I have to admit being perplexed by a lot of female models.  Now, I'm sure there is some sensible reason for this, but my poor old, male brain just can't manage to understand.  

I see a lot of models work in VERY sheer tops.  You can clearly see their nipples in al their glory (and I'm half blind at the best of times).  Yet, if you remove the top, those same models only post work where their nipples are hidden by the ground or their arms, hands or hair.  I've been trying to understand the logic of that.  

If one of my female friends could explain, this poor dumb fella would be grateful.  Until then, I shall consider "nipple-ism" a modern catastrophie.  

Share the love, and the odd boobie, campers.

Yours with tongue in cheek

Duckie.

I'm probably jumping the gun... I'm probably being a tad "cock sure" of myself but I think I killed that stinking bitch.  

What is completely non-violent Duckie talking about?  The smokes of course!  From a pack and a bit kinda guy, I've managed to not have a single smoke in 8 full months.  I kid you not!!!!

What worked for me (and may not work for you):  I replaced smoking with an e-cigarette.  I'm also now at the stage where there is no niccotine in the juice I smoke either.  I'm drug free!  I still enjoy puffing on the choc-mint flavoured vegetable juice and I feel no real need to give that up.  I think there is no poisons or rubbish in that stuff.  To anyone thinking about it, I went with the more expensive Ego series and deliberately picked one that looks nothing like a real cigarette.  Those ones don't tend to bugger up like the cheaper cigarette style ones.  Don't get me wrong, it ain't easy.  The first night I was just about to chew the damn paint off the walls.  But, thanks to the E durry, it was only really the first night that I really suferred.  It was remarkably easy after that.  

I read a lot of crap on the web about the fact that nobody can promise the e-smokes are risk free.  Get real guys!!!!  Let's take a step back and compare that to a real cigarette!  I'm happy to swap my HUGE smoking risk for a tiny one.  Oh, and I can now smoke inside the house - there is no smell because there is no real smoke.  It doesn't get better than this!

Enjoy the love Campers.

Duckie

Those who know me, will appreciate that I am probably the harshest judge of my own work.  So tonight, I figured I would pass judgement upon my gallery.

Step 1:  scoring criteria.  Should I go by how many favs? how many comments?  How many views?  Pfft, nah, I went with "Do I love it?"
Step 2: number of points.  If I love it, how do I score it?  I went with, "Bugger the points crap, do I love it?"

Conclusion:  I love my own gallery.  Why?  I think it has a range of different work.  I think he shots have grown in complexity as my art developes.  I don't think it's perfect by any stretch - but I do love the shots.  They reflect my personal taste, and that is what I wanted.  Others may hate it - they can fight about whether chocolate or strawberry is really better - but I love the flavour combination.  That's good enuf for me.

You can love or hate my gallery but share some love to your fellow "men" campers.

Duckie.

Hmmm... I have noticed an increasing division in photography - almost like a polarisation in "fine-art" (pfft) nudes.  People either do the very shy glam - hide the nipples and naughty bits with hair or summat: or they go the full porno route which tends to include close up genitals.  I don't consider soft or hard core porn to be "fine" art.  At the risk of being bold, I suspect it's not what you show, but how you show it.  Feel free to make civil comment (uncivil will just be deleted with no joy or acknowledgement to you).

Oh, and to all my dear friends - may you love your Christmas!  I hope your Santa sacks burst at the seems with love and joy!

Duckie

I guess I've found some new loves.  I've always loved to make art and other arty things....  and I am now finding art in new places.

I'm really enjoying some new passions. I think this came from my learning to distil my own spirits, or maybe just from learning to cook all manner of different food.  

Normally, with the booze, you add flavours to pretty much a vodka base (the vodka base is what we all distil).  I have started to do it without the artificial flavours.  My old aunties taught me Lemonchello with real lemons.  I've moved on and just put down my first Iced Peach Tea Liquor - with all real ingrediants.  After 3 months of hard work, I also think I have nailed rum from raw sugar and molasses - really nice drop.  

I have also been making different cheeses for 6 months now.  Done lots of different Fetas - plain, rosemary, chive, spring onion and garlic.  Then, I moved onto Jarlsberg.  Jarlsberg is a longer term deal - let it age Duckie! - so I am making and maturing but haven't actually tried it yet.  A month to go. *Sigh*

And, I am doing marmalaide, jams and relish.  The home grown cumquat marmlaide is great!  Tomato relish turned out realy well.  Aww man.  Laid down my first home grown chilli jam tonight.  You need to age them, because they do change and improve in flavour over time and the sweetness goes away.

Jeez.  I've also been doing various breads for around a year now - whites, french, plains, olive, garlic, fruits, cheese, nut, dampers... all manner of stuff.  I'm pretty happy with 99% of the stuff I produce.  In fact, some are so good it's amazing!  I've graduated onto fermented sourdough in the last few days.  We'll see how that goes.  

Of course, I will always continue my photography.  It's my first love.  But hell, with all these other mistresses, it has slowed down a bit.  Oh, and I need to spend a lot of time outside growing most of this stuff.  I have a vege patch that is starting to consume my yard.  Do I worry about my environmental footprint?  Nah.  The compost bins eat at least half of my kitchen waste.  LMAO.

I don't think I have a disorder, but I may well have - I wouldn't recognise if I did.

Mucho lurve.

Andy

Awwww guys, I think we all put up a journal or something when we produce new work for sale.  Fair call, and I am happy to give your one a fav to help out.  However, please don't spam my page with adverts for your latest book, cards, calendar or anthing else.  Be happy with the fav I give your article, and then respect the fact that I also need to sell my own work.  

That is all.

Mucho Lurve

Duckie

Shhh... big boys don't cry.  Big boys don't cry...

UPDATE:  All three images have now been removed.  Yay for justice!!!!

.......................................

I guess it had to happen.  I was so hoping to avoid watermarking my photos.  It only takes one stinking thief to spoil things.  Here is the message from a very kind person:

~idobj19 hours ago  

this guy did this
[link]

and in a lot of places they say that this is the rainbow frog, an object of worship in India
[link]

and the person that run this page, when i told him that this was photoshoped from your green photo, he said that your green frog was photoshoped to be green from the rainbow colored original.
[link]
(he even insisted on that and said i was stupid and don't know a thing about photoshop)

Please go and give him some hate mail.   Rainbow frog, my arse!  How stupid are people?!

Angry Andy

Now on week three of not smoking, despite having gone out drinking on a couple of monumental nights. (Yeah, I am still recovering from the weekend.)  My boy turned 21 which made me feel old.  My grandson is a hoot which makes me feel old.  I might get pushed into early retirement (thanks Campbell) which makes me feel old. My right elbow is still farked which makes me feel old.  On the whole, I am feeling old tonight, but also VERY good about the smoking thing.  Old buggers shouldn't smoke!  LOL.

Share the love campers.

Love Duckie

Today was the end of day 14 without a cigarette.  God bless the e-durrie!  The dentist was most impressed today.

Share the love campers.

Andy

Expect to be shown a whole bunch of middle-ages madness for the next little while.  The 2012 Abbey Medieval Tournament was on this past weekend.  It was pretty much three solid days of consistent photography.  I returned home weary but happy.  Many batteries and memory cards were burned and tortured.  Great weekend!

Share the love campers!

Duckie

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey...
Only three countries, but all so different to mine.  I met some wonderful people and saw so many wonderful things and places.  The experience was wonderful.
I shall try to begin posting again - it took me two full days to get the photos off my tiny crap-top computer.  I hope you enoy what you see and are patient if it takes a little while for me to get them up.
Share the love
Andy/Duckie

So, I doubt I'll be posting much of anything for the next 6 weeks.  The good news is that I'll finally have some more images worth putting up.  Expect to get fully spammed with Italy and Turkey on my return.  

Much lurve

Duckie

I'm getting ooober excited now - in 9 days we head off to Singapore, Rome, Venice, Pompei, Sorrento, Istanbul and Capadoccia.  Wahooo!  Photos, here we come.  Six glorious weeks of fun.  In the spirit of my soon to be travels, I learned this key Turkish phrase:  Icky bira loot-fen (spelling is phonetic).  Anyone wanna guess what that means?

Not the best day off today - got my crown fitted on my stoopid tooth, got a haircut and got a referal to get my busted elbow fixed.  Chores and errands were completed in abundance.

I did manage to spend a very pleasant half hour late in the day eating my very own homemade feta cheese off a piece of freshly baked home made bread whilst sipping home made rum.  I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

I have more flower photos that are quite nice - but can't be arsed posting anymore shots of flowers.  I think I'll wait until I have some more exciting landscape shots.

Sunday night is pizza night.  Even though I've lived here for three years, it will be the first time I fire up the wood fired pizza oven.  I'll make the bases and sauce and use fresh ingrediants.  With a bit of luck, nothing out of the ordinary will catch fire!

Share the simple love of life campers.

Duckie

Shite.  I broke another molar this morning.  I felt it give last night. Checked it out.  All seemed good.

Brushing my teeth this morning... big chunk of silver falls out.  Then flossed.  Another big chunk.  Bugga.

Calls dentist.  Goes off to see her.  Tooth is buggered.  Needs a crown.  Bloody great!  $2,000 quote later.... awwww man.  Gets the temporary filling to hold it.  She warns me about going to Italy or Turkey with a buggered tooth.  That means I book in this Friday to begin.  (it's not a one step deal.)

Shite.  Lots of pain.  Lots of cash.  Big bummer doodes.  

The only positive note is that I have 33 sleeps till I head off overseas.  I'll get lots of great pix.  Have a fabulous time with my Rozie.  It'll be grreat.  Really fantastic.  It's what I live for.

(*mutters under breath - $2,000 f*cking bucks!  Bloody dentists. They should pay me $2,000 for this shit! Oh yeah, and you need to do it in the next 3 weeks Andy!*)

Share the love campers.  Always look on the bright side.  I might faint and spew, but in a month or so I will be in Italy and Turkey taking photos and loving my Rozie.  The detist can kiss my ar$e!

Umm...

Love Duckie.

It's been raining a lot again in Brisbane.  No real surprise, it's the wet season and our 25 year drought is over.  My roof leaked like a bugger again for the third time in two years. It currently has a huge tarpolin over it but that's doing the trick (the water has stopped coming in).  The damage is not enough to force us from our home.

As it was pelting down last night (and I mean PELTING), and a number of our in-land and coastal towns were threatened with flood, I couldn't help but be greatful for all that I have.  I'm sitting safe and warm with my beloved and our dogs - in a very lovely home.  I couldn't help but think about the homeless folks and the people in those little towns watching the water come up.  That's a tough gig. and I have it so easy.

I cancelled a photography lesson today on account of the wet.  Then I cancelled another to re-sechedule the current one.  I thought about a completely unrelated legal complaint that I have at work that is causing me a bucket load of stress.  I thought about some personal issues I've had with friends who used to be really close and will never be real friends again.  And, I came to the conclusion that - I am a very lucky man.  

I have a wonderful roof over my head. I have a lovely partner and huge loving family. I have pets a plenty.  I have many good friends.  

Bugger the tarpolin - I am blessed!

Share the love campers

Stay well.

Andy

I am lucky enough to have a diverse group of watchers.  Some watch for the landscapes, some for the nudes/models, some for events like the Abbey Medieval Tournament and some look at them all.  

To try to cater for that, I finally went through my damn gallery and sorted it.  Before, everything was in "featured."  I've sorted all 500+ shots and additional stories into :

Literature
Models and nudes
Landscapes, nature and urban and
Public events and people.  

I figure people can always use the "newest deviations" on my main page to see everything.  Jeez, I hope that's helpful.  It took me damn days to do.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!!!!

Share the love campers.

Andy

Another year over.  I had some wonderful times.  I guess I had some not so good as well.  The truth is, life moves on.  It's not going to stand still while I collect my thoughts.  

What dreams for this year?  I think I'll try to develop a few new courses.  That'd be kinda fun.  I'll keep reading and playing with my work and see if any courses fall naturally out of that - not that I get obsessed or anything - but you never know.  LOL.

I wish everybody the world of joy.  The wisdom to understand that life will move on regardless and I hope you all have the ability to grab onto new opportunities to find real happiness.  Like every year on this site, I suppose I'll lose a few of you.  That's okay - you just keep moving on and having fun.  Why else are we here?

Much joy campers!

(Oh, I cut my smoking way down the last few days. Went from 25 a day to less than 10.  I'm hoping to continue to work on that little one.)

Duckie.

She really does!  On Friday, I went to the dentist.  I gotta have two huge fillings pulled out and replaced.  I also need a crown pulled off and some potential decay under it fixed.  Not looking forward to it with my phobias and all.  

So anyways, I gets to the Dentist.  Turns out that I'm half hour early.  Damn it.  More time to fly into a panic.  Finally, my time arrives and I slink into the chair.  Two seconds before the dentist starts, pffftttt, out goes the power.  We waited 5 minutes and then he let me off the hook.  Phew.  

Arrite, it's only a week's reprieve, but hell, I'll take it!  Thank you Lord!  And, thanks for all those gorgeous models to photograph, and my family, and my Rozie...

Oh, one of my little dogs has to have a skin cancer removed.  I hope it hasn't spread.  Gunna cost me $800!  Still, we gotta try to save our Shozzie Lamour.  For those who don't know, her brother has his own DA account. LOL  [link]

It's about time I updated this damn thing.

Since my last journal, I've had two small trips - Yamba and Maleny.  One big event - the Zombie Walk for brain research.  Oh, and Halloween came and went.  Not one bloody trick or treater! What gives kids?  I've already shared the photos for those.  

I was scheduled to shoot Jane again today, but the poor kid was sick.  Normally, I'd think, "Yeah, sure..." but Jane is a real trooper.  She was going to brave it but I put her off.  We can do it when she's better.  Obber-reliable model that one.  I have to admit, I was quite chuffed that she was gunna do it regardless - the poor kid thinks I have talent!

On the home front, my unwell son is getting much weller (yes, I know that's not a real word) which is just a treat.  I look after my grandson every few weeks now which is just a hoot.  The little fella is just adorable - a bit pig headed and strong willed (dunno where he gets that from!) - but adorable.  Work is still a four letter word but I'm only 0.8 of a man now - I love it! (that means I work 4 days a week now.)

The big news is that my Rozie is planning our next year's trip.  Italy (Rome, Venice and the Amalfi coast), Turkey (let's hope the earthquakes have stopped) and Sarajavo.  It's not until April, but the excitment of the build-up is at least half as good as the trip itself.  I can't wait!!!! Expect to be royally spammed with much photography from that one.  

Christmas decorations are going up in all the stores - it's only November guys!!. I'll break out the decorations at home on 1 December for the month.  My niece's wedding is coming up very soon.  And, I'm bound to do a few more weekend trips over Christmas.  Between all that, I should have some photos worth posting.  It's summer over here too - so the frogs and reptiles are back out.  They always put on a show - and at least one of my dogs in hospital for a few days.  Damn it!  Oh, and the GFC has struck a mighty blow at the pale underbelly of Photoslamour.  Numbers of students are way down.  Even the courses I run through the adult education system are down.  Still, smaller classes are just so very easy to run.

So that's it - pretty boring all around. Thank goodness there are no real dramas in my life at the moment.  Feel free to wish me much more boredom! (at least until next April).

Stay well and share the love campers!

Duckie