serves to internally ricochet the light of the desert valley from the inside. This creates a fractured, kaleidoscopic effect which adds an angle of discomfort within the empty family home. "After World War II, the ranch style's streamlined simplicity gained popularity as commercial builders employed a simplified assembly line approach to create this efficient form, matching the rapid growth of the suburbs," said the artist. "The mass-produced ranch home became a familiar sight across the country, the style filling the American landscape as quickly as each new subdivision was built." Aitken describes the Desert X experiment as “a vast sprawling parkour” and “puzzle of pieces that are all different within the land”. “I wanted to be here to see where suburbia ends and the landscape begins. This location was kind of perfect in a way. You have the seductive beauty, and then you have the wind farm, and suburbia.” Another display, created by Jennifer Bolande features billboards with snapshots of the mountains behind. Driving slowly down the desert road through Palm Springs, the billboards satisfyingly 'click' into place in front of their backdrops. The artwork was birthed from classic 'Burma-Shave' style sequential billboard ads, which told a story that could only be experienced in motion. Desert X will disappear from the valley after April 30th, however Aitken's mirrored house will remain through 'til October later this year. If you're in the area or travelling there, visit the Desert X website for information on how to / when to attend. View more works below from Claudia Comte, Phillip K Smith III & Glenn Kaino. All images by Lance Gerber.
Best of the Month - Vol. 1
At Tens, we're forever excited and inspired by all that's going on across our community and beyond. As a way of sharing more about what we're into (it isn't just sunglasses), we have curated our favourite news stories, songs, Instagram accounts and some of the best community photos we've come across. Enjoy, and look out for next month's! Best of the Web NASA has discovered not one, but SEVEN similarly Earth-sized planets which all orbit a single star 40 lightyears away. Due to the range of temperatures that some of these have, there could potentially be life of some form in this system. To celebrate their discovery, NASA released this stunning retro poster advertising the incredibly far away planets as a family holiday destination. Collaborators Mick Farrell & Cliff Haynes created a multi-point pinhole camera out of 32,000 drinking straws. Taking being disconnected from technology to a whole new level... VSCO, one of our favourite photography communities and essential on-the-go editing app just released their new VSCO X membership package. They're offering their entire 100+ preset library, exclusive new film presets & tools and much more for around $2 per month. Aerospace company SpaceX's Elon Musk has announced that they will be sending two yet-unnamed 'tourists' into space for a week-long loop around the moon and (hopefully) back. The two people, who know each other, have paid a "significant deposit" to travel, but will have to go through extreme fitness tests and training to prepare. Construction is well underway at Dundee's Victoria & Albert design museum. The London outpost was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, and the V&A have shared a close look at some of the angular structures that will make up Scotland's first design museum. Check out the photos below, and watch an update video from the V&A here. Vox take a look at how David Attenborough's 'Planet Earth' is filmed, and how they make unscripted animal footage look like a feature film. Explore the history of the camera technology used and learn how they make everything look so 'Hollywood'. Tens Soundtrack We've launched a new Spotify playlist which you can follow and soak in during your morning coffee, gazing out of your window seat or simply unwinding at sunset. We will update this every month with our current favourites so be sure to save it out if you're digging it. Click the Spotify logo in the player to open in the app! Best of Instagram Take a look at some of our favourite accounts we've come across on Instagram recently. We're always on the hunt for more, so tag us in a comment so we can check you out! This month we're featuring @clotwork, @leeorwild, @swopes, @itsreuben, @_joshdutton & @daniirey. Click through the photos to check out their full feeds. Best of #FilterYourWorld Last but not least, here are some of our favourite community-submitted photos from the past month. We love seeing where you take your Tens all over the world. Want featured? Be sure to tag us in your best photos with Tens on Instagram, using #FilterYourWorld to share your moments. Photos submitted (in order) by @omar_coria, @hp_visuals, @chaiwalla, @ross_fairbairn, @brianrapaport, @chiaraguarino__ & @duncshaw. ~ What things have you discovered this month? Are we missing anything? Message us on Facebook with suggestions, and let us know what you think of our new feature!
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
The World's Most Dangerous Train
Riding an iron ore train through the Sahara Desert, by Jody MacDonald & Leica. We first came across Jody's adventure shortly after the announcement of category winners of the Red Bull 'Illume' - a triennial photography competition celebrating lifestyle, action sports and the natural world. Across all the categories, there was one particular shot that caught our attention. Jody's winning shot in the lifestyle category featured a surfer sat on top of an ore train, with its length stretching towards the horizon of the vast desert. The shot came as a result of being asked by Leica to take their new X-U shockproof, weatherproof outdoor camera on an adventure. “I ended up in Mauritania. I have a particular fascination with the Sahara desert and I have always wanted to hop onboard Mauritania’s iron ore train. As I began researching this unique country I became more intrigued. Mauritania is a strange country. It’s one of the poorest in the world and a country in which 4 percent of its 3 million people are enslaved. It’s nearly twice the size of France and 90% desert – vast arid plains broken by occasional ridges and cliff-like outcroppings. Ceaseless winds constantly reshape the mountainous dunes of Mauritania’s interior, while its northern coastline is littered with rusty shipwrecks and long-forgotten landmines." “When I was young I used to look through National Geographic magazines and dream of adventures like this. Train hopping through the Sahara on one of the world’s longest trains. This was one of those rare times in life where the expectations of your dreams and reality converge and it plays out how you imagined. I had dreamt of the oceans of sand, the loud noises of the train, the cold, the wind, the scorching sun, the unknown smells and sounds of the desert and the discomfort that goes with it. That visceral experience is exactly what we got as we slithered night and day through the desert while sleeping on an iron ore train. Our 700km journey took us through the Sahara to the coast where we were hoping to find a place of forgotten shipwrecks and unknown surf.” Jody’s journey began in the capitol of Nouakchott, from where she, a surfer and a local guide moved north through the interior to board the Mauritania Railway. Their risky rail journey started from the iron-mining centre of Zouérat in the Sahara, and snakes through the barren dessert toward the port of Nouadhibou on the Atlantic. The majority of Mauritania’s lifeblood is found in its vast deserts. The export of iron ore is essential to the country’s economy, with the Mauritania Railway serving as the only connection between these remote locations and major shipping ports. The train also provides locals with free transport from isolated communities to the coast. More often than not, passengers ride on the iron ore itself, but some will pay a few dollars for a hard wooden seat in an overcrowded carriage. Heading to the Mauritanian coast on a 2.5km long cargo train with carriages carrying up to 84 tons of iron ore is a daring way to travel – but it’s also the only way. Should your car break down during an attempt to drive, you’re as good as dead. “We wanted to get to the coast to try to find some surf. My aim was to try and to capture the spirit of adventure and exploration through this incredible landscape. Adventure is not about the destination, but the process, hardship and inevitable beauty in the process of getting there.” This isn’t your average rail journey – the trip takes approximately 12 hours, during which travellers battle raging winds, dangerous sandstorms and sweltering temperatures. Despite being a seasoned adventure photographer, Jody was stunned by the challenges that she faced saying, “I am used to being in remote locations, but being in the Mauritanian desert brings a whole new set of challenges. The heat in the middle of the day is quite unbearable and when the train stops along the way, it’s so easy to get lost. And if that happens, the odds of someone finding you are very slim.” During the journey, the brutal Saharan conditions took a turn for the worse when Jody and her crew found themselves caught in ferocious sand storm during a stop. She says, “The storm came upon us very quickly. I had stopped to take some photographs outside and before we knew it, the wind picked up considerably and it started to rain. Within minutes, the wind increased to 150km/h. I thought my skin was going to scrape off, because of the rain and blowing sand. It felt like sandpaper on my skin. I have never experienced winds that strong before.” The gusts were so violent, it pinned Jody and the other passengers to the side of the train truck and made opening the truck door impossible. After a few minutes, the wind died down and they were able to open the door and board the train again. “When I got inside there was glass everywhere. Our back window had completely imploded. It was soaking wet inside too. Our guide had been sitting in the back and had cuts all over his body from the glass. It was crazy.” Incredible then, that in the midst of all this, Jody still managed to get some mind-blowing shots. After the storm subsided, the battered old ore train continued on and eventually pulled into Nouadhibou Station – on the Atlantic coast. Jody then continued to where her journey first began – Nouakchott. Just south of the capitol city’s coastline, hides one the biggest ship graveyards in the world. In the last few years many of the shipwrecks have been sold for their metal and have been dismantled but there are still some to be found. It’s after traveling to this impoverished, yet beautiful area, where she encountered more of the elements that make Mauritania so unique. One of the many interesting things I came across during my travels were the Imraguen fishermen. The term Imraguen means ‘the people who fish while walking on the sea’, as they cannot swim. The Imraguen tribesmen have maintained age-old lifestyles, based almost exclusively on harvesting the migratory fish populations using old traditional sailboats. The night I arrived in their village, one of the fishermen had fallen off his boat and believed to have drowned. The next day we looked for his body but never found it. It’s incredible that these people live by the sea and spend every day fishing, but don’t know how to swim.” Spending time in Mauritania is no walk in the park. And neither is capturing the true spirit of the impoverished country and its camera-shy people. It’s a journey that requires instinct, courage and the will to dive into the unknown. “That’s when I think adventures truly come alive and the magic happens,” Jody says. “You have to be vulnerable and curious.”
