Here are some recent photos I took on 2 different ski trips.
All these were snapped with my Sony ZV-1 (which is really a camera made for vlogging, but it takes nice photos too)
See you soon,
-Oliver
What is counter culture
I think being counter culture nowadays means creating instead of consuming.
We all know America (and the world) is a culture of consumers. On a large scale, we take the natural resources of the planet and convert them into products that consumers (us) buy. There’s a reason when we talk about the economy, we citizens are called “consumers” because we are literally consuming the resources of the planet that we’ve turned into products.
But consuming not only happens when you buy something. You scroll TikTok, you consume. You scroll IG, you consume. Twitter, Reddit, SnapChat, the internet as a whole. It’s short bits of entertainment meant to be easily consumable that you digest for half a second, forget about, and then move on.
This theme of everyone living their lives by purely consuming and not creating is something we’ve seen in movies like Wall-E and Idiocracy. (And in both those films the citizens had to learn to create again to regain their humanity.)
The system itself, is designed for consuming. So counter culture then, must be creating.
Being counter culture, to me, means creating art. (And not with the intention to become famous or make money.) Making art purely for the sake of making art. You don’t just sit around and think of yourself and what other people will think of you, you get up and create something. You take risks, you experiment. You don’t just spend your days consuming.
Just something to think about.
Till next time,
-Oliver Endahl
Sarah Bella in Pepsi
A few shots from my time with model Sarah Bella sporting Pepsi attire
Sarah brought the A game and really crushed the retro Pepsi vibe.
Sarah’s makeup was done by the talented Sommer Anzaldo.
Till next time,
-Oliver Endahl
If the internet was different
If Instagram and TikTok didn’t exist, would people still “create”?
Whether people want to admit or not, the thought that nearly everyone has kept in the back of their mind while on a photoshoot for the last 15 years is “Will this do well on social media?”
If you’re a model, photographer, dancer, actor, baker, etc.. Would you still create if you couldn’t post it to a social network? I’ve met many people who were only at the photoshoot to produce “content” for Instagram. And I gotta be honest, that sucks. Cause really that means the thing they’re actually into, isn’t the process of creating art, playing or experimenting. That means the thing they’re actually into is getting validation & gaining social notoriety through posting on the internet.
Here’s another version of the question: What videos would people create and post if you couldn’t follow or like any of the posts?
What if TikTok/Instagram/YouTube didn’t exist, and the only way people could watch a video on the internet would be to have a direct link to an actual website, where the video file was hosted, and that’s it. You couldn’t follow the person who created the video, and you couldn’t like the video. You could only watch it thru a direct link on a website.
How many of the videos that you see on TikTok would still be posted if you couldn’t follow the creators or like the video? I would think, not very many.
And that’s the problem. Whether people are putting out comedy videos, lifestyle content, political videos, outrage at whatever is in the current news cycle that day, etc.. All of these people aren’t actually creating for the sake of spreading the word about their topic, they’re creating to have people hit follow and hit like.
Keep that in mind next time you’re watching a short form video. Ask yourself: “Would they still make and post this video if no one could follow them or like the video?”
Till next time,
-Oliver Endahl
Bradley Denniston: Musical and Photogenic
Bradley Denniston is an audio engineer and singer/song writer. When it comes to audio, there is nothing he can’t do. Plus in addition to all that, he’s also very photogenic.
On top of his solo pop music career, he’s also worked on the music for a ton of movies and TV shows that you’ve probably seen. Including: Thor Ragnarok, Cannon Busters, The Lego Movie, The Lego Ninja Movie, Abstract: The Art of Design, Beatriz at Dinner, Pitch Perfect 2, Vacation, Hotel Transylvania 2, and 22 Jump Street. (Just to name a few)
For these photos, Bradley and I got together and shot at a photo studio in Los Angeles from the afternoon into sunset.
You can stream Bradley Denniston’s solo pop music on Apple Music and Spotify (And all other streaming networks)
My four current favorite tracks by him are currently “Stolen Love” “Stars” “Haunted by You” and “Reflection”
You can also check out all he has to offer here thru his Link Tree
-Oliver
More fleeting than you think
One of the biggest misconceptions and mistakes I see, is how much the thought of social recognition, the thought of being famous, drives people.
Fame drives some people so much they are blinded by it. It can affect them in a variety of ways, and of course it can affect the work that person produces during their life.
Here’s the thing about fame though, it is extremely fleeting.
In fact, it’s so fleeting, that there is basically no world where the pursuit of fame is worth it.
The pursuit of becoming famous, generally, requires a tremendous amount of energy, work and luck. But even when everything falls into place, the rate that fame disappears is extremely fast.
Let’s look at 90s boy bands. The 90s were 30 years ago now. The Backstreet Boys, N Sync, 98 degrees, etc.. These boy bands had multiple members each, and each band was huge. They were at the top of the music game. Doing world tours and they had fans in various countries around the globe. But now? If you saw any member from any one of these bands, besides Justin Timberlake, would you recognize them? Probably not. And that was only 30 years ago.
Fleeting like snow
Let’s go back further and look at Hollywood.
Here is the wikipedia description for the actor “Clark Gable”
“William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor. Often referred to as the "King of Hollywood"he had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in a variety of genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades of which was as a leading man. He was named the seventh greatest male movie star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute.” (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Gable )
The KING OF HOLLYWOOD. Does it get more famous than that? And now just a few decades later, the vast majority of people haven’t even heard of him. He was the fucking king of Hollywood. So it’s just comical to me that there are so many people constantly striving for fame, when even if they achieve it, even if they become a star so big they earn an awesome nickname like the king of Hollywood, they’ll be forgotten just a short while later.
You’ll eventually pass a mountain range as you drive by.
This post isn’t meant to bum you out, it’s just an observation. It’s a good thing to keep in mind.
Till next time,
-Oliver Endahl