fur from flesh
Now Playing: inspiral carpets - uniform
Topic: death

the gunpowder plot
Now Playing: coldplay - don't panic
Topic: edinburgh



I was kind of looking forward to Guy Fawkes' Night and getting out to enjoy some fireworks tonight, but after hearing fireworks and crackers going off almost every night for the past two weeks, the novelty has somewhat worn off.

Between Divali, Hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes', the fireworks manufacturers are making a killing.

As it turns out, I didn't need to go out to enjoy some quality fireworks. I just stood on my bed and looked out my window and watched them go off on the other side of the church on the other side of the park on the opposite side of my street. They're still going off now. Judging by what I've seen and heard, there were about three fireworks displays just within my local area.

So, rather than go out and freeze my extremities, I settle for posting a photograph from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in August, and spend my evening working on my website update and photo editing.

In the spirit of tonight's celebrations, here's a clip from Not Only, But Also that always comes to mind when I think of Guy Fawkes. Enjoy!

100 people - #24: Steven
Now Playing: sonny rollins - long ago and far away
Topic: 100 people



I'm not sure how Steven came across me, but I think he came to my attention either just before or just after I moved to Brisbane, and he has a lot to answer for I have a lot to thank him for.

I recall first coming across Steve on Twitter, and though I was initially skeptical about falling into share housing in Brisbane, let alone sharing with a couple, he suggested I contact Nicole Jensen about a room available in her home, and also introduced me to BTUB, aka Brisbane Twitter Underground Brigade, a gathering of Twitter users from Brisbane and surrounds on the first Friday of each month at Greystone Bar in the Southbank area of Brisbane. These two things led to me feeling a much stronger sense of belonging in Brisbane in the relatively short period I was there, than I ever expected possible.

Steve and I have a common interest in photography and lecherous observations about women. But mainly the photography.

Steve is a gentle giant. You can't tell from this portrait I took of him at the Abbey Medieval Festival in 2010, but he is actually very tall; from memory, about 6'3". He occasionally takes extremely creepy self-portraits, but really, he is a big softy at heart.

He works in a museum, is completing a degree in Creative Industries at QUT, and has been heavily involved in the volunteer photography side of both the Abbey Medieval Festival and the Caloundra Music Festival.

He's also a cider drinker, so you can see why we get along.

hospitalfield
Now Playing: jefferson airplane - we can be together
Topic: hospitalfield



Remembering [somewhat] warmer days.

centrefold
Now Playing: madonna - music inferno
Topic: self-portraiture

getting to grips
Now Playing: tom waits - ruby's arms
Topic: self-portraiture

how to be invisible
Now Playing: will oldham - drinking woman
Topic: self-portraiture

strange bedfellows
Now Playing: nine inch nails - head like a hole
Topic: self-portraiture

living on the edge
Now Playing: madonna - like a virgin
Topic: road trip 2010



I realised a few years ago, when standing on the bench in my bedroom to paint the higher sections of the wall, that I'm not specifically afraid of heights. I'm afraid of falling.

Therefore, one metre off the ground I can go into panic mode.

Walking down a spiral staircase I manoeuvred my way up without thought suddenly becomes a job undertaken in a crab-like posture (just ask my ex about such experiences in La Sagrada Familias and Caernarvon Castle).

An attempt to venture onto The Balconies in the Grampians National Park had me experiencing vertigo - feeling as though everything below was moving and whirling, and I had to drop to the ground to feel like I wouldn't fall off the edge.

So I ventured as far as I could with Phil and Aaron at Shady Rest. They walked to and stood at the furthest edge of the property at that point. I had to stop short from nausea. The best I could manage was to photograph them standing there, as though they were waiting for a bus, or an elevator, or something equally innocuous that doesn't involve falling to their death.

It sounds dramatic to say that, but every second day on the stairs in my house I almost over-balance from this fear of falling. I almost did today.

park royal
Now Playing: bat for lashes - trophy
Topic: london