I lived and worked in interesting cities before – Paris for one. If I had a choice Perth would not have been the place I chose to live. This is my guy’s hometown and I got married to him so it was an obvious destination for more than one reason.

I often have to remind myself to be a ‘visitor’ rather than a lazy ‘resident’. Being a resident means complaining about how boring this city is and saying that there is nothing to do and it’s the same old thing etc. The best way to enjoy a city is to be a visitor. By that, I mean getting out there and doing stuff that tourists do.

That’s exactly what we did yesterday thanks to Brenda who has been my sidekick for the graduate shows this month. She got us to join her for a walking tour by Two Feet and a Heartbeat which is a local tour company run by an bunch of enthusiastic guys.

I am not going to recite which route Ryan and Gary took us around or interesting stories they told us last night. All I can tell you is that they made me discover my love for the city of Perth. After listening to two of them harping on about all the exciting changes that are taking place now and all of the changes that took place in the past, I was immediately infected by their love for the city. Before this tour, C Y O’Connor or all the new developments did not mean anything to me. After the tour, I’m so excited about all the changes and improvements planned for the city.

Two feet and a heartbeat also runs daily tours in Fremantle and small bar tours in Perth. I’m definitely doing those just so that I can get the additional dose of passion and enthusiasm from them.

If you are like me you’d be hanging out for a huge sale at places like Zekka and Dilettante. Dilettante invited a few people over to celebrate the silly season with a store discount today. Zekka released the Boxing day  sale details (up to 80% off) as well.

As you may or may not know, Zekka’s King Street store is just a cafe now. Their clothing store moved to Shenton Park. If I were you I’d get there early.  I am not sure if it’s tragic that I’m missing out on this sale or it is a good thing that I wouldn’t be able to make a massive dent in my bank account. Either way, I hope at least you get to own cool stuff by some of the most exclusive labels around the world. Happy shopping!

That’s exactly what I did for the Threads show during the Perth Fashion Festival this year in Fremantle. The photographs I took of Love in Tokyo were printed in the West Australian’s style insert. In return, Sheree showered me with a gift voucher which afforded me two really long singlets and a dark purple top which I’v been wearing all the time ever since.

I’m pairing the grey singlet with the purple top, a white stirling silver necklace (also, from Love in Tokyo a year or two ago) and a purple scarf (from eBay).

The dark brown singlet will be paired with a brown top (Witchery) and a red tree necklace (Elk).

Petals in Disarray gifted me with a pair of sexy skinny trousers and a singlet with its signature umbrella print. These will be super handy when I come down a size or two. Well, that is the plan for 2012.

The most exciting part I must say is what I’m getting from Megan Salmon. The dark purple tulle skirt will soon be in my possession. It’s not often that I get to wear something off the runway. I went for the fitting today and, of course, it didn’t fit me so Megan is having to alter it.

I used to wear dresses although it feels like it never happened. It wasn’t all that long ago when I used to wear Costarella’s huge dress with a bit of oomph. It turned out it was only April 2010. Since then I ‘grew side ways’ so I’m not able to wear this dress any more. Hopefully, my New Year’s resolution might just have to work out. Should I get my hair cut short as well?!

There you have it. I shoot to get paid but I also shoot for fashion so you’re more than welcome to dress me. Are you game?

What was really exciting this year was the live performance by Moana Lutton and Jake Steele. They will be releasing an album together in the very near future. Perhaps I’ll get to find out more about them and and get to listen to more of Moana’s groovily enchanting voice.

Then there were super funny lips! I didn’t know what to make of them. Brenda, my handbag for the night, liked the lips but I wasn’t sure.

Back to garments…what grabbed my attention was Candice Hough Neilson’s dye work.

And Liz Brown’s futuristic and geometric cuts were interesting. Looking at these I was wondering if our future fashion will all be like this just as seen in sci-fi series such as StarTrek.

Wondering where all the other graduate show photos are? If you are on Facebook they are all either in my personal photo area or in the Futzfield Facebook page. If you are more of a Flickr person all my photos are in my flickr stream.

This is it, really. No more graduate shows until next December. It didn’t feel like it was going to end but it did as with all things. It’s been a really busy ‘shooting’ month for me and I am suitably exhausted.

I don’t know how I’m going to cope when there are no parades for months. In the meantime, my guy and I will go camping this holiday season. Perhaps I’ll share that with you whenever I can get on the Internet.

I’m off to have more sleep. Well deserved nice long sleep and doing nothing awaits me from now until I get back to work in the second week of January. Until then anything could happen to you and I. Let’s keep safe and be merry.

When I saw Marisa’s work at the Show 2011 by Central Institute I had to see and touch her garments. I also wanted to find out more about the designer. I’ve done that once or twice before but this time I wanted to shoot properly with a whole crew – model, designer and makeup artist on location.

I didn’t know what to make of her when we first started chatting. It only took a few minutes to realise how reserved she was. I could only guess how weird it must have felt for her to have some stranger paying a lot of attention to her and her work.

It was amazing seeing all the details of her work. Soft jersey, muted colours, silk screen print, cotton silk, draping and biased closures and covered buttons. All very intricate yet modern and generous for the body.

No doubt, it would have been a valuable experience having this graduate collection completed. Following her own instinct more would be something she would take away from this collection according to her. Marisa Ebsworth is planning a big trip in 2012. With her American citizenship she could be seeking new adventures in the USA later next year. All sounds very exciting. I could only guess that she will be thoroughly inspired after her trip to New York and South America.

I asked Marisa if she would share her work as I was seriously coveting some of the garments. She said yes so perhaps for the first time I could get my hands on something from a graduate collection.

The shoot was rather pleasant. Everyone arrived on time. What I didn’t want to have was the shoot taking all day which I have seen when I have observed some other shoots. It started on time and we were all done and dusted an hour earlier than planned thanks to everyone doing their jobs in a very professional manner.

Another great thing from this experience was meeting Kristy from Scene Models. She started modelling five months ago. With her easy going and amazing personality I can only assume that she will be very successful. Could I get to see more of her in runway shows please – talking to you Aly and PFF project managers?

Obviously, I won’t look anything like Kristy if I were to wear the same dress but I’ll just have to make my own will I? That’s only if I could fit into it I suppose.

I have a very good set of gear already – full frame Nikon body, 700-200mm telephoto, 28-70mm mid zoom, 35mm DX F1.8, Speedlight SB800 and so on. Like any other gadgetry, it never feels enough though. There is always something tempting me with all kinds of fluff – so many more megapixels and so much higher ISO and HD video etc as if they matter when making photos.

Good gear doesn’t make a good photographer. I know that but it is my selective memory that forgets all that and I just clamour over newer and shiner releases each month.

A couple of days ago, I was fortunate enough to watch an hour long documentary/interview on Natalie Fobes, who used to shoot for National Geographic. One of the interesting things was that she was not using anything special. Her gear was simply something that I see a lot in the media pits. If Canon 5D MKII – equivalent to my current Nikon body – is good enough for a world renowned photo journalist why should I stress over anything better?

After a little banter with my guy about how I would one day own a Hasselblad and that then I would know that I had made my name, that notion went out the window after that interview. It also reminded me that I had the original Rolleiflex which is a loan from my friend. I realised I haven’t touched it for months. I got off my lazy ass and took it to a pro camera store to get some film. Yes, it takes a medium format film being a camera from the early 60s. The old gentleman who was the only guy in the shop who knew anything about this type of camera and film asked me what kind of film I wanted. I think I answered something random and he had to rephrase it by saying ‘did you want colour or black and white?’.

He loaded the film since I didn’t even know how to open the machine to load one. And the excitement of shooting with a Twin Reflex Lens camera was so high until he looked at me and said that it wasn’t going to happen as the film loader was not functioning. He kindly rescued the film out of the camera and I had to pack this beauty away to give it back to the owner.

No matter, it is a beautiful machine to look at and to hold. Buying brand new costs over $5,000 these days. I could get one from eBay for about $1,500. Do I need one? No. Will it make interesting photos? Perhaps. Is this another ‘gear envy’ item. Definitely, Yes. Will I succumb to it? Maybe.