Take a walk on the wild side!
I thought it would be cool to highlight some of my fave photos I have taken over the course of the past week. So every Thursday, or thereabouts, I’ll share some of my faves right here on this blog. If you wanna see more of my stuff, I’m pretty prolific on Flickr so see you there…
Centre Place, Melbourne
More info here.
Cathedral Arcade, Melbourne
More info here.
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
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Higson Lane, Melbourne
More info here.
A Possum eats
More info here.
I always loved this shot I took of a DJ at Revolver several months ago. You can view the original shot here.
I thought we would take this installment of Wallpapers underground. I found a really cool subway underpass in Richmond, (Melbourne, Australia) and spent some time experimenting with different angles and light settings. Here’s one I thought would make an interesting desktop. Enjoy!
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As always, more here.
Seeing as we’re currently in the midst of a bit of a Where The Wild Things Are bent of late… I thought this installment of our Wallpaper’s section could feature said Wild Things! Well, one of ‘em at least. This is a photo I took of my McFarlane Toys Wild Things posed in front of a page from the book.
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I was recently interviewed about my photography by Frame Lines magazine. (No, that’s not me on the cover!)
Frame Lines aims to be ‘Melbourne’s largest ‘free’ independent arts, lifestyle and culture magazine’. You can read more about them over at their official website.
The article on yours truly and my photographs appear under the Melbourne’s Characters section. It was great fun contributing and being part of something young and vibrant. It made me feel all tingly inside it did!
You can download a copy of the magazine in PDF format right here.
Introducing a new feature to Dogmatic… wallpapers! Every so often, I’ll make one of my photos available as a wallpaper. Feel free to download these and do with them what you will! Also, send me through any screen caps of any of these on your desktop! I’d love to see how they look on people’s systems.
First up is a shot of Cocker Alley, Melbourne Australia. Melbourne is famous for some of the most creepy and downright urban alleyways. Cocker Alley in the heart of the CBD also features graffiti by the world famous Banksy and rats that could probably devour cats whole!
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Day 1 - The Eagle Has Landed
It’s proven to be a long day but after all the planning and all the chaos of finding a decent place to stay at over New Year’s Eve - we finally arrived in Sydney.
It’s close to 2am in the morning and I am too wound up to go to sleep yet. Even if, as stated, it has been a long day.
First of all, we had to make our way to Kilmore for Boxing Day lunch with Sam’s family. Took us a while to get there and we could only stay for a short while, as we had a flight to catch at 6.15.
After our stop over in Kilmore, it was back on the road as we headed to Melbourne Airport.
I wanted to be there nice and early as in June when we went to Tasmania, we barely caught our flight and I made a promise to myself, not to go through such a stressful time like that again.
I detest flying with a passion. It terrifies me. But thankfully, our flight today was just perfect.
Once we landed in Sydney, we caught the train into the City and then checked into our hotel. We are in the absolute heart of the City and close to everything we want to do and see. Really, couldn’t ask for a better room or hotel and I’m really pleased with what we got. Five Star all the way and I really have to thank Sam for her diligence in hunting us out a really cool hotel over the next week of our stay.
After settling in, we realized it was close to 10pm and we hadn’t had a thing to eat since lunch. We went to a Spanish restaurant, just outside our hotel and after dinner we decided to hit the pavement and see what Sydney nightlife has to offer. (sorry, but when it comes to nightlife, cafes, bars and restaurants - ole Sydneytown just cannot even begin to compete with Melbourne!)
One thing that struck me, the streets here are filthy and there is not a sign of street art or cool graffiti anywhere. I mean, it’s so friggn dull! But, I am sure we will stumble on some over the next few days… just too spoilt by the color and brilliant work that can be seen in Melbourne’s alleyways and the like.
So, we’re in Sydney for the next week. Looking forward to a ton of fun and action.
Today marked the 7 month anniversary for Sam and I. Proof positive that we are not like other couples in love is the fact that on this special day - rather than spend it with wine & roses - we found ourselves trawling through underground stormwater drains.
After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at finding the whereabouts of the Hawthorn drains, I shot an email off to one of Melbourne’s premiere street-artists and he kindly gave us directions.
I loaded the directions onto our iPod and off we went in search of the elusive drains.
Last week, we struggled to find them but this week with directions in tow - we got to them easily enough.
Here we were, a couple of 30-somethings (ahem!) trawling through hidden holes in fences and climbing down precarious metal rungs to an underground drain network that seemed to run for quite a distance in both directions.
Gawd it was fun! We explored some of the art and graffiti on the walls and took photos of some of the better ones.
Highlight of the day would definitely have been when we climbed out of them onto a suburban quiet Hawthorn street. Sam squeezed through a hole in the fence, yours truly feeling less adventurous - climbed over the fence and barely missed a protruding rusty nailed which nearly impaled my ass!
We then trekked back to the car after walking into a local Milk Bar where I bought a lemonade and Sam some candy! That scene alone made me laugh out loud and I said to Sam "Look at us! We really should know better than this…"
I felt like a kid again. She has this effect on me time and time again.
Bottom line, we had a great time. And the past seven months have been nothing short of some of the best times of my life… here’s to you babe! Thanks for coming into my life!
p.s. cheers to Happy for the directions!
Yours truly and my girlfriend Sam at a bookstore in the city
Had an absolutely kick ass day today. The weather was nice and sunny and Sam and I decided to not waste the day in bed (!) but to head out and enjoy as much of this beautiful Sunday as we could.
We stopped off at the Everfresh Gallery thinking there was an exhibition on today but we soon discovered there was nothing on.
Next stop was the Abbotsford Convent which had a market on today. I’ve never had the chance to visit the convent properly - but I have always wanted to. It is such a historic and somewhat sinister looking structure.
I was hoping to open a door to a nun sponsored Satanic orgy featuring nuns masturbating with crucifix’ over a blood drawn pentagram scribbled on the floor beneath them.
Methinks I really should stop watching so many horror movies.
Still, I tried desperately to find any sorta doorway that would lead to any catacombs or underground passages - but I wasn’t able to! heh!
We met this really cool character called Steve who ran a cafe there. He certainly was full of tall tales and posed for a great photo!
Told him all about flickr and the pics we took of him would be posted here - so Steve, if you’re reading this hiya!
Spent some time wandering through the Collingwood Children’s Farm as well - which is always cute and warms the cockles of one’s heart by being so in tune with nature and all she has to offer in the heart of this great city of ours!
After our fling with Mother Nature, it was time to get it urbanized again so we trekked to the Tic Tac Ho exhibition currently happening at the wonderful Per Square Metre gallery.
I bought a wonderful piece of urban art by female artist Poise and I cannot wait to hang this on the wall. Poise has an amazing style which translates wonderfully well on canvas or on the walls and alleyways of the Melbourne Street Art scene.
The day was capped off by some really cool indian cuisine. Actually, it was anything but cool and my butter-chicken tasted suspiciously too much like rogan-josh!
Today was a fun day. With so much on offer in the city of Melbourne, it seems every weekend proves to be a ton of fun enjoying all that this incredible city has to offer.
We kicked things off by attending the Melbourne Design Market at Federation Square. The Melbourne Design Market features emerging and established designers, design retailers, businesses and design institutions. Products for sale range from jewelery to graphic art products, homewares to fashion, and much more.
Held at Federation Square under cover car park, the experience is complete with fine foods and coffee for all to enjoy, plus the wonderful products and ambiance that have made this event such a popular success.
After the market, we caught the tram to Docklands and endevoured to find the Urban Art Agenda exhibition. This proved to be very elusive. The event has been poorly advertised and promoted and is very hard to find. We eventually trekked down Wharf 4 to find it all… even if some of the literature stated it was in wharf 14. No wonder when we actually got to it, there was hardly anyone in attendance. Such a shame as the exhibition features work by some of the scene’s finest artists. Unfortunately, there was a no photos policy but I did take a few shots before I knew this. This event will be on for the coming week so do go here for further information.
Today turned out to be a wonderful day. Playing it very much by ear, Sam and I decided to spend the afternoon in Williamstown. After some lunch and a walk around this beautiful city by the bay, we ended up back in the city and thought it would be cool to check out the Eureka Tower Observation Deck - Skydeck 88. (88 ‘cos it is on the 88th floor).
The magnificent Eureka Tower stands 300 metres and 92 storeys tall - currently taller than any other apartment building in the world.
To say that Sam and I were blown away by the views is an understatement! We were very lucky to get there a little before sunset, so we experienced both a day and night view of Melbourne.
It was a surreal feeling looking down onto the streets that the pair of us know so well… the amount of kilometres we have walked through the streets and alleys of Melbourne, only our Doc Marten’s know for sure, yet now we were looking at it all from way above.
I felt at peace up here. Listening to the hum and drone of the city was almost soothing and musical at the same time. Seeing the look on my girlfriend’s face marvelling at all before her was also such a special and priceless moment for me. It felt so good to share this moment with her and it made me reflect on the past 6 months of our amazing relationship… looking back at all the wonderful things we seem to get up to together. Never a dull moment. No sireee!
We sat on the edge, only a sheet of glass between us and this great height and watched day diminish into night. As if on cue, the sun descended away and the city lights began to flicker and illuminate the vastness below us.
It feels so good to be alive…
Today was easily our busiest day in Tasmania. The day started early as we had to go and pick up a hire-car as we were to head out to Port Arthur. It took us close to two hours to drive over and we spent the next few hours touring the ruins of the site and experiencing a lot of the areas history. As it was the scene of Australia’s worst mass murder in 1996, it was also a solemn time as we stood on the very spot where many innocent people lost their lives.
Hey droogs, I’m off to Tasmania for a mid-year break. My gal and I will be at the DJ Shadow gig tomorrow night at the Forum and then we’re jetting off to Tassie till Monday. Very much looking forward to the break, although it’s gonna be freaking freezing. Macbook and Canon will be in tow, so if you don’t see any news or pics on here… do check me out on Flickr!
Bye for now and here’s hoping I get to see some Tassie Devils!
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