Connor Surdi

Blog of Connor Surdi, Photographer located in Seattle, WA.

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good morning nyc. 

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The Oregon Coast.

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Kiyomizudera - Kyoto, Japan.

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Cutie and the Beast.

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Venice, Italy. The City of Love.

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Inside some of Italy’s churches.

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The Milky Way perfectly aligning over the top of Mt. Rainier last month.

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This is my sister-in-law Katrina! 

She is super into fitness and recently became an ambassador for a brand called Tonic, from Canada. She needed some new images for her bio and who better to ask than her little bro?! We woke up at 4AM to drive to Alki to take these photos. Summer sunrises from Alki are my favorite and pair that with a model doing awesome yoga poses makes for a totally epic scene. Also - had to add some levitation shots in there, of course! 

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I had a 3 hour layover in NYC after I left Italy and I wanted to make it worth my time so I hit up one of my homies Erick Hercules! We barely had any time to do anything so he took me to a close subway station and we levitated around as much as possible. Just shooting with him for a few hours was awesome! It’s insane how the internet can bring people together. Erick and I had a similar interest in levitation photos and started a page called WeLevitate! I can’t wait to go back to NYC and spend a whole week there exploring the city and meeting like minded individuals throughout the city.

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Let me introduce you to Kelsey! We’ve been friends for years and she recently messaged me wanting to do a photoshoot. 

She wanted to do something cute, something sporty and my third suggestion was something in the forest with smoke grenades of course. As you can see...She killed it in all aspects! Shooting with her was so much fun and it was cool catching up on all the years that have gone by. Wish you the best with school, Kelsey!

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This is Eric and he is usually around the international district. After the M’s game, I walked back to my car in Chinatown. I decided to get some Oasis before heading home and saw Eric sitting outside the door. Seeing all the people walk past him and not acknowledge his existence really got to me. I ordered some bubble tea and popcorn chicken. As soon as I got my popcorn chicken...I looked outside and we made eye contact. It didn’t feel right. He needed the food more than me so I walked outside and gave him my popcorn chicken. The look on his face when I gave him the food made my night...Genuine happiness. Afterwards, I asked him if I could take his photograph and he agreed. He said, “Yeah man, I mean sure...but like, I’m not going to smile or any of that shit. I’m just going to look normal.” Which was exactly what I wanted. I asked him if I could print this photo then bring it to him...and he replied with, “I’m not sure if I’ll be around here in the next upcoming weeks because I go into treatment tomorrow.” So - Eric...I wish you the best of luck with your treatment and hope you succeed and live a great life. It was nice meeting you.

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Though the Mariners season this year has been extremely lackluster..They had a fireworks night tonight and that definitely brought a big crowd. It was almost a full house with people of all ages. We lost 11-4 (thanks Fernando Rodney!) but everyone stayed until the end to see the amazing fireworks show. I haven’t shot fireworks in quite a long time (4 years+) and I completely messed up my settings but I think I did a pretty good job of capturing the mood and feel of the night. It was beautiful and everyone was completely encapsulated in the moment. 80 year olds, 18 year olds, 6 year olds...Everyone had the same face like they were watching fireworks for the first time. The music, the smoke, the explosions...What an amazing night.

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After watching Straight Outta Compton the other night....I felt incredibly inspired and knew I had to go out and shoot in Seattle. You know, “do some hood rat sh*t with my friends” type of activities, haha.

Vendetta mask?  ✔

Smoke grenades?  ✔

Camera gear?  ✔

Checklist seemed to be in order so Jules and I made our way out to the Seattle i90 bike tunnel. Being that it was around 3AM...Any sound scared the hell out of us. So - to keep our sanity, we made sure we got our shots and got outta there. I always bring smoke grenades with me because you never know when they are going to come in handy so...We used a white one. It flooded the whole tunnel and covered all the security cameras at the entrance. At that moment we knew it was time to get going!

It felt good to go out at night again and make some cool imagery. 

Outfit details: Seattle Mariners Negro League Hat x Killion Seattle Brown/White Striped Tee x Uniqlo Camo Jeans x Nike SB De La Soul Low’s

Until next time!

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Pt. II

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Pt. III

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This morning.. Poppy passed away in his sleep. He was my favorite person ever, I love him so much and I miss him already. While I visited him last month, I took a ton of photos which are some of the best I have ever taken. I’m glad I was able to see him one last time and capture his personality through my camera. I hope you enjoy these photos of Poppy because I sure do. Ever since I’ve known Poppy, he’s always lived on Famoso, in Sahuarita, Arizona. That’s the spot! If I played baseball, I’d visit him and we’d hang out. Eat some popsicles and watch some movies!

This recent trip was different though… He wasn’t doing so well and I knew that prior to my visit. I knew it was going to be rough and I would have to help him with just about everything. He had to do breathalyzer treatments and he had a lot of medicine I had no idea about. All I knew was that he was in a lot of pain. We asked him “What can we do for ya, Pop?” And he would say jokingly-partially-seriously “Give me a gun so I can shoot myself.” We laughed but knew that he was in that mindset. He didn’t like to suffer and he missed the love of his life dearly, Eveline. No matter what, he always keeps his ring on. It’s the cutest thing. And now that he has passed away…I know he is in a big field with Eveline, holding her hand and having the best time ever. He just wanted to be with her.

As you can see in the photo above with him in his wheel chair and his hand on his head…He was in pain. Even though he was taking medicine to ease the pain…He was hurt. I felt so bad because I can only do so much, you know what I mean? I helped him in every way I could and he appreciated it so much. What’s funny about this photo is that after this shot he said “You’re starting to be a real pain in my ass Connor!”

He had a sense of humor that really shined through. Every time we chatted about something, he had to make a joke about something! He liked my hair and my glasses, or maybe he was joking? I’ll never know :) Check it above, he made me do a model release! What a sexy guy.

Another funny thing that we did was we took some ‘family photos’ in his living room. Whenever he sits in his favorite chair, he usually falls asleep. And special times, he’ll put his hands up like in the photo above. I thought it would be funny to take a photo with him like I’m controlling him like a marionette. He saw the photo and started laughing too!

Though this is hard on our family… I can’t imagine how my mom feels. :( She leaves in the morning to go to Arizona. I recorded her and poppy having a really great conversation and I’m so glad I did.