Woody and Jessie

Yes I consider this to be one of my proudest achievements to date; getting a photograph with Woody and Jessie at Adventureland at Disneyland. I'm the dork on the right closest to Jessie. I can't remember whether or not they had writing on the undersides of their shoes but I don't think I asked. I would have loved a photo with Buzz Light year as well but the lines for most of the Disney characters was horrendous and I only got another picture with myself and a chipmunk.

Bouncing soles

Doc Martens box I got with my patent leather boots with flower's imprinted on them. Too bad I scuffed them the very first time I wore them but I do love them. The box holds all my lovely lomography and camera stuff including all the little fiddly bits such as the format masks, flash adaptors etc.

Guardians

 Just like every other seventeen year old girl I have a toy medieval castle and an echidna money box next to my door so they can rain attacks of quills and arrows over my enemies that enter my room when I am asleep.

Come a long way

Taken about fifteen years ago there I am in feminine pink and short hair. Since then I've had many friends, at some times I haven't had a friend in the world. My hair has been long, short, cut and dyed. I've grown taller, wider and stronger. Halfway through Year 12 I'm almost done. I've become the person I always wanted and I have an amazing family and friends and have a wonderful boyfriend. Back then, way back when I never dreamed I would have everything that I have now.
Including an amazing night tonight, my senior formal. Can't wait to bring back the photographs, both digital and analogue alike hopefully (fingers crossed).

Little Boxes on the Hillside

On top of the world in San Francisco. Our little bus chugged up a winding road for I don't know how long so we could take in the views of the city we'd been crawling around for the last few days. It was so different to see everything around me for miles around. The harbour, the bridge as well as the cute little houses in peculiar and flamboyant colours. I went camera crazy and snapped what I could. The quality isn't as good as it should be and doesn't do justice to what I saw that day. Humblest apologies.

Bird is the word

Sweet little guy spotted at the top of a hill in San Francisco as we were checking out everything around us and viewed all the neat little houses. Sporting a stripe down the middle of his head... I wonder now if this is some sort of punk bird that can't have a Mohawk because it's not very aerodynamic?

Waiting for the end

Waiting at the San Francisco airport for the best holiday I have ever had to end on a lazy afternoon sitting around on the floor like a bunch of collective hobos. Noticed a rainbow reflected onto one of my peers backpacks and snapped it after positioning it was best I could to line up with the stripey pattern.

Memories

Maybe this is why I love photography so much. My dad had a bad ass Canon A-1 that always seemed so heavy to me when I was five, I had trouble holding all 2 kilograms of it in my tiny hands with the constant and ever-present fear that I was going to break it and it would smash into a million tiny pieces. A photograph can preserve a memory. In a photograph you don't know if someone is alive or dead but you can choose to live in the fantasy world and happy disillusion that they are despite the patch of mold, the date stamp of the old frame covered in dust that shields the photograph. To me, photography preserves the best parts of someone is life and the best people they know. It gives me hope.

Tourists

Photo taken by one of the kindly flight attendants on Air New Zealand. The end of the G'day USA 2011 trip in January, they even pit on a flight announcement thanking the teachers at my school I wrote for them to read out. Good food considering it was on a plane and I watched Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World about three times altogether.

Daily commute

The road I stop running at after I've flown down the street, worried and sick with stress that I'll miss my early bus and that the late bus won't get me to class on time. Train station on the bottom left corner of this frame that takes me away to the city.

 There are power lines, in our bloodlines. And if you don't love me let me go. I am the heart that you called you home.

Train station in front of the rising sun.

Teddy Bears' Picnic

Or do these guys look more like bad news bears? Tell you what, those claws like mighty ferocious and could rip your face off sweety if you get a little too close. Perhaps they could, if only they had the energy to stand up rather than spend the entire day napping in the shade looking bored. San Diego, California, January 2011.

Eclipse

Last year's formal shoes, black suede ankle boots with a stiletto heels. Bit of a killer one the dance floor for my poor feet but somehow I managed, no pain killers or codeine either.

American Apparel

Favourite two pieces of clothing in my wardrobe: both by American Apparel. Green pleated maxi skirt bought from a private seller on eBay. Such an amazing lightweight piece but so much colour and texture to it as well! I feel like Ariel from the little mermaid when I wear it, such a pick-me up when I'm feeling down.

Sheer floral blouse bought in San Francisco in January this year, favourite blouse it has a little peter pan collar and I forgot that I had put two perfume cards in the breast pockets until I wore the two pieces together the other day. Now I look pretty and smell good too!

I had the time of my life

Today was a very good day in the entirety of my life for a number of reasons. I sort of came to the slow and gentle realisation that I was beginning to prefer Arthur Darvill over Matt Smith in the popular British television series Doctor Who and that I was perfectly OK with that.

I applied pink nail manicure stickers to make myself into some sort of half Asian half Caucasian Barbie doll of sorts and then wondered why there was so much odd Tumblr spam related to the fictional love of my life Rory the nurse. Today was the day of Arthur Darvill's 29th birthday. That too was special.

My good friend Catherine received her Soundwave Revolution (a punk/ hardcore / rock metal music festival across Australia) admission ticket that morning. I was of the mind, where the hell is my ticket? And whiled the day away watching Doctor Who DVDs and blogging till my appointment for the hairdressers came. An hour before I set myself with the task of applying eyeliner, mascara and getting dressed to go to my local shopping centre.

I got a few looks because I was wearing my maxi American Apparel skirt and looked unusually dapper for a place of such little class. I didn't really care, I was too excited. Getting my hair curled was expensive, $52 to be exact. I was dubious to begin with because the ends seemed to have a heavy corkscrew to them but the assistant assured me that as time wore on and I danced more that the curls would even out. She was right, my hair looked glorious and I loved it.

My brother meanwhile as I got my hair done had to go to the post office to collect the Soundwave Tickets my mother dearest had bought for us.

That was the second thing that made today oh so special to me and close to my heart.

When I got home it was time to apply the make-up. I had bought lipstick brand new, $25. Foundation from Channel that was $75... A costly but beautiful coverage and the sales assistant had also matched my skin tone so it doesn't look too bad. It lasted much of the night and was even and easy to apply! The fluidity as well as neat powdery affect it has on is great for insuring against shiny spots on the face and covering any last little signs of teen acne. Good to know I didn't make a complete mockery of the Channel name and had a face resembling that of a clown on one of the most important dates on the Year 12 calender. The fake eyelashes were a bit of a pain in the ass, but they look beautiful in the photographs so I regret nothing.

The most socially nerve-wracking part of my evening was to come next. Driving over to the Sportslink Community room which we had hired out where approximately seventy of my peers would be dressed in their finest, waiting for the Party Bus to take us the Ivanhoe for our formal. There was parents with cameras better than mine taking pictures of their precious little darlings to treasure forever and shoes to admire and dresses to die for. The girls splashed the table denoted for eating snacks and nibbles and turned it into a cloak service and bag holder.

The most amusing part of this whole process is the fact that Sportslink is a basketball venue which I have had the displeasure of refereeing basketball games for Metro level and been thoroughly abused verbally. But I took great pleasure in knowing I was free from the treachery of work and could take the night leisurely, chewing on gum, snapping photos of my friends; both flattering and unflattering without working up a sweat. Except on the dance floor.

It was nice just to have time to relax and do things I loved doing and didn't have time for. There are both bad and good photographs, funny and stunning photographs of some of the people I love and admire most in the world. I was a little out of practice but had great fun.

The party bus was a source of my amusement every time I looked out the window and realised we were absolutely crawling at a snail's pace along the main roads on our way to the venue hall. The sharp stops caused a few unfortunate girls to fall over since they were stuck with the standing room in heels and had only the poles to support their weight. My friends took it in turns and this year I made the excellent choice of wearing sensible heels that made me the same height as my gorgeous boyfriend who I was to meet at the venue since he wanted to drive to that place.

We piled out of the bus upon arriving at our destination. Since I had chosen to take charge of the invitation addressed to myself as well as my partner, as the entire bus walked past my I waited anxiously outside for my boyfriend to walk from the car park from the back to the front entrance.

It threatened to rain on my halo of curls, my face paint and the wind nipped at my bare legs as I held my bag nervously as well as two black envelopes. Since I stress easily, and although I texted Hamish to let him know I arrived it seemed to take longer than I had imagined for him to swagger into sight. None the less he did. Care-free as ever he looked weary but managed a smile for my sake. We got inside and found my other friends who had travelled by limo where I had missed out on fancy orange juice in champagne flutes with pink tinges on the bottom. I was not impressed.

They held us in the foyer, letting us sit around twiddling our thumbs a little more before we were allowed inside the hall to admire the vast beauty and the amazing work the committee had put into making this night so magical for all of us. My friends didn't bother with taking a trip to see Mr Tan, a teacher at my school who had set up his camera and professional lights as part of his company to take photographs of the couples and friendship groups.

I wasn't a big fan of the food, although it did look good I was starving by the time they gave us our entree so Hamish volunteered his since he didn't like it as much and saw that I was ravenous.

The best part of the night was when I got not one but TWO nice photographs of my boyfriend and I in formal attire. He's made it blatantly clear to me I will not see him in a suit just for any old reason and that when he does dress up I should take full advantage of the opportunity.

I was told that perhaps I was acting a little too couple next to my partner but in all honesty, I don't really enjoy dancing with my circle of friends because I am aware I look like a gargantuan dork. I don't think I'd change anything if I could have the night all over again except for more busy camera work but the dancing  I don't regret. I don't get to see him a lot.

You'll have to excuse the order of the photographs since they aren't in chronological order but I preferred to have them mixed up, creating the illusion that I took more photographs than I actually did. It looks a little better since the dark setting of inside the venue is against the bright lights of the community room and the flash my camera threw around the party bus, bouncing off of faces and windows.

One of the best nights of my life, something I'll dream of having and reliving again for some time to come. Hope you enjoyed reading about my escapade.