What a week! Last Saturday I went to the Opera House to see the play 'When the Rain Stops Falling'. Sunday I drove down to Wollongong for brunch at diggies, then Tuesday night I met a friend for dinner at Neil Perry's latest venture, Spice Temple. I've just been to the PMA Australia 2009 Imaging Technology Show, a huge photographic trade display at Darling Harbour in Sydney. I played with a Nikon 85 mm Tilt Shift lens but was as clueless at the end of the experiment as I was at the beginning! I visited some of my suppliers to see their new products and noted the absence of quite a few suppliers from the 2004 show including my own album supplier, Queensberry.
There are lots of blog posts coming up. I've just collected the black and white film from the lab so I've been editing those images like mad all afternoon and there should be a blog post of those images in the next week. There is a food post in the wing and some more Donna Hay General Store images, so please come back.
Until then I'll leave you with an image I shot in Bali a few years back. I had a great holiday there exploring parts of the island most Australian tourists fail to see. This image, taken at a hill top temple, was shot in on Fuji Reala 100 ISO film, known for it's vibrant colour.
Have a great weekend,
Jillian
I've been working on developing the perfect chocolate brownie (if there is such a thing) so I keep tweaking the recipe. In this version I reduced the flour content, added toasted macadamia nuts and a tablespoon of honey then simply dusted the finished brownie with icing sugar.
I left the brownies cooling in the oven a bit longer than I should have so I was worried they'd be too dry. I did sample one of the brownies and thankfully they were okay - very dark, dense, moist and chocolatey.
Bye for now,
Jillian
When I visited Guatemala 2 years ago I took a circuitous route from Sydney to Cancun via Vancouver, Edmonton, Banff and Calgary. I decided to travel light and only took 1 camera with me. It was the first time (and the last time I might add) I'd ever travelled without a film camera.
We took a ferry around Lake Atitlan and one of the places we visited was San Pedro, home to many Spanish language schools. We heard a band playing in the schoolyard and stopped to listen. I saw the young girl looking out the window, waited until the gentleman passed into view and took the photo. I think this image would have been even more evocative if it had been shot on black and white film. I have made a black and white version but it's just not the same as film.
Enjoy the weekend,
Jillian
I took a trip to Central America 2 years ago and during that trip I visited Guatemala, Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. As far as I'm concerned any holiday which involves snorkelling +/- climbing a volcano is a good holiday. I climbed the Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala (hands down the scariest thing I've ever done) then dreamed of snorkelling in Belize.
That plan went awry when I tripped over on the jetty at Caye Caulker and instead of snorkelling in the aqua coloured waters I had 11 stitches inserted in my knee. One of my friends jokes that I collect scars on my travels like other people collect souvenirs. Back in Mexico and on the last day of my trip, the wound had healed sufficiently so I decided to go to the beach. I was staying at Playa del Carmen and asked where the best beach was and I was told "X-Puha". I took the collectivo along the highway towards Tulum, alighted when told and walked the kilometre to the beach.
After I walked through the clearing, this is what I found. Who would have thought water this colour actually existed?
Have a happy weekend,
Jillian
I used to live in Woollahra a few years ago and I loved doing my shopping there. The major thoroughfare, Queen Street, is a beautiful tree lined street which has a European feel to it. Whenever I needed a location for a photographic assignment, it was the first place I visited.
Holdsworth Street is a tiny street that comes off Queen Street and if you didn't know about it, it would be very easy to miss. It's primarily a residential street with the best kind of houses on offer in Woollahra. For many years a homewares store was the only retail store in the street and that building is now home to the Donna Hay General Store.
I visited the store a few weeks ago in my quest to locate a cake plate. Who would have thought it such a difficult task but I'd been everywhere in a vain attempt to source the plate. I had a brain wave and visited the shop a few weeks back and voila - there was my cake plate. I was really taken with the beautiful home wares on offer and knew I had to return to take some photos.
I was in Woollahra on Saturday looking for shoes and managed to find a park in Holdsworth Street. I returned to the car without shoes (but that's another story), walked past the store and decided to drop by.
I spoke to the lovely Liz and asked if I could take some photos and she referred me to Donna, who was in the store that day. She kindly agreed and I returned the next day. It's very easy to photograph beautiful items displayed so thoughtfully and I had a fun time.
Thanks once again to Donna Hay for giving me free rein in her store.
Happy browsing,
P.S. It's a Long Weekend this weekend and I'll be out of town, so there'll be no posts until next week. Have a great Queen's Birthday Long Weekend and I'll be back next week.
P.P.S I'm seriously flattered that people like my work so much that they've featured these images on their blogs. Some people have done the polite thing and have let me know or even better asked my permission first. Using my photos without my permission, even with a link, or altering the lay-out infringes Australian copyright law. Please contact me first before doing so. Thanks muchly,
2016 Edit - the Donna hay General Store has closed but there is a new Donna Hay pop-up store at
the Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park
Jillian
