Julian

181

The View From Above

Lejonet

Alfie The Tourguide

Some colombian girls studying in Paris decided to come and check the town out, and I a friend of a friend of a friend called me up, and asked me if I could help out and take them out around town. It turns out I already knew one of them, damn the world is small.

The Challenge

Ok, I was thinking about having some fun and connecting to the people that check my blog out. I can always go around town and try to get something cool out of my outings, but sometimes you need structure in the form of challenges, to hope that one's photography will progress.

So kiddies, this is what I want from you, I want people to propose a theme or a subject to photograph, anything really. Just make it something viable and not too impossible or outlandish. Gay albino pandas would be something impossible to find here for example, so that would be a big no-no. But as long as you keep it grounded, I'll do my best to shoot it. So today Sunday 18th of March, I'll start the challenge, and you guys leave your subject or theme as comments for this post, and I'll choose one of the proposed subjects, and post my final pic on the 25th of March. And then you guys will propose a new subject, and the following sunday I'll post my new pic.

Are you up for it? Might be fun!

So go ahead and branstorm a little.

100 things you should do before you die

This was in some australian bank ad. Pretty clever since most of these require money.

1. Kiss a movie star
2. Swim with a dolphin
3. Take the next taxi to the airport and catch the next plane to anywhere
4. Run a marathon
5. Love your body
6. Travel from coast to coast across Australia
7. Own a tailor-made suit
8. Plant a tree
9. Do something you fear
10. Do a stand-up routine at a comedy club
11. Bungee jump
12. Eat something you've caught
13. Skydive
14. Run with the bulls in Pamplona
15. Learn to tango
16. Make fire without matches
17. Teach someone to read
18. Watch a lunar eclipse
19. Have your portrait painted
20. Win a premiership
21. Brew your own beer
22. Go to the opening night of a ballet
23. Buy cowboy boots in Nashville
24. Be an extra in a film
25. Become the next internet phenomenon
26. Walk the red carpet at an awards night
27. Grow a moustache [What if you're a girl!!!]
28. Be able to take compliments
29. Shower under a waterfall
30. Fall in love in Paris
31. Break up in Rome
32. Sit for a day in the gallery at Parliament House
33. Go to the film festival in Cannes
34. Spend a night in a haunted house
35. Write a song
36. Read a book in one sitting
37. Go to the World Cup final
38. Visit Gallipoli
39. Have a white Christmas in Lappland
40. Grow your hair long
41. Hug a stranger every day for a week ["Free Hugs"!!!]
42. Go white-water rafting
43. Dance in Grand Central Station [Why not in Flinders St?]
44. Score a hole in one
45. Talk to a stranger on the bus
46. Ride a motorbike on the open road
47. Learn to juggle
48. Collect something pointless
49. Own a convertible
50. Play air guitar on the steps of Madison Square Garden
51. Learn to fly a helicopter
52. Yodel on a Swiss mountain
53. Drive the Monaco GP circuit on a Vespa
54. See all of Billy Wilder's films
55. Create a cult website and sell it for millions
56. Join a dig for dinosaur bones
57. See the Wallabies play England at Twickenham
58. Ride the biggest roller-coaster in the world
59. See a killer whale in the wild
60. Coach a kids' sports team
61. Memorise a poem
62. Become someone's nemesis
63. Shoot a short film
64. Start your own business
65. Visit Stonehenge and recreate the Stonehenge scene from Spinal Tap
66. Buy a share in a racehorse
67. Walk the Kokoda Track
68. Get a tattoo
69. Learn CPR
70. Sit courtside at a Lakers game
71. Play lead guitar in a band
72. Meet someone with your own name
73. Shape your own surfboard
74. Gallop a horse on a deserted beach
75. Play petanque in Marseille
76. Work in a soup kitchen on Christmas Day
77. Have a star named after you
78. Drive along Route 66
79. Experience weightlessness
80. Live overseas
81. Run up the rocky steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
82. Watch Boca Juniors play River Plate at La Bonbonera
83. Drink tequila in Mexico
84. Create a world record
85. Invent the next must-have Christmas toy
86. Be a contestant on a game show
87. Learn the piano accordion but vow never to play it
88. Go on safari
89. Become your team's mascot
90. Enter the Archibald prize
91. Pay it forward
92. Milk a cow
93. Become carbon neutral
94. Get your dream job
95. Fly in a hot air balloon across the desert
96. Own an original work of art
97. Shout the bar
98. Dive with sharks
99. Grow your own vegetables
100. Design your own cocktail

Dammit, I've only done 20 of these. Unless someone notifies me that they loathe me with a passion, and then I'd be someone's nemesis, so that would be 21.

Photoshoot!

My friend Martin Wahlgren had a photoshoot today, and although I wasn't the photographer, I did bring my camera with me and took tons of shots. He was doing the cover of his coming album. Awesome voice... I'll let you hear some of it when he gives me permission.

Martin helping Tania out. He dragged her out of some classroom cos we needed a model, and so this was totally improvised. The man has good taste, hehe.



This is what a very cheesy album cover would look like...... oh yeah, the frowning and the thumbs up, classy stuff.

Dinner With The Family

Sally Mann

Sally Mann is an american photographer that spurred a lot of controversy with her 1992 collection Immediate Family. In it she photographed her three children, many times in the nude, but in a way giving insight to universal aspects of childhood. Things we all go through like bloody noses, or dog scratches are shown in a different light, but also a girls transition into womanhood. Modest Girl shows one of the girls aged 5 or 6, covering her breasts, almost acknowleding what is to come, and feeling a tinge of shame?

I saw an exhibition of her work at the Kulturhuset here in Stockholm, and I thought it would be nice to share it with you guys. Now please before somebody comes and accuses me of being some kind of pedophile please check some of her photos, hopefully in FULL size, and you will see what I'm talking about. This is art, it's not pornography. Human beings always have some type of sexuality regardless of age, it's very freudian, but still true, and I'm not saying that any of these children are alluring to me, but I do recognize the honesty of these pictures in showing the inherent sexuality of every human being.

The 10 steps to happiness

I found the following list in a newspaper article, some researchers made some families follow these simple rules, and they admitted to feeling much better after the experiment was over. I think some of it we already apply to our everyday lives:

1. Plant something and nurture it
2. Count your blessings - at least five - at the end of each day
3. Take time to talk - have an hour-long conversation with a loved one each week
4. Phone a friend whom you have not spoken to for a while and arrange to meet up
5. Give yourself a treat every day and take the time to really enjoy it
6. Have a good laugh at least once a day
7. Get physical - exercise for half an hour three times a week
8. Smile at and/or say hello to a stranger at least once each day
9. Cut your TV viewing by half
10. Spread some kindness - do a good turn for someone every day

Ok, the first one I really don't apply, cos I'm not a planting guy, but I guess it does brighten up the apartment.

I definetly don't count my blessings, and that's something I should really change, cos I just focused on how fucked my life is, ad nauseum.

When it comes to talking to a loved one, I do it very single day for many hours, I'm the pro, hehe. And it does help a lot in improving your mood.

Now that I'm in Sweden, I've been calling up friends I haven't seen in 8 years, and it's interesting to say the least. Tomorrow I'm gonna meet one of my former best friends, Fred, and it's gonna be cool to see him after all these years.

Oh, treats is what it's all about. I treat myself to copious amounts of sleep, and chillaxing time.

Good laughs are my bread and butter.

No physical exercise whatsoever, in fact the gym is my vision of hell. Exercise is my kriptonite, and I know I'll have to start getting into shape when I approach my thirties... jeeez I'm old.

I'm pretty random when it comes to smiling at strangers. Sometimes I smile, sometimes I don't even acknowledge the person beside me on the elevator.

I didn't watch ANY tv for a year in Germany, and I have to say I don't miss it. Ok, I did cheat a bit, I watched Family Guy, Prison Break, 24, Lost, Entourage, Grey's Anatomy and Heroes on my laptop. But still, that's still only like 6 hours a week at the most. Instead of watching hours and hours of whatever crap is on.

I can't say I'm a very good samaritan, but it has to do more with the fact that I'm shy. I don't like to make contact with strangers. And people around me don't seem to need to much.

So I guess I'm doing pretty well. I dunno, I just don't feel as happy as I should.

LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, DMX and Jay-Z impersonator

I hate rap, but this is awesome, especially Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, it's uncanny.