I just got back from an amazing holiday visiting my buddy Brooke, in Mackay/Queensland. It was heapsa fun & a good break from the usual happenings. I got stacks of tropical pics in some hot locations, so expect to see some uploads.

I was deep coming home to see all the lush green grass which i left with has dried into a dead landscape of pale yellow. It feels like summer was only a few months ago, now it's here again! well actually summer isn't legit for a few weeks.

I'm trying to figure out a theme for my solo exhibition in 2011, I want to keep it broad so I can include a variety of images, yet they have to fall under a similar umbrella. Do the majority of my photos link in some way or another? Any ideas?

ok I hope you are well!

andy.

I got a new cam last week, Nikon D90. my first DSLR

I have been experimenting with the lenses & exposures and all sorts of other functions i didn't use to have to worry about, but i love the manaul operations! now i can express myself more 'in-camera'.

I took it out today for its first official pic sesh, and i was heaps satisfied with its operation. Because models are soo hard to find these days, i am ofton reduced to self modelling. So you can imagine how happy i was with a self timer that took 9 pics at one click, and 20 seconds to run around and prepare my props & poses (as oposed to my old cam, which takes 1 pic with a max of 10 seconds prep time)

i spent a few hours walking along & through the creek with my dog. throwing dresses in trees for aesthetic purposes and running around like a nutter cause i'm a slave to the self timer. i then wandered up the hill as i saw some wattles flowering bright yellow. as i was taking advantage of the wattle, i came across this overgrown road on the hill, with lush trees & grass built up on either side, almost tunnel like. It was very mysterious. anyway at this point my cam was out of batt so i trotted off home. I will go back there with a full battery, and follow the track to wherever it come outs, that sorta stuff excites me.

yeah so it was a nice day out.

ooohh so this week my long lost Brooke [link] finally came down from QLD & we caught up and had a dense photo sesh, it was the most fun i've had for ages.

I had accumulated so many props, costumes and accessories from ebay and cheap shops over the last 6 months just to throw at her.

we went op shopping to begin with to get some extra props & clothes, then we wondered down a country road to photo abuse an old farm house that sat on a lush green hill. I have always pondered on how amazing it would be to sesh there. The farmer that told us it was cool that we could shoot there seemed to have disapeared when we started, so we spent about 2 hours taking advanatge of having the brilliant location to ourselves, bopping around through their garden and verandah.

after lunch we went down to a very pretty location with an old rundown caravan, with a creek and high banks winding through the small tree forest. I got some nice gyspy-like photos, we paddled around in the creek, the sun went down, it got cold and we went home. great day. keep a look out for some new pics XD

the following evening I was at the Albury Art Prize, which I was a finalist for the Susan Moorehead Memorial Award, which is pretty prestigous. Anyway, the judge Gene Sherman was announcing the winner, and I was genuinly shocked when I heard my name over the speakers AWE i was shaking for about 10 minutes after that, it was incredible! I won $2,000 and a solo exhibition in 2011 at the Albury Art Gallery XD XD XD a room of my own art is truely extreme.

I met Bronek Kozka, a brilliant photographer from Melbourne. His works are like paintings or stills from movies which present a certain scenario in time, which is something I am soo influenced by. Check him out here [link] and you will like!

I'm planning on purchasing a digital SLR with the wins, does anyone have any hot suggestions on what i should look at?

Well its been really exciting for me lately.

I hope you are going well!!

andy.

Thankyou to everyone who voted for my binge drinking film. Even though I didn't end up taking out the main prize, i have been so incredibly delighted at the extent at which people went out of their way to support me, people are really very nice
Anyway it's a relief it's all over!

oh YAY!!! how could i forgot to mention, on the 23 of May I recieved a daily deviation for my CuttingWare peg commercial [link]

that peice of video has been very good to me, thanks to Sarah Jane [link] for the hot suggestion.

have a nice day now,
andy.

I have some big news which rocks my little world XD
One of my films has been selected in the final 6 for a government competition, the main prize is $10,000!!!

The winner is determined by online votes, so if you're an Aussie resident, it would be amazing if you could follow the link and vote for my film titled 'Smashed', and by voting you can win $5000, so that's decent also!
[link]
you can vote once per-day, i'm so there!!

meanwhile...nothing much has been happening lately, the weather has been very nice, so i'm spending alot of time outdoors photographing and chilling with the farm animals, basically my life has been on hold waiting to here about this! I will be uploading some pics i took this morning in the frost & fog.

hope everyone is well
andy.