Anniversary Weekend with My Love

A few weeks ago in mid-October, I celebrated my three year anniversary with my best friend and lover, Otis.

Not being able to travel on a holiday together this year, we decided to take a break from Sydney and make a weekend of it.

We left on a Thursday evening after work, heading out toward the Blue Mountains. It was super hot, and as we drove into the setting sun of the west, we ate Thai and laughed.

The first night we just settled into our room and set in for a good sleep before our adventures began the next day!

On Friday morning, we made pancakes with chocolate and strawberries, which was amazing.

Then we packed our bags and headed off to Jenolan Caves.

Along the path down to the cave entrances, I caught a beautiful Wisteria in the midday sun.

We decided to do the two hour River Cave tour. It provided some of the most sensational and beautiful shapes and images with its narrow paths, beautiful deep cave river which is 22 metres deep and all of the stalacmites and stalactites.

By the time we reached the end of the tour, the sun has dropped, and was catching the afternoon light beautifully. Nature is something truly magical.

To rest our feet after our days adventures, we treated ourselves to a spa and some afternoon snacks! We had the most amazing and tranquil view from our room which accommodated kangaroo and wombat friends as dusk rolled in.

Saturday involved bacon and eggs to get our day started, followed by horse riding and quad biking.

Otis, who is a huge dog lover, quite enjoyed the properties canine residents! We also saw tiny lambs just days old learning to walk, some goats, pigs and cows too!

Dinner was served to our room that evening, as this was our anniversary day. We had Barramundi and ribs followed by Mississippi Mudcake and ice-cream. Needless to say we were full by the end!

As we farewelled our weekend home, we drove past paddocks of horses grazing. We drove back toward Sydney to stop in at the Three Sisters and Wentworth falls on our way home.

I had the best, most relaxed and enjoyable weekend away with the best friend I could ever ask for. We had some great memories and the photos to match!

Enjoy x

NSW Bushfires; How Are They Impacting You?

As bushfires ravage through the southern highlands and Blue Mountains regions of New South Wales, we are faced with an array of confronting and graphic imagery. With over 200 houses lost, and over 100 fires burning across the state at present, our media outlets have been flooded with images and footage from the fire zones, with New South Wales now declared in a state of emergency.

How does this visual content of the disaster areas impact on our lives? For those of us who are not immediately effected by the fires can empathise with those who have been severely impacted by the destructive and devastating effects of this all too common natural disaster Australia faces each summer.

The media, as well as emergency services, rely on the impact of the imagery from scenes of the affected areas to not only report on the crisis at hand, but also educate and inform the public of the danger present. 

Too often, those who are not well informed or keeping current with the most up to date information find themselves more severely impacted and at risk than those who plan ahead and monitor the situation.

Having had my father volunteering in the Rural Fire Brigade for over 30 years, I am well adept to the severity and consequences a brutal fire season can impose. With a vast knowledge and expansive understanding of my role and duties during the event of a fire has greatly impacted on my preservation, and the assistance of others. An excellent example of a modern technological resource that provides a beneficial footage for training and educational purposes for new crews was captured on a modern favourite, the GoPro, by Jonathan Mallin

So how does this relate to you, and how can you benefit from all of this footage? You can see the early warning signs, keep up to date with alerts and emergency situations including evacuations, and do all in your power to prevent endangering yourself and your family through remaining informed and vigilant during the fire season. Too many lives have so far been lost, too many homes and memories perished in the blazes that have engulfed all in their path of destruction. The media uses this graphic footage and inform and illustrate the sheer devastation of this force of nature. These developments in the photographic and video world today only prove to be a positive asset in the digital era.

What Is Fashion Photography, Really?

Photography is the art of realism, or perhaps is it deception? With so many technological advancements and the ability to digitally manipulate images beyond recognition from their original, it’s hard to decipher whether photography, and fashion photography in particular, are as realistic as the art form once intended.

Still a relatively new art form in the scheme of the art world and its multitude of mediums, photography, in the format we understand it to be today, didn't rise until late in the timeline of art history, circa 1790.

Just as the technology adapted and changed the medium, fashion and the moral of the art form was altered too. With the introduction of computers and the digital age in the late 80’s and adobe releasing its photo editing software, Photoshop in the 90’s, truth has slowly been removed from photography. A method of digital alteration causes illusions from the original work, to what we see splashed across billboards and magazines. Airbrushing and photo manipulation has been slammed by the media and other various outlets of the past few years, with some magazines such as Seventeen Magazine, Marie Claire and The Australian Women's Weekly even turning to releasing issues featuring “no airbrushing” and “real models” (perhaps an indication that society is finally realizing that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes).

However the business of fashion photography has always been filled with illusions, this is the method of sales that the industry pushes; “Buy this dress, look amazing and score that man you've had your eye on!” or better yet “Get a tan, false lashes and this overnight miracle cream and look 10 years younger in less than 10 days!”. The propaganda of the industry has not been assisted with the advancements and increased use of photo manipulation; however it’s not all bad.

Photography, and its vast supply of flexibility and creative diversity offers a niche for just about anyone these days with image sharing over the internet made a breeze (unless of course the issues surrounding Australia’s NBN remain unresolved), and digital formats allowing all creative channels to include and deduce their own interpretation of the form. Traditionalists will still use their film and dark rooms, which offer an authentic touch that no amount of manipulation can truly replicate, but so too are there previously unsought opportunities; citizen journalists use their mobile phones to capture images of events as they’re on the scene and we can upload all those holiday snapshots for our friends to see on social media instead of spending hours passing around the printed, and seemingly long forgotten photo albums.