Month: June 2007

Two weeks ago I spent ages looking for a nice apartment to stay in over the weekend in Sydney.  I wanted something nice and bright to do photo shoots in while I was there.   Eventually I chose the Oaks Maestri Apartments on the corner of Sussex and Bathurst Streets in the Sydney CBD.   I liked it because it had a really tall tower and a private balcony for each apartment.  So I booked it.
You can’t imagine my surprise when I walked into the tiny little dark apartment on the 3rd floor looking out into the airconditioning machinery and other apartments.   The carpets and walls were dirty and it sported a dirty apricot couch….  perfect!
So I took a photo because I was sure it did not look like this in the adds.   The tower in the photos wasn’t even a part of the hotel!   Only the lower floors made up the hotel.   And the common areas smelt of either a sauna or the rubbish bins.   Eeeeccckkk!!!   So I went out and bought some large sheets to cover up the areas I was shooting in.   It’s amazing what you can do with photos to get people believing that a hotel room looks great.   See for yourself…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should point out that this story is not indicative of all hotels in the Oaks Apartment Hotels chain.   The Oaks Apartments here in Melbourne on Market Street is new and actually quite nice.

I’ve been amazingly busy over the past few weeks doing photo and video shoots for the Private Room.   I have days and days of editing to do now.   I love this shot below.   It was taken before a shoot last weekend in Sydney where the models insisted on doing some push ups to make their muscles pop for the shoot.   I was in charge of the wardrobe and the stocking over the head of model 2 probably gives away the theme of the video.  I can’t wait to watch the final edit. 
If you haven’t checked it out yet….  the Private Room now contains well over 200 videos and 180 photos galleries…  and still under 20 bucks a month!   What are you waiting for???

I’ve just arrived home after a couple of weeks away visiting Sydney and Canberra.  I went to Sydney to have my annual performance appraisal with my boss up there.  I also got to catch up with a couple of old friends and did a couple of photo shoots with some models there.   It was a pretty busy time.  And then I rented a car and drove down to Canberra.   The trip took almost 4 hours (about an hour longer than usual) because I took a few wrong turns getting out of Sydney.
In Canberra I was training some new staff there and doing some system configuration for some new contracts we have picked up there.  It looks like I’ll be there again next month when they go live.  But I have one more trip to Sydney to do next week.
I underestimated how cold it would be in Canberra.   I spent my nights hiding in the warmth of my hotel room…   in the grips of the National Geographic channel.   If ever I was to subscribe to pay TV it would be for this channel.   During the week I learnt all about Chernobyl and Con Air (the US Marshal air service that couriers prisoners around America).   I LOVE the National Geo channel.
And now it’s nice to be home for a few days!