Kiliii Fish Dreaming

Building Kayaks in Heaven (or Chewelah)

Kiliii Fish — Thu, 03 May 2012 05:25:01 +0000

Just returned from a lovely kayak-building course in eastern WA state. Chewelah, to be more precise. It was, as you can imagine, gorgeous, but on top of that it was sunny and we worked with the doors open to the outside world most of the week. A lovely time, and six brand new boats made by some very skillful builders. Here are a couple of photos.

Clear Water- Poster for the film about the Suquamish relationship with the sea

Kiliii Fish — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:28:11 +0000

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to work with Tracy Rector and Longhouse Media on the promo poster for their new film, Clear Water. Longhouse Media’s an unusual media company– awarded by National Geographic for their work on films about indigenous peoples and minority issues.

As a young indigenous photographer, it was great working with both elders and younger Suquamish tribal members to produce their portraits– it felt like doing important work. I felt like I was catching a brief glimpse in time as the Suquamish continue to blend the modern world with their strong culture.

One woman still freedives for Geoduck clams, some 30ft down in the icy waters of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound). Amazing, and such a strong spirit. I hope that with these portraits I can share some of that strength with you.

Get Drenched by HUGE waves with Daydream Vacation’s new video for Seize the Fire!

Kiliii Fish — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:18:32 +0000

Last month’s winter storm/music-video session with Daydream Vacation has debuted with Under the Radar Magazine! Says David Einmo of the shoot, “It’s Asya, me and the ocean. It feels really authentic to me. There’s no green screening us in. We were in the midst of winter storm and we got soaked by the waves, rain, wind, and snow. We smelled like seaweed for a week. In fact, Asya had to board a plane back to New York after the shoot and she had hermit crabs crawling out of her shoes. TSA gets pissed when that happens.”

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Raven’s Lament Demo

Kiliii Fish — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:25:33 +0000

What would Raven do? Listen to electric violin space opera dance madness, indigenous 2012 style. First demo track off the forthcoming album. AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWkkkkk!

Listen to the new track with the player on the right sidebar.

Scaling a 250 ft ocean cliff for a Daydream Vacation

Kiliii Fish — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 20:07:54 +0000

It’s not often that you get subjects that are willing to lay it on the line. Dave and Asya, the duo from pop electronic band Daydream Vacation, trusted me enough to scale down this cliff on ropes to shoot footage for an upcoming music video of their new single Dare Seize the Fire. Believe you me, they did a lot of fire seizing all weekend. That amazing sweep of waves you can see in this photo is actually the crest of waves about 20′ tall, with a 16′ swell on the coast preceding a storm that day.

Cinematographer Patrick Kehoe and I worked closely with Daydream to shoot an almost surreal and certainly epic scale video, along many locations across the Oregon Coast. Since I originally hail from that area, I knew lots of ‘locals only’ spots to find incredible environments. Look for the video for Dare Seize the Fire in about a month, and may your own day be filled with the light and magic of life.

Ugly machine transforms into Hero. A photo makeover story.

Kiliii Fish — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:19:48 +0000

I don’t typically work on products, but when art director at YArts described what she had in mind, I jumped at the chance to do something different and whimsical. Why not give a big utilitarian machine a hero treatment? So after shooting the big tank of a machine at Qwest Field in a field studio, with some compositing we turned it into an athlete. Since these machines are the ones that clean up ECO paint (first and only of its kind), I think they are heroes. Or at least their inventor is.

I definitely owe some inspiration to retoucher Janko Williams on this one.

Why Greenland Paddles won’t kick your butt

Kiliii Fish — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:20:32 +0000

I happened upon an excellent post from kayaker extraordinaire Greg Stamer explaining the differences and also primary advantages a Greenland paddle has over other kayak paddle types, especially the wing paddle. More after the jump.

Here’s a quote:

To generalize, a racer is often trying to maximize speed over distance usually with an extremely light, unladen kayak. A sea kayaker is often trying the maximize the number of “miles per Snicker’s bar”, often with a heavy or gear-laden kayak, day after day. These are related, but are very different things and need to be viewed separately.

In a racing situation — very light kayak, 10 miles or less, using a very high stroke, I’m about 1.5 – 2 minutes per mile faster with my wing than with a GP. That’s not much for touring but is an eternity for racing. Unfortunately this is not a perfect test since my current “go-fast” kayaks have a fairly high foredeck that makes it difficult to fully bury the blades of my GP at the catch. I have won local races with a GP over wings, but if I want my best time I use a wing.

You don’t get something for nothing. The speed comes with a price.

What’s the price of that extra bit of speed? Find out more at Greg Stamer’s blog.

The one reason why artist hate their work– and why they must keep doing it

Kiliii Fish — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:08:30 +0000

Folks, I can’t sum it up any better than this quote from Ira Glass. Found on Facebook somewhere but really a brilliant quote.

Kiliii Fish now represented by Wonderful Machine

Kiliii Fish — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:27:18 +0000

I’m excited to announce that I’m now represented by the photo agency Wonderful Machine. They have a fantastic team representing a terrific international roster of photographers and I’m looking forward to a long relationship.

Modern Art on Traditional Mukluks

Kiliii Fish — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:10:17 +0000

Louie Gong, one my favorite artists who blends a mixture of NW coast native and asian art influences into a rolling dynamo of style, has been doing his art on traditional Northern Native mukluks of late. I shot some portraits of Louie Gong for Manitobah a while back and here’s a tearsheet.