Category Archives: Travel

Spotted, the new TT at Gothenburg Airport. Darren Cassey from Car Throttle was quick to point out it’s awesome interior (the new air-con vents in particular).

I went to sleep with Twigs. The 23hr journey back home was awesome thanks to the British Airways World Traveller Class. Big comfy seats, and much better food (with metal cutlery!).

I was the first in the cab line!

Coming into Maroubra Beach, home sweet home.

The whole household was asleep and Mia was the first to greet me. Nyaw! Found this on the kitchen bench. Jess mentioned a few days ago that she freaked out and lost Mia (but only mentioned it to me after she’d found her so as not to ruin my trip!). She was most likely just hiding and sooking that I was away, she knows these things!

I got up on the last day of our trip thinking about the long trip back home. A horrible feeling… a sense of impending doom. We had one last short day of work, and then we hit the pub and downed a few beers. One by one the guests left by cabs to the airport, in the end there were only a handful of us left who were en route to London.

We caught cabs to the airport and as soon as the cab pulled over I realised I’d left my big bag behind the counter at the hotel! The guys had all gone into the airport… panic. My cab driver was such a nice guy. He called the hotel, confirmed my bag was still there, and we tried to organise a cab to bring it to me, but if it did get to me, how was the cab driver meant to know who I was? I had no phone. In the end I just thanked the cabbie for trying to help out, but told him not to worry about it and that I would deal with it later. I caught up to the guys inside, who had phones. We tried to plan to get a cab to get me the bag, but baggage drop was going to shut in 15 minutes, so the bag was never going to make it.

Luckily there was nothing too valuable in the bag. Warm clothes and dirty laundry! The guys who flew me out will fly me the bag next week. I’m sorry for how much it’s going to cost them to send me my bag back from the other side of the world… but I’m also SO glad that I got to run out of the airport in Sydney as soon as I landed (IE: Not have to wait at the carousel for my bag to come out!).

On the flight to London I sat next to Darren Cassey who’s a writer at Car Throttle (check them out, they’re massive!). Even then I was up to my usual tricks. IE: Teleporting. Once I got to London I had absolutely no time at all to get to my gate for a connecting flight to Singapore. I found out my gate was C63, which ended up being on the other side of the airport to where I landed from Gothenburg. I took what felt like a billion escalators and even the airport’s internal train system to get to my gate. People were running, one guy that was running flew in the air and smashed his head on the hard marble floor, blood was pouring out immediately. Was it worth running? Not really as I saw him again the the queue to get onto the flight!

I’d been upgraded. The flight home was so much comfier than the flight to Sweden. I had no one sitting next to me on the London to Singapore leg, that was awesome. I had the same seat, albeit this time with a full flight from Singapore to Sydney, but I slept a lot of the way and after a hot shower, and another short nap after cuddles with Jess this morning I’m feeling pretty damn good!

I fly again tomorrow, to Melbourne for one night. I’m feeling like a jet setter, globe trotter. I’m smiling, this year’s off to a great start!

Saying one last goodbye to my rock pool.

Cacia and Jess getting nekkid for my lens.

First stop, Singapore. 1 hour to refuel and and I was in this queue to board again for London.

The sun rising in London. Not as grey as I expected!

Gothenburg! Ice Ice Baby.

My lovely boutique design hotel room complete with Fritz Hansen side table and a pair of Marc Newson embryo chairs out in the hallway.

Said Marc Newson chairs! Not surprisingly, they’re just as un-comfy as they look.

Everything is in the right place. My inner industrial design geek is lovin’ it!

The bathroom, where I had the best shower I’ve had this year. Fuck I felt so much better!

I smashed a small bottle of red and went for a walk soon after settling into my hotel room.

A church a few blocks down from the hotel.

Water! And yeah, it’s cold, not unbearable, but cold enough to wear gloves.

I’ve got a big mouth, and keeping secrets isn’t a strongpoint of mine, so keeping this huge trip to Sweden away from social media has been a challenge and a half to say the least. The trip is huge for a couple of reasons: 1) it was only mentioned a couple of weeks ago so I’ve had very little time to plan or get my head around it, 2) I’ve never travelled alone, let alone this kind of distance before.

Having just recently returned from a great trip to Melbourne. I was meant to be jetting off to Queensland to test tyres on the race track, shoot Amber (Max Stats) who I’ve been meaning to shoot for a couple of years now, as well as visiting my great friend Liz to celebrate her 40th.

Just a few days ago this Sweden trip ended up being pushed forward a couple of days as the flights on the intended travel dates were booked out, this meant that I would have landed back in Sydney on a Sunday night and then I’d be on my way to Sweden the very next day.

This stressed me out pretty hard as it meant I had only a couple of days to get ready for Sweden weather (it’s -5 there so I had to buy winter wear!), pack my bags for Sweden before leavening for Queensland and basically land and go.

Luckily, or unluckily, whichever way you choose to look at it, my Queensland trip ended up being cancelled due to a cyclone (testing tyres on the track has now been re-schedule for Calder Park in Victoria when I land back in Sydney and I later found out that Liz also postponed her Birthday Party due to bad weather). This news acted like a release valve for my high stress and anxiety levels. It meant that I could have made it to Halfway Hangs, an epic car meet between NSW and QLD, but I decided against going, and instead played host to NYC based Model and Artist Cacia Zoo instead.

As I type this I’m on a plane to Gothenburg in Sweden. It’s a short 1.5hr flight. I’ve had the first coffee since the last one I had in my own kitchen in back in Sydney. My back is a little sore, my ass is numb. I feel greasy, empty and beyond tired.

Rewind back to Sydney; the house got up early. Cacia, Jess and I walked over to the beach house to shoot. Cacia stripped down (she’s been so comfortable with being nude she’ll happily take her pants of without going to a change room), Jess followed suit. Cacia; damn, this girl moves, fast (which really suits me as I shoot fast). She dances, she goes through a spectrum of emotions, my lens loves her.

After the shoot we had brunch, then I was on my way to the airport. My thinking was that I could edit the shots during my long trip from Sydney to Gothenburg, but there really wasn’t any one time where I could work with my back to the wall. I wasn’t sure how the people sitting next to me would have felt if I was editing nudes, so I didn’t go there.

I’m renowned for teleporting in any case, and teleport I did. From Sydney to Singapore I watched the latest X-Men flick (loved the Sentinels! Took me back to the X-Men comics I used to read in high school), then I slept and pretty much woke up in Singapore. Teleporting on the flight from Singapore to London was a little harder, but I still managed to sleep most of the way. I tried to watch Godzilla, but fell asleep. I watched ‘LUCY’, which was great (I’m a Scarlett fan), and ‘Nightcrawler’, which wasn’t as dark or stylish as I was hoping it to be. The best movie I watched was ‘Whiplash’, which I truly got into (I felt it reunited my love for Jazz and I urge anyone who loves music to watch it).

I’ve flown British Airways the entire trip. I usually really look forward to airplane food, not sure why, always have. Maybe it’s because it makes me feel like I’m an astronaut eating space food, something like that, but I tell you what, this had to be the worst airplane food I’ve ever had.

Anyways, the plane is descending into Gothenburg. The sun is up. It’s been a dark trip. I didn’t even get to see the sky in Singapore and landing in London at 5am was pitch black and cold out on the runway as the sun was rising. I’m looking forward to being outside! More news as it comes!

First stop, breakfast at Degraves.

Then a rummage through Lygon St, with refreshments on route!

We then had a Vietnamese Coffee from The Soap Bar Launderette, which is about as Melbourne as it gets. Such a welcoming space where not only can you do your washing, but you can have a drink, hop on their free wi-fi and just take a great little time out.

Next stop, The Kustom Kommune, which is a community/DIY motorcycle workshop in Collingwood.

We got to meet Jimmy Goode the owner, who ended up saying he follows Zen, and studied and took some inspiration from Zen before opening The Kustom Kommune! Well the tabletops have turned, what an amazing thing they’ve got going!

Not a single spanner has gone missing apparently! SO awesome to hear that.

Turns out Backwoods Gallery are at the same location too! I’m a huge fan of some of the artists Backwoods have shown over the past few years and have always supported their shows through Aus Infront so it was nice to finally drop in (they were shut but were happy to let us in for a geez!).

I hadn’t finished taking photos at The Kustom Kommune, and got chatting to Jimmy then these 2 people approached us, not wanting to keep Jimmy from attending to them (I figured they were potential customers) I thought I’d continue shooting but it turns out the 2 people were from Crumpler (who have been making bags in Melbourne for 20 years!). They had some new bags coming out and were doing a photoshoot and wanted to know if I’d be interested in modelling some of their new bags for them!

Hilarious right?! I’m there with Jess, my muse and model, and nek minnit I’m the model posing on a rooftop which somehow had 2 train carriages on it… random but hilarious fun!!! Was interesting to be the model (good for me to know what it’s like on the other side of the lens), and not having any idea on what to do when no direction was given. Got me thinking a little more about my process when shooting my girls.

On a high from what just happened (what just happened?!) we thought we’d stuff ourselves with more food. We dropped in to Huxtaburger, but having just had the best burger of my life last week these guys fell short with a dry patty. Chips were great though! Salty, colourful and crunchy as!

We then caught up with Tam Tran for drinks at Section 8. Tam runs Natural Aspirations and makes our amazing Bamboo Zen Garage Phone Cases. He’s a bright kid at 22, and onto massive things no doubt! Tam also gave us a lift to the airport (legend!), so that concludes our most awesome spontaneous Melbourne getaway!

We actually got up early-ish this morning. First stop: Manchester Press for some cold drip and bagels!

Reuben was good, more meat would have been great!

Sweet naughtiness on a plate. Bacon, maple syrup, bananas and mascarpone!

We then caught a tram to Collingwood and dropped in to see my old friend Dom Bartolo who runs a killer motion graphics company called 21-19.

Dom was pretty excited to see if I could guess what this letter “O” came from.

Yup. PORSCHE. I was pretty upset I couldn’t spot it! The guys could see Porsche Melbourne closing shop and removing their huge neon letters. Amazingly they scored a few! One of the guys has the letter “P” working now in his house. Amazing, right?!

Hey, how you doin’?

Jess then suggested we eat fried chicken at Belles Hot Chicken, damn it was farking amazing! I’m 100% going to make it a pitt stop every time I visit Melbourne now!

Chapel Street Bazaar.

An unlikely find at the Bazaar! Fave car in that movie. Had to have it!

Mojitooooooo.

Drug dealers, many drug dealers.

akid one from Malaysia.

So rad!

We then finally made it to Hakata Gensuke. Yes there was a queue outside but we got in pretty fast. Hearing big claims of this place being the best ramen in Australia had me psyched for the past week.

You choose your broth, noodle hardness and toppings. My (rather small) bowl came to $21 from memory which was a little pricey I thought, and man, hype is a very dangerous thing. I really hated the thin straight noodles (wavy noodles FTW!) and the broth was nice, but so plain. I didn’t think it was anything special. Manpuku kills this joint, no doubt, their broth is just SO much more complex, and the aftertaste of Manpuku hangs around with you all day (so too the smile).

Jess went for the hot ramen (low heat) and also thought it wasn’t mind blowing, suggesting that the tantan-men at Ichiban Boshi was better (I can’t eat anything with a hint of chilli in it but have an Ichiban Boshi tantan-men once a year and just deal with the pain haha).

After Ramen Jess and I took some pretty rad shots around the city. I want to edit the raw images though, and since I can’t edit raws on this laptop I’ll have to wait until I’m back in Sydney.

Inception. Me taking photos of Jess taking photos of herself. We woke up in a haze, my head, amazingly, was feeling alright after yesterday’s all day into night drinking fest!

We rolled out of the hotel. I said “good morning” to the hotel reception guy, who looked at me strangely. I then asked: “Ummm, is it not morning anymore?”. He replied: “It’s 2PM”. Haha! Destroyed. Too late for breakfast at Cumulus Inc., so we ordered lunch instead.

Pigs head croquettes with tartare sauce. Gamey goodness!

Flounder with greens and eggplant, super clean cooking. Love this kind of food.

We then walked off our brunch and headed to Brunswick St. This guy was a legend!

Rose St. Markets.

I picked up this amazing ‘Seven Seas’ ring. The middle band spins! I love it so much, it’s my new favourite thing!!!

Love Brunswick St. Used to always stay out here when visiting Melbourne. It always feels like my old stomping ground.

I approve.

Those lines. The only Volvo I desire.

I then snuck in a shoot with the absolutely gorgeous Amanda Sierras. She’s such a rad chika. Was a really fun shoot in her apartment high up looking over Melbourne CBD. Looking forward to getting back to Sydney to edit these shots!

We then hooked up with the JTYPE ninjas, who had just finished a ramen dinner, so naturally they went for coffee after.

The guys wanted to take us somewhere for dessert, and these are the 2 awesome beasts that greeted us at the carpark.

Twinsies! Mike and I both rocking Midnight Fog Nike Roshes.

Obtuse, intense, obviously designed on a computer. Over the top? Definitely.

Looks even wilder with the lights on!

Mike led us to Yo-Chi in Carlton for yogurt. Loved the interior design and concept.

You help yourself to whatever flavours you want.

Then you add toppings.

And you pay by weight!

Day 2 is down, and it was a pretty short day as it took us forever to get out of the hotel! We’re failing at the whole concept of eating and drinking our asses off. Must… try… harder!

Bye Sydney!

Break on through to the other side.

Straight to CHINCHIN!

I’ve always had great times at CHINCHIN so was more than happy to be back.

Next level. So sticky, sweet, reminded me of an Indonesian Beef Rendang, only so much more complex and delicious!

Fox!

So jealous of Melbourne’s teal milk crates!

We had a quick catch up with one of Jess’ besties Dennis at Koko Black.

Breakers.

Then straight to rooftop bar at Cookie for some drinks.

Amaze.

Shepard was here.

Back at our laneway hotel on Little Collins St. First up; hair.

Then make-up!

I’m shooting with the 35mm this trip. It fits a lot in in comparison to the 55mm, but I’m just not digging the lens, it’s just got no character, or depth (needs lower f-stop!).

Tentacles!

Hey Horsies!

We tried to get into the JPG exhibit at the NGV, the line was massive so we gave it a miss.

Cool 3-piece band which drew a decent sized crowd. Jasia I think they were called. Electric violin, the drummer was hitting cymbals on the ground which was interesting to watch.

Then onto Ferdydurke!

Last time I was here it was just being set up, it’s all done now and they’ve done an awesome job.

Two Birds.

Matt-San and Sandra are in town too! They’d just come from the JPG exhibit at the NGV to join us for drinks with Gil (not pictured).

Matt’s a whiskey man. He took us to this amazing bar.

So much of that nasty brown liquid that makes me wanna puke.

Matt, Sandra and staff were awesome with trying to get me into Whiskeys, but to be honest. I just can’t appreciate. I almost died once on brown hard liquor. Since then I’ve only been a fan of the clear stuff (vodka, gin, etc).

Soaking up that alcohol in Chinatown with a bit of grease lightning.

Writing this Sunday morning, still alive despite getting pretty sloshed last night (and having almost a full bottle of red to myself the night before!). Not sure how I’m still operating to be honest! But having a great time. Especially loved the intense conversations on the topic of music last night with Matt and Sandra (and Jess and Gil!).

Low clouds this morning. That view, never the same, always beautiful.

A shot looking back on the house.

Bags packed.

Goodbye Mount White House, you were an awesome home away from home!