My good friends visited Ethiopia recently to film a project for Charity Water. The video is simply brilliant, and I hope you will all get involved to help sponsor the Andy Irons’s water well.
From the campaign page:
In January of 2013, we traveled to Ethiopia to make the short film below for Smile Generation and Charity Water. It was an incredible trip to document the daily lives of people with access to clean water and those without.
Please donate to our campaign which is dedicated to Andy Irons and his family. When our well is built, it will be in his name, a person very special to so many in the surfing family and beyond.
Every day, 5,000 kids die from water-related illnesses before they reach their fifth birthday. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are simple solutions like drilled wells, spring protections and BioSand filters that help provide clean water to communities around the world.
100% of the money will be used to build clean water projects, and when they’re complete, charity: water will send us photos and GPS coordinates so we can see the exact community we helped.
With love and appreciation-
Taylor and Sybil Steele and the entire Sipping Jetstreams Media team
Film Credits:
Directed by Taylor
Director of Photography Alejandro Berger
2nd Unit Director of Photography Johnny Abegg
Music by MT WARNING with Aska Matsumiya & Paz Lenchantin
Watch the video:
What an inspiring video, celebrating sustainable lifestyles and awesome DIY projects. Enjoy this video:
Credit: thisismadebyhand.com
-Kuni
Thanks to Yahoo!7 for this travel gear review column collaboration. My wife Angie tries and tests everything she reviews, and for this column we got to shoot and test the items in the beautiful location of the Maldives.
Read the full post here: http://au.totaltravel.yahoo.com/travel-ideas/news-opinions/news/a/-/17035653/whats-in-the-bag-essential-maldives-travel-gear-reviewed/?src=y7homepage
MT Warning invited my wife and I to come shoot behind the scenes on their tour in Brisbane last weekend. I’m saving the best shots for press, but here’s a little look at some of the late night shenanigans that went on when we went to check out the band play live at the Tivoli.
Special thanks: MT Warning, Taylor and Sybil Steele, Tahl, Cathy, Sofitel Brisbane
If you haven’t checked out MT Warning’s latest video Forward Miles, take a look:
-Kuni Takanami (Translated by Angie Takanami)
One of my biggest inspirations and favourite photographers/stylists/producers/directors to work with, Sybil Steele is a huge inspiration in my life and work.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Sybil on projects such as the Billabong Womens 2013 World campaign, Aila Blue, Angus Stone’s music video ‘Monsters’, and more recently MT Warning’s music video ‘Forward Miles’.
This is a great interview posted on Peppa Hart’s blog: http://peppahart.com/lifestyle/2013/4/26/sybil-steele-interview
Please enjoy the interview, and here’s a few portraits I’ve been privileged to capture of the beautiful Sybil.
-Kuni Takanami (Translation by Angie Takanami)
Back in January, Angie and I spent a week in the Maldives shooting video and stills for Yahoo!7 Travel. It was also part 2nd honeymoon, and our 5-year wedding anniversary. The Maldives have been copping a lot of flack lately, but we were privileged to stay at two very environmentally-conscious resorts “Anantara Dhigu” and “Shangri-La”. We met the locals who were very welcoming and told us of how they rely heavily on the tourism trade for survival.
Here’s a few shots from the trip, the rest will be launching on Yahoo!7 later in the year:
Special Thanks: Yahoo!7 totaltravel, Anantara Resorts, Shangri-La, Etihad, Emirates, Virgin Australia, My Maldives, Camilla, Mutherofallthings, Spell Designs, Makapu’u, Angie Takanami, Kerastase
-Kuni Takanami (Translation by Angie Takanami)
We moved onto a beautiful farm property late last year, and since then I’ve returned to the simple lifestyle in one sense, and jumped aboard technology in another.
Let me explain. When I lived walking distance from the local points, I would wake up early and assess the surf conditions through nature: analyzing wind direction through my bedroom window, checking the amount of sunshine to know if it would be a shooting or surfing day for me, and having had to drive along the coast road morning and night doing the kids’ day care run, I always knew what the ocean was doing.
These days, I retreat from the ocean to the farm, and watch the sun go down off the back deck, surrounded by lush nature and rolling pastures. But assessing the surf is a little more complicated, and requires a good deal of planning on the internet before deciding which way I will turn onto the highway when coming down from the land to the sea each day.
Today I made one of those well educated decisions which saw me frothing at the quality of weather, wind and waves. It was a fun shoot just for me, for the surfers, and for the ocean, here’s the result:
-Kuni Takanami (Translation by Angie Takanami)
I was very privileged to be asked to shoot the behind the scenes photography on set for the latest MT Warning music video, Forward Miles.
Directed by the incredibly talented Sybil Steele, with director of photography Paul de Luna, and starring the beautiful Sarah Ruba, we had a beautiful shoot out on the farm where I live with my family.
Here’s a peek from the shoot:
Check out the music video here:
MT WARNING will be supporting The Temper Trap and The Rubens in their upcoming tours. Checkout show dates here - mtwarningmusic.com
An eventful night a couple weekends back, Pennywise came to the Gold Coast and I was lucky enough to go to the show with good friend Taylor Steele. These guys were my teenage heroes, and I had many surf trips listening to their tracks, so I was stoked to finally get to see them live.
Kelly Slater joined us backstage and during the show Kelly and Taylor joined in the stage antics stage diving into the packed crowd.
Epic night, thanks Taylor, Kelly and Pennywise for the good times.
- Kuni Takanami (Translated by Angie Takanami)
Looks like Tracksmag caught the action on video, check it out:
