Number 1. Annecy, France

Annecy by day and night.

After spending nearly 3 months in the Southern Alps of France, in between jobs, festive season frivolities and snowboarding, I have found little inspiration for photography. 

Snowboarding with a camera put me on edge, so I gave that up quickly, but until now, or perhaps yesterday, I had little to do with photography. 

Yesterday, being a wednesday, was our day off. We had planned a trip to Annecy, a near by town on one of the cleanest lakes in Europe. I had been snowboarding that morning as we had some fresh powder, not much, but enough to make it worth while. I nearly stayed out on the mountain, but being my indecisive self I took off on Gemma and Merlin and just made the van out of here. 

The light, the town, the lake,  the carousel all made it worth while. I went with the intention of taking some photographs that I would fall in love with. I have succeeded. The light of winter time in Europe is crystal clear, golden. Just before sundown you get some amazing glows, some very dramatic lighting situations and stunning scenes. This is some of what came out of my trip to Annecy. Finally I felt like I was in france.

A Series of Unfortunate Events.

"Australia has witnessed it's greatest natural disaster. Worse then Black Friday. Worse the Ash Wednesday. Only in wartime has the toll of dead and wounded been greater." (www.newsbreak.com.au)

I have been hearing small bits and pieces of the weather and the heat wave that has struck Victoria and Australia over the last month, mainly from the complaining words of the status updates from 'facebook friends'.

I have heard of temperatures in the high forties. Of bushfires raging the state. Yet, nobody expressed to me the extent of the natural disaster at hand.

The state of Victoria is about to be wiped out by bushfire. Marysville has gone and surrounding towns are threatened. Kinglake is gone. Phone networks have been cut. The countries relief team is stepping in.

Hundreds of people are without homes, without shelter.

We were sitting in our lounge on Wednesday night in Peisey Nancroix, France, watching 'The Castle'. One of the more classic Australian films. The Castle is a film about building a family, loving what is affordable, creating memories, building a home out of love and creating a Castle. The people who have been affected by these Victorian bushfires are in a somewhat similar position to Darryl Kerrigan and family. But rather then being able to fight the government for what is rightfully theirs, the memories of the home they had built, these civilians didn't have a choice. This natural disaster has taken what some people have spent their lives creating. No questions asked and some, not even a chance to try and defend. Their lives, their houses, their homes, their castles, all gone.

In writing this I would like to acknowledge the families that have been affected by these fires, to the heroic work of the Country Fire Authorities, to the brave who have defended their homes, and most definitely to those that have lost their lives in defending and trying to save memories, homes and castles.

We live in a country that is dominated by bush, our natural surroundings are vast. We have settled on a land that needs to revive, fertilise itself and go through these natural processes to be able to continue living. When you settle and decide to build memories on a land such as this, you have to accept what may become.

Unfortunately for us, that is the revival of bush, for the UK, it is the snow that is taking over the city and making locals house bound, the floods in Queensland. Cyclone threats in WA. Like us, Australians, the rest of the world is also experiencing natural disaster. We must adapt and accept that the land and it's weather has power over all human activity.

photos from www.theage.com.au

The Park.

I ride with some very vain people. 

Vanity may be an overstatement, but they certainly like to have their photograph taken and sport the best look on the mountain. Infact, Merlin's current theme song is 'Your so Vain', the funny thing is, that song is about him (in a round about kind of way)!

Really, they are good riders, and they provide me with something to photograph. They hate hearing that skiers make better subjects in photographs, but they still couldn't satisfy me and the camera. Soon enough I will be back in the park photographing the vain snowboarders and making them look even better then they actually are. I do give them credit for the fact that these photographs were taken while the boys were jumping over the black jumps. 

They are absolutely massive. If I had moving images, you would understand the extremities these boys were going to, to have their photograph taken, vanity? I think so. 

So on this wednesday Gemma and I took to the park to photograph Dave and Merlin attacking the Black jumps, the hardest in the park.  Dave stacked and Merlin didn't meet the last jump in the sequence, freaking hell boys, get it together.

 

We ventured to the wall, the riding got better and the angle to the sun was insane. This is where I want to be at 3pm every day!

ENJOY!

Gemma. Feelgood. K2

Dave.

Merlin.

Dave.

Merlin.

Merlin.

Merlin.

Dave.