Fore Note: All preview and behind the scenes images in this blog are available in a Dropbox folder here. If reposting any images, please locate the image in Dropbox and download the websize image as opposed to saving directly from this post or screenshotting! Thank you!
DAY ONE:
This well overdue trip to Brisbane began on Saturday 17th December. The night before I had worked my first shift at The Backlot Rooftop Drive-In. This is a brand new Rooftop Cinema in Melbourne, open to the public from Boxing Day! There were a couple of advanced screenings last week and boy did I have a good time! I'm just working there casually, mostly at the candy bar or with ticketing. The company is awesome, the owners are great, and the crew all seem like fantastic people!
By the time I got to sleep, it was nearly 3am... And at 4.45am, my alarm went off to get up for my flight to Brisbane. I was barely able to keep my eyes open, I grabbed my phone and went to hit the snooze, only to have something drop on my face from above. Moth? Spider? I leapt out of bed whacking my face and hair, praying whatever it was, wasn't still on me. I snapped on the light just in time to see a big black spider sprinting underneath my bed.
Wonderful.
I ordered an Uber and was on my way to the airport, feeling like I was dreaming.
The flight itself was awful. I had a barely two year old little boy sitting behind me, and he kicked, squealed and punched the back of my chair for the entire two hour flight. His mother tried to control him, but failed miserably. I didn't sleep a wink, and by the time it we were landing, I had developed an eye twitch.
At the gate I had to do a double take, @emmameow and her fiance Llewellyn had come all the way to my gate to greet me, and I hadn't even recognised Emma as a brunette. I was in a daze, and wearing jeans and a jacket - not appropriate for Brisbane! I thought I was going to melt into a little puddle by the time we reached the Emmameow Mobile. Seriously, she has the cutest car in the entire world and I've got serious new car envy...
After a quick stop to the shops for some food essentials, we headed to our Airbnb house 15 minutes away from the city.
We timed our arrival perfectly with my first shoot for the weekend, @channy, who is Australia's newest Suicide Girl! Eee!
Once inside, we went out to the back deck. Emma placed a box in front of me, a gift for me. I immediately racked my brains wondering what it could be. Too late to be my birthday, too early for Christmas, was today an important day I had forgotten...? Was this a pregnancy announcement?!?!?!
I was wrong on all counts, I didn't even see it coming....
Talk about surprised. I was entirely speechless, and there were three thoughts running through my mind.
1. Was this Emma's handwriting? I realised I had never seen it before
2. Maid of Honour?!?!?! I thought maybe at most she'd have me as a bridesmaid, or maybe a photographer on the day. Maid of Honour... that was next level...
3. REACT! SAY SOMETHING! I realised I was silent and motionless, and that probably wasn't the reaction Emma had hoped for, haha.
Honestly I just wanted to cry, this was unbelievably awesome. I can't wait to write my speech, and help plan a hens night, and do what I can to help with the actual wedding day. If anyone has any awesome ideas for me, private message me! I'd love to know about the best Hen's night you've ever been to! Emma is going to be reading this so that's why you need to message suggestions, haha. I want to have at least a couple of elements of surprise up my sleeve!
@channy also came to the house bearing gifts... She gave me a 6 pack of red bull - my favourite liquid in the entire world, even though, yes, I know how bad it is for you. I can't help that it's the most delicious beverage in the entire world! (am I sipping on a can right now as I type this...? hell yes I am! last one from the 6 pack actually!)
Then it was time to get to work. Channy and I booked in an underwater shoot the second we realised my airbnb house came with a pool. I had bought an el cheapo underwater plastic case for my camera a solid year ago, and had never used it. Real, professional underwater casing is crazy expensive. Think $2,000+
My little case was $30 including postage from China. I grabbed some paper towel from the kitchen, stuffed it in the bag and piffed it over the fence, and into the pool. I changed into some bathers, and pep talked myself, telling myself everything was going to be fine, that this $30 bag was going to protect my camera from drowning.
I swam around with the bag, pushing and pulling it around, standing on it, squishing it. I came back to the surface and opened the seal, and found the paper towel to be completely bone dry.
Show time..........
yours truly + @channy right before our shoot! Photo by @emmameow
p.s. how sweet does my arm look too? I look ripped. camera angles are everything ;D
We started by taking a few shots above water, and I stalled to put my camera in the water. I was really, really worried.
Within five minutes of it being submerged I had come to the conclusion the bag had worked, and then I was faced with all the difficulties I had been half expecting.
Underwater photography is harder than you'd expect. Half my problems were because I'd gone cheap with all the gear, including my Kmart goggles. They filled with water and made it nearly impossible to see anything. The bag restricted me from changing camera settings, and because it wasn't air tight, I couldn't dive down and stay down. The air in the bag kept forcing it's way back to the surface. Within minutes I realised just how little I could control, so I left it in the hands of fate, and shot most of the set blind. I took almost 1,200 images. blast shooting, hoping for the best.
@channy took a timelapse on her phone, which died half way through, but it's something!
And @emmameow took a few Behind the Scenes images, too! We were going to play around in the pool afterwards taking more photos, but we delayed that, and then never got around to it... oops. Next time!
Can we all just stop for a moment to appreciate water refraction? ^ I look like I have miniature legs sprouting from the worlds smallest torso. ;D
The shoot took about two hours, and we were exhausted by the time we called it quits. My legs felt like jelly, and my body and brain longed for a nap. I knew if I took a nap though, I wouldn't be able to wake up properly for my last shoot of the day, due to arrive in a couple of hours.
I vowed that the next time I do an underwater shoot, I'd invest in quality goggles, and look into hiring proper underwater housing. Any future use of my cheapo bag will be strictly for funsies only.
Once all the images uploaded, I dared to have a look, and the first cull got me down to 200 images as usable. A lot better than I expected!
Here's a couple of preview images! When I went to edit just a couple for this blog post, I got a little carried away and finished the whole thing! It still needs a bit of fine tuning, but hopefully we can get this submitted to the site extremely soon!
I first shot @channy probably almost three years ago, which was her first SG set, and I noticed a huuuuge difference in her modelling. She's stepped up her game, and I found that I barely had to direct her. I'm so proud of how far she's come. You can still view our first set in full here! And we've got two more still up! This underwater set will be our fourth together, and hopefully not the last! Thank you so much @channy for making my Brisbane trips so memorable and happy, I'm so grateful to have met you, and to be able to call you a friend.
Next up was my last shoot for the day, I had only booked two, fully knowing the underwater one alone might've been too much. I threw back another red bull, and then I was ready to go, shooting @cerulean for the first time! This lady and I have met before, I watched her shoot with @atlanticlungs over a year ago at the huge Brisbane Shootfest we had up there, and I remember very distinctly wishing I would one day get to work with @cerulean. I got my wish!
We built a little set in the small study in the non air conditioned wing of the house, and we raced through shooting. It was roasting hot, the windows were locked and no key to be found, and the giant fan we had going didn't really do all that much.
I was sore and tired, and didn't have very much energy to converse during the shoot, but @cerulean didn't mind, and lucky for me, she's a confident model and I barely had to direct her either. Models who take initiative and just go for it, flowing from pose to pose between my camera clicks are my favourite.
We shot just over 400 images, and I currently have her set culled to 99. Literally 1/4th of her set is useable, and it's a bitch to cull this down any further...
I have no idea if these images below will end up in the final set, so instead of calling these ones official previews, I think it's more suitable to call them prototypes haha!
does anyone else see a slight resemblance to @hylia in this image ^ ? I thought it when I shot it, and there's a few other images I saw it too! I'm not sure what it is exactly! possibly the eye make up and also the piercings?
and also, that's not any regular fancy light in the background, the entire house was decked out in Australian artwork, and the light is actually made up of rusty barbed wire! I thought that was a really cool little detail, check it out!
I'm really excited to finish this set, I daresay it won't take me very long! Cerulean is killer at doing her make up, barely any retouching at all will be needed! I hope to see this lady go pink, she ticks all the boxes to be a Suicide Girl, and she has a creative mind when it comes to planning her sets. Her most recent set KAWAIDESU by @coolicio is one of the funkiest sets I've seen come out this year. I really hope staff pick up that set as Set of the Day!
After shooting this set I uploaded all the images and did some work, and I was free for the rest of the evening! Emma, Llewellyn and I ordered some dinner to be delivered, and we originally had plans to go out that evening, but we were all zonked. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the windows out on the deck, and shuddered. I was still running on two hours sleep, and way too much caffeine. I had a bad case of the shakes, and all I could think about was snoozing. We opted to stay in, and played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity (which I took out and won!), and spent the rest of the night chatting. We hadn't all been together for over a year, and we had lots to catch up on.
One of the best things about my friendship with @emmameow is that time doesn't change our friendship. I felt right at home, and had to work hard to ignore the pangs of 'this trip is going to be over so soon already.' It's always hard to face the fact that I don't get to see Emma whenever I like. She lives out in a rural area of Queensland, where even phone reception doesn't reliably reach. I truly hope that my next visit to Queensland will be where I get to go all the way to her hometown. Time with her never feels wasted, and we can literally sit there in silence together and both be happy to be in each others company. Meeting Emma and a few others is solely because of the Suicide Girls community, and I can never thank my lucky stars enough that I fell into this website when I did.
DAY TWO:
I barely had any sleep. Even though I was exhausted, my mind was going a million miles an hour and I struggled to get to sleep. Once I was up and moving though, I felt okay. I had an extra strong caramel coffee, and then @emmameow and I got to work. We originally had hoped to shoot a Harry Potter/Hermione set for Suicide Girls, but the wand didn't arrive in time! I thought we were just going to shoot a regular set, but Emma surprised me with a back up plan!
She had made a Princess Mononoke/Wolf Girl/San costume, so we did a loose cosplay set. We didn't do the make up, or worry about a picture perfect location, we're not sure if SG will consider it as a contender for Cosplay Fridays, but we're extremely happy with how this set turned out regardless.
This was also a special set for me. It was my 100th Suicide Girls set! I've been keeping a little note on my laptop of the model, set name and date of every SG set I've shot. I was hoping that since @twitchling was my first set, that she'd also be my 100th, but seeing as we were two states apart, I couldn't ask for a better plan B. Emma and I snagged our first Set of the Day together about two years ago. Bravado is going to be on the site forever, unfortunately the set is now backwards? We've asked staff to fix that, but it hasn't been done, so I guess that's a small glitch we have to live with.
Later while I was shooting the rest of my sets scheduled for that day, Emma went through the set, picked the images, and did most of the editing. The set is already fully finished, and will be submitted fairly soon!
Here's some previews!
I've probably shared way too many images, but I seriously can't help it. They chose themselves.
and shortly after finishing that set, @morgull and @morticiamorgue arrived for their shoots. I had asked everyone that day to come earlier if possible, I was afraid I had booked all time slots too late. In Melbourne it doesn't get dark till after 7.30pm, but in Brisbane it was getting dark at 6.30pm, and my last shoot was booked for 6pm!
Luckily all three ladies were able to come earlier, which saved me a lot of stress!
@morgull and I have shot two sets previously, so we were well acquainted and shooting this third set was a breeze. Like Channy, Morgull's modelling had improved out of sight, despite that she's taken a break from shooting for the last year or so.
I shot the least amount of photos during this shoot, 322, and I've got it down to 105 now, and struggling to cut images..... This lady has such a good soul, and the happiest, twinkly eyes. I admire @morgull's confidence and motivation in life, and in modelling. I swear she's figured out the key to happiness in life, I have so much to learn from her.
Probably going overboard with preview images again, but I'm not even sorry.
Straight after shooting this set I got to work in creating a shoot space for @morticiamorgue. She has well and truly taken the cake for me with the boldest outfit for a Suicide Girls set I've shot. When she showed me what she brought along, I was almost stumped for where on earth we could shoot this set, because my house was a Queenslander with Australiana memorabilia everywhere.
I walked around for ages, past signed and framed cricket uniforms, maps, aboriginal art, until I stopped in the kids bedroom of all places. I decided to turn one of the two single beds into a day bed, and to ditch the kiddie artwork on the walls. I found a silver wall hanging in the backyard, and pinched that, and it became the feature point of the room.
This is what it looked like before....
and uh, this is what it ended up looking like....
'scuse the pun, but I'm bat shit crazy about this set! the bat tattoo was a brand new addition too, and it's just PERFECT. Within minutes I had learned that @morticiamorgue is a make up artist, and boy oh boy as a photographer I feel like I've hit the jackpot. I didn't have to retouch a single aspect of her face for any of these images. This set is going to be finished super quickly too. By this stage of the trip I was elated, every set so far had been a raging success.
I was miles ahead in terms of time, and everything was going just right.
And guess what... it stayed that way! Hooray!
Last shoot for the day was with @diamant - FINALLY! I don't know how long it's been now since Diamant and I became acquainted on Instagram... but feels like forever. Meeting her was exactly what I expected, she's bubbly, bright, and hilarious.
We selected the kitchen as our spot to shoot in, a perfect match for Diamant's vintage style.
She brought a friend along to the shoot, and he took some snaps for us, I don't often get good quality behind the scenes images, so I'm going to be a little vain and post a few of Dan's. He's @ dan_b33 on instagram and has done a couple of Diamant's tattoos! I wish I could've gotten a little tattoo this trip, but alas, the budget didn't allow for such fun things.
If you thought shooting sets was glamorous, think again! I'm a few days out from this weekend now and every muscle is still aching.
Thanks for the above images Dan! and now below are a couple of mine!
@diamant was my final shoot of the day, and after her departure I crashed pretty hard. Emma and Llewellyn went out to see A Day To Remember, and I stayed at our Airbnb house on my own for the evening. I tried to take a nap, but sleep didn't come so I got up and edited till the others returned.
All I can say from tonight, is download these two apps, Goat Simulator and Crossy Road. You won't be disappointed!
DAY THREE:
Waking up was rough, and I definitely looked liked I had seen better days too. Luckily for me, I only had one final shoot booked in for the morning!
@peonypixie had been on my wishlist to shoot for a few weeks, I had accidentally come across her on the site, and not long after our SG Australia community found her and added her to all our private groups. She's bubbly, and her friendliness is contagious. She's got one of those infectious smiles, and even though I was feeling like a zombie, I had the best time shooting with her.
@emmameow took some photos, and I seriously believe Emma should be shooting girls all on her own. She's a natural, and next time the two of us share a house, I'll be pushing her to play around a little more. Master portrait photographer in the making for sure!
Here's a few of her shots:
And here's my shots, most of the BTS ones above show me getting these shots too! pretty sweet timing!
And that's all my set previews from this weekend!
The rest of the stay was pretty cruisy, we had the most delicious Italian lunch, and then it was time to head home :(
Here's the only selfie I took this weekend;
and a rare photo of Emma and I together, we don't take many together, something I regret every time!
and last but not least, a couple of images from my flight home, unfiltered, unedited. it was amazing to see the sunset from a plane! I know to some this will be normal stuff, but I hardly ever fly, soI was glued to my windows for the first hour.
however, the two young girls kicking my chair and squealing for the duration of the entire flight home did ruin it for me. How lucky was I? Both flights I had screaming kids keeping me on my toes.... =/
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed putting it together. It took me six hours because I had to get all those set previews sorted and edited!
I now have a sizeable head start in editing these sets, if you're not a member, you'll need to get a subscription to see the finished sets in full! $4 per month if you buy a 1 year account. c'mon... it's worth it!
until next time! x
