Two things:

And, well, a koala:

(Excuse the goofy/giddy expression.) After I mentioned that I’d really like to visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary a couple of days ago, when I arrived in Brisbane, the very lovely Cam Attree humoured me with a quick drive over and we had fun hanging out with kangaroos, looking at platypuses (platypi?), watching a brilliant birds of prey show, patting a dingo as it strolled around, and CUDDLING A KOALA. Basically I was in heaven. They have over a hundred koalas at the sanctuary, and coax them in turn from their 19-22 hours sleep per day to be cuddled by visitors, before depositing them gently back to their eucalyptus trees, where they fall asleep in the most unlikely positions. (See: http://www.buzzfeed.com/paws/awkward-cat-sleeping-positions?s=mobile for ideas)

I’d forgotten how much I love Australia. Everything feels simple and easy here, and most of the people seem happy-go-lucky, positive, and sunny-faced. And shop assistants start by asking how you are. (I haven’t quite worked out whether you’re meant to answer or just respond with the same question, a bit like the old-fashioned english ‘how do you do?’)

Ah go on then, a third thing… Here’s me and a roo:

Best ever first 24 hours in Oz?! Not to mention the marathon comedy DVDs Cam and I also found time to sit through. 🙂

I’m in Hervey Bay now, having spent a day on the amazingly beautiful Lady Elliott Island, my one blow-out touristy thing while I’m in Australia (you can only access it by sea plane! I snorkelled with a turtle!), and will soon be heading down to  Brisbane again, then onwards to Sydney via a few other places. I’ve just been googling for nudist beaches, in the ongoing anti-tan-line movement.

…Sorry if my blog is becoming a bit of a ‘isn’t life amazing?’ travelogue, by the way. I do realise how lucky I am to be doing all this.

Some highlights from the last few days. I shall partake of the humble bullet form, since it requires less of me and I’m feeling dreamy and hazy (= lazy) here in the Mekong Delta.

– Surviving the typhoon and marvelling at the calm efficiency of the local clear up the next day, as fallen trees were dodged or re-erected, and damaged, colourful lanterns collected.
– Cocktails in Saigon, most notably the brilliantly named ‘lady in hotel’. This non-drinker is a sucker for a well-named cocktail.
– Karaoke with some boys we acquired along the way. I have never done karaoke before as it terrifies me AND simultaneously makes me cringe in a very English way, BUT, bearing in mind the cocktails, I was perhaps more impressionable that usual; and it was one of my favourite nights ever, and also came with the revelation that my friends think I have a really good voice and need to join a choir immediately on my return to the UK. This meant a lot as although I do absolutely love singing (I thought I would be a song-writer at one stage), I am often very shy about singing in public.
– Coconut farm. Noodle factory. Rice-paper-making lady who let us try it (and had a gorgeous three-year-old girl called Ngan who giggled and picked her nose and spontaneously produced the peace sign for our cameras.)
– boats and more boats. And cycling. For an Oxford girl it’s ridiculous that the last time I cycled was in Honduras. (My exercise bike doesn’t count.)
– mopeds. Way too much fun (though I only ever ride on the back of someone else’s).
– Sunsets with butterflies and dragonflies flitting between the river and the orange poppies.
– honey green tea and a man who fought in Cambodia and had the most beautiful crows feet. He’s married to the rice-paper lady.
– Slow row boat through the brown, silt-filled river, enjoying every second of dappled shade.

There’s more, but for now I want to stop and show you some more from Germany. Isn’t the fish great?

(Copyright Steven Billups; images shot on film.)

I’m writing from a hotel here in Hoi An, Vietnam. Having been moved 10 mins from the coast at the demand of the authorities, we’re locked in with all the other evacuee guests awaiting a typhoon, which is aiming straight for us! It’s being taken very seriously, with windows being boarded up and trees being reinforced. It’s hard to know what to expect, though there is already some flooding just from the outskirts of its arrival and the wind is intense. But the fact that typhoons inflict themselves here so often means the staff are relatively calm, and there will probably be less damage than in the poor Philippines, which is bearing the brunt of BOTH of the typhoons which are currently terrorising the south east Asia region.

Anyway….

It was so nice to model for Rebecca Parker again recently. She really is a special lady! She did the make up and photographed me around her home, letting me do my thing while getting back into the swing of things. I love these images – hopefully we’ll do more soon!

Now, back to my pumpkin soup! Will update again at some point… 🙂

Hello from Hanoi!

Had a great shoot with Keith Cooper again recently, working on three different images inspired by particular pre-Raphaelite paintings (can you guess which?) before then doing the headshots and nudes below. Hope you like them! I’m currently waiting in a hotel room for two friends to arrive from London, having said goodbye to a group of men I’d met backpacking. Highlights so far have included the Temple of Literature, the big lake (with its 200kg tortoise) and managing so far not to get killed by nine million mopeds when crossing each and every road… Men do make excellent human shields.

It’s always fun going through my chaotic folder of images yet-to-have-seen-the-light-of-day. Found this bellydance/grecian one taken by Evie Smith at Eye For An Image a year ago and thought it was pretty! So many new shoots-worth of images to share here, but bear with me while I sort out which ones to show next…

Evening! Hope you’re all having splendid bank holiday weekends (if you have those in your country like we do here)!

I just want to write something quite quickly. A blogging interval or ‘thought for the day’, if you will…

I have a tendency to be hard on myself. Various people have pointed this out to me at various times in my life, which is kind of them. I used to be a terrible perfectionist, but have thankfully shaken that off quite well, I think (though I do always have a strong urge to improve things I do as much as I can, where appropriate; but ‘where appropriate’ is, of course, the crucial thing!).

Anyway, I’ve been feeling quite stressed about the level of admin required by this modelling malarky, recently, and so my natural thought pattern declares that there must be something inadequate in my ability to manage my time. But this evening, I took it upon myself to wonder if, actually, I’m really quite good at managing my time (else I wouldn’t be able to be writing a novel, work as a professional model, be learning two languages, be taking music lessons, be reading a book, be attending dance classes, making my nephew-to-be a handmade blanket, maintaining a busy social life AND managing to sleep), so perhaps, a bit of statistical analysis was in order.

Seeing as my specific problem is often that I worry I am letting people down by letting emails (emails which I’m grateful for, and am interested in, and enjoy receiving) linger in my inbox far longer than they should, and that I am occasionally on the end of the, absolutely justified, ‘You don’t seem to have read my message sent on the Xth of the Xth’ messages (perhaps I have since visibly logged-in to a networking site through which the message was sent). Don’t get me wrong; sometimes I reply to a message within minutes, depending on what I’m doing, how near the computer I am, how easy the message is to reply to, etc.. But sometimes it takes me quite a bit longer to get through things. It turns out there’s a reasonable excuse for this…

 I decided to count how many emails I received on one particular day.

I took the 24th (two days ago) at random, and counted that I had received 98 emails on that day. I looked through again, and counted 70 emails out of the 98 which required a direct response on my part (either a considered reply or an action) – so, effectively, I received 70 different contacts from what can be considered ‘clients’ in one single day, each one requiring my response.

The rest (the remaining 28) were easily deleted (e.g. notifications of posts being added to forum threads I’d contributed to, before I’d switched off that notification feature). So that’s 70 emails in one day requiring my attention and reply (many of which require research before a reply is possible), while also being on the phone to my agency and speaking on the phone to two photographers about arrangements for forthcoming things. I also spent some of the day arranging future modelling trips (looking up flights, accommodation and transport options).

Did I mention that this modelling email account is just one of three email accounts I have and check regularly? I have another personal account (for that social life I mentioned) and another, more formal, one, for important/other/some social matters. (There is a fourth, set up specifically for my ‘Ella Rose’ facebook notifications, but I never look at it ever, so it doesn’t count.)

…Why am I writing this? It might seem like a thinly-veiled boast (‘look how many people are interested in my work and want to hire me!’, ’70 emails in one day – aren’t I great?!’) etc; I really don’t want to sound like that; that’s not the intention of this blog post. It’s more just to acknowledge that this stuff isn’t always easy, and to say to anyone to whom it may apply: please be aware of how much work goes into modelling behind the scenes. Please don’t hate models if they take a little while to reply or keep you waiting longer than your ideal. Bear in mind that this was technically a day off – and a Saturday! – and that this is just one day (I haven’t counted statistics for other days to compare how average this day was, but it felt like quite an average day; there may often be more, or less correspondence per day); one day out of an entire week, out of an entire month… etc.

I don’t mean to sound angry or stressed; I’m actually just quite amused that I had questioned my own ability to be on top of emails so often, without stopping to consider what, exactly, it was that I was asking of myself, and relieved to be able to remember that I’m only human! Ha!

I’m sure many of you feel the same way and have similar demands if you are self employed (I’m hardly alone in this!) and the idea of 9-5 working hours (rather than everything having to be instant in this immediate, seven-day week modern smartphone world!) is not a norm that you can easily relate to, either. I’m still glad I’m self employed and doing a job I find fun and creatively stimulating, despite all the work.

But as a result of this highly scientific experiment… 😉 I certainly feel more comfortable and justified in stating on my various online sites that although I try to respond to emails within a few days, I do sometimes struggle.

Anyway, much love to all… Thanks for all those wonderful enquiries that keep my modelling world turning, and many thanks to those who patiently accept that things can take a couple of days or three or four (and even more when a model is travelling for work with shaky wifi connections or limited time in the evenings to relax between assignments!) to respond to. And do tell us models if a reply is urgent; we’ll prioritise your message if it’s time reliant and you tell us so. 🙂

P.S. Some gorgeous new images coming your way which I can’t wait to share!

Hello all!

1. The price you would be able to pay (for WaterAid) for a 2-3 hour shoot (and let me know if you’d like to go for 1, 2 or 3 hours). It’s totally up to you what you say you can offer, but as a guideline (in case it helps) my normal UK rates are £45 per hour or £150 for four hours. I imagine I will get widely varying offers, so it’s up to you what you state, and I’ll pick the best offer.
2. A list of dates you would be available on, between now and Christmas.
3. The type of images you would like to shoot – just a vague idea so I know what you have in mind. (I’m available for all my usual styles: fashion, portraits, art nude, dance, wedding, lingerie, etc.)
4. Your location; I’m based in Oxfordshire so will probably need to prioritise offers in the south east, though not necessarily.

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