Olé... Flamenco!

Olé… Flamenco

27^th July 2011

Today we’re in Palma de Mallorca, the last port of call of our current cruise. 

Palma de Mallorca port has got to be the worse we’ve ever seen! It’s literally a tiny concrete area that looks more like a car park. Everyone knows Civitavecchia is ugly and full of shipping containers but this place is something else. Straight in front of the port is a concrete wall with a dual carriageway passing over.

Sandra and Camila are both in costume on gangway as our Spanish Flamenco dancers. Sandra certainly looks the part. Zoran and I were shooting. I was paired up with Sandra while Camila and Zoran were teamed up. The schedule for the gangway was all wrong. 

Normally only one costume goes to the Savoy Theatre. Today, all of us were trying to shoot in the entrance of the theatre. It might have worked if the costumes were different rather than identical.

A few problems popped up too. Originally, Zoran was working on side and we were on the other. Zoran decided it wasn’t good enough for him and started coming over to our side. At one point, I smudged a family to have their photo taken with Sandra. Zoran came storming over, barged past me as I was taking a picture, telling the guests “Get a picture with this pretty lady (Camila)”. Both of them kept coming over to our side saying “you know what? It doesn’t matter as long as we get the counts.” Sandra and I were losing patience so we had a walk around the ship before heading outside where we started clocking up our counts.

Not long after Camila and Zoran came out and pretty much pushed us out the way to get the closest to the gangway exit. Things were starting to get nasty and finally Zoran and Camila started working the crowds that had gathered while waiting for the shuttle bus. It gave us a chance to get our counts up.

Gangway was finally over. Meeting Luci in the cabin, we got our stuff together and headed out. Camila and Sandra came along too. We were looking for somewhere to eat as well as finding our way around. Popping into a chemist I managed to get some more pills for my knee which is still swelling up like a balloon. Still, I’m avoiding the medical facility.

As we were walking around we came to a large square with a castle in the middle, surrounded by a moat. Spread out across the square were people dressed up as characters: Charlie Chaplain. Golden Cowboy (don’t ask!), Sponge Bob Square Pants and our favourites, Shrek and Donkey!! As soon as Luci saw it she burst out laughing while shouting “Lou, I need to get your picture with Shrek. It’s Stu”. Sandra and I cracked up. Camila didn’t know what we were on about.

We finally came across somewhere to eat that also had wifi. It was the most reasonably priced place and located in a tiny backstreet off the main road. The food was absolutely gorgeous!! Especially when compared to the food on the ship.

With a couple of hours left until we all had to start work, we headed back towards the shuttle bus. Stopping on the way we found a small Eroski supermarket. I was desperate to find somewhere I could buy PG Tips… I’ve been craving a cup of English tea in the mornings, especially with the early starts. Coca-cola just doesn’t have the same effects. Unfortunately, all they had was cheap tea which tastes foul and an unlimited selection of coffee.

There was a massive queue for the shuttle bus which wasn’t expected. All on board was at 22.30 so we didn’t expect many people to be coming back to the Mariner so early. It was a mix of guests and crew. 

When getting on the bus we had to flash our crew ID. One lady sneered “oh, these are all crew”. She started complaining to the woman she was with that the guests should be allowed on the bus first and there wasn’t enough space for all crew and guests on the same bus. Stuff it! We might be crew but we are still people! Sometimes we are treated as if we are animals and it’s something I have troubles getting used to and keeping my temper over.

Once on the ship, I had just over an hour to sleep before formal night began. For once I was on a centrum and my favourite was too. I was actually looking forward to shooting the Royal Promenade Centrum. 

After Ressi, I was heading back to my studio to find Simon from Production dismantling my studio. What the hell? He passed me and Fede the entire light still mounted on the auto pole. When I asked what the hell was going on, he seemed annoyed telling me there was a parade and they didn’t want our studio in the way. Fede and I quickly dismantled the lot before the place become too crowded. Plus the studio equipment was just dumped in the middle of the walk way. Anyone trips over that and no doubt there’ll be a law suit.

By the time I’d taken all the equipment to the lift the parade had ended. A whole five minutes of parade meant I’d lost 1.5 hours of shooting. My target was a long way off. The place was too crowded therefore too dangerous to put the studio back up. 

Packing everything away, I joined Luci in the gallery for the rest of the night. By the time we were finished it was 2am and we were all completely knackered. 

Looking at the schedule for the next day, I had my first lay in during this cruise and wasn’t working until 13.00. A lay in was not only well deserved but seriously needed too… and it was welcomed with open arms!

Sandra in her Flamenco costume

¡Olé! Sandra on the Savoy Theatre Stairs

Sandra and Edi (Laundry)

Sandra and Clint (Crew Culinary)

Flamenco Dancer (Sandra), Hernan and Fede

Fede and Sandra

Ancient Greeks Thinking of the Future

1^st July 2011

Thinking of the Future

There were quite a few cock ups during the previous night in both setting up and breaking down for formal night. We noticed we were missing two valuable members of the team. 

Shooting on the centrum on Deck 4 I occasionally looked down to where LSP (Stu’s studio) was set up. The queue wasn’t a mile long like usual. The booming laugh and voice were gone and replaced by Flabio’s relatively quite ways.

One studio, at the end of the Royal Promenade didn’t get broken down until the next day – we completely forgot about it! It was a complete mess. By the time we had pizza (the original order was lost) and finished up it was 2am. Everyone was due to start work at 06.45-07.00.

Fabio, Hernan and I were going on tour to the Acropolis. Sanela was the Greek Godess and teamed up with Sandra. Zoran was the Greek God with David shooting. Zoran did a fantastic job and the a couple of guests even commented at how well he was acting the part and playing up for everyone. Nice one Zoran!!

As I was leaving for tour, I had to tell Sanela to stand by the exit, not in the middle of the hall. From there she can’t smudge for shit! The results showed, only 200 images. Even though I am more experienced and been working in costumes on gangway before, Luci and I would always get more than 400. She needs to improve a lot. Maybe someone more experienced should have been put on gangway for the start of the cruise and allow the newer people to have a go towards the end when the image count drops? Just a thought. It's what Reuben did with us new hires when we joined. Obviously they need to train but we also need the image count and to make money.

The tour itself was hard going. We were told to only get one or two kinds of shots. Trying to get up to the Acropolis itself was a task in itself. The heat was almost unbearable (we were all sporting large sweat patches or wringing wet shirts – very sexy!) and the crowds were unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it before!! Neither had Fabio. 

There were six ships in the port and all were doing tours to the same attraction. Smudging was too bad, I had a few catty comments to which they got a similar reply! The biggest challenge was getting a gap in the crowds to take someone's photo. I only came back with 32 images which, let’s face it, is nothing. A real disappointment, especially when I was only there for 30 minutes! Fabio was there for longer and got 60 something. I’m not sure how well Hernan did.

Herds of people were trying to leave and enter the Acropolis making the journey to the bus slow and almost painful! People were pushing and shoving, it was like you were at a football match! 

At the entrance of the Acropolis is a tall archway. The archway has been divided into one narrow paths. One side for entering and the other exiting the Acropolis. It's the slowest part to get through, especially with people shoving and getting agitated. One American lady even complained to her family. “Why didn’t they make this archway bigger? It’s not big enough for everyone”. I had to laugh at the stupidity and hold my tongue!! All I wanted to do was tell the lady “I’m sure that 2,500 years ago, while building the Acropolis, the Greeks weren’t thinking of accommodating so many bloody tourists!! Mass tourism never crossed their minds!” Some of the things that get said are unbelievably amazing yet stupid. I need to write a book of all the daft comments I hear!! It’d be a top seller!!

On the schedule we were all supposed to be back at 11am. Fat chance! By the time I got back it was 13.00. Fabio didn’t get back until 14.00.

Sandra popped into my cabin to ask if I was going out for internet. Fede was port manning and therefore couldn't leave the ship. 

Quickly showering and changing we ran off the ship and to O’Connell’s Irish Pub to use the internet. Becks was online – finally we were both online at the same time! I really needed to speak to her, get a few things off my chest and in general I really miss speaking to her. It wasn’t long before she went offline. Just my luck!

There’s no word from Stu like he promised. Checking his Facebook we saw that he’d contacted the American family. That caused a few raised eye brows, rolling of eyes and shakes of heads. It didn’t seem right, the people that genuinely care about him, hear nothing from him yet those people… I won’t continue.

Heading back to the ship I jumped into bed for 1.5 hours before I starting work in the gallery. After a three hour stint in the gallery I had an hour shooting on Garden – a hideously ugly backdrop.

Breaking down the studio, I noticed some things hadn’t been set up properly. Jomar had put Sanela and Sandra to set up alone. It took two hours to set up two studios?? 

One of my studio lights hadn’t been attached to the clamp!! If it had been pulled or knocked, the results could have been lethal – mainly to Image’s bank balance. An auto pole didn’t have a rubber stump at the end so it wasn’t very secure. If someone had leaned against it, the pole would have simply slipped out of place. 

Speaking to Sandra I wanted to know who had done the set up out of the two of them. It wasn’t to have a go at them, just explain and point them in the right direction. Sandra told me the pin hadn’t been put into her backdrop so she had to resort to using a hair pin!! A flimsy hairpin to hold up a heavy backdrop!? What the hell was going on? Had no one checked the set up?

Finishing up, I went down to the cabin to get my camera equipment. Ritesh was doing another inventory list for everyone. Putting my key in the door, it didn’t work. Going to the lab I told Ritesh who said I could do the inventory tomorrow. Thank you!! 

Waiting for Luci, she tested her key when she got back to the corridor. It was the same. The door unlocked but the handle wouldn’t budge so we couldn’t get it open. I’d already called maintenance who said they couldn’t do anything about it until tomorrow. What the hell!? Instead we had to call security who weren’t best pleased. When they arrived their key didn’t work either so they had to use a hard key (rather than a card key) to let us in. We had to call maintenance tomorrow, first thing to get it fixed asap.

Originally I was supposed to be staying over at Zoran’s. The new girl, Camila, isn’t happy with the cabin she is in. Her cabin mate is reportedly being royal bitch plus her and her boyfriend are at it like rabbits, day and night. The poor girl can’t even go into her cabin without her cabin mate shouting at her. So I was going to stay in Zoran’s (Stu’s bunk) and Camila would sleep in mine. 

Jomar finally gave her permission to move into Sandra’s cabin, taking Jeni’s place. Jomar only got his arse in gear when Luci nagged him about it in the gallery. Camila was taking a nap in the back office, on the bench prop rather than go back to her cabin. It’s not fair and certainly not a great way to start a 6 month contract! She’s moving tomorrow.

Zoran and Sanela have had a uniform delivery sent to them. Sanela’s is fine from what I’ve seen. Zoran still has no uniform… he’s been sent girl’s clothes! He can’t even get his gallery jacket on… a size 8, girl’s jacket for a guy? It’s a joke and he was far, far from happy! He was fuming, refusing to pay for any of it. Still, poor Zoran, has no camera or uniform and has been borrowing from us for nearly 1.5 months!! Now, he’s got to continue doing so until Image send the right uniform for him… maybe he’ll have everything for his second contract?

Spa Day

Spa Day

5^th June 2011

Our itinerary is now starting to seem like a bus route. As soon as the guests leave the ship we have another crowd waiting to board. We stop, off load the guests, load the new ones and turn around again. 

As you can probably guess, we are back in Italy for another embarkation. This time, I was lucky enough not to been shooting embarkation. I was on morning sale and had to be in the gallery for 06.45! Not fun! The best bit was I got from 11.00 til 16.30 off.

Denise from Spa asked me if she could use me as her lab/spa rat! She needed a model to use for her demonstration for the new guests. Ion therapy is something I’d usually frown upon. The treatment is supposed to make the treated area loose anything from 1 – 8 inches. As legs, thighs and bum were most in demand it was the area she wanted to use in her demonstration. I didn’t mind – maybe it’d stop my complaining for a while – if it worked! 

First she brushed my legs with a hard brush for the circulation. After she applied two different types of liquids before mixing an algae paste and slapping it on thick. Laying on top of a cover connected to electrical wires she started the machines. A series of electric shocks passed through my legs. It felt like needles stabbing me, making my leg muscles contract. After a while you got used to it and the power was upped. At one point I couldn’t contain myself – the higher the power the more ticklish it got.  

All I had to do is lay there while Denise gave the guests explanations as to what she was doing, what the treatment did and any packages/offers the spa had. Laying down for so long soon got the better of me and yes, I fell asleep! Let’s just hope I wasn’t talking in my sleep, catching flies or snoring while she was giving the demo… that would be embarrassing – more for her than me!

Looking at myself after the treatment I didn’t want to pass judgement in case I was being biased. Heading back to my cabin for a shower, I had to head back up to the gallery to set up the studios. 

Once the studios were set up I had to run back to the cabin and get my evening uniform on. Without a doubt my grey work pants were baggier. I’m going to have to swallow my pride and admit that the treatment does work… would I pay $159 for the treatment? Well, maybe if I was a millionaire or married to Lewis Hamilton!

Aye Aye Sailor

Aye Aye Sailor!

2^nd June 2011

Don’t be silly… of course I wasn’t dressing up as the Sailor after what happened last time! It was my turn to shoot Jeni, dressed as the Sailor. We arrived in Chania, Crete (Greece) later in the morning so it was a relatively late gangway compared to most. Stu was already out on gangway shooting Fabio who was also dressed as a sailor.

The morning hadn’t got off to a great start, I fell out of my top bunk! It wasn’t so much of a fall but it was! Jeni rang me early to ask if I had to costume as a pair of pants were missing. In the end they were in Hernan’s cabin. Getting a call completely disorientated me and I stepped off my bed expecting to put my feet on the floor, instead I went into a quick free fall. One foot hit the chair while the other crashed towards the ground. Even though the chair broke my fall, I felt the muscle pull non too gently in my leg. Telling everyone on gangway what had happened provided a laugh.

Fabio and Stu were going back on the ship, they’d got 200 images. All aboard was at 13.30 (13.00 for crew) so everyone would be leaving the ship early to make the most of the time in Chania. Stu said to get 200 images and then check how many were left on board. We got cracking and the numbers soon started racking up. Our target was 200 images each. Within an hour and 15 minutes we had our 200 images. We couldn’t go in too early as we were supposed to be on gangway until 11. For 15 minutes we continued taking photos and got to 220. 

The port went dead. Security told us there were only 280 guests on board so we called it quits. We’d reached out target and passed it. There were only 30 minutes left so we went back on board and called Ritesh who gave us permission to end shooting. Result!

We headed up to the Crew Mess, which is more like a zoo, for something to eat before heading for a nap. Luci was out on tour so I had the cabin to myself. I love having the cabin to myself. I can put my music on, dance around, make as much noise as I like and even walk around naked if the fancy ever took me (not that it ever does). 

After sorting out my music and camera equipment, I left the door open ajar (which Luci hates) and jumped into bed for a nap – this time reminding myself I’m sleeping on the top bunk rather than being at home. For some reason I feel more comfortable leaving the door open ajar or all the way. The others drop in, sometimes just to say hi, and you feel less confined in your cell.

As soon as Luci comes in, she’ll shut the door. She wants the privacy without people passing by. Each to their own.

At 13.00 we had training in the office with Reuben. We had a test which “wasn’t a test, it’s just to find out what you guys know”. So it was a test. Later Reuben spoke to us about selling and techniques. Not only did I find interesting but helpful. Patricia and my Dad had told me the same when selling houses, just act as if you don’t care to a certain degree. Don’t look overly keen. Be interested in the guests but don’t look as if you are desperate for a sale.

Set up didn’t go to plan. My brain went to mush, I was so tired. Fabio and Fede were setting up my studio on Deck 5 while I was down on 3 with Stu. I made a few cock ups and Stu was rapidly losing patience, not that he had any to begin with. He’d gone for a snooze and woke up in a bad mood. 

When I turned off the power pack I forgot to release the power which is a must. Normally I do it automatically, today for some reason I didn’t. Stu came down on me – yet again. Telling him to get off my case didn’t go down to well and I got another Stuart lecture. “How long have you been here for Lou? You should know what to do by now.” He then turned to the others and asked if he was being unfair. No one answered. Too annoyed for words I told him where to go (not the best thing to do) and headed off to the lab to collect the camera bags. 

When I got back, Stu just looked at me as if waiting for me to say something or an apology. It didn’t come. I dropped everything off and headed passed him and back to my cabin. Again, it feels like I can’t get anything right. I’m tired and everything is just mounted on top of me and everyone else. Luci was asleep so I jumped into the shower and there were more than a few tears. I couldn’t help it.

Now I’m on Back Deck typing away, having down time and clearing my head before work at 17.15. I’m shooting the black background for the first time so I can’t afford to make a mistake. I want to get some great shots! To be able to do that, I need to calm it and sort myself out.

I’m finishing at 22.30 tonight so I’ll probably be heading straight to bed for an early night and possibly call Becks to see how she’s getting on depending on the time difference. I need it… We all do! What’s worse is we aren’t going to get a night off until Istanbul which is still about 15 days away. We didn’t have time to get off the ship today, tomorrow is a sea day, last day of the cruise so it’s going to be manic and then straight onto embarkation the following day. We won’t get any time off on shore for the next  3 days. 

Normally you don’t get days off so Istanbul is a little special for us as we get the night and morning off if we get the image count. At the moment we are working ourselves ragged to get the impossibly high targets that Image have sent us. 

Roll on Istanbul!

Knight in Shining Armour

Knight in Shining Armour

28^th May 2011

Today was one of the best days so far and we did relatively little. Rhodes is growing on me more and more. It’s moving up the list and becoming one of my favourite places to go along with Naples. 

Stu, Fede and I headed out for our free time. Fede went off to use the internet while Stu and I were on a mission to improve the knight gangway costume. Stu had an idea in mind, it was just a case of finding the necessary goods to pull it off.

The sun was shining and the place was a busy as ever. We walked down the main strip heading to one of the few shops which sell armour, knives and unique ornaments. Stu spotted a gauntlet which he loved and had to have. 

Stu's usual knight gangway pose is balling his fist up and either pointing it towards the camera or holding it up to his chest (as if protecting himself from a punch). He normally wears a black glove but it doesn’t really look very effective. Putting the gauntlet on, he did his two usual poses and even though he was dressed in his usual clothes, you could imagine how it would look on gangway. The guests would love it!! Instead of getting one gauntlet he decided to get both! The Australian-Greek lady working in the shop gave him a good discount too. 

While looking around the tiny shop we spotted a shield. Stu could have used the shield with one hand while wearing the gauntlet on the other, pointing towards the camera. It must have been quite funny for people walking passed, seeing us imitating gangway poses! We were deciding on what the hell to buy when Stu remembered a chained head piece (he told me the name and I’ve completely forgotten). The piece goes over and covers the head, leaving a small area of the face exposed. The knight’s helmet then goes over the top. One thing is for sure, Stu certainly knows his stuff when it comes down to armour! Again, Stu loved it and decided he wanted it straight away. 

The funniest bit that made my day was when Stu got the head piece stuck on his head. It slipped on easy enough – getting it off was another story. There was a technique to it – slip your chin out first before sliding it off your head! It took us a good 15 minutes of trying, fits and giggles to work out that technique. 

Now it was case of deciding what else to buy. For some reason my opinion was highly valid… and so was my debit card! We could have quite easily bought the shop. Stu had only bought a certain amount of money with him as he only intended on buying one or two gauntlets so I was lending the difference (which wasn’t a huge amount). Finally, after much deliberation, we waltzed out the shop with two gauntlets and the chain head piece. The lady working in the shop took a large chunk off the price when we said we worked on the cruise ships. Crew member discounts - another bonus to ship life.

She was interested in the idea we had for the costume but worried we wouldn’t get the money back. We knew we wouldn’t but Stu wasn’t fazed – he saw it more as an investment and he had a valid point. If everyone dressed in a costume, looked the part and different from the others featured on cruise ships the more people would have their photo taken and buy more. In the long run, the more photos the guests bought, the more money we’d earn and to be honest, Stu would get his money back, plus extra on top, very quickly. Both Stu and I were like kids at Christmas – we couldn’t wait to come back to Rhodes to try out the entire costume and see the results. Without a doubt it’s going to go down a storm!

One question that was playing on our minds was whether we’d be able to get the armour through security. If push came to shove, it’d be taken off Stu and he’d have to collect everything each morning we docked in Rhodes. After gangway he'd have to hand it back into security. Either way he wasn’t too fussed. In the end he managed to get the armour through without a problem.

In the armour shop were gothic paintings wrapped onto black scrolls. It may sound odd but they were stunning! One in particular, featuring a girl-cum-dark angel. She reminded me a lot of Amy Lee from Evanescence. It was 26 euros which I didn’t think was a bad price, especially as I loved it. I was thinking of where I could hang it on the ship. I was too tempted to buy it and Stu was constantly telling me to get it. Instead, I decided I’d buy it for myself when I finally made it to P2. It's my incentive.

Leaving the shop we headed to our new local internet place, Four Seasons. Reuben took Luci and I there after the team lunch. The people are friendly, decent prices and fast internet. For some reason I can’t get on Skype to talk to my parents but Stu could. Luci and Fede were already there surfing the net. 

Before anything I logged onto ImageU to start my competencies. I had two left to go. Again I failed one buy one question so I had another crack. I was determined to own that painting!! On my second attempt of the day I passed it with 8 out of 9. The final competencies was much harder so I needed a little help from Fede who explained a few things to me. Having another go, I passed it! My competencies were sent off to Image. I did my little jig while Luci, Fede and Stu cheered that I was soon to be P2. All that's left to do is wait for Image to send a checklist to for Reuben and the other managers to sign. Once Photog 2, more money will start rolling in and I can make a start on up the ladder to Photog 3.

To be fair, I wouldn’t have been able to do my competencies as quickly as I did without the help of Stu and Fede explaining things and helping out in general. Stu is more like my trainer and was almost literally kicking my arse to get my competencies done. Thanking Stu for helping me out he said if I was P2 by the next time we come to Rhodes he’d buy me the painting as it was a fair deal for helping him out with money for the armour. Result!

I was absolutely over the moon – you cannot imagine it! The day couldn’t have got any better!! I’d finished my competencies which was a huge weight off my shoulders, Stu and I had a great laugh shopping, the sun was out and everyone was in a fantastic mood. We were enjoying the day and spending time together as friends rather than colleagues. What more could we ask for?

Talking to Stu I commented that I was nervous about shooting LSP (Lifestyle Portraits). You can do what you want on the white background. It sounds easy but you can’t take forever thinking of how to position guests and some are wooden at posing. LSP is Stu’s studio, it’s where he’s normally working, especially on formal nights. He gets the best results and his advice: “think outside the box that the box is in”. To give me a hand or train me up a bit, he suggested I popped around to his cabin later and he’d help me with a few simple but effective poses.

Later on at Stu’s he was showing me a few poses using the white stool. He made it look so simple. It was funny watching him posing as a lady doing dainty hand positions. 6'7 and dainty don't go together too well! 

There was a question I’d been meaning to ask Stu for a while but hadn’t wanted to. As everyone was in such a grand mood and we were having a laugh posing I didn't want to spoil anything. Having said that, the "why are you so hard on me?" question was niggling away in my head.

To be honest, Stu doesn’t have to train me the way he does anymore. Zoran, our Croatian new hire has finally arrived. Shouldn’t Stu be concentrating on him? Still, after nearly two months, if I do something wrong, Stu tells me about it, sometimes coming down quite hard on me. Other times, before I even do something he’ll make sure I know how to do it or tell me a way to improve. Although I’m grateful (and I’ve said it a hundred times) he seems to come down harder on me and get on my case more than he does Hernan. Sometimes you can't help but feel that you’ve done a really shit job. 

In the end, the question popped out my mouth. Stu simply looked at me and smiled before shaking his head. Stu said the reason why he was on my case so much was for a number of reasons, one being because I could take his criticism and that he means it constructively. He also said that he can see the images I produce and how I go about it.  Apparently, Stu thinks, along with the others and BM (business manager) that I have real potential to be a great photographer. All I needed was more time, experience and training. Because of that he is taking it upon himself to train me. The others help out too, don’t get me wrong but Stu will spend as much time as he thinks necessary to go through things until it’s engraved in my brain. In all honestly, I was amazed people thought I had potential to do well at what I love doing. It was a massive confidence booster to say the least!

Later on LSP, I was so nervous and it showed in my cropping. The poses weren’t too bad but the cropping needed to improve. I needed to calm down. I asked Luci to come over and have a look at my work. She said the images were great and not to worry so much. Taking the camera she got me to go onto the scene and started posing me. Stu had shown me how to pose using the stool. Luci showed me a few floor poses for singles and couples. 

A lady and her son came over so she stood with me while I posed them and even added a few poses to give me a hand. I'm so lucky to have people like Luci and Stu around to help me. The gallery was dead so Stu came over to see how I was getting on. Trying to pose on LSP with both Luci and Stu watching was making me more and more nervous. At one point Stu saw I was bricking it. Luckily he jumped in and positioned the last shot for me. I was about to lose the ability of speech!

Afterwards I had a 30 minute stint in the gallery with Stu and Luci. Both were telling me to calm down. Stu's advice was to relax and have fun. 

A couple came over who wanted their photo taken on LSP. They thought Stu would be in his studio so he turned around and introduced me to them. They were all joking that the pressure was on and not to cock up the shots as they had high expectations. My face must have been a picture as Stu took one look at me, burst out laughing and gave me a hug!

Back in the studio the couple came over, the guy said he wanted something original. His wife laughed and told him to lay off a bit. When he asked why I looked so worried I explained it was the second time I’d been on LSP and the first I could work freely, without doing the usual formal poses. I was nervous I was going to bugger it up and everyone is so used to Stu being there I’d automatically be compared. 

Stu’s work would win hands down without a doubt. Like the few couples that I love, they were patient, let me experiment, gave me their ideas and on a shot or two posed themselves to give more ideas. Some of the shots were absolutely fantastic. I loved it! They were pleased with the photos too - bonus!

Luci came over later and wanted Stu to pose with me so I could get some extra poses for couples and see the photos. Unfortunately although the gallery was quiet the guests were trickling in so he couldn’t leave and there wasn’t anyone else to pose on the backdrop.

All in all it’d been an absolutely fantastic day! My BM was pleased I’d finally finished my competencies and said he’d let me know once Image sent through my check list. Hernan saw on my Facebook profile that I’d finished my competencies and came over to give me a huge bear hug and congratulate me… he’s becoming more and more like a big brother brother. An Argentinian step brother. 

Today really couldn’t have been any better and it’s all thanks to the team I have around me!

The Knight in Shining Armour of Rhodes, Greece