Melaka/Malacca, Malaysia

8 to 14 December 2011

A random selection of shots from our first visit to Malacca. Chris had been living here for a month and it’s such a beautiful place to wander, soak up the atmosphere and hang out with friends. I really enjoyed photographing it but didn’t go crazy – partly because I knew I was returning, partly because it was all so overwhelming in terms of being ripe for photography and partly because I just wanted to chill out …

You can see more images from this part of the journey on flickr

those that follow this blog (or know me) know that i’ve been in absentia, absconded, taken off, disappeared. i went to malaysia and thailand for five weeks and got back two weeks ago. oh my gosh it was so good to get away. what with bike accident injuries, beginning my phd, lots of kung fu training, working way too hard and some personal difficulties it was busy, crazy, challenging and at times traumatic year. so chris and i really needed that time together and for ourselves.

so i’ve really been looking forward to putting my travel photos up. i didn’t really take as many images as i would have thought but there are a lot – six rolls of film, two memory cards of digital shots (mostly of chris playing guitar in a band on christmas day), some iphone shots and one sad lonely polaroid. but for me that’s tame! it wasn’t as though i wasn’t in the mood for photos. i just didn’t want to take photos all the time. in malacca for instance i shot some digital images and felt so little love that i deleted a lot of them. but then there were other days that i was so inspired that i shot a whole roll in a matter of hours – or less than an hour in one case.

but we spent so much time on the beach in thailand in the middle of our trip chilling and i didn’t feel i needed to get up and take photos most of the time. i just wanted to drink in the beauty of the place, enjoy time with amazing people and absorb the relaxed vibes. i needed to have a break from everything, even something i love, as much as photography.

despite my disclaimer that there aren’t that many photos, out of the six rolls of film there were very few that i didn’t love – which of course is highly unusual.you may wish to browse at your leisure or just check in now and again or, as i suggested the other day, treat it like a family slide night. i may not post them all but if i don’t, rest assured that they’ll all be over on the corresponding flickr sets for those like me who love stickybeaking at other people’s travel shots.

i’m going to post them in order even though there are a few nice little themes that came out while i was shooting, they seem to work best as a visual travelogue. this means you’re going to get malaysia then thailand then back to malaysia because that was the order we did our travels in. there might be a bit of double up even because the second time in malacca i couldn’t really remember what i’d shot the first time. i’ll try not to natter too much and let the images speak for themselves but part of the pleasure is knowing about the place so there’ll definitely be explanations and links to various resources and further information in order to explain more.

this is just a little teaser, first installment to follow in the next few days.

hope you enjoy taking the journey with me.

so ages ago (in late november early december) the melbourne silver mine had it’s annual unsensored show. it was great … i loved what i’d produced for it (which didn’t sell but that’s cool – you still have a chance). i dehung and had dehanging drinks with all the msm peeps on 8 december – literally jumping on the tram five hours before i was due to fly to malaysia (i hadn’t packed either!!) but the opening night! the opening night was fabulous and i took bucketloads of pictures both of the night and the hanging the night before. i’ve put these images on flickr but haven’t blogged them before now. why? because i shot them on my digital with my new lens. now i wasn’t really feeling the love with the digital. it just doesn’t feel right to me anymore after many months of almost purely shooting film (and iphone). now i’m not getting into the film vs dig debate but suffice it to say i felt the images were too clean, too easy, too … meh. so i bumped the iso up hugely on the opening night and felt a little better about them. and now a couple of months later i’ve looked through them again and decided that i do like them after all. sometimes distance and time are very good things with your own artwork.

next up: travel photos – so many you’re going to be sick of them … but too bad :p look at them on flickr and put them on slideshow. it’ll be like an old fashioned family slide night … hehe

i spent the evening and morning with a good friend who was over from london and is one of a couple of people that i really credit for inspiring me to return to film photography. i shot the whole roll in one day, kind of like a day in the life of nicole. i felt inspired and excited by what i’d shot.

now i’ll let you in on a secret. normally with photographic projects and exhibitions i’m usually doing things at the last minute (like framing photos at 3 o’clock in the morning the night before) rather proud of myself that i’d done a project several weeks before the deadline.  i immediately developed it and it looked awesome on the negs! then i got a bit busy with uni and work (actually frantically mind blowingly busy) and after a couple of weeks realised i’d better get my butt into gear and scan and print the photos.

could i find the negs? no … nowhere. chris and i turned the house upside down, i flipped out and cried cause i was so stressed out i didn’t feel like i had time to shoot, develop, scan and print another whole roll.

but i did do it … and in the end both myself and the recipient did love the images.

fast forward three months. i’m back from thailand and malaysia. i’m centred, at peace, calm. and i’m looking through my dvd collection in my tv cabinet draws and glance up at the shelf in front of my face. a white box that my lab puts the negs in was sitting in front of me. about 20cm from where i’d last seen it all those months ago. it was there all along, in plain view.

i’ve now had them developed and i’ve scanned them. but you know what? i don’t think i like them as much as the roll i ended up giving to dee. it’s like the time i finished a uni assignment two weeks early and got the worst mark of any assignment ever. i don’t hate them, i like them but they just don’t have as much of the spark, the oomph, the passion of the second lot. i suppose i shouldn’t be dissing my own work but it’s just honest. maybe i’ll change my mind later though.

in any case here are a few and you can see images from both rolls on the flickr set or the other shots in the original post – if you’d like to compare and let me know what you think about all this.

what have i learnt from this? i do too much. i need to keep calm.  i shouldn’t freak out. i need shanti.

and most of all … never ever ever finish something three weeks early and then neglect to go back to it and check it again before the due date.

athough sometimes you need a little bit of panic to inspire you too!

ps i really really want to post my travel shots but i needed to finish this … and i have one more post before you can see the travel ones – see you tomorrow x

enjoy.

it was prompted by the occurrence of the melbourne silver mine  mixed tape film swap (some pics from which i still need to post!). it was such a great idea and we all got these other talented people whose work we admire to shoot whole rolls of film just for us! i shot my roll for dee and was pretty happy with most of the shots. but funnily there were some that i just really didn’t like … but that she did! isn’t it funny how some people love some things that you produce that you don’t really care for … if you had any in the world to choose from … you wouldn’t choose the same things that another person did.

i think that’s just awesome. and when you’re a photographer it can make you look at your work in a completely different way … make you look at stuff you’ve completely dismissed as rubbish and have a rethink. those of you on flickr know that you can favourite  other people’s images. now my favourites are a random assortment of images just based on my eclectic taste and the fact i really just love perving at other people’s photos … so i have lots of faves. but i do get a bit of a thrill when people fave my images … i’m not really doing it for other people but it is nice to know that other people like your artwork as well.

so what are some of the images of mine that people have favourited on flickr? some are expected … like my polaroids with shoes and flowers … some i just thought i was the only person who could possibly like them … some i thought were a bit rubbish but other people like them! these are just some of the ones people seem to really like … sorry i’ve posted some of them before but people seem to like them so i guess that’s okay

because i’m going here:

and here:

i’m packing: canon 500D with tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens plus the canon tx + 8 rolls of film plus my friend’s sx70 with 7 packs of film. i will have lots of images to share when i return in five weeks!

this is not normal

i really don’t care though … i think it’s awesome!

thanks to emma for the title … it’s what bundaberg is renowned for … rum … and ginger beer. as well as sugar cane, from whence such bounty comes. and a giant polar bear …

my mum’s birthday in bundaberg. she and her siblings grew up in this town and my grandparents are still there. it’s a place redolent with childhood memories of hot humid summer visits, christmases where you couldn’t move for the heat … and cooling off in the pool all day.

the farmhouse that was the centre of my great grandfather’s cane farm in cordalba, a tiny place between bundaberg and childers, queensland. my grandfather and his brothers grew up here. i wish we could have gone and had a sticky beak.

brisbane. my home town. we went to the cartier-bresson exhibition this morning. amazing. inspiring. looking through it i realised from whence some of my street photography inspirations have been unconsciously absorbed.

the only photo i got at the queensland art gallery … well two shots, double exposed … very weird … but kinda cool!

where my thought’s escaping

a sneak peek of my trip to bundaberg and brisbane a couple of weeks ago. more to come soon …

hey folks … it’s on again! unSensored11 is coming soon to collingwood gallery. this is the exhibition that led me to the fabulousness that is the melbourne silver mine.

one day last year i was randomly walking along smith street and saw this cool photography exhibition in collingwood gallery … hmmm i thought … photography … and even better film photography. this was something i’d been pouring my heart and soul into for a while and i was uber excited to see a whole exhibition dedicated to it.

the talent of these folks blew me away. and the rest is history … i joined melbourne silver mine … started meeting a few of these fab people and started exhibiting with them.

just over a year later i’m exhibiting in the same exhibition that drew me in to the fold. i’ll be exhibiting a polyptych of images shot with my polaroid sx70 on impossible project’s px100 film (they won’t have the black border … just makes it easier to see against the white background on the blog but it will be framed).

come and check it out! if you can’t get to the opening on friday 25 november please come at some point during the exhibition. full details to be found at the website linked above. most of the works are for sale (including mine!) and you too could have some fabulousness for your own wall/s courtesy of the melbourne silver mine’s talented cohorts.

props to all involved and the hardworking committee members and the other peeps that make this happen!

the truly awesome invite includes image by kat in the invite with graphic design by dee