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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

Claudine – Steel Kiwi

Our merry band had spent a lovely day watching rain drops fall as we drove through the New Zealand countryside on the South Island. What to do if it’s raining? Tour some wineries for some tastings at least.  We arrive at our first one, only to find it closed.  But discovered this massive steel sculpture on the grounds…and the rain had actually stopped.  We split up taking different sides of the steel behemoth to do our shooting. Claudine and I did our first shoot together and she did a wonderful job turning her body into a piece of art suspended from art. I love the angles we shot to accentuate the angles of the sculpture and her curves.

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

Vassanta – Stormy Beach

Prior to arriving for OzFest, several of us ventured to New Zealand where it rained most of the seven days we were there and didn’t do as much shooting as we’d planned.  Our B & B hostess was a former Playboy model (1960’s Girls of the Benelux) and recommended several places to shoot.  One of them was Rabbit Island about 30 minutes from Nelson.  After driving in the rain all day trying to see some natural sights, we ended the day on Rabbit Island.  We got out of the car long enough to see a deserted beach  with massive logs strewn across the beach – a great location, but then the rain started AGAIN.  We sat in the car for 30 minutes praying for the rain to stop, giving it another 10 minutes before giving up as the light was fading too.  At the 10 minute mark, the rain miraculously stopped and we ran to the beach for a quick 30 minute shoot as the light faded with even, but dull lighting on such an overcast day.  My challenge was to try to create some images that “popped” and not just a dull gray look. Vassanta was masterful (as she always is) using the environment around her to create some magic.

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

Didgeridoo Master?

You’ve seen it on facebook and now it’s arrived.  To honor our Ozzie hosts, I’ve started to learn to play the Aborigine’s wind instrument, the didgeridoo.  So this is my first concert after one lesson.  Actually….this is sooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaadddddd that it’s funny and  I don’t mind embarrassing myself for a good laugh…enjoy…or cover your ears. ;)  Don’t have your windows open in the northwest when you play this….I’ve been told Moose go wild upon hearing it!

[youtube yhVHqzefvWg]

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

Joceline – Dancing with Cassowaries

You’ve seen the video, now see the pictures…LOLÂ

I had the pleasure to collaborate with Joceline for the first time last year at JT.  With her dance and fashion background, I enjoy mixing it up and shooting both nudes and some “fashion” images with her.  This session was not an exception.  First we went into the jungle near Mission Beach to shoot along a creek.  First we did some shooting with a black tutu and corset.  The we moved to shooting nudes in the creek.We had many visitors.   First some people.  But like most Aussies, they waved back…or took pictures.  Then (as was told in the video), we had a large bird visitor.  I was shooting nudes of Joceline on a tree stump when she turned and started yelling in a loud stage whisper, “There’s a Cassowary!!!”  For those not in the know, this flightless bird is about the size of an ostrich and populates only this part of Australia.  It has  a large bone protrusion on its head…giving it a dinosaur look.  To complete that comparison, it also has a large raptor claw it uses to embed in adversaries and disembowel them.  So Joceline was rather fleet of foot bounding down the creek and running up a hill.  I stayed near the creek between her and the bird to make sure it didn’t come our way…but also to try to get a shot…Hey…I’m a photographer.  It came near us on the path, but then wandered off into the jungle.  PHEW!

We finished shooting in the jungle and then headed to the beach at Mission Beach.  The sun was setting and we used the light to our advantage among the rocks and beach.  She demonstrated her poise and grace with her ballerina shoes…adding a nice touch in contrast to the rocks around her.  She then showed her balance and posing ability on a log going into some impossible poses balancing on the log in various positions…WOW…It inspired me to get back to pilates class.  How does she do that?!  I had also shot Stephanie Ann on the same log….so it was interesting to see how both of these extraordinary talents used the same “tool”.   As you can see, I came away with some wonderful images and even more appreciation of this talented and graceful creature (that is, Joceline…not the bird).  More to come!

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

Joceline Meets a Cassowary Video

While shooting near Mission Beach,  Joceline saw a Cassowary coming towards us from the jungle. A Cassowary is a large flightless bird about the size of an ostrich. It has a large bone protrusion coming out of its head…giving it a very dinosaur / prehistoric look. It has large feet with three toes – the middle toe having a raptor claw about the size of two human fingers that the bird uses to leap at its prey, embedding it and ripping you open….so you don’t want to surprise one in the wild. This is a video that we shot shortly after the event where Joceline demontrates her “Cassowary Pose”.

[youtube q_YiYUJW2zk Joceline]

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

Madame Bink – Dunked and Bit

Madame Bink…I can’t say enough nice things about her talent and dedication as this story will show.  It was one misadventure after another. We shot all day one day at Mission Beach and Dunk Island. We started with sunrise shots at 5:30 AM around the Eco Village resort by the rocks and beach. As stated in earlier blogs, one of my goals was creatively using over and underexposure.  We got some lovely shots with the light framing her by shooting into the sun and also some awesome silhouettes.  For the ones attached here, I did split processing with them and love the subtle hues of the rocks and her body.  We took a breakfast break and then headed to the water taxi for a ride to Dunk Island.  Except I went to the wrong departure point.  So we raced the 10 KM and barely made it in time for the 20 minute ride to Dunk Island.  Once there we hiked over to Muggy Muggy Beach – where The Island and its Critters were waiting to do just that – Mug us.  She spotted a cool formation of three rock outcroppings lined up in a row going out to sea…So she waded out to the middle one for some shots.  I noticed after we finished that she was limping and she had cut her foot open on the rocks.  Poor Binky’s red blood was spilling and I was really concerned.  We applied pressure and wrapped it in a towel and then the rain started.  So we limped over to the near by jungle to get under a canopy of trees while we waited about an hour for the rain to stop and her foot to stop bleeding.  I thought we should stop shooting, but she insisted she was fine and to continue.  After the rain stopped, we limped over to an alcove where the sun was highlighting this rock outcropping. She gracefully lay on the rock as I waded out to sea a little to get the right perspective.  Suddenly she jumps screaming!  A crab had crawled up on the rock and had bitten her OTHER foot while she was posing. So we took another little break while we got her shoes on and decided we’d take a lunch break and limped the 2 KM back to the Dunk Island resort.  I was ready to call it quits, but she keep insisting we should keep shooting. What a marvel!  The only condition was, she couldn’t take off her shoes anymore to protect her feet. So the rest of the day we either shot around it or incorporated her boots into the shoot.  So we limped up the trail to Mt Kataloo.  We stopped in one place where she put on my NZ bush hat (some pictures attached) for some jungle fashion shots.  Then we found this marvelous huge tree with all kinds of cubby holes and root extensions coming out.  The light was really even and I focused on slightly underexposing it to have her meld into the tree. As you can see, she also expertly used her green wrap to frame her face and body, blending in with the natural surroundings.  I love the results we got.  The pictures have a feel of pictures taken a century ago.  I think part of it is the lighting and use of her wrap…but also her  darker looks from her Gypsy ancestors.  Of course, this being OZ, all day long, the bitey things were nipping at us in swarms.  All day long it was the Mayfly slappy dance and exclamations of  “SOB, leave me alone”, “Will You Please go away”, etc.  I was laughing because if anyone came up on us, I was afraid they’d think she was cursing at me.  Well, we made it through the whole day, had an adventure and came away with some awesome images…..and I came away with great respect for this dedicated and talented artist.

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

A Morning with Stephanie Anne

For the first time, I had the pleasure of collaborating with Stephanie Anne early one morning around the Mission Beach resort.  I’m so grateful to the Eco Village resort (where we stayed) for allowing us to shoot around their property.  There were so many fantastic locations just within walking distance of your bungalow: especially useful for early morning shoots like the one with Stephanie.  Attached is a cross section of some of the first images I’ve completed from our session.  One of the goals that I set for myself during the week was to purposefully and creatively apply over and under exposure.  Several here show some results that I’m very happy with.  In addition, with Stephanie’s dance background, her poses and action  gave the shots grace and accentuated the beauty of the light.  One happy accident we had was that as we played shooting on the beach, I noticed the beauty of the light filtering through the sarong that she had brought with her.  So we played with the material – creating an almost butterfly look as she danced with the light. Then we used the sarong as a tent with the light coming behind us – creating a beautiful mix of color and form.  Such a pleasure to finally create some images with the talented Stephanie whose body of work I’ve always admired.

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

OZ – Vassanta Dunk Island Wanderings

Vassanta and I hiked the full circuit of trails on Dunk Island (about 10 KM) up Mt Kataloo, down to Coconut Beach and back to the Jetty. There wasn’t much to shoot with along the hike (but did see some snakes and turkeys), except on the beach. But the view from Mt Kataloo over the Coral Sea was stunning.  But we found this really cool tree with a cross hatch growth  between the two main trunks.  Vassanta managed to climb into the tree to capture one image attached here (how does she do that??). The rest we shot on the beach.  More gritty figure work incorporating the roots of a palm tree. I haven’t done a lot of figure work…so I’m loving the results.  Also, we found these awesome boulders with some stepping stones that she posed on.  Great work by her using the rocks and I did one in color and another in BW.  I have a few more images from our trip to dunk Island that I’ll post and then I’ll be working on some other model sessions.

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

New Finished OZ Images

Here are some finished ones…three I already showed on Saturday night in Mission Beach of Joceline, Bink and Stephanie…..but some might not have seen them before.  Also some new ones from a Dunk Island beach shoot with Vassanta…I really like these becuase the high key beach look and color has kind of a  “fashion” feel to them.  Vassanta picked up a shell  and was playing with it…so I got the idea of putting it on different parts of her body creating the black and white series. I then edited it to give it a dark, contrasty look… Feel like I was channeling Vernon Trent…lol

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ZoeFest 2009 Australia Mission Beach

No kangaroos have died here!

“Oh Wow! You are great! Hey I know this cool spot on the river we can shoot tomorrow. It is very safe. Btw can you read?”