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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Passion for FASHION

On September 12th 2010, ANDARA resort & spa held a fashion show to raise money for the children's foundation "Phuket has been good to us"

My partner Kaye was one of the models, I was the officially-unofficial photographer...

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scroll down to view and/or download a pdf file I made with some other shots and a quick summary of the event...


Passion for FASHION

soon more fashion shows and more charity!

With love,

Adriano

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Phuket Country Lodge

Nice memories from a private photo safari in may 2010...

... an abandoned Country Lodge on by-pass road (Phuket)

very abandoned

mushroom graffiti... are we going to have an "alice-in-wonderland" experience???

plants growing wildly

phuketpaparazzi in action!

camragirl in action!

exploring the building...

peek-a-boo...

cigarette break

strike a pose...

standing tall and proud

framed!

moody picture, love it!

when you smile to me, time stands still...

silhouette

who would have said that this would have been the beginning of "Phuket-based model"...

love sepia...

cigarette break in B/W

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more pictures to come...

and here we go!

just a sample of 2 pointless post edit manipulations...

PAINTSTORM

and WIZARD of the LODGE

all this to take you to an even more pointless pdf file that I did... a sort of 60s-70s delirious comic book, check it out!!!

scroll down for preview and download

k at the lodge

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ChocBrownieCake!

Another experiment in the kitchen...

this time I wanted to bake something! opted for a choc brownie type of cake, looked it up on the internet and found several recipes...

I did my own according to what I had available... ;-)

and something like this was the result!

ok the picture is not mine, I will add the "original" later... 

I wanted to write somewhere the ingredients list!!!!

200gr Brown Sugar

230gr Flour

60gr Cocoa Powder

3 eggs

70gr Butter

200gr Yogurt

15gr "magic cake thingy" (pane degli angeli)

8-9 minutes microwave...

very soft and shiny, nice choky taste, a bit dry...

Not "old" dry, powdery dry = less cocoa next time??? or better:  more yogurt and butter!!!

 super GOOD afterall....

so good that it's OVER!!! luckily I remembered to take a picture of it before gulping the last slice down...

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Vegetarian Festival

One of the most bizarre, interesting, mystic events in Thailand...

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event held during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. It is believed that the vegetarian festival and its accompanying sacred rituals bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite. During this time, local residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian or vegan diet for the purposes of spiritual cleansing and merit-making. Sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines and temples and aesthetic displays such as walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs are performed by entranced devotees known as "Ma Song".


WARNING!!! EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD!!! Some images of the rituals are VERY GRAPHIC!


Some pictures from 2009...

the starting ceremony is usually very early in the morning...

some chanting, drums, incense...

everyone is in place, ready to start...

already in a state of trance

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firecrackers everywhere, I can still smell the burning powder...

at this point they start walking toward the city center...

fire truck on the way...

kids smiling for the camera

that's quite an elaborate one!

amazing THAILAND!

one more...

group picture

fire crackers part II

everywhere!

for everyone...

orange splash...

hope to attend the festival this year, at least one day...

stay tuned for the 2010 pictures...

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