Chronicling Amsterdam

The second city we visited on our European adventure, was the vibrant, slightly crazy city of Amsterdam, in The Netherlands. 

On our first night out we toured the renowned Red Light District in all its glory, and had a chance to walked across the picturesque cobbled lane ways and canals which the city is built upon. 

The next day we visited a traditional clog and cheese-maker house in the countryside and had a chance to try an array of cheese varieties and fine wine, as well as pick up a couple of clog related souvenirs (we chose the clog inspired slippers). We then signed up for a bicycle tour around the historic town of Edam, and were pleasantly surprised to find that the cheese markets were being held as we cycled through. The cheese was transported by row boats down the river, just as it was done in the 1700s, and was then evaluated and sold. 

We then had free time in the afternoon to explore as we pleased. We intended to explore historical sites such as the Anne Frank House, but in our quest to find the best tasting fries in the world ('Vlaamse Frites'), we got completely lost and couldn't make our way back in time- totally worth it by the way. So we spent the rest of the day shopping and eating, before we went on a cruise through the canals with our tour group.

By pure coincidence, The Netherlands were playing in the semi finals of the FIFA world cup on our last night, so we decked ourselves out in merchandise and painted our faces and headed to a pub and pretended we were locals. When The Netherlands were sadly defeated by Argentina we promptly removed our orange paraphernalia and returned to being tourists.

Next up… Berlin!

♫ ♪ Blame It on Me- George Ezra  ♫ ♪

Chronicling Make a Wish Scavenger Hunt

We are holding an exciting event for a subject at University and would love for everyone to register now and attend this fantastic night for a great cause, the Make a Wish Foundation.

Just head on over to the Facebook event below and follow the steps to register

Make a Wish Scavenger Hunt Facebook Event

Chronicling London

We are so sorry for not blogging in a while!! 

One of the major reasons is that we went on a month-long European holiday that we hope to share with you through our photographic journey. We spent time in 7 countries, drove through 9 and unwound in 10 beautiful and culturally diverse cities. 

These next 10 blog posts will show you the adventures we had, the landmarks we saw and the cities we one day hope to revisit through our lens. 

Enjoy xo

♫ ♪  Milky Chance - Stolen Dance ♪ ♫ 

Chronicling 'The Little Death'

First of all we would like to apologise for our blogging hiatus! Leading up to the final weeks of uni for this semester, we've been pretty consumed with finishing off our last assessments and studying for finals, whilst trying to maintain some sort of sleeping pattern. Now that all this is coming to an end, we will hopefully be back to blogging more regularly, or at least until we leave for Europe (19 days!!).

So anyway, around about this time last year, I (Jess) applied for an internship to assist with costumes and wardrobe on the film set of an upcoming Australian film called 'The Little Death', which was to be the directorial debut of actor Josh Lawson ('Thank God You're Here', 'The Campaign', 'Anchorman 2'). A few days later I received a call to say my application was successful and asking if I could come along to 'Hero Frock Hire' the next week to start sourcing costumes. I was in absolute heaven walking into the costume warehouse, as it contained tens of thousands of garments and accessories ranging from mint condition vintage pieces to casual contemporary clothing more suited to our film. I helped out in the warehouse several times over the following fortnight, and I bet I only saw about 10% of the hire stock.

In the pre- production period, myself, and another intern undertook a lot of script deconstruction with the costume designer, Ingrid Weir, and costume supervisor, Elizabeth Franklin, in order to create a cohesive vision between us and across the film's intertwining plots. As an intern, I surprisingly held a lot of responsibility, with duties including: driving costumes and scripts, returning large purchases, assisting with cast fitting, altering costumes and experiencing the workings of a film set.

My time in pre- production and on set was invaluable and an opportunity I am so thankful to have received. 

So I was very excited when I received an invitation to the 'world' premiere of 'The Little Death', which would be the first showing to both the public and the cast at the Sydney Film Festival. We gathered a couple of friends and headed to Event Cinemas on George Street. I had obviously already read the script, so I didn't want to give too much away in terms of plot, and I hope that some of you will also see the film when it hits cinemas in September. So all I'll say is that it is an original, intelligent comedy, that delves into the lives of multiple young, Australian couples and their perverse desires, which results in unexpected twists and turns, leaving the audience in fits of laughter. 

If you would like to keep up with updates about theatrical release and to read a synopsis, please like 'The Little Death's' Facebook and Twitter pages.

Also for more information on the line- up of films being shown at the Sydney Film Festival and to purchase tickets, click here.

 ♫ ♪ Make It To Me- Sam Smith ♫ ♪

Chronicling Ed Sheeran

On Tuesday night we both had the absolute pleasure of attending a secret Ed Sheeran gig after Liz won a double pass to the I Heart Radio show through Kiis fm. Having loved Ed's  music since his debut album ‘+’ in 2011, and having already been to his sold out Sydney concert last year, we were ecstatic that he was coming back to promote his latest album ‘x’ and we had the highly sought after tickets. The arrangement of the secret shows was inspired by the title of his new album, in that Ed would play at a very small venue, such as a lucky fan’s house in Melbourne, then multiply the number of concert goers two more times at other venues. Our concert was the third and final big Australian show, after he had played in Melbourne the day before.

After some schedule shuffling, we cleared our afternoon to prepare to line up and hopefully get front and centre at the gig. The idea was that we wouldn’t receive confirmation of the time or venue until a couple of hours prior to the concert. Though, being as eager and excited as we were, we tried our luck at emailing and seeing if we could find out the details a little bit earlier, and it worked! The venue was Paddington Town Hall and having already had uni classes in the city, we headed there as soon as we could. After arriving five and a half hours prior to when the show was expected to commence, it made sense that we were the second in line. In front of us were two other fans who were equally as excited and ended up bonding with us over our mutual love for Ed.

Fast-forward five and a half hours of standing/sitting/talking/eating/boredom/ excitement and rage at people trying to push in line, we were finally let through the doors and rushed to the front of the stage. About an hour later Ed walked on stage with the only forms of backup he needs: his guitar and loop pedal. He kicked off the show with an extended version of crowd favourite 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' which left all the wannabe rappers in the crowd out of breath by its end. Ed then announced that if anyone had a curfew or other plans that night, well too bad, because he would be playing for as long as he liked as this was his final show in the country, suiting us just fine. He performed an array of songs to around 700 fans, ranging from classics from his debut album, a Nina Simone cover and his chart topping ballad 'I See Fire' from the latest Hobbit film. He also threw in some exclusive tracks from his soon-to-be released album including the somewhat scandalous 'Sing', 'Take it Back', and a personal favourite, the tear invoking 'Tenerife Sea'. 

One of the most mesmerising moments was when he unplugged his microphone and guitar and stood at the front of the stage (close enough to touch) and played a couple of songs to a crowd who were in complete silence. The show lasted for 90 minutes and ended with the crowd continually singing a line from "Sing" whilst Ed left the stage until the lights came back up and it was apparent that there would be no encore. The whole show in itself was fulfilling enough that the crowd was happy enough to move on out. This has definitely got to be one of the most amazing concerts we have been to and the sheer talent and range of Ed Sheeran will surely be difficult to forget. The above photographs are evidence enough of the perfection we experienced that night.

♫ ♪ One - Ed Sheeran ♫ ♪