surrender.

I'm having lots of fun and adventures shooting some self portraits just for me, this was one of the more adventurous though..

I've wanted to take photos at this shell of a house for years and I recently plucked the courage to go do it (the sunshine had made me giddy)!  I loaded the pram with my cameras, tripod, wattle wreath and my almosttwoyearold, off we trudged but when I got there I almost chickened out as it's on a main road, it was broad daylight so everyone could see me and trespassing made me feel a bit naughty.  I recently read a quote which is something along the lines of - if you makes you feel like throwing up, do it.  So with that quote in mind I psyched myself up and got out the tripod then a family (yes, a family of 4 or 5) came to ask me what I was doing!  Turns out they own the property, I asked if it was okay to use the walls as a backdrop, which it was, phew! I was relieved to have their permission.  I would love to shoot some more work there so hopefully that doesn't push the friendship too much.....

I love the final image (above), it is what I envisioned plus it's exactly what I wanted to express.

Geeky stuff: photos were shot on Canon 7d and Diana cameras

bula!

I've just returned home with a THUD after living in singlets and being barefoot for nine days in Fiji.  Absolute lazy, relaxing, tropical bliss.

The trip over wasn't so bliss as our flight was delayed and we didn't end up flying out until 2am!  Add in a couple of small children that slept a total of 3 hours that night, throw in some parents that didn't get a wink of shut eye, and you got a bunch of adults falling off the plane looking and feeling like they'd been at the disco all night.  Without the good times.

We stayed on the coral coast which is a 1.5 hour drive from the airport and in that time I saw a kabillion things I wanted to photograph.  Literally.  I didn't take a single photo on the first day in my sleep deprived haze, the kids kept going and even had energy to have a dance before tea time.  J was dancing to Elton John's Nikita under the dance lights and he was feeling it, totally in the zone.  I wished I was filming it, it looked like a beautiful film clip.  Both boys fell asleep half way through dinner, I wish I had evidence of that as well...

We had a proper holiday and didn't do much, our days consisted of something like.. eat / walk along the beach / eat / rest / swim / eat / watch the kids dance / bed.  Repeat.

Even though I seemed to live at the buffet, I couldn't get the half built deserted homes I had seen out of my head.  The traces of life within the overgrown landscape has really struck a chord with me and I can see a series in my head, I want to go back to photograph what I saw and learn more about the stories of these homes.  It's been written on the to-do list, travel grant applications here we come!!

Ps. this was our resort.  Terrible huh?

bats

I'm on a mammoth mission to edit my backlog of personal snapshots and file them by date order before wedding season kicks off (September 1st for me).  And I just came across a few photos I snapped of some bats from my hotel balcony while I was in Sydney to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibition last year, so I smooshed them together and here we are....  


I like bats.  Sometimes they fly over my house and that makes me happy.


Ps. I couldn't think of a witty title on this Sunday evening so I went with.. bats.  Creative huh?


Pps. smooshed is a technical photography term

location scouts

The boys and I went on an adventure on the weekend.. We were using my foggy memories on a foggy day to try and find the oak plantation near Harcourt, and amazingly, we did!  I scouted a couple of locations for my next series actions. while the boys fell/jumped in muddy puddles.  I sure was glad I packed a change of clothes...

R's trousers are actually a cream colour.. can't you tell?