See you real world in a couple of days.

Here are the list of items:
-2 pairs of t-shirts. The congress tends to get very hot and having a spare shirt ensures that your partner doesnt dance with a wet towel.
-Mints for breath.
-Hand Sanitizer, you never know what you are passing around and you dont want to pass it on to your next partner, once every couple dances.
-Body spray, whenever you start stinking.
-Cologne, you want to smell good for the ladies, eh?
-Panadol for those headaches(you probably should stop dancing at this point)
-Berocca for that extra energy.
-Plasters for minor injuries(eg: stilettos grazing your feet; if more severe, go see a first aid volunteer, they have someone roaming around for that)
- Lip balm, Sydney can get dry.
-Towel to wipe off face/body sweat.

All this to ensure a fun-filled congress night and also to avoid getting rejected by a girl for smelling,being too sweaty or having bad breath =) ALSO, dont forget to bring your dance etiquette! all the mints, sprays and towels will not compensate the fact that you were rude!

Apart from dancing, I will be predominantly shooting the performances and manning the photography booth. Heres are the items Im bringing and possibly shooting you with if you are performing.

Basically, not to bore you with my boring photography stuff:
-Cleaning gear(blower to get rid of dust, cloth for lens smudges, oil etc)
-Extra storage(alway always have more space than you need)
-Utilities(chargers, extra batteries, flash units for social dancing shots)
-Spare Lenses
-Camera(which Im using to take the shot)

Leave a comment if I left anything out of the list or if you have any suggestions for it!

It is 2 days away from the 2009 Sydney Salsa Congress, one of the biggest salsa congresses in the world. I will be shooting the event and you can find me at the photography booth selling/organizing  the performance photos or waiting to be asked to dance :p

Either way, come say hi or keep me company between your workshops or social dances =)

Here are the links to the rest of the photos for the Bravo Pre-Congress Party:
Bravo Pre-Congress Photos Part 1, here
Bravo Pre-Congress Photos Part 2, here
Bravo Pre-Congress Photos Part 3, here
Bravo Pre-Congress Photos Part 4, here

Ive chosen my favourite photos and split them into 4 posts.

The Salsa Divas from Latin Steps performed first with a ladies styling routine. Here, we have Amanda(a frequent here on my blog) and Caitlin.

Smooth Latin Groove performing a Zouk routine.

Angelo brought his smooth and cool team to perform Samba de Gafieira. Incidentally, last year during the Sydney Salsa Congress, I almost got my face smashed in by Angelo.

I was propped up shooting from the tip of the stage when Angelo performed a move where he slides into the corner(towards me). He noticed me only at the last minute and narrowly missed me while I totally didnt see him.  My close face-smashing encounter with Angelo from Groove Brazil.

I will be posting up the rest of the pictures over the next couple of days leading up towards the Sydney Salsa Congress next week.

Side Note: I attended Mafie Zouker’s first workshop of six weeks last night and it was really amazing. The content is amazing and his style is just unbelievable.

Dancing on my birthday

1. I started dancing, salsa to be exact, and moved on to Bachata(my current favourite), Zouk, Mambo(just started, on2 Salsa). Dancing has probably been one of the biggest changes to my life from the usual sitting at the computer all day long play games, which gives me a relatively social activity that costs almost nothing and the sense of progress I have gone through the past year has been phenomenal. If you asked me 2 years ago whether I would be dancing Salsa, I probably would have laughed at you.

Graduation =)

2. Graduating from uni! After 4 1/2 years of studying, doing a Bachelor of Information Technology/Bachelor of Creative Industries(Communication Design), I finally graduated. This was probably one of the biggest things I looked forward to ALL my life, to graduate and get into the working force and its not the usual, “I hate my job“, quite the contrary because i LOVE my job.

3. Starting to work Full Time! I enjoy it alot =) Its not always sunshine and rainbows of course but I am blessed to be working in such an awesome environment. Forever thankful, especially to Tim who referred me =)

2008 Sydney Salsa Congress - 5 times world champions, Oliver and Luda

4. Buying my first Digital SLR! This is probably one of my biggest purchases and followed by my first gig at the 2008 Sydney Salsa Congress shooting alongside Justin Cogley

2008 LDA Ball - Ben and Bronwen

5. My second big shooting gig, at the 2008 LDA Ball.

Armed Combat Team searching for props

6. Making a game alongside Jenn, Tim and Reilly, Armed Combat. Its a really awesome game that we created for our final studio subject thats makes use of tangible media, in our case, hands and feet to control a tank battling it out against other players. It was such a hit that not only did we put it on display at the 2007 Communication Design Graduation show we were asked to put it up for display again for the Body+ 2008 Shape of Things to Come show.

7. To tell you the truth, it isnt what I did or achieved that made the past year so special, it was just an icing to the cake which are the people in my life! especially my family and friends, whether they were re-kindled or newly developed relationships, that is what really made my year what it was.

23rd Birthday, missing Pat

 Just to finish are some pics from my mini-birthday party at home, the big party is at the end of the month! Its nice to have a relatively quiet time at home since Im out and about every other day of the year =)

Oreo based blueberry cheesecake, made by Charissa(taking orders)

PS – I said “biggest” a total of 3 times in totally different contexts, thats how big this year has been =)