MY LIFE IN IMAGES

A few months ago I had a shoot with the Harbour City Bears for their annual Mardi Gras festival, Bear Essentials. Every year bears, cubs, daddies, beefy blokes, and furry dudes of all shapes and sizes come from all over Australia and the world to enjoy this event filled festival.

The theme for Bear Essentials 16 is ‘A Whole New Ball Game’, so obviously the photos reflect the sporting theme. Taking inspiration from football, rugby union, rugby league, pool, AFL (Aussie Rules) and more, three affable models got their kit on and off for the shoot at The Oxford Hotel and Kingsteam.

A number of images are being used both on the website and posters, flyers and media for the festival as a whole and the individual events. You can see all the images from the campaign plus a selection that didn’t make the cut but are stand-outs on Flickr.

Thanks to Harbour City Bears and their President Jonny Bastin for asking me to do the job, plus the models Gavin P, David and Gavin S for their time.

So it’s that time of year again where the Christmas parties get in full swing, Friday 12th December was my work party at Doltone House at Jones Bay Wharf in Pyrmont. Although it sounds like it should be some sort of large house set in beautiful gardens, Doltone House is actually a converted wharf on Sydney Harbour which is one of many dotted around the harbour originally used to receive goods that came into Sydney by boat.

Summer was on hold with crappy, rainy and cool weather for the evening but the space inside was huge and comfortably accommodated the 400-odd guests. The theme if you hadn’t gathered already was ‘disco’ so had to push the boat and get pimped up for the evening. Most of the outfit was hired however the hat and cane were bought from dollar shops and pimped up personally. The cane took a couple of hours of sticking on jewels and sparklies and the hat was pimped with a few jewels too.

After an evening of walking around in giraffe skin platforms I knew how women felt but it was great to be about three inches taller, will be looking into leg extension surgery in the new year! Definately the best Christmas party this year.

So that’s it for another year…..well actually Mardi Gras was over two weeks ago but as usual i’m being slack as on the whole blog front, so much for one a week ey…will keep trying.

Despite Sydney’s distinct lack of a summer the skies were blue for the parade on the Saturday night, though there was a chilly wind. I managed to get a media pass again so took pics in the parade as it made it’s way up Oxford St.

After that I nipped home and got changed for the party which luckily was only a 10 minute walk away at the Entertainment Quarter. Me being a lightweight I only managed to last till about 3.30am before heading home in the rain with no taxis in site.

I was punished the next day by having a stomach bug that laid me out for two days, so when I should have been partying and finishing off the weekend with a bang (so to speak) I was in and out of bed and the loo….nice.

It all goes quiet after Mardi Gras, just like normal Christmas everyone hibernates for a bit to recover from the excesses and lack of money. Good job then that PKF (the company I work for) threw a free Masquerade Ball last Friday. Actually I organised it to be precise and a marvellous night was had by all, aided of course by an evening of free drink and food.

Yes it’s that time of year again, when the gays get all excited with the impending arrival of Mardi Gras….hurrah! The Sydney gay scene has been going through a bit of a rough period lately, an increasing number of straight venues has brought an increase in violence along Oxford St and surrounding areas. On top of that there have been a number of closures of gay venues on Oxford St and in Newtown.

One of the worst incidents of violence was that of a gay couple who were attacked after holding hands, one of them was kicked in the face while laying in the middle of the road. His mobile was stolen and his mother later received a text message from the mobile saying “We’ve killed your faggot son”….all this in Sydney in 2008. A vigil was held for those two guys and to start getting some action from the Police, Council and Government to get these issues sorted.

However Oxford St is getting ready to put the sparkle back on to celebrate the 30th Anniversary Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras , even if it’s for one night only. Saturday 1st March is the big parade following by the closing party. There’s also a load of events which happen in the run up to the first including Fair Day which happened on Sunday and at which I took a few pics with new Lomo Fisheye 2 camera.

Personally I’ll be heading to Underbear at Arq and the Wet Furr Pool Party as part of the Bear Essentials festival. Again I’ll probably be taking pics in the parade, as long as it’s not pissing down, then I’ll be heading to the party.

At $150 a ticket it’s pretty steep but as it’s the 30th Anniversary there’s talk of big things and surprise guests. Though so far the biggest name they’ve announced is Olivia Newton-John, doesn’t quite float my boat but the locals seem to be getting excited about it. Rumours for other acts include Scissor Sisters and Kylie, though the latter is pretty unlikely.

The summer’s not been kind so far so everyone cross fingers 1st March as traipsing up Oxford St in the wet won’t be fun. Prepare for photos and updates once I’ve recovered!