March is a beautiful time of year. The weather is usually somewhat settled, the holiday crowds are gone and the water warm. Do I really need to say more? Peep the latest episode below!
What a month it was. As I rebuild this series I will be dropping the regular episodes as per normal. Find out more about the new series here.
Well not quite dead but it’s been dying for a long time now.
I’m not particularly excited to make a TV show. I am however quite excited on the internet platform. Mainly because of the creative freedom and the pick and choose nature of it.
Right so to cut to the chase I feel you should watch the video first!
Right so if you’re into the outdoors or know someone who is then get in touch. I’ve already started filming so it’s underway. I want variety, action and good times. This is a really good opportunity for someone who wants to cross promote their platform or just want to see how much of a pain in the ass it is to film everything haha.
Please share this around if it sounds like a bit of you!
If you want to get in touch then email me sam@oxsenterprises.com or one of the other hundred ways to contact me.
Roughly one year ago I started making this series. I set out to make a little video about what happened in the month as I seem to get up to a lot of stuff that I felt needs to be all mashed together.
Maybe it’ll motivate some others to come get involved? I thought.
12 episodes later that hasn’t exactly happened but I do feel I’m starting to get the series where I want it. So here’s the little celebration of this series 1st birthday!
Hands up if you like the water? To say I do is an understatement.
I am now offering services based around the Boating and any marine based sports and industries. This ranges from boat shoots, fishing, surfing, scenic, sales, social media, video, photo, documentary, diving aaand you get the point. The options are basically endless. More details are in the video below
Own a business and need to show it off to the world? Then I have plenty of options to suit. Want to capture the true feeling of a Game Fishing trip? I can be there shooting it all. Have you been on trips with your mates and are looking to capture it? I know how to do it! Water sport event won’t film itself? I can do it!
Capturing the adventure in still form is a favourite of mine, from under the water to multi layer aerial panoramas suited for canvas or framed prints. Here’s a few favourites.
One of the caves at Goat Isand
Underneath the action
Motorsport applications? No worries.
Exploration to some of New Zealands remotest coastline. We are actually in this shot.
A classic pano of home. The original copy is over 10000 pixels wide!
New Zealand love their boats. All applications are suited.
I quite literally have thousands of photos that I could add but if you’re curious for more then I suggest keeping up on Facebook or Instagram.
You can of course view my video work here on YouTube.
Creative ideas, plans and pricing are all available by emailing me sam@oxsenterprises.com or call me 0211297511.
The dictionaries definition of hobby is this “an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.”
As children we all have hobbies. We have plenty of free time, therefore we have hobbies. Some of us continue with these hobbies our whole lives, most of us don’t.
As “adults” we need a hobby or two. Judging by our obesity statistics my opinion is that that hobby could do with being somewhat physical. A hobby that makes you sweat and improves your physical fitness is the best kind of hobby.
A lot of retired people need more hobbies. This would help occupy their time, assist with the aging process and lastly (and hopefully) give them an interest besides targeting young people having fun.
Even though we retire from work at a late age we seem to retire from hobbies much, much earlier. Remember the days when you had time to be bored? BORED! Now most of us just work too much in order to “get ahead”. I don’t quite know what is “ahead” but I do know a life without time for my hobbies is a shit life.
One of my favourite quotes is “You didn’t stop skateboarding because you got old. You got old because you stopped skateboarding”. I don’t skate but this is absolutely perfect.
I am an obsessive hobbyist. When I find something I like, I like to do it. Every so often isn’t enough, that’s not a true hobby. I want to get good at it and everything is a competition, including with myself. It’s gotten to the point where I believe you can monetize any hobby. But why do you want to make money from your hobby?
TO DO IT MORE!
This isn’t easy. In fact it’s bloody hard, just like life.
This weekend consisted of hobbies, nothing really else. Skimboarding, diving and good food was the order for Saturday
Sunday with better viz and a beaut forecast we were off to hit the water
If you’ve been following me for a while that this is a fairly common thing here. I’m learning more about myself all the time and where my hobbies can take me. It’s much further than you would think.
Lately I’ve been really nerding out of that thing called nature. I have always loved the outdoors and have always prided myself in having a child and adulthood mainly spent outside.
As you may know New Zealand is nice. I would sell it harder but honestly we have plenty of tourists as it is. One thing we don’t really have though is killer animals. You know like Lions and Snakes and shit like that.
When it comes to the ocean though, we have killers. Most we know about, some we don’t. It has been terrible for diving the last couple of months so I haven’t seen as many as I would have liked to. Yeap I want to see them!
This afternoon I saw something leap out of the water. My first thought was a big Shark. A bluey grey colour makes me thing Mako. I didn’t want to jump to a conclusion so I just assumed dolphin but with no fins, spray or jumping in the little while after bring me back to Mako. This is awesome! Just nature doing nature and only a couple hundred metres off the back of one of my favourite dive spots. Wasn’t a baby either.
The Far North has it’s fair share of these predators and I have been spending a bit of time there recently. The last trip was to try and spear a Marlin. I’ve dropped a heap of vlogs as usual so you’re welcome to dig a little deeper in OXS TV. The day below consisted of huge dunes, big wave and weather forecasting for the next day
Game day. As far as being nervous goes, this day was up there.We went out so try find a Marlin to spear. I was to be alone in the water in a pressure cooker situation. Here’s the day
As I get a little older I’m feeling more drawn towards this sort of stuff. After seeing what I’m pretty sure I saw today (what a mouthful), I flew the drone over the area in the hope I could spot something, did a little work out then just went back to the water and stared. Fascinated.
Long term I want to get a lot more involved with this sort of thing and document it. Nature tearing nature a new ahole is weirdly fascinating and I want to be part of it.
What happens when you combine huge clean waves, fast inflatable boats and some people keen/brave/stupid enough to pilot them?
Put simply, a butt puckering race that not everyone is going to finish.
Being very new to Thundercat racing and really not much of an idea of the going ons from a spectators perspective, it’s been a bloody great challenge to get it all on film this year. It’s taught me plenty of things about my own style of shooting with the biggest one being that I feel very comfortable with a very strong “run & gun” approach. There’s certainly no rehearsal, just get the damn shot!
The last leg of the nationals saw us out at the Elbow Sailing Club on the Waikato river, a scheduled prop change at Karioitahi Beach, a bumpy ride around Manukau heads then a drag race to the finish in the Waiuku township. The GoPro footage was fairly intense with the huge surf and committed racers. Check it below
As for the 2018 season I’m already thinking big. Better production, more ideas, more content and another great season.
Lastly a huge thanks goes to the organisers and racers. I have enjoyed this far more than I thought I would and I thought I was really going to enjoy it. Seeing a group of people passionate about something that scares the shit out of most people is fantastic. The competition, the beach, the boats and the laughs has got me excited for the next season already!
Each month I try to create an edit that stimulates me on many levels. One is that it makes me want to do it all over again. Another is that it’s simply a pleasure to watch. Action packed moments combined with the slower, more scenic ones are equally important.
Decembers episode has manged to make me feel those things so I won’t delay. Here is the sixth installment of Alive in New Zealand
The footage from both January and February has been shown and is waiting to be edited.
Holidays. For “adults” this usually means a couple of weeks off with everyone else at Christmas time and a little break here and there throughout the year.
The thing is, we all have to work. We have to work because we have bills and those buggers don’t stop!
Living in a small coastal town such as Omaha, it makes you very aware of the holiday season. It starts building throughout December with it’s absolute peak over New Years and it’s supporting circus all through January. Anniversary weekend is usually the send off then Waitangi weekend (if the dates make for a long weekend) then boom! Everyone’s gone. Omaha seems pretty dead this week!
If I had to pick and choose my holidays I would definitely pick right now. The weather is nice, the crowds are gone and the water warm. Yes please!
If you’re lucky enough to love your work as much as I do then all of this really becomes irrelevant. No set hours, no real rules, no dedicated holiday periods. Sounds easy huh? Wrong.
The big difference is I don’t really knock off. There’s no 5 o’clock knock when you can go home and not care. Over the last few years I’ve had to work out how to stop and start work as it suits. For instance say the surf comes up. Hell yeah I’m out there but it means I might be back at work until 11pm. Tides look good for a skim? Well it’s “R&D” time. Off filming all weekend? Well it’s the hours usually at night piecing it all together.
Long term I essentially want to feel like I’m always on a working holiday. I think that’s probably a lot of peoples idea especially when it comes to the creative field. I certainly don’t want to be stuffed in a job where I get to look forward to my next decent break at Christmas next year.
Waitangi day had the working holiday feel. A great dive in the morning followed by finishing up a big print job.
I’m eyeing up a few days away very soon. I don’t know the details yet but a few days “off” is welcome. Have fun at work.