Build me up

In the last couple of days htere has been some reshuffling with peoples jobs. The trickle down effect of this was me being asked, if on short notice, would I be willing to utilize my passport and spend 2 months replacing a position that might become avaliable.
Titty fuckin yeah!
Then the small doubts started to creep in, leaving me now in the position of pretty much accepting that the offer is no longer on the table. In a time of pretty low personal morale, this intially lifted me up quite a bit, but that seems to have disappeared as quickly as it came.
I hate it when I let myself be built up, only to be squashed really quickly. It's happened so many times before, and I haven't really learned from previous disappointments how to deal with it properly.
I've told many a person, as a joke, that they should lower their expectations, that way you don't get disappointed.... maybe I should start doing that myself, or maybe not. Disappointment builds character, at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself.

My First Nudes

Last night I didn't get a lot of sleep. I think it was because I was pretty nervous about the Naked in the Houe shoot. I wasn't sure if I was ready, I didn't know if I'd atually bve able to create 12 images in the 30 minutes, and I just wasn't really sure how I'd cope working under pressure with someone I've never met and they were going to be naked. The age old saying of if you're nervous infront of a crowd, just imagine them naked and it should be alright. Well, I didn't have to imagine it, Kylie was naked.

In the end, I was really comfortable doing the shoot with her. She was really nice, friendly and a general pleasure to deal with, and I kind of forgot that she was naked, until she shivered a bit because of the cold. I didn't reach the twelve shot target. I spent a bit of time posing and setting the shots, and metering to get the look I wanted in my head, and the minutes passed really quick, and on my ninth shot the call of 'time' was made, and that was it, I was done.
It didn't really bother me that I didn't get to twelve. We are to submit three shots for the competition for judging, so I have nine to choose from, and they are all different. Now the only hard part is which three do I pick?

One thing that really interests me is what did all the other guys do? I'm really keen to see the variations and different approaches we took, with the same model and same location. We submit for judging in a couple of weeks, so I guess I'll know then.

It's winter

Just want to note tonight that it's fucking cold.

I think winter is starting today.

Piggy Back Danger

Ladies, don't let someone give you a piggy back if they are drunk. Especially through the streets os Surfers because if it goes all wrong, there will be crowds to witness it.

I was down the coast working on the weekend, and on Saturday night, a group of us headed out. While walking, Aaron offered Hannah a piggy back. Since there was two guys fighting for her attention, this seemed a sure fire way to get her alone and have some fun. Aaron starts charging down the street, Hannah on back, trying to dodge the crowd. Someone under the heavy influence of alcomohol can only keep this athletic prowessness up for so long, and as I had already envisioned in my head, Aaron trips on his own feet, and they both head for the not so soft paved landing.

Hannah rolls overv after a second and is laughing her guts out. Aaron was not finding the situation as funny. He had used his head as an implement to break his fall. A group of people walked passed and were also throughly entertained by the show put on, but strangely enough, didn't even ask if they were ok.

This whole situation was great for Josh because he was also after a bit of Hannah's attention, but now that Aaron had dropped her like a sack of beans, she wasn't so keen on persuing that one anymore. We got to Melba's, had a few drinks, Bec and I cut up the floor with some dodgee dancing while Josh worked on Hannah, but I think she was kind of over the night, so we left the boys there, and headed back to the Marriott to call it a night.

Ouch My Ears!

On Tuesday night I was a roadie for a day with Kurt. It was to help out Shakey, or a friend of Shakeys, but it meant that we were going to see a gig for free, aswell as getting paid for the day.
Normally you'd be kind of enthusiastic about getting to see a band for free, but after sound check, it was obvious that the night was going to be reduced to nothing more than a cluster fuck of black tee-shirted masses, witnessing a wank off on stage.
There's not much more pathetic than a keyboard player with all the nice gear, to then initiate the Casio demo settings and then jump around like he was trying to resurrect the pants of David Lee Roth or Eddie Van Halen, whose jumping antics were left back in the late eighties.
I listened to the first song from side of stage. It was hard to pick any differences between songs, they all went at a million miles an hour, all had the same drum fills, all had the same not so dramatic pauses, and to me it sounded like thrash metal church music.
The remaining time was spent in a room out back trying to escape the noise, and counting down the minutes till it was over so we could pack up and go home.
Kurt loved it though, as much as he loves Ben Lee, and Celene Dion. Both of those would have been more bareable.

The Return trip

Yesterday I rode from home to UQ and back. Roughly about 65Km.

I'm pretty sure that's the most I've done to date, so in someway I guess thats an achievement worth noting. I know it's not huge by any standards, but it will only grow from here onwards. I might invest in a bike computer/trip meter thingy so that I can keep better track of exactly how much I'm riding in a week.
I rode in mid morning, and the return trip was in the dark. On the way back I think I pulled a muscle in my back, so the speed was reduced, and a few stops to stretch it out was needed.
I just need to remember that it's not as strong as it used to be.

Go Naked!

Well not quite.

The Naked in the House competition has been set for the 27th of May.
I'm a little nervous, as this will be the first time photographing a nude model. I've drawn plenty of nude models in the past, but this is a bit different. The pressure will be on the be able to pose the model, find natural lighting that is good, and be able to get the shots right without any trial and error.
I've been doing research and collecting photos that I like, and also photos that I think are along my style and taste. It's more for the pose knowledge. The model will only do what us photographers instruct her to do, so if we can't think of anything, we'll come out with nothing.
To make things a little more nerve racking, I will be the first off in the morning. YAY. I don't mind actually, it gives me a chance to impress early and have some fun with it before other photographers potentially make her grumpy.

The days are counting down.

Book?

Thinking about how the world trip is planning on happening, which is by bike from Thailand to Uk, also has me thinking about documenting the whole thing. Kurt and I want to film stages, what we do with it I'm still not too sure. Maybe a mini documentary.
I'm also, and have always been keen on the idea of photographing the crap out of the trip in the expectation of producing a book. It will be a book of photographs from the places we pass through, the people we meet, food we eat, dangers encountered, cultural events, the way different people live.
It's nothing new or ground breaking, but since the world is always changing, new pictures always seem to find a market.
If a dairy is kept during the trip, this could also be part of the book. I have an idea on a way to intergrate the dairy and photos layout wise. It could almost turn into a journey novel with pictures, but in a coffee table style book. I'll let these ideas stew in my head and see if I can develop them further.