Peppermint

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Another Peppermint party at the Inkerman Hotel. pretty good parties with good music that happen to get a little crazy as everyone is someone's friend :)

Autumn Gray

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went to the Corner Hotel to see Matt's band Autumn Gray perform. They sounded bloody good on the big sound system.

Akasha Festival

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Vanessa was working on the Wilderness Society booth at the Akasha festival out near Sale, so I decided to go along and have a bit of fun. Since I couldn't be arsed with the whole tent thing (and I don't own one at the moment) I hired a camper from Wickedcampers and i'm damn glad I did. Not only is the camper (a converted crappy old van) painted in a cool design, but it's so worth a few bucks to be able to just drive up to a campsite and be all set up. I think i'll be using a camper for festivals from now on.

new gear

as-strobe-boy
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

I've gotten some new gear lately to play with. A Lensbaby I bought off phunkdust, which lets you twist the front element about to create focus tunnel effects. A Holga lens for the Canon, a dodgy plastic lens with basic focus control, creating some low quality images that can be fun. And also a whole bunch of flash gear to use multiple off-camera flashguns to create better lighting for portraits and other work, it will take a whle to master but I think it will provide a lot more options for portrait work especially.

Happy Birthday Ryan

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

17th feb - It was Ryan's birthday and they played lawn bowls during the day, but I could only meet up with them later in the day for some drinks at Loop and some shenanigans at FFour

Famous

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Fame and fortune cannot be found at Famous

Tezzy!

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Tezzy came and visited from Brisvegas, so much craziness ensued

Flickrwalk

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went on a flickrwalk with a bunch of flickrites near the exhibition buildings, hanging out with Vanessa has made me want to photograph trees more.

St Kilda Festival

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

We decided we'd hit up the St Kilda festival, but didn't really see much, just hung out a bit at one of the bars and happened to run into a few friends while we were there.

Push it

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Push @ white bar during the St Kilda festival, a little bit busier than normal :)

3rd Class

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went to 3rd class for the first time, what a laugh! 3rd class is the club that has sprung up in the space that Honkytonks was using until they closed on new years day. They've pulled out all the classy fittings, filled it with low rent op-shop furniture, the main room is all blacklight, and the DJ booth has chicken wire across the front. Hilarious to see Melbourne's premier top class nightclub turned into something that is, well, 3rd class.

Famous

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Famous once again, pretty much a weekly thing.

Christopher Lawrence

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Shot the Christopher Lawrence gig at Room, but to be honest, I found him a bit disappointing, I much preferred the side room run by the obsession crew.

Revival

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

popped in to Heist to watch Virginia Le, Dave Pham and Cecile Dj for Revival. Good DJs, dodgy bar.

Beach Party

disco frisbee is a dangerous game
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Beach Party with all the usual crazy shenanigans. Of note was when Ben Evans was keen for a frisbee but nobody had any, so he grabbed a promo record he had a few copies of and we started using that.

futureRAV

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Radioslave gig. Radioslave was very good, playing some great 'fucking techno' in a warehouse that was like a giant white cube, almost like a scene out of THX-1138

night walk

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Joe and I went for another night shoot, this time down Williamstown and Port Melbourne, for some nice city skyline shots.

Dinner Dates

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Had dinner at Kathryn's place, while her sister Dani and her friend Stacey were in town, just a bit of family-like fun :)

Dinner (not pictured)

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Had dinner in Kew at a nice indian place called Milan. In attendance were Mick, Steph, Dean, Felicite, Bec and Joe

Vanessa and Kathryn

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Special mention to Vanessa and Kathryn, who came along to Kiss my Grass. Such cool chicks, smart and funny and very cute, I consider myself very lucky to have them both as friends.

Kiss My Grass

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Shot Kiss My Grass again this year, such a great party, and all local talent, lists of Djs as long as your arm. Special mention goes to Sam McEwin and Matt Radovich, playing some great Techno while Mat woudl saye 'Fucking Techno' repeatedly into the mike. It's now become a bit of a cult saying.

Alex Smoke

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went to see Minimal upcomer Alex Smoke, with the very special treat of local Pat Stormant. One of those gigs where heaps of ITM crew magically appeared.

Interview

Service with a smile
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

20th jan - fun and games at Interview, another one of those parties where everyone seems to turn up to

Famous

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

More friendly faces at Famous

Dave Seaman

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Shot the Dave Seaman gig at Room. I've seen Dave a few times over the years and he rarely disappoints.

night shot

a boy and his pier
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Joe and I went out and did some night shots, just to get back into some landscape photography.

ever remembered

ever remembered
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

A bunch of crew hit up the Footscray Cemetery to try and hunt down a potential ghost. Needless to say, we didn't find it, but we managed to get some good shots anyway.

all the beautiful people

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

More fabulous people and fun at famous

BugHAUZ

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Another party from the BugHauz crew, Groove Diggerz and Signal Drivers. Bloody good music :)

Trentemoller

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Some pure techno goodness with Trentemoller, Dave Pham and Mike Callander

Still Famous

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Shot Famous again, more beautiful people, starting to know some of the regulars, not such a bad crowd all in all.

140

DJ Inferno
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

The commissars of 140 once again provide tractor-loads of tunes to the proletariat.

Fishy

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Another visit to the aquarium, this time with Kathryn and Brett. I think there are parts of this place I could visit every day. I wish it was free, i'd eat my lunch there in the big tank toom, or in the jellyfish room.

NYD

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Once again new years day was spent at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl for summadayze. Now this event usually comes under a lot of criticism, but I think too many people expect too much from it. It's just a really big party.
The people who come along and expect to hear the latest and 'coolest' music will be disappointed, because frankly, those tracks don't play well to 24,000 people. What does play well are the big and beefy popular hits that you can hear on every dance floor all over town, the tracks that we've all heard before, but still can bring a smile to your face, and when you get that happening with twenty thousand people, it can be pretty special.
Of course there's the usual amount of idiots and wankers, but there's also a large number of good people and that's worth it for me.

NYE

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Originally the plan was to have a quiet new years eve, in preparation for Summadayze on new years day, but of course this 'quiet' night turned out to be impossible. We ended up down at the St Kilda Sea Baths for the Carnivale party, which proved to be a lot of fun.

Smashing

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Another installment of live and lively music at Lounge by the Smashbang crew. Yet to disappoint.

Gatecrasher

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

When I first started going out to dance parties and clubs, the name in dance music was Gatecrasher. So to find myself, shooting the latest and possibly the last Gatecrasher event in Melbourne, it was a bit of a thrill. It was even more exciting to see so many locals on the lineup, so many friends up on stage for one of the greatest labels ever known :)

Lasergun

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

The guys from Lunmina audio visuals asked me to pop in to Lasergun and shoot the lasers for them, which was a good excuse for me to get one last trip to Honkytonks out of my system :)

Technoir!

Tim Boyd
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Technoir! Technoir! Technoir! oh yeah, there was another Technoir party, this time at Lounge, and fuck it was good. Christmas with the family that day too, but Technoir was the highlight :)

After Party Hearty

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

After the Boat party there was the after party (kinda makes sense all written down like that). The party was FLIRT at Miss Libertine, a renovated pub on franklin street, old pub in the front, and new club out back. This is the second FLIRT i've been too and they are truly wicked parties. The sideshow included two of santa's helpers sharing their lifes blood, snorting a gigantic bag of charlie, and sucking seductively on large candy canes. What more could you ask for? :)

Boat Party Hearty

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Boat Party Ahoy! I don't really need to say much more than that. Smashbang and aLive join forces for a christmas party on our old friend the Victoria Star, and as usually, it got very messy, very quickly :)

Beach Party Hearty

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Hooray! Finally, summer has officially returned because the Beach Parties have started up again. Mike, Luvvy, Chris and the crew throw a top party, in a great location :)

Smashing

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Of course I didn't go home after the CSC Christmas party, instead I popped in to Lounge for another installment of Smashbang. Nothing beats fresh music, especially from this crew who really put on a great party.

a very CSC christmas

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

CSC's Christmas party, and my first with the company, was held this year at the Richmond Union Bowls club. Quite a good location for a lazy summer's evening and especially good if you happen to live a few hundred meters down the road like I do :)

BugHAUZ

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

After Clare's birthday I popped in to Stellar for BugHAUZ, the very last party to be held there. The guys that run the party are pretty cool, and I was especially happy to have Blinky playing there, as I hadn't heard him outside of the normal Techno/Electro environment and he really blew those breakbeat kids away. We used to tease people about listening to breakbeats, but the stuff that's around now is actually really cool.

Happy Birthday Clare

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went to Lounge to help celebrate Clare's birthday and to generally have a few drinks and get some good tunes in :)

BBQ season is open

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Summer is here and Felicite decided to throw the first BBQ of the season down at Ormond. A bloody good day for it too, and a good chance to catch up with all of that crew that I hadn't seen in a while :)

Farewell Stellar

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Stellar bar is closing it's doors, so we all gathered for the last House Party to be held there and drunk it out in style. The house party crew were in fine form and the bar staff were, as usual, up to all sorts of crazy shenanigans. It's kind of weird but I won't miss the house party crew so much, since we see them anyway, but I will miss Jeremy, Bev, Lauren and Julia, as we won't see them out and about as much.

Dinner - Kim, Shaz and Joe

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

I caught up for dinner with Joe, Kim and Shaz at a vegetarian restaurant in St Kilda called Lentil as Anything, which uses a novel approach to billing, you pay what you think it was worth. Which I thought would be annoying, but it turns out it wasn't too bad. The service was a little slow, but the place was packed so you expect that with most places it starts to slow down at that point. It was so packed in fact that at the start of the meal we were actually sharing a booth with a couple (who were ver kind to let us share). The meal was quite nice and the company was of course, exemplary :)

Rose & Pete

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Rose & Pete got married on 2 December and did Joe and I the honour of letting us shoot the wedding for them. It was a lovely ceremony, held in a winery out just past Eltham, and was really an idyllic location for it. The party up the hill later on was also spectacular, as was the gigantic conical wedding cake made out of profiteroles and toffee. crazy but wonderful :)