UW FASHION for KIDS

here we go:

the lucky winners of the Suwan Palm X-mas draw Jim (14) and Ilona (12) from Sweden are our latest merman and mermaid!

as soon she was in the water, Ilona showed a great deal of confidence and remarkable aquatic skills

on the other hand, Jim took a little longer to feel at ease in the water...

here's Ilona again in her first outfit just 5 minutes after the start of the shooting session!

eventually Jim started enjoying the results I was showing them from the display of my camera and switched to a more confident attitude...

take 2: glamorous look and outfit for the young Ilona who (in my opinion) has a future in the model/fashion business, check her out!!!

take 2 for Jim: sporty look, "mean" face and a stunning result

brother and sister together, love this one!

Swedish teen Muay Thai underwater DJ... don't you see them everyday???

parents were delighted, kids had a lot of fun, I was very pleased with the final results...

stay tuned for more!

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Old VS Vintage VW

few months ago, while driving in Raway, I've noticed couple of old cars parked by the side of the main road. As I've always been facinated by old, vintage, rusty and/or abandoned cars and buildings, I made a mental note and decided to come back there with my camera.

The old Merc (will post it some time soon) was still there, the older VW was gone...

Few days ago I was passing by the same road and had my camera with me, the old VW reappeared! So this time I didn't miss the chance to snap few shots...

old rusty VW

front view

old VW front zoom

"october"...

old VW, EURO4 standards???

time machine...

old VW, time machine

country style decor...

old VW with "country style" finishing touch

a completely different story for this VINTAGE old VW found in Khao Lak

VINTAGE VW for sale in Khao Lak

I'm seriously thinking to buy it...

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Charity Calendar 2011

YEAH! Something I had been planning for a long time but didn't had the chance to do it...

Combining my passion for underwater fashion photography and charity.

During the "passion for fashion" event

passion for fashion LINK

I proposed to the "Phuket Has Been Good To Us" foundation to make a calendar with some of their kids.

They answered positively to my proposal and set the date for November 6th (last saturday) by also sending 2 teams of 3 volunteers and 4 kids (age between 8 and 11); total 6 adults and 8 kids. While setting all trade accounts for Kompas,

kompas web site

we started asking some of the big names in the diving industry if they wanted to have a supporting role into this project by sponsoring us. After some negotiation with few candidates, we opted for Siam Diving Enterprises sponsorship (8 Mares rash vests and 8 Ocean Dynamics snorkeling sets + covering the costs of the first set of printing).

Mares charity calendar 2011 promo

WOW! We (Kompas & PHBGTU) were so happy for their generosity.

Our sponsor is also willing to distribute the calendar nationwide (Phuket, BKK, Lanta, Khao Lak, Krabi, kho Tao); accordingly, we NEED more sponsors to be able to print more sets of calendars.

There's an e-mail hotline for pre-booking, donation and sponsorship:

phuketcharitycalendar2011@gmail.com


Anyway, back to the shooting session:
In less than 2 hours the 2 teams came, the kids changed into several outfits, we took as many pictures as possible and, as if by magic,  we had excellent material for the calendar.

underwater paparazzi with one of the kids from PHBGTU foundation

Consider that with so many people in the pool (younger kids needed direct supervision) and very little time to plan and organize, the number of good shots was massively decreased by "obstacles": legs, arms and bodies popping into the background, closed eyes, lack of synchronization, masks not worn in the proper way... several kids had no prior experience with mask and snorkel (we had to show them how to wear it, use it and clear it... in those very 2 hours for the shooting!)

Once done with the session, we rushed back to our HQ to process and select the pictures. By late night (or early sunday morning if you will) we had the "winning" 12 months and few additional pictures for postcards, calendar cover and back cover.

here few of them:

8 years old princess with one of the PHBGTU volonteers

mares charity calendar 2011 for Phuket Has Been Good to Us Foundation

"dreamy fairy"

mares charity calendar 2011 for Phuket Has Been Good to Us Foundation
"strike a pose"

above and below, my personal favorites...

mares charity calendar 2011 for Phuket Has Been Good to Us Foundation
"clown"

We've also posted a video of "the making of" on youtube with the hope to increase awareness:

MAKING OF video

for more information on "Phuket Has Been Good To Us" foundation, please refer to the link below:

www.phukethasbeengoodtous.org

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Bacon Love...?!?!

Far from being a vegetarian (let alone a VEGAN), among the things I like eating there is BACON.

Being also a lover of women's "B side", the following picture summarize it all...

Surfing the web I came across some bacon-related products, some are funny (bacon pattern on daily items) and some others (bacon flavored) are truly questionable...

here for you a selected hand-picked list of items...

bacon belt (pattern available on plastic wrist watch and on neck ties - image not available)

sterile strip bandages

USB stick

now we have some really questionable items:
car air freshener (or rather tamperer???)

Bacon mints (eh?????)

dental floss (no way!!!)

toothpicks (don't you just love the bacon flavor after a chock + nuts bar?)

gummy strawberry flavor (so it's just about the look and I could deal with that...)

Lip balm... (kissable lips you wanna bite! or not?)

Lube (a delicious personal lubricant... no comment)

Gumballs anyone???

VODKA!

This is just WRONG!
pancakes & sausage on a stick with choc chips.. WTF??? only in USA...

Ice cream...

For your babies... yuck!!!

I REALLY hope that this is photoshop...

Bacon Salt??? this might work for seasoning...

Last but not least, BACONNAISE!!! no comment...

if you read the nutrition content label, you'll see that out of 13 grams per serving (1 tablespoon) 9 grams is FAT... shortcut to hart-attack? be my guest...

note how cleverly is displayed as 14% (of daily Value), the reality is that 9 out of 13 grams is 69.23% (70% of a tablespoon of that stuff is FAT!!!)

Note also the Dietary fiber Og, Protein Og, Vitamin A O%, Vitamin C O%, Calcium O%, Iron O%...


Btw, as an omnivore, I eat almost everything and sometimes I also go to fast food chains... yet there's a limit to it!!! And that's perhaps the reason why I went so deep in the baconnaise investigation and criticism...

The bacon I love is in Real Italian Carbonara!!! The one I cook myself of course!!!

Ciao!

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Similan Article

long time has passed since my first underwater shots in Similan with my beloved Konika Minolta...

Few hundred dives and a camera upgrade later (Canon G9), many say that my skills as underwater photographer have dramatically improved...

As I was digging in my external hard disk, I stumbled upon a file...

It is the article on Similan (august 2008 issue) written by John Boshoff (Chief Editor of "Divestyle" magazine from South Africa). The guy was on West Coast Liveabord at the end of 2008 season (april).

Check the pictures published, all underwater ones are mine!!!

Similan Article with Adriano UW pictures

cool uh???

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I love B movies!

recently my interest has been triggered by "proper" B-movies...
for those who share the same interest it's easy to know what the word "proper" refers to, for those who are new to this, "proper" refers to the fact that everything in that movie has been purposely done to mimic one of those low budget movies rampant in the 60s-70s-80s...
Whether based on action, horror (mostly zombie or monster stories) or sci-fi, many of the original ones had bad quality audio/video, cheap special effects, microphone poppinig into the frame from above and even missing reels (so the plot gets unintentionally screwed).
An excellent example is "Grindhouse": 2 movies back to back (Planet Terror & Deathproof) by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Back to back in a sort of oldies drive-in style (already genius!)

What can I say? Planet terror is on the Zombie movie style (a spreading desease due to an experimental bio-weapon gone wrong...) featuring Bruce Willis in the cast; one of the best (or worst) thing in that movie is that one of the main characters (Rose McGowan as Cerry Darling) gets her leg chopped off and she replaces it with a functioning AK47!!!

 

before the movie starts there's a showreel of a "coming soon" movie, the movie is MACHETE...
very recently the movie came out for REAL and featured a full cast: Robert de Niro, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Danny Trejo (the fully tattooed mexican villain in many Tarantino's movies) as Machete, Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan...

Another movies that I recently watched and really blew my mind is "Black Dynamite", set in the 70s, afro american (can you dig it?) action movie, absolutely BRILLIANT!!! among the best things: microphone almost banging the actor's head (who then looks at it!!!), police car getting to a crime scene, officials getting out of it and forgetting to put the handbrake on...

Are you a fan of explosions, blood splattering everywhere, sexy chicks fighting and using big guns? Then "Bitch Slap" is the movie for you...

 

You want Zombies and sexy chicks??? You MUST watch Zombie Strippers!!! starring Jenna Jameson and Robert Englund...

If Zombies and sexy chicks is not enough for you, I can add Japanese vixens on it! Be ready for "Big Tits Zombie"!!!!

that's all for now, as soon as I come across another "proper" B movie, I'll post it here...

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