It is lovely being in a country open enough to covering what we do. I love you, Australia!
Category: ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach
Traveling to, from and in and around Australia
This is the most beautiful time, how can you describe that sweet taste of your mood that keeps following you everyday. That lazy and very nice breeze of your thoughts. Swimming pool, its not just a swimming pool, it s piece of small picture that was hanging in the coffee-shop in New York and you thought this is something unreal. now you here, and you dont want to leave, you dont even think about that that will be over soon. Just stop! Stop for a second and freeze and breath and try to memorize that time with all your 6 senses with your skin, your eyes, your brian, your blood.
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I’m in Love
I wish I had some photos to post.
There is something magical in Mission Beach that sort of puts a spell on you. It’s a good spell, but it’s also a hard one to overcome. It’s called the laid back curse! I can’t remember when I’ve felt so at peace with the universe. Australia is going to have a hard time sending me off. I hope it doesn’t take another 9 years for a return trip. It’s just too wonderful.
I am so amazed at all of the great work in our nightly slide shows. There are really great photographers and models gracing our screen every night with their work.
I was interviewed by the Cairns Post about our group. Cameron Attree took pictures for the piece they’ll do about us. I’m nervous about what they’ll write… But the woman who came to interview me was really nice. So I hope that means good things. I’ll pick up a paper tomorrow and read all about it. Hopefully I can find a way to blog it.
More later friends…
Z
In my last blog, the gang (Edward Badham, Vassanta, Rebecca, Claudine and myself had just touched down in New Zealand the week prior to OzFest. We spent a lovely week in NZ, although a WET one. We landed in Wellington, and took the ocean Interislander Ferry to Picton and eventually landed in Nelson (30 hours travel from NYC….ahhhh). But the company made the long trip fun! We toured the South Island around Nelson for three days (as much as we could in the rain!!!). We had a fun stay in a B&B in Nelson that is run by a former Playboy Model from Amsterdam. She gave us some shooting locations and some places to visit that the average travel guide would not mention. We pulled into one shooting location on Rabbit Island with lots of beach and driftwood potential with the rain still pouring down. We said we’d wait 10 more minutes as the light was fading at the end of the day.Vassanta prayed to the rain gods to stop. And it did….for 30 minutes. We jumped out of car, sorted out who was shooting with who and nailed it. One result for me was the attached shot of Vassanta with the large log in the background. I love the results with the shallow DOF. The next day we headed back to the North Island, with a stop in Rumati Beach where we were greeted by actual sunshine in the morning. Attached is a sunrise shot that I like and some early morning beach shots. Claudine is captured in a estuary leading to the ocean. I love the contrast of her with the debris around her. Then, the brilliant color of Rebecca as the sun washes over her porcelain complexion with bright skies and offshore island in the background. We headed next to Taupo and Auckland, but no real shooting (just fun!!!). New Zealand was lovely and I look forward to returning when the rain is not so prevelant.   Next stop, OZ!!!!!!
After shooting with two young ladies from the US yesterday, this mornings shoot was with a lovely (tall) young lady from London. Joceline towers over most people and I was feeling quite tiny standing next to her on the beach at 5am this morning. She’s definitely a beautiful person both inside and obviously out and it was a real pleasure to shoot with her – I kind of have a soft spot for gorgeous ladies with English accents 🙂
Joceline and I had discussed what we were going to shoot prior to us arriving at Mission Beach but it wasn’t until I had met her and checked out the location that I decided what it would be exactly.
Here’s a few examples of what we came up with. There was also a second part to this shoot which I will show images from in another post.
Yesterday was my first official shoot since OzFest started. After scouting around for some locations in the morning, Candace, Stephanie and I headed off to one of the spots I found for a late afternoon shoot. I’d shot with Candace once before on a previous trip to Oz she had late last year and I was looking forward to working with her again. I decided to invite Stephanie along as well as I thought the two of them would look great together and I was very surprised to find out that this was the very first time the two of them had worked together after knowing each other for years.
So it was my distinct pleasure to have two amazing models to shoot on my first official afternoon of OzFest.
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October 5
Today was spent being extremely mellow after all the traveling we had to do to get here. The room I have lends itself well to shooting and relaxing so I did a bit of both.
I see heaven out my window. Friends at the pool, tropical flowers on the walkways, and butterflies and Wallabys around every corner.
Soph and I had a shoot about 2 hours ago and I can’t wait to develop my film when I return home. In the mean time you will all just have to get an idea from my iPhone snaps. 🙂
Now if you’ll excuse me… I have a date with the swimming pool! Rei and Muse are already there.
After arriving in Cairns on Saturday morning, I did a bit of sighting seeing around town until I met Soph and James at the airport to give them a lift down to Mission Beach. Along the way we stopped at Babinda Boulders as I thought it might be a great location to do shoot. We weren’t disappointed and my first shoot was underway technically even before OzFest was to begin.
I’ve shot with Soph on two previous occasions and both times were fantastic and we achieved some really memorable images. This time was just as great and was a perfect way to kick off my week of shooting art nudes in tropical North Queensland.
Sunday was a fairly relaxing day spent checking out the local markets and looking for some shoot locations before the majority of the group arrived.
We had our meet and great BBQ Sunday evening and it was great to finally meet everyone who I had only met in cyberspace before. Considering this is my first Zoe Fest event, everyone has been super friendly to me and I can see why everyone loves to attend every year.
I get the feeling this will be a fantastic week and I’m sure this will not be my last Zoe Fest.
Wishing I was there…
Began the week! Stephanie took over brilliantly with her amazing voice that makes everyone listen. We have a great group of people here and I’m very much looking forward to the week ahead. And I can’t wait to see what everyone creates in this land of plenty. It’s amazing that this is happening in Australia!!