I've never been an ambassador or a spokesperson for any brand or product, but when I heard that SunshineCo. were teaming up with the local distributor for Kupo Lighting, grip and accessories, I reached out to Willem - who is always ready to help out - and after initially opening talks between us (myself and my friend Ett) and the local distributors, Movievision, it was off to the races and off to Switzerland for me with the Kupo 20" compact C-stand in hand (or rather, suitcase).

*Sometimes you gotta make a plan real quick with random shit at your disposal.*

Last year I traveled to Switzerland without any lighting gear, other than my speedlights. No stands, no light modifiers, just me, my camera and some bare flashes. I made it work though, as can be seen above.

Back to the Kupo stand though. I could not believe my eyes when the entire stand with legs, arm, center column, and knuckle fit in my suitcase. I'm not going to lie - it takes a bit of dedication to travel across the world with lighting gear, but I was committed to doing so (and I should probably be *committed to a mental institution for that). Hahaha.

*send (someone) to be confined in a psychiatric hospital.
"you guys would have had me committed"
synonyms:hospitalize, confine, institutionalize, put away, lock away, lock up;
certify
"her husband had her committed after her eccentricity became dangerous"

*Yep! That's right. An entire C-stand in my suitcase, along with an 80x80 pop up softbox and bracket.*

In use though, this baby is great although I wish it could extend ever so slightly taller. One thing I love about it is the turtle base and quick release function of the the legs/feet! I feel so cool when I flip it open without any hassle or fuss, and the same when I close it again. And let's face it - who doesn't want to look a little cool in front of their client? So bonus points for that.

This is just a very short write-up on my initial experience traveling with the Kupo brand and having worked with their gear back in 2014, whilst interning with Zack Arias in America. I can still say that they make a damn good product and I'd recommend it to anyone looking into buying some good grip and accessories. And if you wanna travel with it, you can do that too :)

Thanks for reading.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

I like that quote. And yes, I just googled "travel quotes", because I don't know any. That was actually my first result and I think it rings very true. Prior to being 28 years old, I had never traveled abroad. The furthest I had ever gone was across one of our borders to Mozambique with a girlfriend at the time and her family.

Then 2013 came and this happened. Followed the link and you're caught up? Okay, great.

In 2014 I interned with American Editorial and Commercial Photographer Zack Arias for a few months and if you want to read about that you can check out the archival blog, Only in America. That was my first time traveling abroad and that just opened the floodgates.

My next trip was in 2015 to China with the Steinway artist Charl du Plessis, which was a very impromptu and spontaneous thing.

In 2016 I didn't have the good fortune to do any traveling. And that brings us to this year, where I basically invited myself to go on tour with the Charl du Plessis trio to Ernen, Switzerland for the Musikdorf Festival and also slap a trip to Italy on top of that and go see my friends Sara Lando and Alessandro Locatelli.

Why the f*ck am I writing about this? Well, because traveling opens you up. To new people, new experiences, possibilities. It breaks down self-imposed barriers. It's scary and wonderful traveling on your own and even with someone to foreign and strange lands where you don't speak the language and you communicate with your hands, eyes, making gestures. It's almost like charades in a strange way.

Anyway, here are some images from that trip.

Sit back, relax, maybe get some wine, because this will be a long one with many images, and then go buy a plane ticket and travel the world. It's one of the easiest things to do, which is both great and shit.

On the train from Zürich to the small town of Ernen. The reason for there being no images of Werner is that he forgot his glasses at the airport and had to double back to get them. Which I a happy to report, he did.

Some images from around the town as well as the trio rehearsing.

The trio rehearsing with Opera singer Rachel Harnisch.

On this morning I went hiking into the forests of Ernen and it was a really beautiful site. During the entire 90 minute to 2-hour walk I only encountered people twice. The thing that kinda took my breath away on this morning was the fact that I drank water from a glacier that was running down the mountain as you can see on the left in the second image. I just had to stop and take in how ridiculous this was, that two days prior I had been in South Africa and now I was in the mountains of Switzerland.

This was followed by the trio rehearsing with Rachel in the church where most of the performances take place during the festival. I also had the great fortune of photographing world-famous ballet choreographer Heinz Spoerli from the Zürich ballet company (he retired in 2012) along with Charl. This was a little bit of an impromptu shoot and as you can see I had to get creative with my lighting :)

The morning and the evening of the main performance of the trio with Rachel in the church.

WhatsApp Image 2017-08-05 at 17.14.10.jpeg

The morning before the trio's final performance, as they were rehearsing I photographed the husband and wife (the first two images) who are, I believe the main sponsors of the event, as well as Francesco Walter who spearheads the festival and the last images, are of Heinz Spoerli as well as a sneaky BTS image showing how I had a nice lady hold up a piece of tinfoil that doubled as a reflector. I had to be resourceful for a second time on this trip in how I photographed one of my subjects.

This is the town hall and the place that the trio first performed in 7 years earlier. It was also a fitting end to Hugo (the drummers') tenure, bringing it full circle by playing where it all began. Hugo now lives in Beijing with his wife.

And that was pretty much it for this first part of the journey. We ate well, drank well (some of us a little too well, I would wager) and hung out with strangers and friends. It was and is probably one of my favorite trips thus far and if all goes well I will return in 2018 to document a very cool collaboration and performance. Here's to hoping.

Part two will be up soon, where I speak a little about Italy and my time there with friends as well as on my own.

Thanks for reading